Rosamaria Cristello
Executive Director & Founder
Rosamaria Cristello is the Founder and Executive Director of the Latino Community Center (LCC) in Pittsburgh, PA. The Latino Community Center Empowers, Advocates with, and Celebrates Latinos in Allegheny County. The LCC is a self-standing and independent nonprofit organization that was founded by representation of the LatinX community, for our LatinX Community.
Rosamaria launched her career helping to establish a Recruit and Retention program for Indiana University of Pennsylvania focused on first generation Latinx Students called CALSA (Caring About Latino Student Achievement). Rosamaria went on to work for TeamEffort, a national organization focused on Youth Summer Mission Trips, and established their second international camp in her home country of Guatemala, where she worked with and hired local members of the community while bringing over 80 Americans to Guatemala to help with hurricane relief and help build cement steps and a water drainage system. Rosamaria then completed a year of service as a Compass AmeriCorps, helping to resettle refugees in Pittsburgh, PA.
In 2013, Rosamaria became the Site Director of the Latino Family Center, which is 1 of 28 Family Support Centers in Allegheny County focused on families with young children. In the year 2020, the Latino Community Center became the Fiscal Agent for the Latino Family Center, bringing these services together.
Under her leadership, a Latino Community Assessment for Allegheny County was conducted in 2015 to better understand the dreams and goals of the more vulnerable Latinos and the barriers they are facing in achieving their goals. This assessment practice of the Latino community has since been adopted by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, and it is now being conducted for a second time in 2020-2021.
Rosamaria serves on several Boards and Advisory Boards. Most recently she was nominated and accepted as a Board Member of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. She is also currently serving as a Board Member of the Women and Girls Foundation and an Advisor to the Office of Child Development under the University of Pittsburgh, the Immigrants & the Internationals Advisory Council for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Rosamaria has served on the Mayor’s Welcoming Pittsburgh Steering Committee, the Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census, the Allegheny County Children’s Fund Working group, the All for All Steering Committee, and the Squirrel Hill Health Center Board of Directors.
Rosamaria was named one of Pittsburgh’s 40 Under 40 in 2016 and was the first recipient of the Barbara McNeese Spirit of Athena Award which provides free tuition to the CMU Women’s Leadership and Negotiation Academy. In 2017, Rosamaria received the Social Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement award by Global Pittsburgh, and in 2018 Rosamaria was named as a Who’s Next in Education. In 2019, the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers presented Rosamaria with the Hispanic Leadership Award. Most recently in 2020, Rosamaria was named as a Women of Excellence by Cribs for Kids and she was selected as a Woman of Influence by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Rosamaria received her bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Regional Planning and Geographic Information Systems from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and her master’s degree in Public Administration through the Graduate School of Public & Internationals Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.
Originally from Guatemala, Rosamaria grew up in Arlington, Virginia as an undocumented child. She became the first from her family to attend college. Rosamaria now resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband David, and her kids James and Mia.
To learn more about her story, you can read these pieces: