The Rhode Island Latino Professional Business Network (RILPBN) congratulates Dr. Arelis Valerio founder of the Rhode Island Professionals Latino Association, and the first Latina asthma educator in Rhode Island for her Honorees Profiled in “Business Woman” award bestow her by the Providence Business News, an initiative to recognize outstanding women in the Rhode Island business community.
She knows firsthand the frustration immigrants feel when they move to the United States with professional degrees and years of experience, only to find themselves working in factories, cleaning houses or driving trucks. She practiced medicine for 20 years in her native Dominican Republic before moving to Providence in 1997.
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Valerio worked for the U.S. Postal Service when she arrived, more worried about paying the rent than about getting back into her field. She now coordinates community asthma programs at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
Valerio said she was able to find her own way through the system, but she wanted to help others find their way more easily. So, she started the Rhode Island. Association of Latino Professionals (RIPLA) with partner Antonio Aquino back in 2006.
The group’s mission is to provide information to professionals from other countries that want to acquire a license or qualifications to work in their field in the United States.
In 2008, the association also partnered with Dorcas Place Adult & Family Learning Center Inc. in Providence to launch the Rhode Island Welcome Back Center, aimed at helping those health care professionals who hold credentials from outside the United States to get certified and licensed in Rhode Island.
Valerio will be honor along with many other distinguished businesswomen at the third annual Business Women Awards program, to be held Thursday, May 20.
About RILPBLN
The Rhode Island Latino Professionals and Business Leaders Network is comprised of Latino businesses and Latino employees of large organizations, non-profits and governmental departments. The mission of RILPBLN is to incubate personal, professional and commercial relationships among Latinos and the general community or Rhode Island.
The group meets on the second Friday of every month to network and host, from time to time, various speakers.
