Training language instructors from multiple cultures while studying applied psycholinguistics in Mexico City sparked Mike's lifelong interests in human behavior and communication.

Over 25 years, Mike served as a Tri-lingual interrogator in the U.S. Army, established his first company by the age of 25, motivated people to excel at his fitness Boot Camps, and served as a Regional Manager for an international healthcare company based in the United Arab Emirates. A former on-call interrogation analyst for CNN, Mike has been interviewed hundreds of times for TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. He participated in nine documentaries in the past 15 years; "Songs of War" won an International Emmy.

Under Mike's leadership for the past 11 years, Leadership Rhode Island has received numerous accolades, including the Excellence in Public Service Award by Common Cause RI, two National Innovation Awards from the Association of Leadership Programs and three Community Outreach Awards from the RI Press Association for public forums in partnership with The Providence Journal and Rhode Island College. LRI’s innovative Make RI Stronger social enterprise is recognized by Gallup as an inspiration for the global strengths movement.

On the heels of serving as the Rhode Island Chairman for the Department of Defense Employer Support of the Guard & Reserve since 2012, Mike spearheaded the national transformation from an executive strategic subcommittee to ESGR's first board of directors since its inception in 1972. He was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service before being recruited to serve as President of the board of FORGE, a national nonprofit focused on decreasing veteran suicides through The Overwatch Project.

Mike is a board member for the Association of Leadership Programs and co-creator of the National Leadership Network, representing 700,000+ community leadership program alumni across the country. @MikeRitz

Michelle Carr serves as Deputy Director at Leadership Rhode Island where she oversees programs, trainings and strategic initiatives; develops thought leadership and operational strategy; and stewards human capital and impact measurement.

A Cuban-American, and the first in her family to go to college, Michelle has spent her career creating environments where individuals step beyond their comfort zones, find common ground, and grow personally, professionally and as engaged community members. She was recruited to Leadership Rhode Island’s staff as the Director of Programs while a member of the 2014 Kappa II class and promoted to Deputy Director in July 2016.
As a Community Faculty Member at Providence College in the Global Studies Department and Feinstein Center for Community and Public Service, Michelle has connected students to the Rhode Island community through service learning and participatory action-based senior theses. Her teaching has focused on strengths-based leadership, career readiness, public service, civic engagement, and global citizenship. Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and Business Studies certificate from Providence College.
Previous to Leadership Rhode Island, Michelle served as Director of Community Relations at Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island where she led state policy change and cross-cultural competency trainings. She founded Welcoming Rhode Island, a recipient of the Metcalf Award for Diversity in the Media and local affiliate of Welcoming America. Her initiatives were highlighted nationally in 2014 and she was invited to share best practices at the White House for the first National Convening on Immigrant and Refugee Integration.
Michelle has been entrusted with scholarship selection, board and career recruitment, and leadership program oversight in several volunteer roles with organizations such as RI Latino Arts, Coalition of Advocates for Student Opportunities, New Leaders Council of RI, Latino Dollars for Scholars, the Juanita Sanchez Community Fund, RI Commerce Corporation Latino Entrepreneurs, and the RI Association of Former Legislators Scholarship Fund. Michelle currently serves as a Community Advisory Board member for United Way of Rhode Island. In 2018 she was awarded the Providence Business News 40 under Forty Award, recognizing forty men and women, under the age of 40, who are successful in their careers and involved in their communities. @MichelleDCarr

A native Rhode Islander with an unabashed love for her tiny home state, Kristin has an MA in Art History, a strong background in hospitality, non-profit event management and program development.
Kristin is the Director of Programs at Leadership Rhode Island, overseeing the curriculum development and implementation of LRI’s Core and College Programs. Prior to joining the Leadership Rhode Island team in 2017, Kristin was at Johnson & Wales University, where she worked in the department of Providence Campus Events executing high-level events for the administration, board members and executives. Previous to this role, as the event and program coordinator at the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University, she worked to grow the presence of the museum in the community through hands-on public programming, social media outreach, and student-centered events.
Kristin currently participates in Commissioner Infante-Green’s Rhode Island Parent Advisory Committee and is a parent volunteer for her kids’ Girl Scout troops. She has also volunteered as City Manager for the PVD Lady Project, and has served on the board of the Exeter-West Greenwich PTA, the district in which her two girls attend school. In her spare time, you’ll likely find her on the beach, or running the streets, training for her next road race. In 2017, Kristin completed her sixth marathon in New York City, as a part of the Boston Children’s Hospital charity team. In 2020, Kristin was a recipient of Providence Business News’ 40 under 40 award. @kmzpuleo

Teresa DeFlitch has decades of experience in experiential learning, project and program management, and training. A leader in education innovation, she began her career in museums and public history. She oversaw national outreach for a history education project funded by the U.S. Department of Education, trained thousands of Congressional staffers for the Architect of the Capitol, and led the development of Winchester Thurston School’s nationally recognized City as Our Campus program. She has consulted with several organizations on projects that explore new boundaries in teaching and learning, including the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, and the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. Most recently, as Director of People and Education, she led the development of a people-centered HR strategy for the James Beard-nominated Pittsburgh Distilling Company (Wigle Whiskey and Threadbare Cider) while leading special projects, including the launch of a new spirits tourism trail across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, DC. She holds a BA in History from Saint Vincent College and an MA in History from the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Originally from Pittsburgh, Teresa fell in love with Rhode Island as a Buchanan-Burnham intern at the Newport Historical Society, knowing that one day she would call the Ocean State home. She lives in Barrington with her husband, Rick, and son, Silas.

A graduate of Providence College, Abby was excited to return to Rhode Island as part of the LRI team in January, 2020. As Training Administrator, she oversees LRI’s consulting and training social enterprise, including the Make Rhode Island Stronger initiative to bring strengths-based development to organizations statewide. Prior to joining LRI, Abby completed an M.B.A. degree in nonprofit management at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Abby brings experience in domestic and international education programming and nonprofit management. From 2016-2018, she worked as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, where she collaborated with a team of public school educators to implement best practices for teaching English. As part of this work, Abby designed and led professional development sessions for Ecuadorian educators citywide and delivered pre-service training sessions to newly arrived Peace Corps Volunteers. Before joining the Peace Corps, Abby worked in development and fundraising at several New York City nonprofits. In this work, she developed successful grant proposals, designed program models, and collaborated with staff to guide organizational strategy.

Outside of work, Abby is passionate about cultural exchange and travel. She solo-backpacked through six countries in South America, and she hopes to continue visiting new places in her free time.

Christopher Donovan is the Events and Communications Manager with Leadership Rhode Island. His background as a stage manager in the performing arts drives him to deliver seamless experiences that keep the ‘magic’ in the spotlight, while keeping all of the nitty gritty details ‘behind the curtains’. Having had the privilege of his work taking him to more than 25 states, he decided to call Providence, RI home in 2013, and has not once looked back.

Since 2017 he has been the organizer and host of the monthly Providence PechaKucha Nights, where community members share stories, creations, and ideas using the PechaKucha presentation format of 20 images that each last 20 seconds.

He is a proud graduate of the UMass Dartmouth Charlton College of Business with a BS in Marketing.

Joanne Brasil Gallogly joined Leadership Rhode Island in 2014 after spending 20 years as a stay-at-home mom raising her two children. Joanne previously worked as a press and legislative aide to Governor Bruce Sundlun. She also worked for several years as a legislative aide for the Rhode Island State Senate. She attended Rhode Island College and St. Mary’s Academy Bay View.

Jane Nugent comes to Leadership Rhode Island with many years of experience in the nonprofit sector in Rhode Island. Jane was a Senior Vice President with the United Way of Rhode Island, having given 22 years of service. While at United Way Jane grant managed several million dollars per year in funding, and her major projects included: Needs for the Nineties, Making It Work, The Facts, Dollars and Sense, Building a Stronger Community, and Skill Up Rhode Island. Prior to her work in the nonprofit sector Jane taught for 15 years, five of which were spent in England. Jane has won several awards for her service to the community and has held membership on committees, boards, and task forces in Rhode Island. Jane received her Bachelor’s Degree from Bridgewater (MA) State University, and her Masters and Doctoral Degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Jane has been an active volunteer for LRI since the early nineties, having given presentations to both the Core Class and the College LRI Class on issues pertaining to the nonprofit sector, and has served on many LRI committees over the years. Jane currently gives professional development workshops at Children’s Friend and Service, and has recently volunteered with the RI Academic Decathlon, the ACE Charter High School in Providence, and the Tufts Certificate Program in Non Profit Practice. Jane was the Class Speaker for her LRI Class of 1995, the Omicron Class. In 2019 she was given the Habits of the Heart Award jointly awarded by LRI and the United Way of Rhode Island.

Kim Ramirez serves as the Leadership Development and Database Administrator at Leadership Rhode Island where she spearheads all logistical aspects of programs to ensure they go off without a hitch while spearheading database design, implementation and maintenance.

Prior to joining Leadership Rhode Island Kim graduated from Year Up where she completed an internship at Citizens Bank, supporting various teams and partners in order to drive project delivery success. Kim, a first-generation Colombian-American, is a graduate of William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School. In May 2019, Kim graduated from Community College of Rhode Island with a Business Management Associate's Degree. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration at Rhode Island College.

Samantha graduated from Providence College with a Bachelor’s degree in Public and Community Service and Business Studies from the Feinstein Institute. After her undergraduate degree, she completed a year of service with AmeriCorps at RI Campus Compact and earned a Masters of Education in School Counseling from Providence College. Though she is originally from New Jersey, Samantha has lived in Rhode Island for several years now and considers it home.

Born in Peru, Renzo (he/him) and his mom immigrated to the USA when he was just five years old so he boasts that he was raised by Rhode Island. Renzo credits the Providence based youth advocacy program, Young Voices RI, for encouraging him to expand past his comfort zone. He studied Biology and Anthropology at the University of Rhode Island and was an outreach worker for the URI SNAP Outreach Project. The Outreach Project set Renzo up with knowledge about social services and assistance programs, as well as the opportunity to support struggling families in Rhode Island, which led him to become the Community Resource Coordinator at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Like Young Voices RI, the College Leadership Rhode Island program also helped Renzo learn about his strengths so that he could move beyond perceived limits. In this role as the Training Administrator, Renzo hopes to share that gift to other eager Rhode Islanders.

As the Engagement Coordinator at Leadership Rhode Island, Jacklyn Xavier looks to serve Rhode Island, and the communities within.

Jacklyn is in her final year studying at Rhode Island College (RIC) where she is majoring in Marketing with a minor in Communications and Data Analytics. While at RIC she attained the All American Title in the 100m relay through the track and field program, and made the Dean's List each semester since her sophomore year.

Jacklyn has been sharing her track and field talents as a high school coach since 2021, currently serving as the women's head coach at Central Falls High School. She also serves on the Young Adult Community Advisory Board of the Rhode Island Black Business Association, where she is helping to develop programs for students, ranging from middle school through post grad, to achieve academic, personal and professional success.

Jacklyn is a graduate of the 2020 Class of College Leadership Rhode Island (CLRI) and served as Co-Chair for the 2021 Class of CLRI.

Alicia received her Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Stonehill College in 1998 and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts. After college she worked as an auditor in the financial services industry at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston for seven years. She then joined the Corporate Accounting group at Fidelity Investments in Boston where she was a Director for five years. After staying home with her young children for a couple of years, she began volunteering as an accountant for the local non-profit Books Are Wings in 2012. She then joined the Leadership Rhode Island team at the end of 2015. In 2018, she became the site coordinator for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program for the Jonnycake Center in Peace Dale. In 2020 she expanded her role at the Jonnycake Center and is now the Director of Finance & Administration.

Outside of work Alicia enjoys spending time with her family, especially skiing and enjoying the beaches of South County and the lake near their home.

Richard retired from Fannie Mae at the end of 2014 after 12½ years with the company. His most recent assignment with Fannie Mae was as a member of the Foreclosure Prevention & Outreach Team, offering individualized counseling and assistance resources to homeowners across the country who are experiencing mortgage delinquency. Earlier he served on the company’s Ending Homelessness Team, Public Entity Loan Team, and Housing & Community Development Team. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Richard worked for various banking institutions in a variety of management roles, including Community Reinvestment, Compliance, Marketing and Product Management.

Before retirement, Richard’s community interests focused primarily on issues related to affordable housing and homelessness prevention. He currently serves in board or committee capacities for the Community Housing Land Trust of Rhode Island, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and was elected Moderator for the Town of Barrington in 2020. Also, Richard volunteered as an adaptive ski instructor for AbilityPLUS Adaptive Sports. at Attitash & Wildcat Ski Areas in New Hampshire for twenty years. He grew up in Barrington, is a graduate of The Colorado College, and now lives in Barrington with his wife Betsy. They have three grown children and three grandchildren. You can find him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @rfstaplesjr and on LinkedIn.

This is Richard's eighth year volunteering as photographer for LRI and CLRI class session days and activities.

Carol J. Young, a graduate of Syracuse University, spent her entire 45-year newspaper career at the Providence Journal. After several years as an education writer, she moved into editing. She served as state editor, city editor, metro managing editor and deputy executive editor. She also had a major role in the recruiting and hiring for the reporting staff and managed a highly successful reporting internship program.

She received numerous reporting awards and was selected by the New England Association of Newspaper Editors to receive its first Spirit of Journalism Award. After retiring in 2010, Carol was inducted into the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame.

A member of the Mu class (1992), Carol was a volunteer presenter for LRI’s Media Day program long before she went through LRI herself. Alumni in the l980s and l990s may remember the “page one game” she created just for LRI, the journalism ethics discussions she led, or the visits to the Providence Journal she orchestrated. In recent years, she has edited LRI’s newsletters and two of LRI’s publications: "Crossing the Line" and "Dear President".

In addition to volunteering for LRI, Carol serves on the Board of Directors for Inspiring Minds, the Advisory Council for the President of the University of Rhode Island, and the board for the Hummel Report.