Catarina Rivera

Disability Public Speaker & Trainer

    • What i do

      With 12 years of experience in the public sector, Catarina has worked as an educator as well as a nonprofit program manager. Her more recent work has focused on food equity and community engagement. In 2018, she was named to the "40 Under 40 in NYC Food Policy" list by the New York City Food Policy Center. She is the Co-Founder of ExplorEquity, a social impact travel company. She has extensive experience as a facilitator, trainer, public speaker, and panelist.

       

      Catarina was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome at 17 years old and has experienced a combination of vision and hearing loss since then. She is the founder of Blindish Latina, a platform smashing disability stigmas through storytelling, advocacy, and education. She is available to speak on her life journey as a person living with a disability and her career journey as an ambitious Latina woman.

       

      Her signature talk is:

      My Disability Journey: Moving from Denial to Acceptance and Engaging in Advocacy

    • TESTIMONIALS

      "We were delighted to have Catarina contribute to our Food and Public Health: Bridging Research and Practice event. As a panelist, she was wonderful, knowledgeable, and engaging. She not only gave thoughtful responses but also facilitated dialogue among her fellow panelists." - Will Simmons, FPOP, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

       

      "Catarina facilitated several Nutrition and Child Development Associate trainings for our family childcare providers. She is a great facilitator and extremely knowledgeable. Catarina’s expertise is very much appreciated." - K. Rodriguez, Committee for Hispanic Children and Families

       

      "Catarina was a dynamic guest speaker for our Food Studies 101 class. In her presentation titled 'Basil Grows in Inwood' she brought her experiences from the Washington Heights/Inwood (WHIN) Food Council to life with vivid imagery, and made the connection to food justice efforts taking place in New York City very real for our students to learn about. At the end of the class, she invited all the students to join her in events taking place at WHIN Community garden plot, and I saw how enthusiastic the students were in connecting with her." - Kathleen Delgado, Hostos Community College Food Studies program 

    • Experience

      A selection of past public speaking experiences

      Public Speaking

      • 2020 international Day of Persons with Disabilities Keynote Speaker for CUNY School of Public Health
      • Workshop for Audiology Department at Montefiore Hospital 
      • Speaker at 2020 Hearing Access & Inclusion Conference
      • Speaker at Center for Independent Living South Florida

    • Services

      Skills and areas of expertise

      Trainings and Workshops

      Keynote Speaker

      Panelist or Panel Moderator

    • Education 

      Duke University

      Bachelor of Arts

      Psychology

      Bank Street College of Education

      Master of Science in Education

      Dual Language/Bilingual Education

      CUNY School of Public Health

      Master of Public Health

      Community Health Education

      Certified in Public Health

    • Work With me

      Let's discuss how I can help you.

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    Catarina Rivera © 2019

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