Carmen Díaz-Jusino was appointed strategic initiative officer for economic security at the Rhode Island Foundation on April 17. Beginning in 2006, she worked at the Center for Women & Enterprise in a variety of roles, including senior director of programs and service delivery overseeing CWE programming across New England.
Before her work for CWE, Díaz-Jusino served as a bilingual business and employment specialist for Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island. A Providence resident, Díaz-Jusino holds degrees from the Universidad del Caribe in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Springfield College in Springfield, Mass.
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PBN: In April, you were named a strategic initiative officer for economic security at the Rhode Island Foundation. What business-development job-training experience do you bring to this role?
DÍAZ-JUSINO: I bring to this position a diverse array of professional experience as an educator, community resources representative, bilingual business and job developer, counselor for teenagers, Spanish interpreter and manager that will help me in this role. However, as the former senior director of programs and services delivery of the Center for Women & Enterprise, I helped women and men start and grow their businesses. We offered a wide range of training, technical assistance, one-on-one consulting and networking opportunities to support entrepreneurs at every stage in the business-development process. Furthermore, I am an entrepreneur myself, having started a learning center in my home country, the Dominican Republic.
PBN: In her remarks announcing your hire, Jessica David, the foundation’s executive vice president of strategy and community investments, said you “understand the role of philanthropy in sparking community change.” How do you hope to light that spark?
DÍAZ-JUSINO: Philanthropy can catalyze or pilot an idea, take risks and prove a theory that can then be sustained and grown beyond the initial investment. I hope that I can bridge communication and collaboration among stakeholders to engender a hands-on attitude that will lead to community change now and into the future.
PBN: What are your goals for strengthening the foundation’s ties to the business community?
DÍAZ-JUSINO: We understand the value and importance of small businesses. Our role is to help them grow by building a strong ecosystem of supports. The foundation has already spearheaded research into what the Rhode Island business community perceives is working in the state and what needs to be done to help improve the business environment. One of my goals is to create a more robust menu of opportunities for the foundation and the business community to partner in finding solutions to the challenges that limit their growth and success in the local and international markets.
PBN: You previously served as bilingual business-development and training specialist at the Center for Women and Enterprise, speaking English and Spanish. How do you think that fluency will help you attain your goals for this position?
DÍAZ-JUSINO: I bring to the table a broader understanding of the diversity that makes up the business sector, what are the challenges that impact their abilities to grow and the strengths that can lead to a beneficial collaboration across the different types of business in Rhode Island.
PBN: Over the years, Rhode Island has been known as a philanthropically unfriendly state. How would you characterize philanthropic behaviors among Rhode Islanders today?
DÍAZ-JUSINO: I think that Rhode Islanders are taking the responsibility of changing the paradigm of our state in their own hands. Those who have the financial resources are willing to help fill in the gaps and help to move our state forward. Rhode Islanders are changing their behaviors and getting more involved in finding solutions to address today’s challenges and to create lasting improvements in our community.
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.
