Board Secretary, Refugee & Immigrant Center for Empowerment (RICE)

Rosalind Rivera’s passion has been working with refugees all over the world. She started volunteering her time teaching English to refugees from all over the world in 1998. As a grant writer, Rosalind has written numerous Federal grants to secure funding for the Iraqi Association in Arizona (IAA).  While working at the City of Phoenix Municipal Courts, she volunteered her time at the Center.  From 2003 to 2006, Rosalind worked as the Director of the IAA continuing its mission with funding from grants from Catholic Charities, Glendale Elementary and Nina Pulliam Foundation. Rosalind assisted in hiring staff and creating Management and Operations Resources to open the Iraqi American Society for Peace and Friendship with funds from the ORR. In 2017, she helped implement a new organization created by community leaders from multiple countries called Refugees and Immigrants Community for Empowerment (RICE). Rosalind serves on the board of RICE and in her role as the board secretary, she has been working with the graduate students from School of Social Work, Office of Global Social Work on several community-based projects.