About Us

Board Members

Domingo Morel

Domingo Morel is a doctoral student in the Political Science Department at Brown University. His research interests are in American Politics and Political Theory with a focus on African American and Latino politics. Prior to entering Brown, Domingo worked in higher education for eleven years, where he dedicated his professional career to the educational advancement of students of color and other under-represented groups. From 1998 to 2002, he worked as an Admissions Officer at Rhode Island College, where he coordinated admissions programs for students of color and disadvantaged backgrounds. In 2002, he joined the staff of the Talent Development Program at the University of Rhode Island as an Academic Advisor, where he worked until 2009.

Domingo is also actively involved in a number of community-based organizations throughout the state of Rhode Island. In addition to helping establish the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University, he is president of the Latino Dollars for Scholars Foundation of Rhode Island, member of the United Way of Rhode Island’s Community Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of Progreso Latino. He is the former president of the Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee and the Rhode Island Latino Civic Fund.

Jorge Elorza

The son of Guatemalan immigrants, Jorge was born and raised in Providence, RI. He is a product of the Providence Public School system from Head Start through High School. He is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island where he graduated first in his accounting class. After college, Jorge practiced as an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in New York City. After a brief stint as an auditor, Jorge enrolled and graduated from Harvard Law School.

Since graduating from law school, Jorge has been an advocate for affordable housing. As a staff attorney for Rhode Island Legal Services, he represented a wide range of clients in their quest to obtain fair and decent living accommodations. Jorge has litigated housing cases in federal and state courts, including the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Currently, Jorge is a Professor of Law at the Roger Williams University School of Law. He teaches Housing Law and Policy, Equal Protection and Civil Rights, and Property Law. His research and scholarship focuses on urban poverty and housing dynamics.

Pablo Rodriguez-Masjoan

Pablo Rodriguez-Masjoan has seventeen years of experience in the advertising and marketing industry, working in all aspects of the creative side. Raised in Argentina, he graduated from the University of Cordoba Argentina with a degree in Advertising and Marketing. He moved to the United States in 2001, where he worked to develop and evaluate communication campaigns in an effort to reach culturally and linguistically diverse communities in New England.

He particularly enjoys the challenge of generating a message that is linguistic and culturally adapted. Pablo has had experience working on a number of marketing and creative campaigns in United States and South America. Pablo is now the Art Director for Advertising Ventures Inc. one of the top advertising agencies in Rhode Island.

Pablo is responsible for overseeing the creation of design, layout, and interactive media for clients in Advertising Ventures’ Health, Wealth and Leadership SME group, such as CVS/pharmacy, Renaissance Hotel, Down town Providence (Providence Foundation), Johnson & Wales University, RI Department of Elderly Affairs Medicare Part D. He also provides support for the growing multicultural marketing department by offering design and adaptation in Spanish and Portuguese.

Adriana I. Dawson

Adriana I. Dawson is the Associate State Director for the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center at Johnson & Wales University. Ms. Dawson is responsible the oversight of 4 regional satellite offices, statewide strategic planning and implementation of the RISBDC service delivery model which provides capacity building resources to the small business community.

Ms. Dawson joined the RISBDC in August of 2002 and shortly thereafter implemented a very successful Latino Business Initiative which to date has provided technical assistance to over 700 Spanish speaking entrepreneurs and training programs to over 1800 attendees. The Initiative also resulted in the state’s first Latino Business Expo held in October 2003.

Prior to her joining the RISBDC family, Ms. Dawson served as Deputy Director of the Affirmative Market Program for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a program designed to increase the utilization of minority- and women-owned businesses on statewide contracts. During her three (3) years with the Affirmative Market Program she helped increase M/WBE statewide spending by over $185M from $177M to $362M.

Ms. Dawson holds a B.A. from Northeastern University in Communication Studies and an M.A. from Emerson College in Management Communications. She is lives in Providence with her husband and daughter.

Dulari Tahbildar

Dulari is a graduate of Brown University with a B.A. in Public Policy and Urban Studies and a graduate of MIT with a Master's in City Planning. Her work is centered on educational equity and social justice, particularly in low-income communities of color. She has worked in education and youth development organizations in large cities including The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, City Year National Headquarters, the Urban Institute, and the Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science. She has earned certificates at Columbia Business School's Institute for Non-Profit Management and Hunter College's Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, plus she participated in a doctoral research practicum on community organizing for school reform at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Dulari is a 2009 recipient of the Providence Business News’ 40 Under 40 award.

Besenia Rodriguez

Besenia Rodriguez, Ph.D. is an associate dean of the College at Brown University. As a scholar, administrator, and educator, Dr. Rodriguez's work has focused on anti-racist social movements, educational equity, and the political and cultural history of black Latin America. Her work has been published in Radical History Review, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Culture, Politics and Society, and the anthology Transnational Blackness: Navigating the Global Color Line.

Dr. Rodriguez has previously worked at Pepperdine University, Queens College-CUNY, Yale University, and for the Human Rights Research Fund and Fundación Amistad, two non-profit organizations based in New Haven and New York, respectively. She earned a B.A in African American Studies and Education from Brown University and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in African American and American Studies from Yale University.