Oct. 11 talk part of URI Women’s Center’s new ‘Spill the Tea’ series
Former Rhode Island
Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea is coming to the University of Rhode Island to
join “Spill the Tea,” a program sponsored by the URI Women’s
Center.
Gorbea’s visit takes place Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 2:30
to 4:30 p.m. at the Robert L. Carothers Library (Galanti Lounge).
Gorbea will share the story of her political rise to
become the first Hispanic to win a statewide office in New England and discuss
the importance of women’s civic engagement.
Gorbea’s visit is the second in this year’s new “Spill
the Tea” series at URI, following Zoila Quezada in September.
Under the direction of new center director Ana Barraza, tea-spilling—and community discussion—is a regular event. She hopes women in the URI community attend Gorbea’s talk and find their way to the Women’s Center, which moved to 7 Quarry Road in 2021.
The
center hosts Wednesday afternoon open tea-time from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and
Barraza is bringing in speakers like Gorbea on a regular basis to extend the
conversation on relevant topics.
Barraza started at the Women’s Center in May and hopes
these events create connections and center women’s voices and interactions at
the University.
Though new in the role, she brings a long connection to URI and to the Women’s Center.
In the 1990s, Barraza did an independent study out of the
Women’s Center as a student that led to a conference for women of color at URI.
In those days, the Women’s Center was housed in a little red house at the
bottom of campus.
“We are the oldest identity center and program on
campus,” Barraza says.
Spilling the tea: Nellie Gorbea
Barraza is excited to bring Gorbea to URI.
Gorbea made history in 2015 as the first Hispanic in New
England to be elected to statewide office, serving two terms as Rhode Island
secretary of state. During her tenure, she introduced technology innovations, drove
diversity, and spearheaded civic engagement. These steps helped Rhode Island
see record-breaking voter turnout.
Gorbea’s interest in bringing Rhode Island voting up to
date also led her to work with URI; she helped Gretchen Macht get started using
engineering tools to assist election officials, now established as the
well-known program URI VOTES, used nationally.
Gorbea is also the founder of the Rhode Island Latino
Civic Fund and serves on the advisory board of the Ascend Fund, a collaborative
fund dedicated to accelerating the pace of change toward gender parity in U.S.
politics. She also serves as a senior visiting fellow at Salve Regina
University.
Centering women
Barraza is long familiar with the role of networking and
mentoring for women in their professional lives.
A proud URI alumna, Barraza came back to URI with more
than two decades of experience in higher education, at URI and elsewhere. Her
diverse work experiences and roles affirm for her the importance of support and
education for women students and students of color. Barraza remembers sifting
through her own challenges as a student and how important it was to see “faces
who looked like me.”
She hopes that Gorbea’s visit serves a similar purpose
for women students at URI and for all students of Latino heritage.
“The Women’s Center was such a rich place for young women
to find a sense of belonging they could use for their time at URI and after, to
find the resources they needed for their college experience,” she says. “We are
rebuilding now, building on that impact and history. I’m excited to be here.”
Watch for Barraza to bring more women’s voices forward in
the years ahead.
“I think Nellie’s story is impactful. In a time when
we’re seeing women’s autonomy being stripped across the country, the concerns
raised here are valid. We want this series to be a mix of conversation and
discussion that pushes and to teach students to navigate spaces outside of and
after the University.”
For its next speaker in the Spill the Tea series, the
Women’s Center will welcome Jennifer Rourke on the topic of dating and domestic
violence on Oct. 25. Email women@etal.uri.edu to be added to the center’s
mailing list.
