Profile

Viana Nascimento immigrated to Boston from Latin America in her teens and has been a racial justice and immigrant rights advocate since her early youth. Her interest in community development work was originally sparked after observing the experiences of the immigrant community in her neighborhood of East Somerville. She saw that while immigrants drove the local economy, provided vibrancy, and attracted people to the neighborhood through their businesses and traditions, they were also the ones who struggled the most to access basic resources to live well. She recalls how she “just wanted… to be an advocate for those communities and try to improve their access to those resources. I recognize how much of a contribution they made to their neighborhood and didn't feel like they were being recognized for it.”

This inequity inspired Viana to study systemic racism, urban planning, and community development and engagement. She went on to earn her BA in sociology from Tufts University and a master's in public policy from the Tufts School of Urban and Environmental Planning. After finishing her studies, Viana worked as an urban planner specializing in neighborhood planning and community engagement for nearly a decade. She also facilitated workshops for a state department-sponsored local government exchange program, conducted political outreach work throughout Massachusetts, and developed her skills as a professional visual artist. 

After ten years in urban planning, Viana was ready for a change. She found that for-profit development pressures in the field constrained the social justice values she wanted to lead his work with. Additionally, she remains dedicated to learning new things and continuing her personal growth. She elaborates, “I think there is value in just changing professional environment once in a while and taking the opportunity to learn something new.”

As the Mel King Institute's new Leadership Development Program Manager, Viana manages the Public Housing Training Program, a resource for Public Housing Resident Board Members and supports Leadership Development for CDC Board members in the Resident Leadership Academy. Additionally, she supports the advancement of the MACDC Racial Equity Pledge and contributes to the Association's overall mission. Looking forward, Viana is excited to build new relationships, ensure that the Resident Leadership Academy’s core curriculum is strong, and assist with additional skill building. She goes on to explain,

“I have some of that experience myself, but I know… that [board members and commissioners] can teach each other a lot. I want to figure out as much as possible how we can leverage all that community knowledge that we [collectively share] already and help them build each other's capacity to be better organizers and facilitators. Just because you have a right doesn't necessarily mean that right is going to be respected. And we all know that if they are not effective community organizers, they're not going to be able to maximize how much pressure they can apply in terms of making their voices heard.”

In her free time, Viana enjoys reading, playing video games, and gardening.