Teaming Small Hispanic Businesses with Students in a Website Contest
ORGANIZERS
Founder and CEO of RI Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Oscar Mejias, migrated to USA in 2003. Since he arrived, Oscar has been working in Business, Education & Technology. He is a recognized business and civic leader, whose involvement with the Latino community in the last 15 years give him a well obtained reputation of dedication and leadership. Chairman of the Emerging Markets Committee in the Annual Economic Summit (SBA-2015), Member of the group RI COMMODORES, appointed by the Governor. Member of the International Economic Ambassador of the RI LT Governor’s office, Executive Board member of the National Association of State Latino Chambers of Commerce and member of several Diversity & Inclusion committees.
Oscar Mejias
Avi Nevel
Founder, Director, President and
CEO of the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative
Avi Nevel is an entrepreneurial senior executive with more than 35 years of broad international business experience. He is skilled in strategic planning, business origination, management and expansion, and international sales and marketing. Mr. Nevel currently serves as President and CEO of Nevel International, a Providence-based international consulting firm, which he founded in 2006. In 2017, formed the Rhode Island-Israel Collaborative (RIIC) a not-for-profit chamber of commerce where he serves as President and CEO.
Martha Perez-Barton
RIHCC
As a Program Manager at the RI Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Martha has helped provide support to the Executive Director and lead a team that helped save Hispanic businesses that struggled with the global pandemic. She graduated in international business and European business from Guanajuato University in Mexico with a double degree from Excelia Business School in France which makes her fluent in Spanish, French and English.
Martha’s professional experience at the Portugal Embassy in Mexico City and the Chamber of Commerce in Guanajuato, Mexico helped her obtain expertise in global business operations.
Eli Levin immigrated to Brookline Massachusetts in 2020 with his wife and two kids from Tel-Aviv, Israel. Eli is currently the Director of Innovation and Economic Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel to New England in Boston. Prior to his career, Eli served in the Israeli army as part of the "8200" intelligence unit.
Eli earned in Israel a Bachelor Degree of Laws from Bar-Ilan University and during this time was involved in the "HIDAVRUT" Program - A dialog and open debate between secular and religious students. Later on, Eli graduated Masters's Degree in Political Science from Tel-Aviv University focusing on the European Union institutions and policy.
Eli is also a certified attorney and speaks Hebrew, English, Arabic, and German. Later on, Eli worked in the banking industry in Israel and gained professional experience in working with private and business customers alike.
Eli Levin
Eli Levin
Miriam A. Ross, Esq.
Miriam A. Ross, Esq. is a business attorney, business advocate and community leader with extensive experience in industry, business law and compliance. Miriam is the recipient of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2012 Women in Business, Champion of the Year for New England and Rhode Island. She is also an Achievement Honoree, 2012 Business Women Awards sponsored by Providence Business News. Miriam was voted Second Place for the best attorneys in the State of Rhode Island in the 2017 Providence Journal’s Reader’s Choice Awards and she has been nominated again for 2018 awards.
Veronica Baron
RIHCC
Veronica Baron was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island and attended the Lincoln School in Providence, kindergarten through grade 12. She graduated Cum Laude from Stonehill College with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies focused in Marketing and Graphic Design. During her junior year she studied abroad at the University of Salamanca in Spain and was enrolled in the International Marketing program.
She earned a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing Communications in 2020 from Stonehill College. She has over 5 years experience in marketing snd demonstrated success in various aspects of product development and management. She has extensive experience in global launches, strategic partnerships, and innovation strategies aimed at increasing brand awareness and sales.
Ana Cecilia Iraheta
Ana Cecilia Iraheta is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Providence College. She earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Among her research interest are dialectal variation and intonation of the Spanish of Central America, heritage learners, and bilingualism.
She is originally from El Salvador. In the past twenty years, however, she has lived in California, Minnesota, and now Rhode Island. This has helped her to learn about and appreciate the value of linguistic diversity. One of her main goals as an educator is to connect her students with the real world in meaningful ways. Specifically, she aims at putting to work the linguistic abilities of bilingual Hispanic/Latinxs students in service-learning projects that would benefit their own communities.