Rita is a certified leadership coach, conflict mediator, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)
practitioner and facilitator who guides organizations and their leaders to foster positive and
sustainable systemic change. Her work allows clients to strengthen employee and client
experience, amplify social impact, and create cultures of learning and innovation that
promote accessibility, equity and inclusion for all. Inspired by her belief in the infinite power
of human relationships and her mission to put the tools of collective emotional intelligence
and cross-cultural collaboration and inclusive leadership into the hands of as many people
as possible, she has spent the last 15 years immersed in the study and practice of anti-
racism, LGBTQ+ liberation, conflict transformation and liberatory and embodied healing
work.
Rita draws from her lived experiences as a daughter of raised poor and working class
immigrants, as a queer woman, and as a first-generation professional to inform her work in
the field of equity, diversity and inclusion.
Her specialties include leveraging EDI to strengthen cross-cultural and cross-functional
collaboration, mobilizing buy-in for change across all leadership levels, coaching leaders to
grow and implement inclusive management practices, growing team’s ability to navigate
conflict and guiding them through the process of transforming their cultures. She is
passionate about group facilitation and learning and rooting out bias to leverage practices
and systems that enhance equity and success for all. During her spare time, Rita spends
her time singing in a Motown band, Latin dancing, nurturing her friendships, engaging in
community healing and learning projects, swimming in lakes and oceans, and cuddling her
elderly pug, Pogo.
