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MFFC Executive Director Shavel’le Olivier shown during the 2025 Mattapan on Wheels event in Walker Playground. Seth Daniel file photo
The executive director of the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition (MFFC) plans to step down at the end of the year after a seven-year tenure. Shavel’le Olivier, 34, started working with the non-profit group while still a student at Boston Latin Academy.
“This was my first job,” she said on Monday. “I’m leaving because I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do internally. I’ve been with the organization 17.5 years, first as a Vigorous Youth and volunteering as a co-chair and then as executive director…I feel a real sense of peace for what I’ve been able to accomplish.”
Olivier said she made the decision in December 2025 but gave MFFC a year to prepare for the transition. The position was advertised recently. She also noted she doesn’t have any new position lined up but wants to land in youth leadership, transportation advocacy, or community work.
“Wherever that leads me within those three buckets, I’ll be looking to land,” she said. “I’m leaving it up to faith that wherever I go next will be within those three passions of mine.”
Olivier was able to grow the MFFC budget by 600 percent, build it from a volunteer organization to nine staff members and get the finances on secure footing for the foreseeable future. She has also cemented the annual Mattapan on Wheels bicycle ride each July as a signature event for the organization.
She discovered the group as a teen in 2009, when a high school classmate at Boston Latin Academy told her that MFFC was hiring young people for their Vigorous Youth program.
“I interviewed at the Mildred Avenue Community Center and was offered a job on the spot,” she recalled.
Olivier said her time at MFFC has helped to grow up from a young adult to an adult, and also to learn about herself during her time of leadership.
“I learned about being more confident in myself and knowing I can be quiet and still make an impact,” she said. “I don’t have to know everything and can invite others to the table with me. Some leaders are visible and loud and know everything and I learned I don’t have to be like that. I am comfortable in the way I lead and bringing on people who can complement me in the way I lead.”
She said she has also raised up new leaders, like Kahlil Cooper and others within the organization – in particular for her previous roles in transportation advocacy and the Vigorous Teens.
“I feel successful in leaving and knowing I was able to pass that work on to others like Kahlil,” she said. “I feel a sense of peace knowing those things will carry on with these young leaders.”
She said she will be continuing on with her business, Consult LeLa, along with her business partner as she moves forward, and she thanked all of the women who helped her learn and lead through the years.
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
