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Ranjini Govender Dowley Appointed President & Executive Director of Massachusetts Appleseed 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 25, 2025

Ranjini Govender Dowley

Boston, MA- Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, a statewide social justice research and advocacy nonprofit welcomed Ranjini Govender Dowley, J.D., Ph.D. as the organization’s new President and Executive Director on June 9, 2025. Govender joins MA Appleseed at a pivotal moment, when the integrity of the American legal system faces unprecedented challenges. Her appointment marks a new chapter in the organization’s mission to dismantle barriers that perpetuate inequities and ensure all youth, adults, and families across Massachusetts have equal access to opportunity.  

Govender received her law degree from Syracuse University and doctorate in social policy from Cornell University and brings over two decades of leadership in social justice mission nonprofit management, government affairs, policy, and development. She holds a license to practice law in the District of Columbia. Govender said, “For over 30 years Appleseed has remained committed to pursuing systemic solutions to social justice issues such as youth homelessness, access to a fair court system, and educational equity. As someone who is one generation from poverty and the daughter of African immigrants, I became a lawyer to leverage the legal system as a tool for justice. I am honored to join the talented and dedicated staff, Board, pro-bono volunteers, and our partners in all 14 counties across Massachusetts as we work collectively to amplify our impact in these areas and beyond.”  

John Shutkin, MA Appleseed’s Board Chair, expressed the board’s full support and enthusiasm, “Given Ranjini’s background and dedication to social justice, we are confident she has the skills, experience, and determination needed to move Appleseed’s priorities forward. In fact, we are more than confident, we’re thrilled to welcome Ranjini aboard.”  

Massachusetts Appleseed’s three key programs include co-leading the Mass Speaks Coalition to ensure language access to government services, coordinating multiple initiatives that play a critical role in helping youth move from homelessness toward physical, emotional, and financial stability and well-being, and interrupting the school to prison pipeline through the Educational Justice Initiative.  

As a former Massachusetts public school teacher and a long-time advocate for children and education policy through her leadership roles in organizations including RCS Learning Center and Next Level Social Impact, Ranjini saw in real time how the school to prison pipeline operates, causing serious harm to students, especially students of color and students with disabilities. “Massachusetts Appleseed’s track record of impact proves that we can level the playing fields, disrupt systems that perpetuate inequities, and ultimately reimagine what justice looks like,” Ranjini added.   

The Board also extends its sincere gratitude to Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, a member of Interim Executive Solutions Network, who provided invaluable service as Interim Executive Director for the past five months and helped advance the organization’s mission during this transition.

 

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About Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice  

MA Appleseed is driven by a mission to promote equal rights and opportunities for Massachusetts residents by developing and advocating for systemic solutions to social justice issues. Through policy analysis and research, coalition building, education and training, community organizing, and advocacy, the nonprofit seeks systems-level change so all Massachusetts families and youth can exercise their legal rights, build pathways out of poverty and crisis, and thrive. Responding to emerging and enduring inequities, MA Appleseed addresses an array of complex issues including self-representation in the civil justice system, language access for immigrant families, the school-to-prison pipeline, and youth homelessness. To explore recent research, find resources, sign up for opportunities to take action, or donate, please visit massappleseed.org.    

 

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About Our Research: Using Semi-Structured Interviews as a Data Collection Method 

Given our community-based research approach at MA Appleseed, we collect data in several ways. Whether qualitative or quantitative, we center racial equity in our process to ensure that those impacted by the issues we study have their voices heard. 

We explained focus groups and qualitative surveys in past blog posts. In the next blog post, we outline our use of quantitative data requests from state agencies. This post will dig into semi-structured interviews. 

Interviews allow us to dive deeper into a particular topic with various individuals who are experts, whether from their lived experience or work in and around the issue. This data collection method can stand alone, or follow another kind, such as a survey.  

Via interviews, we can gather more detailed information and stories from those experiencing a specific social issue or inequity. This research method gives space for a more relational and personal approach with each participant, placing the sole focus on one person and their stories. 

Our project investigating language access for Limited English Proficient (LEP) clients of the MA Department of Children and Families (DCF) exemplifies how we utilize semi-structured interviews. A few years after we released our Families Torn Apart report, we sent a survey to lawyers who work with DCF-involved families that are LEP to gauge any potential improvements. Following the survey, we held short interviews with respondents who agreed to be contacted further. We were able to ask tailored questions based on their survey responses to get more detailed information and narratives. These interviews proved critical to the memo we drafted given that they greatly bolstered our qualitative findings. 

How do we prepare for interviews? We create an interview guide ahead of time, which is a list of questions ordered in a certain way. Interview guides are important for several reasons: 

  • They provide the researcher with a list of questions to ask at each interview to standardize the data collected 
  • The questions are in an order that help to “warm up” the interviewee and allow for relationship building between the interviewer and interviewee 
  • There are “probes,” or follow-up questions that delve deeper into specific topics, that can be used depending on participants’ responses in the moment 

Interview guides are crucial to a successful semi-structured interview and the interviews are semi-structured for a reason. The idea behind a guide, rather than a script, is that interviews should ultimately feel like conversations where the interviewee is as comfortable as possible. Having the structured interview guide along with the flexibility to veer away from it to ask different questions makes for the ideal situation. Essentially, this is the definition of a semi-structured interview.  

This data collection method mainly centers on qualitative data. When we do interviews, we look for personal accounts, emotions, and outcomes. The stories and quotes that arise from interviews are incredibly valuable data that uplifts the people behind the social issue, rather than solely thinking about the problem from a numerical (quantitative) point of view. 

The next blog post in this series will explain our use of quantitative data requests from state agencies. Stay tuned!