“Poverty is the original pandemic,” says Sharon Scott-Chandler, who was named the first woman president and CEO of Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) last summer. “It’s an incredible motivator and reason to get up every morning, to know that you are part of that fight to get people access to the things that they deserve.”

As head of the largest social services agency in New England, Scott-Chandler is responsible for a $200 million budget that helps 100,000 people stay warm, take advantage of job training and education, access food and more. A native of Mattapan, Scott-Chandler joined ABCD in 1999 from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office where she had been an assistant attorney general. “I had been working at the policy level and wanted to get closer to the people,” she says. “Coming to ABCD brought me back into my community.”

Still, it was big career change, going from high-level legislative policy coordination to front-line human services work. “It intrigued me,” she explains. “I knew that Northeastern prepared me for anything — both because of the analytical skills that all law schools teach but also because Northeastern was, and always has been, rooted in justice and equity.”

The move proved to be the perfect fit. Scott-Chandler became director of ABCD’s Child Care Choices of Boston, then vice president of Head Start and children’s services in 2003 and then, in 2009, the first female executive vice president and COO.

“I can tell you that when I came to ABCD, I had no thoughts of becoming CEO,” she concludes. “I was excited by the opportunity to address poverty and promote economic mobility and justice at the ground level.”

Twenty-three years later, she still finds “being in the fight for justice and economic equity to be fulfilling.”