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Gladys Vega

Gladys Vega

President & CEO

Gladys Vega has dedicated more than three decades of service to the City of Chelsea and La Colaborativa, which she joined in 1990 – just two years after its founding. Gladys was born in Puerto Rico and came to Chelsea with her family at the age of nine. Since that time, she has made a lifelong commitment to the community in which she was raised. Being a mother of two has deepened her commitment to building a better future for families throughout the region.

During her tenure at La Colaborativa, Gladys has assumed increasing levels of responsibility with each passing year, as she moved from receptionist to community organizer to Executive Director and ultimately President & CEO. She has led La Colaborativa since 2006.
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Gladys is a groundbreaking community organizer and advocate, working relentlessly and fearlessly to ensure the Latinx immigrant community has a voice in determining how it’s needs and concerns are addressed. She believes that empowerment of the individual leads to empowerment of the community and that social action is the vehicle an empowered community can use to achieve its goals.
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Gladys is the architect of nearly all of La Colaborativa’s programs, initiatives, and community organizing campaigns. Her leadership has resulted in expanded rights for immigrants, low-income families, tenants, workers, youths, and people of color across Massachusetts.

Gladys is recognized as one of the region’s most prominent and important community leaders, receiving citywide, statewide, and national accolades for her leadership. When the COVID-19 pandemic created overlapping public health, unemployment, housing, and hunger crises in Chelsea and surrounding areas, Gladys’s leadership positioned La Colaborativa at the forefront of state and local efforts to meet the tremendous needs of Latinx residents across Massachusetts. Her advocacy earned national coverage from the Atlantic Monthly, as well as local coverage in The Boston Globe, CBSN Boston and others.

 

Recent Awards & Honors

Boston Business Journal’s 2026 Power 50: Movement Makers (2026)

Teree Caldwell-Johnson All-America Leader Award (2026)

Boston Celtics Heroes Among Us (2026)

Andy Hyman Award for Advocacy (2026)

MAIC JSI Adult Immunization Champion Award (2025)

Lifetime Achievement Award, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (2021)

Eastern Bank Foundation’s 2021 Social Justice Award (2021)

Boston Business Journal’s Power 50: The Movement Makers (2021)

Community Partner Award, El Mundo Boston (2021)

Community Captain Award, New England Patriots and Bank of America Foundations (2021)

Bostonian of the Year, Boston Globe (2020)

Neighborhood Builder, Bank of America (2020)

Barr Foundation Fellowship (2010)

Massachusetts’ 100 Most Influential Leaders (2007, 2008)

ACE Founders’ Award (2001)

Land Acknowledgment

At La Colaborativa, we believe that building a more just, equitable, and healthy future begins with recognizing the histories of the land and the communities that came before us, while confronting the systemic inequities that continue to shape our society today.

We acknowledge that La Colaborativa is located in Winnisimmet, now known as Chelsea, Massachusetts, on the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Massachusett People, whose deep connections to this land, culture, and community endure today.

We honor the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for generations and recognize the lasting consequences of colonization, forced displacement, dispossession, and systemic injustice. These histories are not simply part of the past. Their legacies continue to influence access to land, housing, healthcare, education, economic opportunity, and the resources that allow individuals, families, and communities to thrive.

At La Colaborativa, we understand that health equity cannot be achieved without addressing the social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.

Structural racism, poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, and barriers to education, employment, and healthcare disproportionately affect immigrant, Indigenous, and historically marginalized communities, perpetuating cycles of inequality across generations.

This understanding is at the heart of La Colaborativa's holistic, community-driven model. Our work recognizes that the challenges facing our communities are deeply interconnected and cannot be addressed in isolation. By integrating housing stability, food access, healthcare, workforce development, education, economic mobility, and community advocacy, we work to address the root causes of inequity, strengthen community resilience, and create pathways toward lasting social and economic opportunity.

Rooted in our mission of Levantando al Pueblo, we believe that meaningful change begins by centering the voices, experiences, cultural identities, and leadership of the communities most affected by systemic injustice. Just as we honor the resilience and enduring presence of Indigenous peoples, we recognize the strength of immigrant families and historically marginalized communities who continue to shape our collective future.

For us, a land acknowledgment is more than a statement of respect. It is a reminder of our responsibility to turn recognition into meaningful action, challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality, and advance a model of community well-being grounded in dignity, belonging, self-determination, and justice.

We offer this acknowledgment with respect and gratitude to the Massachusett People, their ancestors, elders, and present-day communities, and with a continued commitment to learning, solidarity, and building a future where every community has the resources, opportunities, and power to thrive.