Department of Education

Hometown: Providence, RI     
Education: Rhode Island College, Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, cum laude. Associate in Arts: Social Work, Honors

Ramona Santos Torres is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Parents Leading for Educational Equity (PLEE), a parent-led, grassroots organization whose mission is to fight for parent voice in education decision-making, and for access to a high-quality public school option for all children of color. Ramona has been a parent advocate for over 12 years primarily working with families of students with disabilities within the school system and other systems of care. 

Ramona is passionate about organizing families to build their collective knowledge and power to create the education system our children deserve. Prior to being the Executive Director at PLEE, Ramona was a Program Manager for the Healthy Communities Office for the City of Providence, working on substance use and overdose prevention initiatives. 

She moved to Providence from Sosua, Dominican Republic seventeen years ago and started to take English as a second language courses in 2011 at the Community College of Rhode Island, finally graduating with a Bachelor in Social Work at Rhode Island College in 2018. Ramona is currently attending the Urban Education Policy at Brown University.