Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Michael Chávez combines his passion for social activism and architecture in Boston, Massachusetts. Michael says Boston is a learning laboratory where he can mix urban community development and empowerment with sustainable and innovative architectural design. Michael is the Principal and Co-Founder of the Social Impact Collective, Inc., a Massachusetts-based social enterprise and registered Benefit Corporation. He is a registered architect in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Mexico and carries an NCARB certificate which allows him to practice in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.Michael has a Master of Architecture degree from the Boston Architectural College and worked as the Architect and Project Development Manager at YouthBuild Boston, Inc. (YBB) for 10 years with tasks that included project development & management, community liason, oversight of YBB's Designery program, leading sustainability initiatives, overseeing international projects and relationships, residential and commercial design, and much more.Additionally, Michael was an Enterprise Rose Architecture Fellow from 2014-2016. Michael worked with the Fairmount/Indigo Line CDC Collaborative (http://fairmountcollaborative.org) to spearhead a sustainable, smart growth agenda along the 9-mile Fairmount commuter rail line in Boston, MA. The line runs through some of the City’s most impoverished and predominantly minority neighborhoods in Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park. Michael worked to increase the Collaborative’s capacity to engage its constituent neighborhoods in the design process for the transit-oriented development and helped demonstrate the positive impacts of holistic design on low-income neighborhoods to funders and policy-makers.Michael also has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design with an emphasis in Landscape Architecture from the University of New Mexico's School of Architecture and Planning. Prior to moving to Boston, Michael worked for many years in Albuquerque-area nonprofits working with at-risk youth and low-income neighborhoods.