Latinx Community Engagement at Pitt: Innovation, Research and Service across Allegheny County

1:45pm-3:15pm

Primary Facilitator: Dr. Belkys Torres

Session Type: Panel Discussion

Topic: Education through the Lifespan

Description

This panel will feature research, teaching, service and community engagement advanced by Pitt faculty, staff and alumni in service of local Latinx populations. We will discuss the impactful research led by Pitt’s Director of Latinx Research and Outreach; follow how the Innovation Institute supports immigrant/international entrepreneurs who are newcomers to the Pittsburgh region and want to open their own businesses; and learn how a Pitt alum founded and oversees the Latino Community Center to serve Latinx children through education and family services. We will call the audience to action and offer opportunities to engaging with these organizations and the communities they serve.

Facilitator

Dr. Belkys Torres

Executive Director of Global Engagement
University Center for International Studies (UCIS)

btorres@pitt.edu

Belkys Torres is executive director of global engagement at the University Center for International Studies. As a leading member of a team that works to achieve the University of Pittsburgh's global ambitions, she is a primary liaison for administrators, faculty, and staff on international partnerships, education abroad programs, community engagement, international student services, and global operations support. Her responsibilities include: advancing and assessing global learning; improving processes and procedures related to international partnership agreements; and leading the implementation of key initiatives in Pitt’s strategic and global plans. Torres co-chaired the University’s Year of Pitt Global committee (AY 2018-2019) and continues to serve Pitt’s Community Engagement Centers Advisory Council and executive board of the Hispanic/Latino Professional Association. She holds a PhD in English with a specialization in Latinx Cultural Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Notre Dame and has years of experience coordinating academic initiatives at that institution and directing programs for the University of Miami.

Panelists

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Dr. Lina Dostilio
Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement

Dr. Lina Dostilio joined the Office of Community and Governmental Relations in 2017 as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement.
In her role as Associate Vice Chancellor, she supports the University’s community-facing work including community relations, cultivating strategic opportunities to advance Pitt’s community engagement agenda, and implementing the University’s place-based community engagement initiative through the development of neighborhood-based community engagement centers.
Dostilio is an associate professor of practice in the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy in the School of Education and is also a Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities Research Fellow. In this role, she convenes institutions of higher education from across the country that are implementing hyperlocal, place-based forms of community engagement.
Previously, she was the Scholar in Residence directing the Campus Compact’s Project on the Community Engagement Professional, a national research project staffed by 19 research fellows across the country that has produced The Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education: A Competency Model for an Emerging Field (Stylus Publishing, 2017) and The Community Engagement Professional Guidebook (Stylus Publishing, 2019).
She has served as a past-chair of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement and is on the editorial board of the Metropolitan Universities. Her research as a scholar-administrator has focused on multi-sector partnership development, place-based community engagement, and the evolution of the community engagement profession within higher education.

Brent Rondon

SBDC Sr. International Trade Management Consultant

Brent G. Rondon is currently the Senior Management Consultant for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, Innovation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. In that capacity he consults with export-import clients who want to engage in international trade as well as immigrant/international entrepreneurs who are newcomers to the Pittsburgh region and want to open their own businesses.

Previously, he was the Manager of the Global Business Program at the Duquesne University SBDC. Brent managed export projects to assist U.S. equipment manufacturers to enter Latin American countries of U.S.-Made equipment. He has traveled extensively and led trade missions to countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, China, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil.

He received a Master’s Degree of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and a Graduate Certificate in Latin American Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. His undergraduate studies were in Lima, Peru, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture Engineering from the La Molina National University. He is a Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) from NASBITE International, on the board of Global Pittsburgh, Mayor Peduto’s Welcoming Pittsburgh initiative, the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sister Cities International, NASBITE International and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Diverse Communities Group. He is fluent in Spanish and intermediate Portuguese.

Rosamaria Cristello

Founder & Executive Director

Rosamaria Cristello is the Founder and Executive Director of the Latino Community Center (LCC) in Pittsburgh, PA. The Latino Community Center Empowers, Advocates with, and Celebrates Latinos in Allegheny County. Before launching the Latino Community Center, Rosamaria was the Site Director of the Latino Family Center, which is 1 of 28 Family Support Centers in Allegheny County focused on families with young children. In 2020, the Latino Community Center became the Fiscal Agent for the Latino Family Center, bringing these services together.

Rosamaria serves on several Boards and Advisory Boards. Most recently she was nominated and accepted as a Board Member of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. She is also currently serving as a Board Member of the Women and Girls Foundation and an Advisor to the Office of Child Development under the University of Pittsburgh, the Immigrants & the Internationals Advisory Council for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Rosamaria has served on the Mayor’s Welcoming Pittsburgh Steering Committee, the Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census, the Allegheny County Children’s Fund Working group, the All for All Steering Committee, and the Squirrel Hill Health Center Board of Directors.

Rosamaria was named one of Pittsburgh’s 40 Under 40 in 2016 and was the first recipient of the Barbara McNeese Spirit of Athena Award which provides free tuition to the CMU Women’s Leadership and Negotiation Academy. In 2017, Rosamaria received the Social Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement award by Global Pittsburgh, and in 2018 Rosamaria was named as a Who’s Next in Education. In 2019, the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers presented Rosamaria with the Hispanic Leadership Award. Most recently in 2020, Rosamaria was named as a Women of Excellence by Cribs for Kids and she was selected as a Woman of Influence by the Pittsburgh Business Times.

Rosamaria received her bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Regional Planning and Geographic Information Systems from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and her master’s degree in Public Administration through the Graduate School of Public & Internationals Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Originally from Guatemala, Rosamaria grew up in Arlington, Virginia as an undocumented child. She became the first from her family to attend college. Rosamaria now resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband David and her son James.

Patricia I Documet, MD, DrPH

Associate Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program, Behavioral and Community Health Sciences
pdocumet@pitt.edu

My focus is on the influence of social relationships on health among disempowered minorities, especially Latinx. My ultimate goals are 1) to increase health equity by using social network and participatory theories to train researchers and practitioners, especially those from disadvantaged groups, and 2) to empower communities. The research I conduct contributes to scientific development, and also enriches my in-class instruction. Over time, my studies have become increasingly participatory, enabling me to involve students in data collection and analysis as well as in collaborative design. Three years ago, I started the Emerging Latinx Communities Reading and Publishing Group. Faculty, students, community, and staff get together monthly to discuss articles on areas like Pittsburgh, were there are relatively few Latinos but the numbers are increasing rapidly. At this time, we have prepared a protocol for a systematic literature review.

Most of my current work involves peer support or community health workers (CHW). For eleven years I have been associated with the Latino Engagement Group for Salud (LEGS), a coalition comprised of community members and organizations working with Latinx, focused on community-based participatory initiatives. Together, we have completed an assessment of the health of Latino immigrant men and have implemented a male promotores (CHW) network in Pittsburgh. Trained promotores have assisted participants in building community connections and obtain health services. Our team continues working with the LEGS in new initiatives. In the same vein, I am collaborating with faculty across campus in implementing a CHW intervention to prevent obesity among Latinx children. In another study, Raices, I teamed up with faculty of the School of Education to use quasi experimental methods to test a community health worker initiative for Latinx. Recently, I explored the stressors Latinx youth face in an emerging community and subsequently tested remote "face-to-face" support groups for adolescents, "Cuenta Conmigo." At this point, I am conducitng community engaged research with a youth group to co-create the modified "Cuenta Conmigo." My research interests include social relationships, cancer, breastfeeding, racial and ethnic disparities, evaluation, and global health.