Ricardo Reinoso has a passion for building and empowering communities of all sizes. He has dedicated his life to inspiring people in a multitude of capacities from community engagement and neighborhood revitalization to assisting young immigrants in their pursuit of becoming actively engaged citizens. Since moving to Cleveland in 2017, he has served on the Host Committee at EDWINS Restaurant & Leadership Institute and has graduated from the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program. Aside from launching the Cleveland Dinners, he is committed to eliminating the digital divide in his role as the Digital Inclusion Manager at the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority and is currently a MS Urban Studies candidate at Cleveland State University. Before moving to Ohio, he lived in Washington DC where he worked at the International Monetary Fund and served in public office as a Neighborhood Commissioner. Born and raised in Tulsa, OK to Peruvian immigrants, Ricardo is a former disc jockey and MC, and a proud Eagle Scout fluent in both Spanish and French.
Julia Ferra realized her love for volunteering at the age of 8 when she began serving at a soup kitchen on the west side of Cleveland. It was there that she witnessed both poverty and the resiliency of people. This experience paved the way for Julia’s future education and career path. Julia is passionate about sustainability, racial equity and seeing Cleveland thrive. Julia is a graduate of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies. Following graduation, she moved to San Francisco to work as a Volunteer Coordinator through the AmeriCorps VISTA program and was placed at a nonprofit serving those experiencing homelessness in the city. Julia currently manages the Graduate Support Program at the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program in Cleveland and serves on the Board of Directors at Ohio City Bicycle Co-op. She has attended the Racial Equity & Inclusion Groundwater Training in Cleveland and is committed to promoting the importance of and need for racial equity through her work at Cleveland Dinners.
Elizabeth is passionate about helping mission-driven organizations achieve their goals and serve the diverse needs of their constituencies. She leverages her experience in financial services, philanthropy and entrepreneurship, to take projects from ideation through implementation. She currently works for a Cleveland-based Family Office and is helping to build out their alternative investment platform. Prior to this role she was a member of the Business Growth and Development team at the Greater Cleveland Partnership. She was an early member of the Splash Financial team, where her responsibilities ranged from marketing and partnership development to customer experience and operations management. During the early part of her career, she worked to create investment plans for endowments, foundations and high net worth individuals at AllianceBernstein. Elizabeth also has experience working with nonprofit advancement teams and donors to create feasibility studies to test the viability of capital campaigns. Elizabeth holds an MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University.
Ann Hunter joined the volunteer team of Cleveland Dinners in February 2021 after engaging in the events since August of 2020. The presentations and small group discussions were so enriching that joining the team to keep the program going and growing seemed an essential next step. In November 2021, she was elected to the Board of Directors.
Once an elementary school teacher, Roscoe has spent the last 20+ years as a non-profit professional in Northeast Ohio. Roscoe is married and is the father of three adult children. He is a graduate of Cleveland State University and has a lifelong interest in racial equity; an interest that peaked when he was a high school student during the forced busing of the Carter administration. During his professional career he had the opportunity to lead three separate groups of teens on volunteer missions to study values, free trade and racial equity in Central America and the Caribbean. Currently in addition to his involvement with Cleveland Dinners he serves on two local Boards of Directors in his community. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Stand Tall Academies Inc, a nonprofit serving families engaging them in nontraditional learning and fun opportunities, aimed at breaking the stigma of less in all aspects of urban life.
Glendoria D. Burris grew up in New Haven, CT and moved to Ohio during her high school years. One of her favorite things in life is helping others whenever she can. She has volunteered at the same food shelters, neighborhood churches and hospitals in Cleveland that have helped her and her family in their time of need. She believes in giving back, which is why her favorite saying is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Glendoria is a board member of The JD Breast Cancer Foundation and has experience working on camera production crews and in radio, theater and film. She joined Cleveland Dinners in late 2020 and has performed at a few dinners because she truly believes in the mission. She has had the wonderful opportunity to spread her wings and grow within the organization by helping wherever she is needed. Glendoria loves all things acting, enjoys riding motorcycles and believes together we can “stop the hurt and begin the healing.”
Di-Ya Davis is committed to achieving the highest standard of performance and is always willing to listen and learn from others. She is very energetic, is prepared to go the extra mile and is sure to make a real difference to any project she is involved in. Di-Ya has performed in film and television productions, such as White Boy Rick, the Cleveland 48 Hour Film Project and in the play A Few Honest Moments with Sam for a Cleveland Dinners virtual event. She has also performed improv at Phoenix Coffee Company and has taken acting classes at the House of Acting. Di-Ya’s special skills include dance (hip-hop, salsa, merengue, bachata and ballroom) and self-defense tactics (hop kido and karate).
Charles Eduardos is a native of Cleveland, OH and is an ordained minister with 40+ years of experience in pastoral ministry. He is Pastor at All Saints Lutheran Church in Olmsted Township and Chaplain for the Olmsted Township Police Department. He serves on the Advisory Board of Cleveland Clinic's CPE Program. Charles is an experienced Executive/Corporate Coach, trainer/facilitator, Certified Hypnotherapist and Certified NLP Master Practitioner who has worked with organizations (for- and non-profit) to support them in identifying and tackling their challenges. He has also produced, directed and hosted programs on radio & TV around the country. Charles helped organize “Honest Conversations On Racism” when he worked for the Euclid Police Department in the late 1990s and still believes we need to have this conversation, however painful it may be. He has found a place with Cleveland Dinners where people are committed to coming together to talk about race and diversity with the goal of figuring out a sane way forward for the good of all humankind.
As a first generation Vietnamese woman, Diana grew up in an immigrant household in a hometown where most folks didn't look like her. Now as a parent to a bi-racial child, the issue of racial equity continued to grow in complexity in her life. As a former board certified music therapist who served patients in varied settings and of all ages, Diana is honored to be a volunteer musical artist and a planning committee member at Cleveland Dinners.
Patrick D. Warner is a musician, actor and poet from Cleveland, OH. Born and raised in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood, Patrick is fearless and unapologetic when it comes to expressing himself through multiple mediums of art, such as poetry, music and acting. Patrick is a two-time member of the One Mic Open Cleveland youth poetry slam team (2015-2016) competing in the international poetry slam competition Brave New Voices. He has performed at events and venues like Earthfest, Tri-C’s Hip Hop Homecoming, Grog Shop, Symposium, Our Voices: Democracy RE:visited, and Temple of Passions. He has released music on Spotify, Apple Music and Soundcloud. He has acted in the plays Tri-C’s Andy and Me, Karamu’s Stokes: Believe in Cleveland as the young Carl Stokes, and I Am Langston as Langston Hughes. Patrick is a graduate of Shaker Heights High School and Cuyahoga Community College in the recording arts and technology program and is a former artist, mentor and performer for Refresh Collective.
Dietra D. Hawkins, Psy.D. is a licensed Clinical Psychologist who works nationally and internationally with state and local government organizations, public and private K-12 schools and behavioral health agencies as the owner and lead consultant with Equity by Design. She is a published author and frequent speaker for workshops addressing Appreciative approaches toward system change; Recovery Oriented Systems of Care, Asset Based Community Development and Inclusion, and the Healing of Racism. Dr. Hawkins holds a faculty appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University, Program for Recovery and Community Health, School of Medicine. Prior to her consultation practice, she served as the Director of Consultation and Training at the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH). Dr. Hawkins has extensive experience with family, child, adult and community behavioral health, and has worked closely with Parent and Consumer Advocacy organizations.
Dietra’s primary research interests address racial and ethnic health care disparities; organizational systems change and transformation; HIV prevention/interventions; qualitative and community based participatory research, and the critical dimensions of cultural competency, recovery and community engagement.
Dietra is a mother, wife, a Black Catholic, and an ally for all people in recovery. She is a proud book and dance enthusiast from Memphis, TN. Her pronouns are she/her. Her work is rooted in the values of faith, integrity, humility, collaboration and inclusion. Dietra loves her work because, on a basic level, it is about bringing people together to facilitate healing.