Nelson Merced

Nelson Merced is the director of the National Initiatives and Applied Research division of NeighborWorks® America.  Merced served as the director of the New England District at NeighborWorks® America for five years prior to taking on his current position.

Merced is a former executive director of Alianza Hispana of Boston, which provides social and educational services to the city’s Latino population. He played a leadership role in creating Nuestra Comunidad (one of the strongest NeighborWorks® affiliates in Boston), and was a founding member and first president of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a unique and nationally recognized community development organization.

He also served as deputy director for policy and planning for the city of Boston, as a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (appointed by the U.S. Senate), and as the first Hispanic to hold statewide office in Massachusetts, when he was elected a state representative in 1987. While in public office, he served the most racially and ethnically diverse district in the state, wrote legislation creating an Urban Initiative Fund, and was a key legislative leader for the first bill that sought to establish community reinvestment mandates for the insurance industry.