Ivette Olmeda

A resident of Worcester for more than 30 years, Ivette Olmeda has dedicated her professional career to community development, helping business owners increase their capacity and skills, and supporting small and minority-owned businesses. She spent 12 years as a program manager for the Center for Women & Enterprise of Central Massachusetts before co-founding ESCALA! Achieving Together is a consulting team dedicated to empowering women to achieve self-growth through effective communication, goal setting, team building, and coaching. In her current role, she has worked to engage and support local businesses and property owners, organized Worcester's Main South Business Association, and developed strategic reuse plans for vacant sites to help Main South become a walkable and vibrant neighborhood. Ivette has served as an Executive Board at Adelante Worcester, the Latin American Business Organization, and she was recently appointed to the WooSox (The Wepa's Team) Latino Advisory Board at the Polar Park. In 2019 she was a recipient of the MassINC Gateway Cities Innovation Award. Ivette has a joint MBA and a master's degree in community development and planning from Clark University.