staff
Eva Clarke
President & Chief Executive Officer
Eva was born in San Rafael, California, but when she was a young girl, her family relocated first to East Saint Louis, Illinois and then to the neighboring town of Belleville. The experience of living in East Saint Louis during the city's stark decline prompted her initial interest in community and economic development. Eva left Belleville in 1977 to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a member of the class of 1981. She took a few years off to start a family and then returned to MIT where she earned an S.B. degree in Urban Studies and Planning in 1990.
In 1991 Eva joined the staff of Boston Community Loan Fund * initially as a loan officer, and subsequently rising to the position of Senior Loan Officer and eventually Chief Operating Officer. In 2001 she left the Loan Fund to found Faith Partnership, inspired by her dream of linking faith-based organizations to strategic resources in their communities. Boston Community Capital *, the loan fund's parent organization, provided significant support for the new organization and served as its first fiscal agent.
In January 2002, as the outcome of one of Faith Partnership's projects, Eva agreed to serve as Executive Director of the Mattapan Community Development Corporation *. In this role she gained a great deal of practical experience in hands-on community development work, thus complementing the skills she had acquired in her earlier career as a community development lender. By this time Eva had also been serving for several years as a volunteer pastor at New Covenant Christian Church (located in Boston, Massachusetts and now known as Jubilee Christian Church International *). In the fall of 2002 she joined the New Covenant staff on a part-time basis as their Real Estate Administrator.
In November 2003 Eva and her husband, Rocklyn E. Clarke Sr. *, founded Life Church * , the Boston congregation where she serves as Assistant Pastor .
In February 2005 Eva left her position as Executive Director and spend the next few months focusing on projects for Faith Partnership, and Life Church. In November 2005 she became a managing consultant with Applied Evaluation Systems (AES)*, the consulting enterprise of the Emmanuel Gospel Center *. In October 2006 she left AES to join MMA Financial as an Asset Manager and Assistant Vice President.
As an active member of the community she volunteers with the following organizations:
Eva resides in Dorchester, MA with her husband Rocklyn E. Clarke.