Meet the Team

Richard Sugarman, President Richard Sugarman has a varied background including nonprofit leadership, corporate management, investment management, and extensive community engagement work. Richard is the President of Hartford Promise, a new large scale College Scholarship Fund and College Success Program. Prior to this he has been the Founding President of The Connecticut Forum for 23 years, an award winning non-profit organization that brings nationally renowned panelists to Hartford four times a year to discuss a variety of timely and important topics for audiences of 2800. Richard has served on many Boards including: CT Center for School Change, Conn CAN, The Learning Corridor, Police Athletic League, and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. He has advised and consulted with many organizations including: Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Melville Charitable Trust, Annie E. Casey Foundation, CT Mirror, Travelers, The Village for Families and Children, Partnership for Strong Communities, Children’s Trust Fund, CT Fair Housing Center, and Hartford Public Schools. He has received numerous awards including:

• Lifetime Achievement Award, Hartford Business Journal
• The Tapestry Award, from The Hartford Courant, in recognition for bringing diverse communities together
• Community Leader of the Year, from Leadership Greater Hartford
• The Renaissance Award for Education, from the Hartford Downtown Council

He and his wife Doris live in West Hartford, CT, have three sons, Skip, Jesse, and Scott….and they are all Buckeye fans.

Senior Project Manager

Sam is an attorney by profession and is singularly committed to our Hartford community, particularly its young people and education. She is a versatile and engaging professional and is as effective with students as she is with executives.

Her role at Hartford Promise includes high school outreach, event coordination, communication, promotion, and office administration.

She is married to her husband Eric, a dentist, has 2 grown kids and is the youngest of 6 sisters. Sam is an avid tennis player and enjoys hiking and adventures.

Director of College Partnerships and Reaching Forward

Melissa Paul has always held a passion for education and youth development. She studied Music at UConn and went on to pursue a Masters in School Counseling at CCSU. She has worked in a variety of educational settings including public and private schools, and in the nonprofit sector. Most recently she has been engaged in college guidance and alumni support programs in New York City.

Her role at Hartford Promise includes cultivating and managing partner college relationships, scholar communication and outreach, and tracking college success.

Melissa also shares a passion for the performing arts as a singer and actress with several performing groups throughout the northeast. She and her husband, Jason, have a toddler whom she loves to bake, dance and sing with as much as possible.

Fund Development and Grant Writing

Linda Merlin is an attorney by profession, and used to practice large commercial litigation in both New York and Connecticut. She has organized local “get out the vote” efforts and championed local education budget issues in the Town of Avon. Linda is also a graduate of Encore!Hartford’s Non-Profit Leadership Program. She is eager to bring her legal writing skills, grass roots organization experience and commitment to education to Hartford Promise. Her responsibilities at Hartford Promise include grant writing, grant reporting and research, as well development of new funding opportunities.

She is married to her husband, Larry, has two grown kids, a dog named Milo, and loves to read, take long walks, and cook.

Fund Development

Leslie Silvers’ background is in the advertising industry where she worked on both the agency and client side to build strong brands for companies including Procter & Gamble, PP&G Industries, Black & Decker, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and the Mandell Jewish Community Center.

Education has always been a passion of Leslie’s.  When she took a career break to raise her two boys, she served as chair of the Parents Admissions Network at Renbrook School and as a member of the Parents Advisory Council at Choate Rosemary Hall.  She learned about Hartford Promise and saw an opportunity to combine her background in communications with her interest in education.  She was impressed with the organization’s clear mission and wanted to help build awareness and support.  She started as a volunteer and then joined the Development Team in July 2017.

Leslie loves sports, especially basketball and lacrosse.   She and her husband, Bruce, live in West Hartford.

Research and Outreach Associate

Taylor Dauphin is a Connecticut native and Hartford Public Schools graduate. She graduated Salutatorian from Classical Magnet School and went on to attend Wesleyan University, class of 2015, where her passion for educational research was bred as a Quantitative Data Analysis Fellow and research assistant for the Sociology of Education Department. Taylor was a Sociology and Psychology double major.

She now works full time as an Analytics Specialist at the KIPP Foundation in NYC and also works as a Research and Outreach Associate here at Hartford Promise.

Taylor is dedicated to making change in her community through research and data analysis and hopes to further these skills in a graduate studies program. In her free time, Taylor enjoys painting, reading, and spending time with her family.