Rita has over 25 years of local and global nonprofit sector experience and in her ninth year at Maverick Landing Community Services (MLCS) where she managed MLCS through the pandemic, pivoting to distributing 50,000 lbs of food per month to East Boston and working with the Boston Housing Support Coalition and Northeastern University Law School to pilot the first housing support station in East Boston. She was recognized for her work in 2020 with a Boston Community Champion award from the city of Boston. Prior to coming to MLCS she served as Director of Philanthropic Partnerships for Corporate Accountability International, an advocacy organization that safeguards human rights and the environment. Locally, she has worked with several Boston organizations serving Latinx communities such as La Alianza Hispana and Sociedad Latina. Rita has an Ed.M. in Human Development & Psychology with a concentration in Risk and Prevention from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from Tufts University. She is also currently working on a Masters in Clinical Social Work at the Boston Unviersity School of Social Work.