Adriana Dawson

Community Engagement Director at Verizon

While born and raised in Rhode Island, Adriana’s roots connect to the first Colombians to arrive in Rhode Island. Settling in Central Falls, her family assisted new arrivals with housing, employment and other new world needs. As a young child she also played a role in this work as an interpreter and navigator. While she was deeply immersed in her growing and thriving Latino community, while at school she experienced the complete. As one of only three Latinos in her Catholic school she felt like a cultural double agent straddling two very different worlds.

Adriana is also a first generation professional. She came from hard working factory workers who worked long days; Family dinner conversations never consisted of stories of the office or their industry. Her lived experiences launched her career and have continued to guide her professionally these past 25+ years. She has been in six different industries and in each one she has led, guided and informed employers on how to authentically launch and engage in new flavorful markets. Adriana has braided her cultural fluency and business acumen to amplify the power of community.

As a Latina, Adriana expresses how much Latinos have influenced and impacted every facet of the American experience from the economy, to our media, to food and music. Especially with the explosive growth and evolution of the amazing contributions Latinos have made in each and every sector of Rhode Island.