Each year, NDSC strives to bring you the highest quality in educational and empowering workshops, prominent and inspirational speakers, culturally influential movie screenings, art exhibitions, networking events, and parties – all of which serve to educate, uplift, and unite the Dominican college student community.
Keynote
Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, African Voices, Best American Short Stories (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000), in Pushcart Prize XXII and in The O'Henry Prize Stories 2009. He has received a Eugene McDermott Award, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a Lila Acheson Wallace Readers Digest Award, the 2002 Pen/Malamud Award, the 2003 US-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Marco Antonio Davis is the deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for
Hispanics. Named to his post on Jan. 30, 2012, he helps carry out President Obama's efforts to improve
the academic achievement of the nation’s Hispanic students.
Prior to joining the initiative, Davis served as the director of public engagement for the Corporation for
National and Community Service, leading President Obama’s call to service initiative, United We Serve,
and the annual MLK National Day of Service and September 11 National Day of Service and
Remembrance.
The son of a Jamaican father and a Mexican mother, Davis and his two older sisters grew up in Mount
Vernon, N.Y. He attended public and private schools before enrolling at Yale University. After he earned
his bachelor’s degree in history and Latin American studies in 1992, his first job took him back to New
York, where he worked as a academic counselor at the innovative Prep for Prep program, which
identifies outstanding students of color from modest backgrounds and connects them with private high
schools and, later, prestigious colleges.
Dr. Erik E. Morales is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary
& Secondary Education at New Jersey City University. He received his B.S. in English
Education and his Ph.D. in Higher Education from New York University, as well as
his M.Ed. in Education Administration from William Paterson University. He has
published more than fifteen articles in scholarly journals, including “Legitimizing
hope: An Exploration of Mentoring for Dominican American Male College Students,
Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, & Practice, Vol. 11(3), 385-
406 and “Academic Resilience in Retrospect: Following up a Decade Later, Journal of
Hispanic Higher Education, 7(3), 228-248; as well as two books on academic resilience:
Promoting Academic Resilience in Multicultural America (Peter Lang Press, 2004), and
A Focus on Hope: Fifty Resilient Students Speak (University Press of America, 2011).
He has presented at a multitude of conferences and professional development gatherings
nationwide.
Amaris Del Carmen Guzman is a second-generation Dominicana native from Paterson, NJ whose parents were born in Santiago, Dominican Republic. As an undergraduate at St. John's University, Amaris became president and co-founder of the Latino American Student Organization (LASO) and continued her involvement as a LASO Alumni Advisor in the subsequent years. In 2007, Amaris received a B.S. in Criminal Justice from St. John's and served as the Graduate Student Marshal upon graduating with a M.A. in Latin American and Border Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2009. At the age of 24, she began her Ph.D. work in Caribbean Studies at the University at Albany in upstate New York. Now in her second year of doctoral work, her research seeks to recover the narratives of Caribbean student leaders during the 1960s who paved the way for our generation to flourish. Amaris currently serves as the youngest serving Board Member of the Dominican American National Roundtable. She is also an active and proud hermana of the Gamma Eta Graduate Alumnae Chapter of Hermanidad de Sigma Iota Alpha, Inc. As an intellectual activist, Amaris hopes to serve as an encouragement tool for her younger peers to pursue graduate school and doctoral work in the near future.
Chrismaldi Vasquez currently leads the education strategy and initiatives for Boston Rising, a start up foundation focused on eliminating poverty. Previously, she was Director of Community Impact with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. She served as a relationship manager for youth serving agencies and external partners. She was also a project manager for several initiatives that focused on increasing youth opportunities and civic engagement. Most recently, she was the Manager of Organizing and Policy Initiatives. In this role, she was responsible for two youth community development teams and several organizing and policy campaigns. She has developed a national reputation for her leadership in several grassroots youth community organizing campaigns including defeating a plan for a K-Mart in Jackson Square and fighting sexual harassment on Boston's streets and in the public schools. She also led the successful effort for a new Civics curriculum in the Boston Public Schools. Many of the organizing campaigns that she has led have received national media attention and they have been featured in youth development journals and academic books. In recent years, she traveled throughout the country to lead workshops for other youth organizing groups, conferences and colleges. Chrismaldi graduated from Bentley University with a B. S in Economics and Finance with a minor in International Studies.
John Moreno-Escobar founded his own non-profit organization (Latino Youth for Higher Education
Program) in order to educate and assist newcomer Latino students and families in the process of
applying, preparing and paying for higher education in the United States. He is naturally from Bogota, Colombia,
but migrated 9 years ago to further his studies.
In 2010 he graduated from Baruch College in Public Affairs with a minor in Latin American Studies
and the Caribbean. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Public Administration at the School of
Public Affairs – Baruch College. John was recently appointed as Partnerships Manager in the NY Region for New
Futuro. This National Educational organization has created an educational community that helps
Latino families get their students into college and beyond. Through a completely free, bilingual, ‘high-
tech, high-touch’ experience, New Futuro connects those that need help with those that provide it.
New Futuro uses digital, media and neighborhood outreach efforts and partners with schools, not-for-
profits and community based organizations to help them expand their reach.
As a Partnerships Manager for the New York Region, he is responsible to create healthy and
strong relationships, with major stake holders and share all the New Futuro resources with the
Latino Community.
Anthony Stevens-Acevedo is assistant director and founding member of the
Dominican Studies Institute of the City University of New York (CUNY DSI)
at The City College of New York. He is a founding member of the Council of
Dominican Educators, the Dominican Studies Association, and a Foreign
Corresponding Member of the Dominican Academy of History (Dominican
Republic).
Stevens-Acevedo is a historian and focuses his research on the early colonial
history of the Dominican Republic. He is the lead investigator in CUNY DSI's
Dominican colonial research projects.
Prior to joining CUNY DSI, Stevens-Acevedo taught Social Studies for more
than a decade at Theodore Roosevelt High School and Gregorio Luperón High
School, both in New York City. He has a long history of community activism in
Washington Heights, the best-known hub of the Dominican community in New
York City. Stevens-Acevedo has an M.A. in History from The City College of New
York, CUNY, and a B.A. in History of the Americas from the University of Seville,
Spain.
Carlos Pichardo was born in the Dominican Republic. He is currently incubating a Healthcare HR outsourcing start up at the Bronx Business Incubator. The concept behind this venture is to not only create a niche product in the growing field of HR outsourcing, but also help physicians build integrated networks where care coordination can be carried out seamlessly. Carlos has served as an activist for various causes in the past, the latest being the 4% movement in the Dominican Republic. He is a firm believer in the link between greater prosperity in developing countries and robust investment in Research and Development. For this purpose, he is in the process of co-founding a non-profit organization that seeks to help Universities in low-income countries build endowment funds by channeling the energy of diasporic communities and by enabling the type of links that can foster greater innovation between institutions of higher learning. Carlos holds a B.A. from Columbia University.
A Fulbright Fellow currently pursuing his second master degree at the University of Cincinnati. Besides his professional practice, Ico has developed an academic career at the School of Architecture of Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), where for the last five years he has taught both in undergraduate and graduate schools. In 2011 he was awarded Meritorious Professor of PUCMM. Ico has been Guest Professor at national and international workshops. Among other congresses, he has represented the Dominican Republic at the Young Architects World Forum. He has been a speaker at a variety of prominent academic Dominican and international conferences such as the Latin American Conference of Schools and Faculty of Architecture (CLEFA) in Buenos Aires. As an activist, Ico has been involved in manifestations for environmental and social causes, such as the advocacy for the defense of the Dominican system of protected areas. He led the team that coordinated Música Por Los Haitíses, and is part of the coordination team of Coalición Educación Digna (Coalition for a Worthy Education).
Paola Martinez is a Dominican-born, fierce activist of education and immigrants’
rights. She has led the efforts of La Coalicion Educacion Digna in the US to
strengthen the advocacy for the allocation of 4% of the GDP for public education,
mandated by the constitutional law 66-97 in Dominican Republic. Paola is
currently a Community Mobilization & Advocacy Fellow with La Fuente,
an organization that works for the rights of immigrant’s and workers in
underserved communities throughout New York City. Further, she coordinates
the Votos y Voces campaign, an initiative to mobilize new and inactive voters,
and engage them to influence the election’s decision-making process. Formerly,
she was an intern for the Community Mobilization Department of the National
Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) and Education & Advocacy
Fellow of the Dominican American National Round Table (DANR). While
pursuing a career in Political Science, concentrating in law and policy at Baruch
College, she works as a Spanish teacher at the Dalton School in New York City
and the Instituto Cervantes, the leading institution that promotes the Spanish
language and Spanish & Hispanic-American culture around the world. Through
her job she develops her passion for languages, education, and involvement with
children.
As the General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture, Ramona Emilia Romero
is the principal legal advisor to Secretary Tom Vilsack and other Department officials. President
Obama nominated her on June 28, 2010 and she was confirmed unanimously by the United
States Senate on December 22, 2010. Ms. Romero serves as the Chief Legal Officer of the
USDA and oversees the work of about 300 legal professionals who provide legal advice and
support to all components of the Department. Before joining the Administration, Ms. Romero was a Corporate Counsel at E.I. du Pont de
Nemours and Company (DuPont), where she provided legal oversight for the acquisition
of transportation, distribution, supply-chain management, travel and energy resources, and
managed related strategic litigation. From 2008 through 2010, Ms. Romero also served as
General Counsel of Sentinel Transportation LLC, a DuPont joint venture. She also held other
key positions at DuPont, including Corporate Counsel for complex commercial and antitrust
litigation, and Corporate Counsel and Manager of Operations and Partnering. While at DuPont,
Ms. Romero led various initiatives aimed at promoting diversity in the legal profession and
was a frequent public speaker on that subject. During the first ten years of her legal career, Ms.
Romero was a litigator at Crowell and Moring in Washington, DC where she handled a broad
range of commercial, government contract and white collar matters. Ms. Romero,
who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic at age 10, holds a B.A. from Barnard College
and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Yoseli Castillo Fuertes was born in the Dominican Republic in 1972, and at the age of 16 migrated to the United States. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Spanish Literature. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Desobedientes. Experiencias y reflexiones sobre poliamor, relaciones abiertas y sexo casual entre lesbianas, Buenos Aires, 2009; MundoLavapies, Madrid, 2006; Divagaciones bajo la luna/ Musing under the Moon, Santo Domingo, 2006, and Encuentro: 10 poetas latinoamericanos en USA, New York, 2003. She is a bilingual-Dominican-Latina-lesbian poet-activist-teacher-aunt. Her activism started in 1994 when she helped found The Barbara Witenko Women Center at Long Island University (Brooklyn). A few years later she participated in Alianza Dominican’s Project Encounter and was a member of Las Hijas de la Luna, NYC’s first Dominican lesbian group. Since 2003 she has been part of GALDE’s Board of Directors and since 2004 has served as its Vice Chair. Currently she is the Chair. For more than 5 years she has organized the Gay & Lesbian Bohemian Night in Washington Heights. She has participated or collaborated with organizations such as Las Buenas Amigas, Queens Pride House, PRIDE, Mateando, SAGE, The Audre Lorde Project, The Center, amongst others. Her first poetry book De eso sí se habla/Of That, I speak New York, 2012 is now on sale.
Alicia Anabel Santos is a Latina Writer, Producer and Playwright. She is a New York-born Dominican who is passionate about writing works that empower and inspire women to find their voices. She recently published her memoir, Finding Your Force: A Journey to Love and is currently completing a historical fiction novel titled, The Daughters of the Revolution. Her one-woman show I WAS BORN was selected as part of the ONE Festival in 2011, held in NYC. She is the Founder of the NYC Latina Writers Group. Alicia has worked for renowned magazines BusinessWeek, Glamour and Domino, but it was an article published in Urban Latino Magazine, "Two Cultures Marching to One Drum," that would change the direction of her life. In 2008, Alicia joined Creador Pictures as Writer /Co-Producer of its first documentary, "Afro Latinos: La Historia Que Nunca Nos Contaron / AfroLatinos: The Untaught Story" WWW.AFROLATINOS.TV, partnering with Renzo Devia, on a project that will change the way the world sees color and race relations in Latin America. Alicia lives in Harlem, NYC with her daughter Courtniana. She works as a freelance writer and activist against sexual and physical abuse towards women and children. She attended New York University and Rhode Island College.
Francisco J. Lazala was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the US in 1985. He
earned his BA in Sociology from Lehman College in 1996 and earned one year towards his Masters in Non-Profit Management from the New School University in 1999. Francisco (Cisco) is currently the Director of Programs at the Bronx Community Pride Center (BCPC); previously, he worked as the Outreach Coordinator for BCPC. He has worked for New York Harm Reduction Educators as the Coordinator of Structured Interventions and Integrated. He served as director for: the Mpowerment Program, an HIV prevention program targeting gay & bi men; the SOMOS Program, a citywide anti-homophobia project; Crystal Meth Initiative Program; and Mano a Mano Program, a capacity building program targeting gay Latino grassroots organizations, all at the Latino Commission on AIDS. Cisco also worked as program coordinator for outreach & education and LGBT services at Alianza Dominicana and at the Young Adults Against Drugs & Alcohol in the Bronx. Cisco is the Chair & Founder of the Gay and Lesbian Dominican Empowerment Organization, Inc., serves on the Advisory Board of Latinos Unidos of New York and on the board of the tenant association. Francisco coordinates the biggest LGBT Dominican Picnic / Health Fair in the US for the last 16 years. He also served as consultant for BCPC, Columbia University, & Amigos Siempre Amigos.
Carlos Rodriguez is an activist, filmmaker and photographer who tells stories about LGBTQ people and works every day to render visible the Dominican community in it’s richness and complexity. He is one of the co-founders of IURA (Individuals United for Respect and Harmony), an organization that focuses on LGBTQ Legal Rights in Santo Domingo. His participation in the recent documentary film ¨Afuera Hay Aire¨ documents the lives of numerous members of the LGBTQ community and their daily experiences across various parts of the Dominican Republic. His work has been recently screened at New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema and NYC Caribbean Queer Film Festival, among others. Website: www.carlosr.co
A Dominican Lesbian author, performer, lyricist, and activist whose mission is to “Express freely without shame or guilt the social issues affecting our community.” She uses the power of words and music to promote educational activism. Sargenta G has participated and performed in various underground events including in various colleges and community locations. Garcia is the author of Gritando En Silencio, a poetry book that addresses the issues of Domestic Violence and leaves room for hope to break the cycle; this book was adapted for the stage by The Fantastic Experimental Latino Theater Inc. in 2009 and was presented as a play to bring awareness to the community. She has been featured in Univision, El Diario and the New York Daily News. She currently works as an Employment Specialist in the COPE Program at Hostos Community College/CUNY and lives in New York. Website: www.passionbeforefear.com
Deborah Pacini Hernandez is Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Tufts University. Her research areas include comparative Latino studies; Latino community studies; ethnic and racial identity in Caribbean and U.S. Latino popular music and culture; and the impact of the globalization on Latin/o popular music. She is the author of Oye Como Va! Hybridity and Identity in Latin/o Popular Music, Temple University Press, 2010 and Bachata: A Social History of a Dominican Popular Music, Temple University Press, 1995. She is also co-editor of Reggaeton (with Raquel Rivera and Wayne Marshall), Duke University Press, 2009, and co-editor of Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America (with Eric Zolov and Hector Fernández L’Hoeste), University of Pittsburgh Press 2004.
Sydney Hutchinson is assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Syracuse University. She is the author of an award-winning book on Mexican American dance and youth culture (From quebradita to duranguense, University of Arizona Press, 2007) and numerous articles on merengue típico, salsa, and ballet folklórico in journals including Ethnomusicology, Journal of American Folklore, Popular Music, and world of music. In addition, she co-produced and wrote liner notes for the Smithsonian Folkways CD La India Canela: Merengue típico from the Dominican Republic. Hutchinson is currently preparing a book on the performance of gender in Dominican music and editing a volume entitled Dancing in place: Global salsa in local contexts, forthcoming from Temple University Press. She has been researching merengue típico in New York and Santiago de los Caballeros since 2001 and also has been known to play típico accordion herself on occasion; she has been a student of Rafaelito Román since 2004.
After spending 10 years as a working musician in Madrid, Spain, Marti Cuevas
moved back to California and in 80s relocated to New York City with two small
children in tow. Her dream was to play saxophone in the Big Apple, working
part time to assuage the instability of a musical career. Marti landed a job with
legendary music attorney, William Krasilovsky; this was her first brush with
the music business. In 1991, Mr. Krasilovsky’s clients, J & N Records, eventually
hired Marti to administrate their nascent company. Marti spent 10 exhausting
years playing gigs on the merengue scene, while working full time for J & N. In
2003, Marti’s company Mayimba Music, Inc. signed on, as administrator for
Premium Latin Music, Inc. Premium is best known for its stellar artist, Aventura.
At present, she is developing her own company, while working with both
Premium and J & N.
With over 20 years of experience in the Latino Music Industry, Andres Salce has
produced tours and concerts for top caliber artists such as, Enrique Iglesias, Ricardo
Montaner, Franco De Vita, Olga Tañon, Alejandro Sanz, Frankie Negron, Elvis Crespo,
Marco Antonio Solís, Ricardo Arjona, Camila, Reik, and Ednita Nazario. He was also
responsible for the production of the, now mythical, sold-out concert of Luis Miguel
in New York’s Madison Square Garden, in 2001, as well as Wisin & Yandel’s “La
Revolucion Tour”. Andres also managed and produced several campaigns and
concert tours for various acclaimed Latin artists such as; Aventura, Los Hermanos
Rosario, Reyli Barba, Jennifer Lopez, Kat De Luna, Tito El Bambino, and Hector
Acosta.
In his beginnings, Salce worked at JN Records, where he collaborated with some of
today’s biggest Latin music exponents and obtained a first-row seat to witness the
birth of the explosive musical genres, Bachata and Reggaetón.
After JN Records, Salce worked as a promotions executive for Latin Capitol EMI,
and for Fonovisa in 1998. By the year 2000, Salce was working for Warner Latin
Music, where he excelled at obtaining a greater mainstream presence for the record
label’s artists. By 2002, Salce returned to EMI Latin Music, where he continued
evolving in the promotions and artistic development areas; however, this time his
responsibilities included a much greater participation, at corporate level, which led
to becoming the head of UBO’s marketing and promotions personnel, and later Sony
Music.
After working at Universal Latin in 2004, Salce decided it was time to put his vast
experience and entrepreneurial spirit into what is now, The Cerro Music Group, his
own company. He now holds the title of Founder and CEO where he implements and
oversees promotional campaigns for Sony BMG, Venemusic, Machete Music, and
various other projects all over the world.
Juan M. Pichardo arrived to the US from Jicome-Santiago, DR in 1975, and lived in NYC
prior to moving to Providence in 1979. On 2003, Pichardo was sworn in as a State
Senator representing the 2nd Senatorial district in the State of R.I.
Pichardo serves as Senate Deputy Majority Leader and as a member of the Senate
Committee on Finance, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Human
Services and Transportation. In addition, Sen. Pichardo also serves as Secretary of the
Health and Human Services Committee.
He holds an A.A. from the Community College of Rhode Island, an A.A.S in Audio Visual
Production Services from the Community College of the Air Force, and has completed
the Air National Guard NCO Academy on 2003. Pichardo joined the 143rd Military
Security Force as a Security Police Specialist.
By co-founding a non-profit organization, Quisqueya In Action, Senator Pichardo
remains extremely active in the community. The organization works to maintain the
Dominican-American cultural relationship and assists and promotes the pursuit of
higher education among young people and families in the city of Providence. Senator
Pichardo also co-founded the RI Latino Political Action Committee, of which he is the
former Vice President.
Senator Pichardo has the distinction of being named the first Latino elected to a R.I.
Senate seat and the first Dominican-American elected to a State Senate seat in the US.
Angel Taveras is Providence's 37th Mayor. An attorney and former Providence Housing Court Judge, Mayor Taveras was elected as the city's first Latino mayor with 82 percent of the vote in November 2010.Mayor Taveras, 40, grew up on the South Side of Providence, where he attended Head Start before entering the Providence Public Schools, and went on to graduate with honors from Harvard University. Before pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer, Mayor Taveras used a fellowship award to create an after-school program and summer day camp at the Elmwood Community Center. After obtaining his law degree from Georgetown University, Mayor Taveras returned to Providence to practice at the prestigious firm of Brown Rudnick LLP.In 2007, Mayor Taveras was appointed by then-Mayor David N. Cicilline to serve as an Associate Judge on the Providence Housing Court and was twice confirmed by the Providence City Council. During his tenure on the court, Mayor Taveras was instrumental in streamlining the interaction between Inspectors and the Housing Court and to improve the code enforcement tracking system.
Ydanis Rodriguez has a long track record of fighting and winning for the community he represents. For more than 20 years he has served his community with honesty, dignity, and integrity. As Council Member he continues to fight for much-needed services for Northern Manhattan, including immigration reform, higher quality education for all children, affordable housing and health care, and a more transparent and efficient government. Ydanis was born in the Dominican Republic and came to Washington Heights when he was 18 years old. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the City College of New York, paying his way working as a taxi-driver. He then went on to obtain his Master’s degree in Bilingual Education at City College. In 1992, Ydanis successfully helped to found Gregorio Luperon High School, a school dedicated to the success of immigrant families, where he became a public high school teacher. Although Ydanis began his activism in the Dominican Republic fighting for a new school in his hometown, Licey Almedio, and continued during his tenure at City College, working to fight against tuition increases and budget cuts through student government, his 14 years of experience teaching refined and strengthened his passion for serving the community.
Council Member Julissa Ferreras is a charismatic, pro-active leader and a
powerful voice advocating for the needs of her community in Queens and for
New York City’s most vulnerable citizens. Elected to the 21st Council District in
2009, she is the first Latina to hold a Queens seat on the New York City Council.
She currently serves as Chair of the Committee on Women’s Issues where she
has raised the profile of that committee, holding hearings on important topics
such as human trafficking, domestic violence, Latina teen suicide, and women
entrepreneurs and small business owners. She is an outspoken advocate on
issues such as economic development, school overcrowding, anti-bullying, and
street harassment. The only child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic,
Council Member Ferreras is committed to the rights of New York’s large and
growing immigrant community.
After receiving 53 percent of the vote, Diaz became the first Dominican-American woman elected to state office in the history of the US, as State Representative. Diaz was appointed to the House Committee on Health, Education, Welfare, and Rules. She was also named to the Permanent Legislative Commission on Child Care. By the end of her first term, Diaz opened a neighborhood office for constituents and community groups and passed a bill to protect the civil rights of all Rhode Islanders by creating the Office of the Civil Rights Advocate in the Department of the Attorney General.Grace serves in the House Committee on Constituent Services and in the House Minority Caucus. Most recently, Diaz was appointed as vice chairwoman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party. She also became a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention and is the first Latina-American to serve in such a high-ranking Democratic Party position. It is Representative Diaz's hope to continue working for social and economic justice.
Dr. Maria Teresa Feliciano currently serves in the National Executive Board as President for the Dominican American National Roundtable. Dr. Feliciano is the Founder and President of The Institute for Latino Studies, Research, and Development, Inc. and Vice president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey and the New Jersey Conference on Dominican Affairs. In addition to her work through The Institute, Maria Teresa works towards this goal by teaching and disseminating information through a weekly radio program (WRVC 1330 AM), a weekend column in The North Jersey Herald & News, and through forums, conferences and workshops. She coordinates The Conference on Dominican Affairs, the most encompassing gathering of Latino leaders and professionals in New Jersey. Maria Teresa’s civic involvement over the past 20 years includes community organizing, educating and coordination of services. Her vast experience training and lecturing, covers the areas of Family Relations, Social Empowerment, Civic Responsibility and Multicultural Issues. She received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Thomas Edison College in Trenton, NJ, two Masters Degrees, one in Public Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and one in Christian Counseling from New Covenant International University.
Ms. Alejandra Castillo is the National Deputy Director of the Minority Business Development Agency
(MBDA). In this role, Ms. Castillo will serve as the principal advisor to the MBDA National Director and will
assist in managing the day-to-day activities of the Agency. Prior to her appointment with MBDA, Ms. Castillo
served as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade
Administration (ITA) where she was responsible for business outreach and development of policy initiatives
geared at trade promotion and enforcement of U.S. trade laws. A practicing attorney for several years, Ms. Castillo has worked in the private, government and non-profit
sector. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Ms. Castillo served as the Interim Executive Director of the
Hispanic National Bar Association headquartered in Washington D.C. During her tenure at HNBA, she was
instrumental in working with the White House as well as non-profit organization, such as the Latinos for a Fair
Judiciary, in support of the nomination and confirmation process to the Supreme Court of Justice Sonia
Sotomayor. A native of New York, Ms. Castillo holds a Bachelor Degree of Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in economics and political science. Ms. Castillo holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from
the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin and has a Juris Doctorate
degree from American University (AU)-Washington College of Law.
Cid Wilson has worked in the financial services industry since 1993. In 2006, Forbes ranked Wilson #1 equity financial analyst for the annual ranking of the Best Wall Street Financial Analysts in the country. He is the Senior Equity Research Analyst for Cabrera Capital Markets LLC in NYC. He serves on the Ethnic Advisory Board for PepsiCo Inc. and the Consumer Advisory Board for Verizon Communications. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Wilson to serve on the National Museum of the American Latino Commission with the mission of presenting a plan to the President and Congress on the proposed creation and construction of a new Smithsonian Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC that would be dedicated to the 500 years of history of Latinos in U.S. Wilson serves on the boards of directors of Latino Justice PRLDEF since 2005, the National Council of La Raza since 2008, and Dominicans On Wall Street since its founding. He is a “Gold Life Member” of the NAACP. As a national Dominican Afro-Latino activist, he is a regular speaker at national conferences around the U.S. discussing issues that impact Latinos of African ancestry. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University. He is a lifelong resident of Bergen County, NJ having attended both public schools and Catholic school in Bergen County.
Sergio's interests lie in creating, growing, and developing innovations to revolutionize education. He is co-founding a national network called USAdelante to provide a support network for students in college and prepare the next generation of Latino leaders. Sergio graduated from Northeastern University's College of Engineering in 2007. He participated in the co-op program working in manufacturing at Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble. After graduation he was a supply chain associate in a Gatorade manufacturing facility, a consultant in Deloitte's Strategy & Operations group, and most recently an Education Pioneers Fellow in Teach For America's Strategy and Innovation group. Currently he is a candidate in the Masters of Public Policy and Masters of Business
Administration program at Harvard University.
For over three years, Yahaira M. Núñez has worked at Seedco with their Community
Entrepreneurship program. Seedco manages a New York City government contract that
offers a set of no cost services designed to help start, operate and expand small businesses
in New York City. In 2009, she became the founding staff member to the newly
established Washington Heights Center and, through her successful work, was promoted
to Senior Account Manager in 2011. Ms. Núñez provides personalized coaching to
entrepreneurs in order to identify and develop customized strategies to meet their goals.
Ms. Núñez has more than a decade of experience in the non-profit sector beginning
with her co-op experience at Harvard Medical School where she spent four years
managing grants and research for Boston’s Latino community. As Income Development
Coordinator for the American Cancer Society’s Brooklyn office, she helped coordinate
three major fundraising events that raised $200,000.
Ms. Nunez is currently pursuing her MPA at CUNY Baruch College and received her
B.A. in International Affairs and Political Science in 2005 from Northeastern University.
Ms. Núñez was awarded the La Comunidad Latina en Acción (LaCLA) scholarship in
which recipients volunteer with the Boston Latino community. A Brooklyn native and
daughter of immigrants, Ms. Núñez is proud of her Dominican heritage.
Kelvin Quezada is an Associate in the Investment Banking division of Barclays Capital. He focuses on working with Senior Bankers to advise private equity firms with key strategic issues involving their portfolios of companies and acquisitions. During his time at Barclays, Kelvin has begun to develop a focus on leverage finance. Prior to working at Barclays, Kelvin held a similar role at Lehman Brothers.
Kelvin is a 2008 graduate of Dartmouth College with a Major in Economics and Latin American studies. At Dartmouth, Kelvin was the president of La Alianza Latina and founded a Business club focused on increasing the number of Latinos in the Business and Investment Banking industries. Before Dartmouth, Kelvin attended Manhattan Center in New York City, where he emigrated from Santiago, Dominican Republic.
As a Barclays employee and a Dartmouth alum, Kelvin has focused on increasing the amount of Latinos, Dominicans specifically, that attend college and work in the corporate world, through dedicated recruiting and mentoring efforts. At Barclays, Kelvin is one of a number of dedicated mentors who focuses on the continued success on the Latino recruiting process at the firm.
Dr. José Itzigsohn is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Brown University.
Itzigsohn received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1995. His scholarship
focuses on two areas. The first is identity and group formation, with a focus on
processes of racialization, and ethnic and nation formation. His second area of interest
is the political economy of inequality. He is the author of "Developing Poverty" (Penn
State, 2000). This book compares the formation of the informal economy in Costa
Rica and the Dominican Republic and analyzes how different state policies affect the
structure of the labor market and policies. He has also published numerous journal
articles and book chapters on racial identity formation and the emergence of pan-
ethnicity among first- and second-generation immigrants from Latin America and
the Caribbean, and on the transnational aspects of immigrant lives. He has won
the Distinguished Contribution to Research – Best Book award from the Latino/
a Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, for his 2009 book
Encountering American Faultlines: Race, Class, and the Dominican Experience in
Providence.
Almeida Jacqueline Toribio (Ph.D., Cornell University 1993) is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas. Her scholarly interests reside at the intersection of linguistics and the sociology of language. Her research itinerary in linguistics examines the ways in which the structural facts of contact and rural varieties of Spanish can be brought to bear on issues central to linguistic theorizing, which has proceeded largely by reference to the language knowledge and use of highly literate, monolingual individuals. Of interest are the phonological, morpho-syntactic, and discursive forms that emerge among monolinguals and bilinguals in the absence of literacy and other normative pressures. A second, related line of research in sociology of language is founded on her abiding concern with the contributions of specific language behaviors, attitudes, and dispositions to the understanding of the configurations of communities and societies in which speakers find themselves. Of particular relevance are the ideologies surrounding language maintenance and identity formation in contexts of cultural contact, as in the case of speakers of Spanish language heritage in the United States and persons residing at the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. She has co-edited, with Barbara Bullock, The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching and a special issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition devoted to bilingual convergence and she has edited a special issue of Lingua highlighting syntactic-theoretical perspectives on code-switching. Her research has been presented in notable journals, including Linguistic Inquiry, Lingua, Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, International Journal of Bilingualism, Spanish in Context, Linguistics, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Probus, and Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana.
Barbara E. Bullock (Ph.D. 1991 University of Delaware) is Professor of French Linguistics and Advisor for the Graduate Program in French Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in the structural properties of the Romance languages in the American diaspora. She is particularly interested in situating linguistic change in its ecological context, examining the productions and perceptions of immigrant, heritage and borderland speakers who have been isolated from the standardizing norms of literacy and education. Her field and laboratory work includes research on French in the U.S., language contact in Hispaniola, and Spanish-English bilingualism in the US. She is the co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching and of Formal Aspects of Romance Linguistics and is the author of numerous articles on phonology, bilingualism, language contact, and language change that appear in important journals and compendia, among these, The French Review, The Journal of French Language Studies, Lingua, Probus, Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, International Journal of Bilingualism, and Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana , Rivista di Linguistica, Cahiers Linguistiques d’Ottawa. She serves as Assistant Editor for The French Review and is an active participant in other professional forums that inform her work, including the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, the International Symposium on Bilingualism, the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, and the Linguistic Society of America. Her teaching portfolio includes undergraduate courses and graduate seminars in general and French linguistics, including Introduction to Language, History of French, Romance Phonology, Bilingualism, and Language Contact.
Diógenes Abréu was born in Miches, Dominican Republic. He has studied art at the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo, SUNY, and earned his MFA from City College. In addition to being an artist, Abréu is also a writer and photographer. He has published the following poetry books: POEMS FOR THE LIVING, 1983; and FOR WOMEN WITHOUT MAKE-UP, 1985. Some of his short stories and poems have been published in English, Japanese, and Spanish in compilations and anthologies. His artwork has been exhibited in national as well as international galleries and museums, like the Museum of Modern Art in the Dominican Republic, The New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York, the Queens Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo, Japan. Abréu also worked in theater for more than eight years in his native country and in New York City. In 1998 he won the first prize in the V Short Stories Contest organized by Radio Santa María in the República Dominicana. He was a founding member of Palabra: Expresión Cultural (PEC), a writers’ group dedicated to the development and promotion of Dominican culture in the US. In 2004 he published his book PEREJIL, el ocaso de la “hispanidad” dominicana, a book about Dominican culture and identity viewed from the perspective of the Dominican immigration experience. In 2005, he publisher A PESAR DEL NAUFRAGIO, violencia doméstica y el ejercicio del poder, a book about domestic violence that includes the testimonies of two Dominican women from Washington Heights. His more recent book, released in 2007, is called Engañifas, discurso y práctica social, a critical analysis of the intellectual discourse and social actions of several prominent Dominican personalities.
He is currently a founding member of the Dominican-American Visual Artists Collective (CAVDA) in New York.
