Special to the Record
Mass Humanities will present one of its Governor’s Awards in the Humanities to Vanessa Calderon-Rosado, CEO of Inquilinos Boricuas en Accino, Boston, at an awards ceremony Sept. 28 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
Calderon Rosado has had a long and multifaceted career demonstrating a commitment to the humanities within education, community development, and philanthropy in Boston and across the state. Calderón-Rosado is being honored for her work that actively promotes Latinx culture and builds community through the arts in Boston’s South End and for her contributions to shaping a more equitable philanthropic ecosystem in Massachusetts.
Humbled by the Honor
Asked about being recognized by Mass Humanities with the prestigious Governor’s Award, Calderon Rosado said, “This is a very unexpected honor, so I am extremely thrilled, happy, delighted, and humbled by this award, especially because it’s centered in the humanities. It may seem a little bit unusual or out of the blue for the kind of work that I do. However, I feel an intersectionality between my work and the humanities, so I’m really excited and thrilled.”
A Puerto Rican-born civic leader who received her doctorate in public policy from UMASS Boston and a Honoris Causa Doctorate from Cambridge College, Calderon-Rosado has been highly acclaimed for her outstanding, exemplary administration of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), a community development corporation dedicated to empowering and engaging individuals and families to improve their lives through high-quality affordable housing, education and arts programs. Under her leadership since 2003, IBA has become the largest Latino-led nonprofit organization in Eastern Massachusetts, with over $250 million in assets and a portfolio of 667 affordable housing units in its South End Villa Victoria development in Roxbury and Mattapan.
Calderon-Rosado said that IBA (which translates to Puerto Rican Tenants was founded in 1968.
Vanessa was selected as a Barr Fellow in 2009, and in 2010 she became the first Latina to be appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Vanessa is a founding board member of the Margarita Muñiz Academy, the first dual-language innovation high school in Massachusetts, and a co-founder of the Greater Boston Latino Network.
She serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), the Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the Yawkey Foundation and
the Franklin Square House Foundation. She is also a member of the Boston Foundation’s Latino Equity Fund Advisory Committee and Eastern Bank’s Board of Advisors. In 2022, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce recognized Vanessa with the Distinguished Bostonian Award.
She enjoys cooking, reading, indoor cycling, and playing Wordle and Solitaire. She lives in Milton with her husband, Miguel, and is the proud mother of Carlos and Antonio.
The other Governor’s Award recipients are Margaret Burnham of Boston, distinguished Professsor of Law at Northeastern and an internationally recognized expert on civil and human rights, comparative constitutional rights, and international criminal law; Kumble Subbaswamy, of Amherst, the retiring Chancellor of UMass Amherst and a committed public education advocate; and Elizabeth Bacon of Worcester, coordinator of the Clemente Course in Humanities, Worcester.
“Massachusetts is home to a thriving humanities sector that makes our state more enlightened, innovative and inclusive,” said Gov. Healey. “I’m proud to present the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities in recognition of the exceptional contributions they have made in education, history, community development, philanthropy, civil rights and more. I’m also grateful to the Mass Humanities Board for their partnership and the incredible work they do to expand opportunities across our state.”
• Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, of Boston, is the CEO of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, Boston. She has had a long and multifaceted career demonstrating a commitment to the humanities within education, community development, and philanthropy in Boston and across the state. Calderón-Rosado is being honored for her work that actively promotes Latinx culture and builds community through the arts in Boston’s South End and for her contributions to shaping a more equitable philanthropic ecosystem in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts is a better place because of the contributions made by this year’s Governor’s Awards honorees,” said Brian Boyles, Executive Director of Mass Humanities. “They continue to break barriers, elevate the voices of their communities, and contribute to our understanding of the Commonwealth and the nation. We thank Governor Healey for partnering with us this year to celebrate these transformational humanists.”