Margaret Tantillo
Executive Director, O’Dell Women’s Center
Her Life’s Work Centers on Helping Women Overcome Barriers to Success
Margaret Tantillo has spent her entire career in the nonprofit space, much of it with the Girl Scouts, and then for almost a decade leading Dress for Success Western Massachusetts.
“I’ve always worked in organizations in support of women and girls — and that was purposeful. I had a passion for it,” she said.
“There were some experiences that led me to understand that women are treated differently, and that there’s a need for women to support each other,” she added, citing a persistent wage gap between men and women as one example.
“Women take the more responsibility for childcare, for elder support. So there are benefits to lifting women up — especially the women that we serve,” she went on, referring to her latest role, which she accepted in early 2024, as executive director of the O’Dell Women’s Center, a philanthropic organization that supports low-income women in and around Springfield in a variety of ways.
“I’ve always said that not everybody gets dealt the same cards, and my hope, personally, is to sort of even the playing field,” Tantillo explained. “I could have just as easily been born into a household that was not well-off financially, and that would have been my barrier to overcome. But the hand I was dealt was middle-class, and there was no question I was going to go to college.
“Margaret’s dedication ensures that women and families have stability and access to essential resources during difficult times.”
“So for me personally, it’s like, where’s the fairness?” she went on. “We’re all getting different opportunities, and and they’re just not equal, so by working in women’s organizations, what can I do to even the playing field?”
The O’Dell Women’s Center was inspired by Connie O’Dell, who served for more than 40 years as a maternity nurse at Providence Hospital and dedicated her life to caring for women with dignity, compassion, and respect. Founded in 2023, the center occupies a 10,000-square-foot facility in the heart of Springfield.
Its most visible arm is its foundation, which provides grants, typically ranging from $10,000 to $75,000, to local nonprofits that advance educational, workforce, and career development opportunities for low-income women, as well as nonprofit organizations that address systemic barriers, such as food insecurity, childcare access, transportation, and housing instability.
The foundation distributed $550,000 in 2025 to support women and families across Springfield, and an estimated $750,000 in grants will be awarded in 2026.
The center also houses Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, which was displaced from its longtime home at the Eastfield Mall when that complex was about to be torn down and redeveloped. The O’Dell Women’s Center offered it about 5,000 square feet of space — more than $80,000 in free rent annually — to continue its work without interruption, said Jessica Roncarati-Howe, who succeeded Tantillo as head of the organization in 2024 — and is one of two individuals who nominated her as a Difference Maker.
Margaret Tantillo says she understands Springfield and its needs, and is grateful to be in a place where she can make an impact.
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging
“This single act ensured that hundreds of women in Springfield and surrounding communities could still access professional clothing, employment coaching, career development, programming, and the support networks that help them thrive,” Roncarati-Howe said. “The O’Dell Women’s Center did not just give us space; they gave us stability, dignity, and the ability to keep serving women who rely on us every day.
“What impresses us most is that this generosity is not an exception — it is the model,” she added. “The Odell Women’s Center provides free gathering and meeting space for women’s groups and is actively seeking additional nonprofits to join the building at low or no cost. Their goal is to create a true community hub where women can access multiple resources under one roof, reducing barriers and strengthening the social and economic fabric of Springfield.”
“We’re hoping to see quality relationships that align with our values of treating women with compassion, not assuming what other women need, but kind of walking hand in hand to provide that support.”
Mydalis Vera, founder of Guerrera Writer and a volunteer at the center, noted its support of food pantries during a particularly challenging time for food insecurity, pointing out that the center distributed $100,000 in emergency support to Springfield-area pantries late last year, helping families navigate the pressures of SNAP benefit changes and a temporary federal government shutdown.
“Margaret’s dedication ensures that women and families have stability and access to essential resources during difficult times,” Vera said, adding that Tantillo also spearheaded a successful diaper drive, partnering with local agencies to collect more than 40,000 diapers and registering more than 200 families to receive this essential support. “Her tireless commitment to uplifting women and families, providing practical assistance, and fostering long-term stability truly sets her apart as a leader and changemaker in the community.”
Spreading the Wealth
In her former role as executive director of Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, Tantillo increased the budget sevenfold and grew the organization from one program to five, all in the service of helping unemployed and underemployed women achieve economic independence. And, as Roncarati-Howe noted, it was a natural fit to operate out of the O’Dell building in downtown Springfield.
“Dress for Success is its own nonprofit; they have their own board of directors and run their own thing,” Tantillo explained. “We have a very collaborative relationship, and now it’s like, ‘what else can we bring in to support women?’ It’s a slow build. In some ways, we’re providing the next step, the next circle of resources for women.”
The funding for Dress for Success’ rent-free tenancy comes from the O’Dell Women’s Center’s family foundation, she added.
Margaret Tantillo says it’s important to lift women up, and she’s spent much of her career doing just that.
Photo by
Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging
“These partnerships reflect our belief that economic stability is built through coordinated, community-driven solutions,” said Keely Krantz, founder and president of the O’Dell Women’s Center Foundation. “When women have access to basic needs, education, and career opportunities, entire families and communities are strengthened.”
To demonstrate how the O’Dell grants target the upward mobility of women, the 2025 grantees included:
• Bay Path University, to support a new emergency assistance initiative for Springfield-based students facing unexpected crises, including housing instability, transportation challenges, and lack of basic necessities, helping women remain enrolled and complete their education;
• Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, to provide a continuum of career support, including professional attire, career readiness, coaching, and advancement services that help women achieve long-term financial independence;
• Girls Inc. of the Valley, to continue supporting the Eureka! Program, a no-cost, five-year STEM initiative that empowers girls to envision themselves as part of the future workforce through hands-on learning and sustained mentorship;
• The Gray House, to strengthen adult education services for low-income migrants and refugees, including ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) instruction paired with essential life and job skills training;
• It Takes a Village, to expand basic needs programming that fills critical service gaps for low-income women and families, helping remove survival-level barriers to economic stability;
• MassHire Holyoke, to implement the GLOW program in Springfield, a holistic workforce initiative combining intensive case management, job placement, and wrap-around supports to address barriers such as childcare, transportation, housing instability, and digital skill gaps;
• South End Community Center, to provide out-of-school programming that offers safe, reliable childcare through after-school, vacation, summer, and school-closure programs, supporting parents’ ability to work and pursue education;
• Tech Foundry, to deliver digital literacy instruction, professional development, and career mapping for women participating through YWCA programming; and
• United Way of Pioneer Valley, to expand direct services for underserved women by increasing food pantry access and strengthening Thrive Financial Wellness programming through individualized financial coaching.
As the center’s executive director, Tantillo ensures that the grants are directed in the most impactful ways and that the building’s physical resources are used responsibly, and most of those efforts specifically help women navigate barriers to stability and build sustainable futures, she explained.
“I understand Springfield and its needs, and I work very closely with the founder, who is one of the kindest, smartest women I’ver ever met,” she said of Krantz. For example, “with that emergency food funding, I said, ‘this is what’s going on with SNAP. I think we need to do this.’ And she said, ‘yes, that makes sense.’”
The decision wound up putting the planned grant outlay for 2025 $50,000 over the original budget, but the issue was deemed an urgent one. So Tantillo went about approaching area food pantries directly to get a sense of how many people they serve and what their needs were, then facilitated the grants.
While most of the center’s work focuses on providing a path to academic stability through career advancement and education, the $100,000 outlay for food pantries isn’t as much of an outlier among the other grants as it might seem.
“In the organizations that we provided funding for, you’ll see those [career] paths as well as some basic needs, because there are a lot of barriers for women,” Tantillo explained. “Like, we didn’t necessarily fund childcare, but we fund out-of-school programming, so when women are working, there’s a safe space for their children to go. So we’re going from immediate needs, basic needs, to supporting long-term opportunities.”
Walking Together
As part of that effort to connect women with education and career opportunities, the center is piloting something called the Bridging Navigator Peer to Peer mentorship program, which pairs mentors with lived experience with low-income women to help connect them with resources and pathways that lead to educational and career advancement.
One of those navigators is Areliz Barbosa, an assistant professor at Bay Path University and one of BusinessWest’s Healthcare Heroes last fall, who has often spoken about the dire challenges she has had to overcome in life.
“I was shocked to hear that she slept on a bench for a little while,” Tantillo said. “We’re going to pair her with a woman who may be in a situation where she can’t see her future — because she certainly has achieved a professional level of success.”
If the pilot expands, she added, “we’re hoping to see quality relationships that align with our values of treating women with compassion, not assuming what other women need, but kind of walking hand in hand to provide that support. The Bridging Navigator program will probably help women access social services or steer them toward Dress for Success or encourage them to take a training or go to community college to get that certificate.”
The O’Dell Women’s Center also offers free space for clients and community nonprofits to use, including a small, private conference room; an office with several desks; and a large, central meeting or presentation space. Tantillo said the center has also forged a partnership with MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board, which will physically place a representative in the building.
Meanwhile, she added, with nonprofits facing a tough funding landscape, she would like to bring area organizations together to determine what efficiencies exist and how they can complement each other’s services.
These are just some of the ways Tantillo brings people and resources together with the general goal of elevating women — which she has done, in some form, over her entire career.
“I just provide the opportunity, and people kind of join in,” she said. And by doing so, she continues to be a true Difference Maker.
