Our multicultural, multilingual, and multidisciplinary team excels in collaborating to provide services that can strengthen your ability to meet the needs of your constituents.
The varied talents and perspectives of our team, combined with our shared commitment to social justice, creates multiple lenses to examine, explore and respond to challenges your organization may be facing.
Mr. Figueiredo leads a diverse and dynamic group of professionals dedicated to building the capacity of organizations and community leaders. Prior to working with JRI, Mr. Figueiredo spent more than 10 years working in the HIV/AIDS field as an educator, counselor, and prevention program manager. Mr. Figueiredo also has extensive experience in international health initiatives and projects, working specifically to support implementation of health promotion and disease prevention interventions in 12 countries. He is also the principal author of more than 30 curricula which have been commissioned and/or implemented for governmental and non-governmental organizations. In 2006, he served as lead developer and facilitator of a five-day intensive curriculum, Leadership & Advocacy Skills. This curriculum is geared toward career-tracking people living with HIV, is accredited as a certificate program at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, South Africa. Mr. Figueiredo has been a Visiting Lecturer in the Community Health Program at Tufts University, and he holds a Master’s of Education degree from Harvard University. He is fluent in Portuguese, and conversant in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean.
My Place of Significance: “Baia de São Lourenço on the tiny island of Santa Maria, Azores is important to me because so many of my fondest childhood and adulthood memories are of my time on the island hiking, swimming, and picking my favorite fruits: avocados, grapes, bananas, passion fruit, and figs.”
Email: jfigueiredo@jri.org
Mrs. Fizek is an organization development professional with a background in psychology. She holds a Master’s of Social Work degree from Boston University, licensure as a clinical social worker, and completed a post-graduate fellowship in Organization Development at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. She is also certified to administer the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Mrs. Fizek has extensive experience providing clinical counseling to individuals, couples and families. She has also managed many training programs at various agencies, including Surgency Inc. and JRI Health’s Management Assistance Program, where she provided management consultation services to HIV non-profit organizations funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH). In 2000, Mrs. Fizek began LSF consulting, a management consulting practice that specializes in the design and delivery of a wide range of training programs, as well as management development including team building, facilitation, supervision, management coaching, consensus building, performance improvement, communication and work processes. In 2005, she rejoined JRI Health, providing support in all areas of management and leadership development, particularly in the area of supervision to MDPH-funded organizations.
My Place of Significance: “Austria: My mother was forced to flee this beautiful country. Looking at pictures of my home country reminds me that there is beauty in spite of the human condition.”
Email: lfizek@jri.org
Ms. Rappaport has more than ten years of experience in public health, primarily in the field of HIV/AIDS education. Her work with the Coping Centre for People with AIDS in Botswana, AIDS Action Committee, Physicians for Human Rights, and JRI Health in Boston has included program development and management; research and evaluation in HIV and STI prevention and treatment; integrated HIV/AIDS care, support, treatment and adherence; condom social marketing; and counseling and testing. As a field researcher with the Monteverde Institute, she implemented a quantitative and qualitative study on food security, diet, and perceptions of nutritional health in a rural and peri-urban community in the Monteverde zone of Costa Rica. Her research includes ethnographic studies and work with focus groups. Ms. Rappaport holds a Master’s of Public Health degree from Boston University and a Master’s of Education degree from Lesley University. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies and Latin American Studies. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French, and conversant in Portuguese.
My Place of Significance: “I am moved by natural reminders of humans’ relatively limited power over the universe, and how we, though quite impressive, are but one of the Earth’s many creatures. Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano is one of those humbling places that inspire me and take my breath away.”
Email: lrappaport@jri.org
Ms. Cantor is the newest member of the Realize Resources team. She comes with over ten years of experience in the public health and health education field. Prior to joining JRI Health Ms. Cantor worked as the Director of the Family Planning Program of Cambridge, MA providing support and services to five neighborhood health clinics. She also worked as a health educator and family planning counselor offering counseling and STI/HIV testing services as well as reaching thousands of individuals through her workshops and inter-active trainings. Ms. Cantor has focused much of her energy on her work with young people, offering empowerment through one on one counseling and group programming. She also worked as a harm reduction counselor with Cambridge Cares About AIDS through their needle exchange program. Ms. Cantor participated in Hunter College’s Community Health Education program in New York City and graduated from UMASS Boston with a degree in Human Services with a Youth Work Concentration.
My Place of Significance: My home away from home is Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn is raw and filled with music, bodegas and incense. It is brownstones and books and poetry and food and flavor and loud and history and funk. It is children and beauty and sadness and color and language and parks. It is friends and laughter and wine and dark chocolate. It is peaceful and it is tamales. Brooklyn is diversity without trying.
Ms. Negrón delivers several core trainings of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Office of HIV/AIDS, including the Fundamentals of HIV, HIV Counseling & Testing, Behavioral Risk Assessment and Risk Reduction Planning, and Positive Prevention. She also translates training curricula into Spanish, while adapting trainings to be culturally appropriate for Latino service providers. Having facilitated national and international trainings, Carmen has trained in South Africa since 2005 and provided the Connecting to Care trainings for Spanish-speaking providers in the United States and Puerto Rico. Prior to becoming a trainer, Carmen was an HIV service provider for a period of 12 years in various service modalities, doing program coordination, prevention and education, counseling and testing, and case management. Carmen has also offered technical assistance to health programs, conducting needs assessments, developing materials, and creating and facilitating trainings on a range of topics. She authored an HIV training series curriculum taught at MCI-Framingham, a women’s correctional facility. She holds a Master of Education, with a concentration in Health, from Worcester State University. She is fluent in English and Spanish.
My Place of Significance: “Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Caguana (the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Center) in Utuado, Puerto Rico is one of my places of importance because of its beauty and peaceful atmosphere. Caguana brings back memories of a happy childhood, and is a symbol of my Caribbean roots.”
Mrs. Prager is a 2008 graduate of Boston University, with her B.A. in Hispanic Language and Literatures. She is currently pursuing her Certificate of Professional Communication at Emerson College. Since 2004, Mrs. Prager has completed five internships at social justice non-profits, working for LGBT rights in Bulgaria, community organizing in Connecticut, microcredit in Paraguay, and public health in Boston. She has also been the leader of several groups, including the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Alliance which she founded in 2004. Mrs. Prager provides administrative support for the trainings and also assists with the website and communications. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and conversant in Portuguese and French.
My Place of Significance: “I love traveling places to escape hot weather but, despite that, one of my favorite trips was to a desert where it was over 100 degrees. Petra is a city in Jordan that was carved out of rose-colored rock in 100 BC and is mostly still in tact. I was inspired hiking through the ancient city, which is only accessible by foot or camel.”
A former senior attorney with a major Fortune 500 Company, Ms. Roach left the legal profession to make a concrete, positive, and profound difference in the lives of individuals and organizations as a management consultant, trainer and executive coach. She has provided her services to JRI since 2002, offering individualized coaching for executive directors and senior management, co-designing and facilitating human resource, management and leadership development and cultural competency trainings as well as providing diversity and organization development consulting services. In addition to her consulting practice, Ms. Roach has been senior lecturer at Northeastern University where she taught organizational behavior and managing human resources. She holds an undergraduate degree in education and her diverse experiences as a trainer, teacher, coach, and facilitator are supported by a solid background of professional training and certification with the American Society for Training and Development, Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Mediation Works Institute and Simmons College Graduate School of Management.
My Place of Significance: “Adventurous travel, especially to ancient and sacred sites, is one of my passions. One of my destinations was Machu Picchu, a long time dream of mine. The ruins were as incredible as I thought they would be. Now I know what it is like to be on top of the world!”
Ms. Zobel holds a Master’s in Social Work from Boston University. Her early work included working with children and adolescents with behavioral and learning challenges, and with families in a shelter for victims of domestic violence. She later worked with families with children from birth to 3 who had or were at risk for developmental delays, specializing in environmental risks: substance use, mental health, and HIV/AIDS. Ms. Zobel has been working at JRI Health for 10 years. She divides her time between direct clinical work with clients, clinical supervision of program staff and volunteers, and facilitating statewide trainings. Topics include case management, motivational interviewing, and managing mental health crises in HIV housing. She consults on boundaries, issues related to death and dying, and working with clients with personality disorders. Ms. Zobel has a private practice as a life coach, and is working towards certification in that field. She has a working knowledge of American Sign Language.
My Place of Significance: “The Cascade Mountains, Washington. I learned several important life lessons on this climb, such as: 1. You can always do more than you think you can. 2. It’s OK to rely on the support of others. 3. It never hurts to have a cool pair of shades.”
— Marlene LaLota, MPH
Prevention Program Director
Bureau of HIV/AIDS
Florida Department of Health
