When Heather Shaw Elster had the opportunity to join the staff at the Whitin Community Center in Whitinsville back in 2006, she had a stipulation: She wanted flexible hours so she could be present with her children.
It was, she admits, unusual for the era. But throughout her career in the private and then nonprofit sectors, she’d seen among colleagues the way work life could subsume family life, or else make it difficult to have a family at all. At one point, she had to negotiate for her original bonus after it was nearly pro-rated when a difficult pregnancy forced her to scale back her working hours, even though she still got the same amount of work done.
“I hope that I’ve learned … how important it is that you have family time,” Shaw Elster said.
Indeed, as the now executive director of WCC, a position she’s held for a decade, Shaw Elster has made family time and family life part of her ethos as the $4-million nonprofit’s leader.
She always knew when she became a mother, she would continue to work outside of the home. Through her leadership at the WCC, the programs the center facilitates, and her history volunteering in the wider Blackstone Valley community, Shaw Elster has made that goal a reality for not only herself, but her staff and her neighbors.
Among her achievements is bolstering and expanding the WCC’s childcare program, the Blackstone Valley Children’s Place, which will soon expand into a newly vacant school building purchased by the nonprofit for $50,000 across the street from the center’s main campus.
At the WCC, Shaw Elster is proud to say 50% of enrolled children use some kind of financial assistance. Across town, at the Rockdale Youth Center, students between the ages of eight and 14 can access free, structured after-school programming.
Since taking over as WCC’s executive director, she has increased membership to more than 4,000 members, an all-time high in the nonprofit’s 87-year history. She is now spearheading a $10-million capital campaign and renovation project set to triple the number of before-school and after-school slots and increase preschool access by 25%.
If there’s a population group that could use her support, regardless of age, gender, or economic need, Shaw Elster shows up.
“There is no task that she wouldn’t undertake if it was necessary,” said Jeannie Hebert, president and CEO of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Shaw Elster, Hebert said, is the first person she calls when she has an idea for a program, and not because Shaw Elster is a storied people and program manager. She will show up, herself, and get the work done.
“She will roll up her sleeves,” Hebert said.
Whether that’s filling purses with essentials for women in need, promoting networking events for women professionals in the Blackstone Valley, fundraising for community needs, or making sure elderly residents in and around Northbridge have a safe place to come together, Shaw Elster is known for taking the lead.
“She’s available to everyone,” Hebert said.
In that way, she leads by example.
It’s one thing to give lip service to supporting women in business, it’s another to put in the grunt work to make sure systems are in place to enable women’s success.
Shaw Elster knows a thing or two about grunt work.
It took five years, she said, for her salary to match that of her predecessors at the WCC.
“At the end of the day,” Shaw Elster said. “I love this organization.”
