Lisette Nieves
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Lisette Nieves (born c. 1969 in the Bronx, New York City), founder of "Atrevete Latino Youth, Inc.", an organization who focuses on the educational and leadership training of young Latinos.
Nieves' family moved to New York City from Puerto Rico in search of a better way of life. They settled down in a Ghetto section of the Bronx where she received her primary and secondary education. Her parents separated and she and her four siblings where raised by her mother, whom she considers the main inspiration in her life. She took a course in sociology after she graduated from high school and according to her own account, the course changed her perspective of the world.
When Nieves returned to New York, she went to work for PRACA (Puerto Rican Association of Community Affairs) as coordinator of "Muevete" (Move on). On May 14, 2001, Nieves and several other coordinators decided to leave PRACA because they wanted Muevete to become an independent organization of its own. However, they were not permitted to use the name Muevete and therefore they named their organization "Atrevete" (Dare). The organization's main office is located in the Bronx. Under her leadership, the organization's main focus is to educate and to develop the leadership skills of the Latino youth, starting in New York and Boston and then eventually nationally.
Nieves continued to further her education with the intention of developing her skills to assist in the transformation of Atrevete into an independent non-profit organization. She enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she studied the application of principles of community organizing and theories of social and political change to build a network of leadership within the Latino youth community. On June 6, 2002, Nieves graduated from Harvard and was awarded the Morningstar Award and the Alumni Council Award.
On April 2002, the first Annual Atrevete Latino Youth Conference was held in Boston, Mass. Lisette Nieves is currently the director of Educational Programs for Valley Inc. Nieves enjoys spending her free time with her family and listening to the Bomba and Plena, typical music of Puerto Rico. In 2005 she was named one the most distinguished Latinas by the New York Spanish language newspaper El Diario/La Prensa.
