Meet the Team
The RISE team has 50 years of combined expertise in building and innovating successful resident service programs and demonstrating impact.
The RISE team brings our collective values, passion, and expertise to your organization.
Each member of our team is recognized as a creative, innovative, and results-oriented leader with strategic vision for identifying opportunities and solutions. We have worked together since 2015 as facilitators, program managers and coordinators, evaluators, planners, and technical support resources. We draw on decades of hands-on experience in direct and indirect work with BIPOC low-income communities. Our bi-cultural team is fluent in English and Spanish, and we are proudly minority-owned.
Carmen Amigon
Chief Innovations Officer
A social entrepreneur at heart, Carmen is a developer of lasting partnerships and the creator of sustainable, scalable, and measurable outcomes services. Carmen has 16 years of experience in providing project management in the development and sustainability of initiatives amongst resident services, property and asset management, and external partnerships. Carmen is an experienced developer and facilitator of community building and engagement trainings; is a project manager for data collection projects, including identifying key indicators, and has experience in various data collection techniques with national projects. Carmen is bi-lingual and bi-cultural and has three decades of experience working with low-income communities of color. Carmen was honored as North County Latinas Association Latina of the Year and Minority Small Business Champion of the Year.
Jorge Riquelme
Social Impact Consultant
Jorge has 20 years of leadership experience in nonprofit organizations in the US and abroad, focusing on strengthening civil society, community development, and affordable housing. He has been a college professor for 10 years doing research and teaching social science undergraduate-level courses. He has also provided international development consulting work on democratic governance and poverty reduction.
Lauren Montague
For Impact Designer
Lauren is a marketing professional and graphic designer with over 12 years of experience at community-based nonprofit organizations. Lauren specializes in utilizing effective design to illustrate impact. Lauren is highly experienced in all facets of design and marketing, including: developing effective marketing strategies and promotional materials for nonprofit organizations, designing reports and presentations to present outcomes, directing inspiring and informative videos, and creating compelling collateral materials that demonstrate impact.