When Anna E. Leslie joined the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative as its first hire in 2014, nonprofits across the neighborhoods were disjointed.
A needs assessment survey in 2012 revealed that residents had significant concerns over shrinking resources — from a growing food shortage to a lack of information related to health care. But, despite an abundance of organizations attempting to fill the gap, residents found themselves struggling to navigate these options.
In response, the ABHC formed in 2013 as a vehicle to solve these problems and improve the quality of life of residents in the neighborhood. Leslie became the organization’s executive director in 2019, slowly centralizing a disparate network of nonprofits.
More than a decade later, as Leslie leaves her role leading the ABHC, Allston and Brighton are deeply changed neighborhoods.
The Crimson interviewed six residents, colleagues and staff of the ABHC, all of whom said Leslie’s leadership was a driving force behind many of the organization’s achievements.
‘She Kept Allston and Brighton Together’
Leslie’s first major initiative at the ABHC was working with local groups to launch the Brighton farmers market in 2016 after residents voiced a need for easier access to local fresh food. What started as a small initative with three vendors has now grown to nearly 30 who come to participate in the weekly market.
“We had three vendors, and it was just the tiniest, saddest thing,” Leslie said. “We were so proud of it, but you look back and you’re like, ‘Oh God, I can’t believe anybody came and that it survived.’”
Leslie said in a December interview with The Crimson that her interest in food access stemmed from her childhood. Her father, David R. Leslie ’69, directed the Cambridge-based food recovery nonprofit Food for Free, and she wrote her graduate school thesis on food access in The Port neighborhood of Cambridge.
Now, hundreds of residents flock to the farmer’s market in Brighton Center every week, many utilizing buses that drive through Allston’s dedicated bus lane — another project Leslie threw her weight behind.
ABHC now ties together 34 local and regional member organizations who work together to offer resources for mobility, transportation, food access, clean air, and more.
“She kept Allston and Brighton together, which is a pretty impressive thing, knowing how disjointed a section of town that is considered to be very transient could have been,” said Elaine McCauley Meehan, a three-decade Brighton resident and manager of the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative at the ABHC.
During the pandemic, Leslie began organizing Zoom calls three times a week, offering residents a space to ask questions and share their concerns.
“Anna was able to really identify the need for — in talking with a number of us in the community — the need for connection, and the need for connection that we couldn’t do in person because of the pandemic,” said Jo-Ann Barbour, executive director of the Charlesview Residences. “So that’s where a lot of the network calls began.”
Through the calls, the ABHC quickly identified immunocompromised residents who were struggling to receive food from pantries.
“That’s where we brainstormed and created the volunteer food delivery network that we then ran for two years that made over 2000 deliveries,” Leslie said.
Many nonprofits struggled to return to normal operations after the pandemic, but Allston and Brighton emerged more connected than ever — a unification that was in no small part due to Leslie’s calls, according to Meehan.
“I would say, post-Covid, we’re probably closer and more connected than ever before,” Meehan said.
When the pandemic ended, the Zoom calls did not. They still remain a place where residents can drop in, share conversations, and connect with their neighbors once a month.
‘I Didn’t Grow Up in Allston or Brighton’
Though Leslie is known today as a super connector in Allston-Brighton, she was new to the neighborhood when she first joined the ABHC part-time in 2014.
“I didn’t grow up in Allston or Brighton,” said Leslie, who grew up in Cambridge.
“I didn’t know it deeply at all, but I felt like I could bring an objectivity of, ‘I want to learn from the people who do know it. I want to be here to help what folks are already doing and what they already know,’” she added.
Prior to joining the organization, she was a middle school science teacher and research assistant and program coordinator at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Leslie never imagined that she would spend more than a decade at the ABHC. Initially, she had only planned to stay for five years, but as the ABHC continued to grow in size and impact, she said she felt obligated to take the mantle as executive director in 2019.
“The ‘why’ was there. The ‘how’ was there. We had secured more and more funding. The ‘what’ was there,” Leslie said. “We were doing a lot in food access and transportation advocacy, and had built this strong network that it showed that it needed more direct leadership.”
The ABHC’s Future
The ABHC has worked to solve many of Allston-Brighton’s pressing issues, but continues to confront new — and some old — challenges.
Last May, Leslie worked with the Brazilian Women’s Group to organize a rally condemning heightened federal immigrant enforcement in the neighborhood and providing know-your-rights resources to immigrants.
Heloisa M. Galvão, the executive director of the Brazilian Women’s Group, praised Leslie’s empathy toward the immigrant community as they stared down attacks from the Trump administration. The BWG, which supports Brazilian women who are immigrants, received funding from ABHC last year to provide cash assistance for immigrant families.
“Many times I may say, ‘Hey, I needed these. Who do I talk to about this? How do I go?’ and she would immediately send an email saying, ‘Here are some resources: A, B, C, D.’ I mean, it’s hard to find people nowadays who have that history, who know as much as she did,” Galvão said.
“I hope that she’ll be replaced with someone as sensitive and engaged as Anna,” she added.
Leslie expressed confidence that her leadership team at the ABHC will continue to navigate the “tension and the pressure to change” in Allston-Brighton.
She pointed to a number of existing challenges the neighborhood will continue to face, including new building developments and bike lane construction. Several large projects will continue to shape the neighborhood, from Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus opening up this year to the I-90 project that seeks to add new rail infrastructure to Allston.
“This then became the natural right time to leave where it again has the stability of a strong team. It has a foundation of funding and something to grow on,” Leslie said of her departure in December.
“And they don’t need me. They would argue differently, but it’s also grown beyond what I can give it,” she added.
As Leslie moves on from the ABHC, residents like Barbara Parmenter, who attended the ABHC’s transportation and mobility committee meetings, said that she has left a tangible impact on the neighborhood and their lives.
“Connecting us all together is the legacy, and connecting us in a way that we’re not just friends, but we’re actually doing things to improve the community,” Parmenter said. “We feel like we have some power, and we have friends who we can work together with to do that.”
—Staff writer Thamini Vijeyasingam can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @vijeyasingam.
—Staff writer Kevin Zhong can be reached at [email protected].
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