Our Team

OLGA TACURE

Executive Director

Olga Tacure is the Executive Director of Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE). She joined WEE as a Parent Lead Organizer in 2017, and also served as a Board Member. In 2019 she was named as the Executive Director. 

Deeply committed to public education and education equity, Olga helped launch the Revere Education Justice Alliance, was one of the first immigrant women to serve in a leadership role on Revere High School’s PTO and is an alumnus of the Parent Leadership Training Institute. 

Her extensive past community involvement includes working with the Revere Cares Coalition as a Union Capital Boston Network Leader, and serving on the City of Revere’s Master Plan Steering Committee. 
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Originally from Peru, Olga received her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the Instituto Hugo Pesce Pescetto in Lima. And later volunteered using her medical skills at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Like many immigrant women, Olga also has experience as a professional caretaker and nanny. She lives in Revere with her husband Juan and is the loving mother of three children who are all students of Revere Public Schools. 

FULL NAME

Community Organizer

INA TALL

Program Coordinator

Ina Tall is the Program Coordinator of WEE. She joined the organization in October 2019. Her passion for helping people started over 20 years ago when she worked at the Attorney General's Office as a Program Coordinator for the Safe Neighborhood Initiative and later as a Legislative Aide for then State Rep Marie St. Fleur. After working 6 years for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Ina moved on to the private sector and worked at Pearson Education for 16 years where her last position was Inventory Analyst. 

Today Ina feels very fortunate to wake up every morning to go to work just steps away from her home. Working in her own community is something she always dreamed of but never hoped it could ever happen. Here at WEE she has the chance to meet new faces everyday and help empower immigrant women like herself, who need all the support that they can get when they arrive in their new home country. Adapting to a new culture, navigating in a new environment and  learning a new language all at once in not easy so many feel isolated. Ina says that "Our objective is to make for a smoother transition by breaking barriers and stereotypes and helping immigrant women fully integrate their new community."  

When Ina is not at WEE, she’s busy working as a part-time Real Estate Agent helping her clients achieve their home-ownership dreams. Originally from Burkina-Faso, Ina grew up in Ethiopia and France before moving to the US for college in 1995. She speaks French fluently and is working on learning Spanish. 

GLADYS OLIVARES

ESOL Instructor

Gladys Olivares is a longtime resident of Revere and the mom of 2 kids. Gladys went to Salem State College and got an Associate Degree in Business Administration (Accounting). Gladys’ passion is to help people and she is doing just that by working at WEE as an Instructor teaching 2 classes: Computer & Job Readiness and ESOL for Beginners and Advanced Beginners.

Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE) has been a great place for her to help others. It has helped her understand the needs of each of her students and the struggles they face as immigrants learning a new language. WEE is a safe place where people can come to learn, grow and share their knowledge with others. It's a great environment where Gladys could just be herself  and relax. 

I look forward to staying at WEE and learn more everyday. The staff here is a wonderful team where it feels like we are really a family. We are all very different but at the end of the day we all want one thing and is to help every person that walks through our doors at WEE.
I know what it means to lose everything and leave your family behind and come to safety. Libya was a great country before the unrest, we were happy and had everything we desired but after that it became so so bad and unsafe. We used to hear gunshots every single night, you can not go outside because of fear to die or get hurt. I did not want my daughter and son to go through that, they complained of the gunshots and seeing people die. I did not want this situation have power over my family and life so we decided to leave everything behind and move. It was not easy at all since we did not have an American Embassy anymore in Libya so we had to go all the way to Tunisia. It was not easy, it was not easy at all...” Siham says
"I think WEE is special in a way that it encourages and helps woman and low –income families to be confident and be able to advocate and organize for themselves and also be leaders in their families, communities and their lives. This is empowering.

SIHAM SHERIF

ESOL Instructor

Siham Sherif is originally from Libya but she was born in the United States. When she was 2 years old, her family decided to go move back home. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Libya and earned her Bachelors Degree in English.

She has experience in Lecturing. She taught English at the University of Libya in Tripoli for ten years. As a result of the political unrest and instability in Libya in which she lost her dearest brother, she decided to come to the United States in 2015. On getting to the United States, Siham says she had to start from “zero”. The transition was hard but she had a lot of support. She heard about WEE from her cousin that was taking English classes here. She knew what it meant to be an immigrant and starting from scratch in a new country. She wanted to make a difference in someone’s life. She became a member and very vocal and very influential in the immigrant community. Siham started teaching and instructing Level 1 ESOL Adult classes for beginners as well as volunteer as a translator and organizer in the Arabic speaking community.
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She has a passion and dedication to work with women despite their religion, race, gender, culture and country of origin. She wants to be a voice in marginalized and low-income communities because she believes and has faith that we are here for a reason and a season, so make everyday count by reaching out and helping someone. It is that simple. with their struggles and challenges.

Maria, Siham, Blanca, Rachida, Natividad, Claudia and Gladis

Parent Lead Organizers
Our Parent Lead Organizers (PLO) have been working on a project that aims to strengthen school-family relationships, facilitate parent participation in schools and increase family leadership opportunities in schools to ultimately benefit student learning in our Revere Public Schools. Grounded in our belief in the centrality of family engagement to student learning and fully aware of obstacles for parent active participation in their children’s school experiences, particularly immigrant and refugee families.

They are collaborating with the District to produce the following:
​1. A family engagement policy
2. A family-friendly handbook
3. An overall improved school-family communication, with an emphasis on overcoming linguistic barriers to increase immigrant family participation in their children’s schooling experiences.