Allentza Michel is an urban planner, multimedia artist, public policy advocate and researcher. With a background in community organizing, youth development and human service, she has 25 years of diverse experience across community & economic development, education, food security, public health and transportation in local, national and international settings. Her experiences, both professional and social, inform her current work in civic design, community and organizational development, and social equity. Growing up with marginalized identities in a historically underserved neighborhood of Boston, Ms. Michel is passionate about equitable and sustainable community development, inclusive co-designed processes, and social justice from coalition building and community planning.

              Allentza is the founder and creative director of Powerful Pathways, an award-winning civic design lab and public interest consultancy which leads urban planning, placekeeping and research projects with deep community involvement, media arts integration and the applications of design thinking, and racial and social equity best practices. For over 10 years, Powerful Pathways has served communities representing over 20 million people across the nation. Under its auspices, Allentza also launched Mattapan Open Streets/Open Studios, a creative placemaking initiative that bring arts and cultural programming and functional aesthetic design to a historically underserved community. She also created Boston’s Black and Brown Creatives, a networking hub for artists and creatives of color, and The Engaging Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Small Business Forum, a biennial half day conference that provides culturally responsive training and tools for economic development agencies and small business service providers.    

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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             Allentza worked for the City of Cambridge Coordinating Council on Children, Youth and Families (commonly known as the Cambridge Kid’s Council), a policy board chaired by the mayor that oversees the development of policies that impact children, youth and families. There, she supported the youth subcommittee’s (now the Cambridge Mayor’s Youth Council) successful local and state policy projects, performing policy research and as a delegate supervisor to the National League of Cities conference. Allentza also worked at mytownc Inc, a youth leadership development and educational media nonprofit organization, where she expanded partnerships and programs teaching digital, film and video production and cultural history education to teenage youth. She also held multiple roles at Dudley St Neighborhood Initiative, a community development nonprofit with a land trust nationally known as the first community to hold its own eminent domain. An educator, she previously taught in Boston, Cambridge and Malden Public Schools. She was a Teaching Artist at the Cambridge Community Art Center, and a tutor and student mentor at METCO Inc. She taught an intensive course on equitable placemaking with Americans for the Arts and currently teaches on racial justice and equity in policy and planning, and leadership, at Tufts and Northeastern Universities.

            In addition to her past work experiences, Allentza has held several public leadership roles, serving on many boards, civic groups and coalitions. This includes but is not limited to the Boston Chapter of the Urban Research Based Action network (URBAN Boston), the Boston’s Arts Music and Soul Festival (BAMS Fest), The City School, the Boston Alliance for Education Excellence and many other advocacy coalitions focused on improving housing, transportation, youth and family opportunities and education. In 2013, Allentza served as co-chair to the City of Boston’s Participatory Budgeting Project’s inaugural year. Ms. Michel is also a co-founder of the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council, a local civic organization that mediates land use and development projects to ensure strong community benefits and policy, Beantown Society, an award-winning youth-led violence prevention advocacy group. She was part of a number of successful local organizing campaigns such as Youth and Youth Workers United (successfully restoring $9 million in municipal funding to youth development programs), the MBTA Youth pass extension (extending the youth passes from 6-8pm in 2000, and again to 11pm in 2009), and advocated for CORI reform and voting reform, achieving home-rule petition and inspiring successful campaigns like Tacoma Park, MD. She currently serves as a Steering Committee member of the Network of Arts Administrators of Color – Boston (NAAC Boston), and as a member of the Fairmount Indigo Transit Justice Coalition and Action for Equity.

           Proud of her heritage, Allentza Michel has been a human rights advocate for Haitians and Haitian Americans. When she taught at West Roxbury High School in Boston in 2008, she specifically worked with Haitian ESL students and provided training to staff on cultural competency and working with English Language Learners. She has supported organizations building schools and orphanages and helped raise funding and volunteered following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. She traveled to Japan in 2015 to research post-disaster reconstruction and social resiliency to compare and study best practices. Closer to home, she had worked with Haitian faith-based groups, volunteering at food pantries, supporting programming and interpretation services for the local Haitian community. Most recently, she initiated a collection campaign to donate toiletries.

          Allentza Michel received a master's degree in Public Policy from Tufts University, with concentrations in community development and transportation policy, and bachelors in English and Social and Political Systems from Pine Manor College, and a graduate certificate in Non-profit Management from the Institute of Non-profit Practice. She has training in Civic Media and Art Practice from Emerson College and Design and Public Policy from Rhode Island School of Design. She was the inaugural fellow of the Association for Community Design in 2015, and a 2016 fellow with National Arts Strategies. Ms. Michel enjoys art making (painting, beadwork, writing, film making and music composition), dancing, reading, engaging in other cultures and learning new languages. She speaks English (native), Haitian Creole (native), Spanish, moderate French, and conversational Japanese. She navigates her time between the Boston, MA, New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.

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Awards and Recognitions​

• Commendation, Town of Randolph, MA, March 2025

• FANM VANYAN (Haitian Women Leaders) Award, Nehemiah Project, March 2025

• Civic Game Changer Award, Commonwealth Seminar, November 2024 (Powerful Pathways)

• Governor’s Commendation. Healey Administration, November 2024

• Hometown Hero Award, Celtics Foundation, 2023

• Graduate Alumni Outstanding Service Achievement Award, Tufts University, 2022

• Forbes Next 1000, Forbes Media, December 2021

• Perez Prize in Civic Design and Public Art, Americans for the Arts, June 2021

• Commendation, City of Boston City Council (for policy and racial justice advocacy in transportation), February 2020

• ‘Love Your Block’ Arts and Neighborhood Beautification Award, November 2017 (Powerful Pathways)

• City of Cambridge City Council Resolution (for successful public policy advocacy in transportation), July 2012

• Princeton Prize in Race in Race Relations (for the Racial Equity in Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School project), 2012

• ‘Culture for Change’ Artist Youth Worker Award, 2008

• ‘Big Picture’ Award - Opening Doors Ceremony, The City School, 2005

• Unsung Hero Award, The City School, 2004