Not Shying Away

By: Jaclyn Jermyn | June 3, 2025

In 2019, Shavel'le Olivier's4 decided she was going to do something she would never have thought to do before: She was going to bike 4oo miles from Boston to Montreal with the

Boston Cyclists Union. "I can be very scared of doing things," she says. As much as she loved

biking around the city, she had never consistently rode as much as the trip would require. Still, she was determined to push herself.

It was a grueling quest. The first four days, she was one of the very last people in the group to finish, exhausted beyond belief. But by the fifth and last day, she was no longer trailing behind-she was surging ahead. "I know it's cliche, but what I really learned from that trip is that I can do things if I put my mind to it," Olivier explains, her face breaking into a wide smile.

It's with this same quiet determination that Olivier has risen up the ranks of Boston grassroots organization Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition (MFFC) over the past 15 years to become executive director. Now, the self-described introvert is gaining wide attention for her leadership as a social entrepreneur in the community she calls home, while also connecting her alma mater to one of the city's most disenfranchised neighborhoods.

Olivier was 17 when she went looking for a job at MFFC, which encourages healthy living through access to nourishing food and promotion of physical activity in Mattapan. "I didn't want to ask my dad for money," she says, adding that she saw how hard her father worked-as director of environmental services, grounds, and laundry at the now-closed Caey Hospital-to provide for her and her twin sister. "I just wanted to be responsible."

At the time, the organization was looking to collect feedback from community residents about improvements they would like to see in this diverse and vibrant but historically marginalized section of Boston. Around 94 percent of the neighborhood's residents are nonwhite, and a 2013 report by the city found that Mattapan has the lowest life expectancy of any Boston neighborhood at 77.3 years.

MFFC brought on a group of teens, including Olivier, to do outreach and gather data. She had lived in Mattapan for five years, but it had yet to feel like home. "When you're young, you're not able to really explore the neighborhood on your own," she explains. "When I joined MFFC, I got to explore the neighborhood's challenges and assets, and learn who was who."

Even when their project wrapped up, the recently hired teens stayed involved. They named themselves the Vigorous Youth and embedded themselves into the organization's DNA-Vigorous Youth remains the name of MFFC's leadership and development program for 14-to-21-year-olds.

During the warmer months, the teens would work the MFFC sponsored Mattapan Square farmers market and an MFFC farm stand, and maintain local community gardens. Then they started thinking bigger. Olivier and the Vigorous Youth spearheaded the launch of Mattapan on Wheels, an annual neighborhood biking day, now in its 15th year.

The event loans bikes to community members and gets them pedaling on paths like the verdant and winding Neponset River Greenway Trail. MFFC helped to successfully advocate for the development and extension of the trail through Mattapan, and now, Mattapan on Wheels has gained enough traction to draw past participants like city councilors, state representatives, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. It also crystalized Olivier's passion for transportation advocacy. "[Mattapan on Wheels] confirmed my love for creating things," she says. "I'm really good at taking things from idea to reality. That's my special power."

While she was learning on the job, Olivier also found the community she had been craving. The women on the organization's advisory board quickly became mentors, and took any opportunity to support and nurture her. One of those women was Vivien Morris, a public health specialist, MFFC's founder and chair, and former community engagement manager for the Carroll School's Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action.

"She was a leader from the beginning, but a very shy leader," says Morris, who started MFFC in 2006. "It was clear that she was doing quite a bit of thinking about what could be done to support others. Her shyness never stopped her from having the impact that she was hoping to have."

Even when she began at Boston College (studying marketing as well as management and leadership), Olivier commuted from her campus dorm back to Mattapan most weekends to continue working on MFFC projects. By then, the neighborhood did feel like home because of the relationships she had been able to cultivate there. MFFC was "a safe place for me to take risks," she says. "Being here gave me the opportunity to go at my own pace and feel valued." At the same time, her Carroll School experience was starting to shape the kind of leader she could be.

Olivier credits classes like "Leadership," taught by Judith Clair, a management and organization professor and William S. McKiernan 78 Family Faculty Fellow, with teaching her that there's no one way to be a leader. "I wasn't some [extroverted] person, I wasn't white, and I wasn't a man," she says, ticking off examples of prototypical leaders on her fingers. "But I was just me and I was making a contribution to the community, and people valued that."

She joined AmeriCorps after graduation, working with youth in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood as part of the DREAM Program nonprofit She them took a job as the executive assistant to the CEO of Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, where she got a crash course in nonprofit governance. With each volunteer role and job, Olivier was learning something new she could bring back to her work at MFFC.

While participating in AmeriCorps, Olivier became MFFC's co-chair alongside her mentor Morris-in 2015, and later, the Youth Program Manager, a position she developed herself. She was helping the group set itself up for the future. One of the biggest items on MFFC's wish list was trying to secure the funding to hire an executive director. Olivier knew just the person for the job.

"I knew in my heart that I wanted to be executive director, but I was so scared," she says. But when she finally expressed her interest to the advisory board, she was met with instant approval. "I had no experience being ED-the only thing that I had was passion," she adds. "They had a lot of trust in me."

The way Morris tells it, Olivier's desire to become executive director didn't surprise her at all. "I had her in mind already-the question was really going to be 'was she interested?'" she says. "Maybe I've never exactly said that to her, but I actually went out and looked for the funding with her in mind."

Olivier stepped into the role during summer 2019, and from MFFC yellow-walled, second floor office on a bustling stretch of Blue Hill Avenue, she has spent that time slowly but steadily growing the organization, "so we no longer have to struggle," she says. This includes adding staff, securing more funding and community partners, and expanding programming. She has also been growing her own knowledge base: She received a master's degree from Northeastern University in Nonprofit Management in 2019. Since then, she has also completed certificate programs in public health and management at Boston University and Harvard Business School Online.

"Mattapan on Wheels confirmed my

love for creating things. I'm really good

at taking things from idea to reality.

That's my special power."

Shavel'le Olivier '14

In 2020, Olivier started Transportation Talks, a series bringing together people from neighborhoods like Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury to engage in conversations

about equity and accessibility in transportation. After catching the attention of the Boston Transportation Department, olivier and former MFFC coworker Chavella Lee-Pacheco were brought on as youth engagement consultants. The experience inspired them to start community engagement firm Consult LeLa in 2011 to invite more young people into high level conversations about urban planning and development.

The Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action has been collaborating with MFFC for nearly a decade, especially through the center's highly competitive summer internship program. The center's executive director, Neil McCullagh, says MFFC is now enjoying the fruits of Olivier's long-term goal setting. "She's engaged in much more than just food and fitness," he says, referring to her advocacy on such issues as transportation. "In Mattapan,

she is such a force."

In 2024, Oliver was named one of Rostan Business journal's "40 Under 40" for her impact in the Boston area. She was also awarded the inaugural Emerging Leaders Award at the City

of Boston's Empower Her Black Women's Health Conference. "Shavel'le is always thinking about the future and planning ahead," says Abby Morgan '16, who interned with MFFC last

summer through the Corcoran Center's partnership. She adds that these qualities showed up in every aspect of Olivier's work, down to the care she put into emails. "I learned the importance of proactive outreach and meaningful connections, One small act can make someone's day."

Building authentic relationships is an essential part of Olivier's leadership evolution-at Boston College she has also collaborated with classes like "Leading for Social Impact" and supported student-led projects at MFFC-but she says it still catches her off guard when people call her a mentor. "I'm 33 and sometimes I still have self-doubt. I'm still learning. So I am giving back to people like me so they can also see themselves in this type of role."

As MFFC prepares for its 20th anniversary in 1026, Olivier has ended up right back where she started surveying Mattapan residents about what they really want from a community organization committed to their health and well-being. She also wants to make sure that the work of the organization's forebears has not gone in vain. "They gave so much to me. I do this to continue their legacy," she says, looking around at the children's drawings, project to-

do lists, and bikes awaiting repair that fill the office. "You hear about jobs where you go in, make your money, leave, and don't do anything else. That is not what this is for me. This is what I was meant to do."

See the full Carroll Capital Issue here.