At an early age, Rubén David Feliciano discovered his passion for helping others and had dedicated his professional career to improving the lives of others. Rubén is a former community development fellow of the Teresa and Hipolito Roldan Scholarship Program and has worked in the nonprofit sector around issues of affordable housing, policy advocacy, and coalition building.
Throughout his professional trajectory, Ruben has been involved in drafting legislation, advancing public policy initiatives, engaged in community development, and event planning. He is co-author of chapter 20: “Participatory GIS: The Humboldt/West Humboldt Park Community GIS Project, Chicago, USA” in the book entitled: Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting People, Participation and Place, published in 2007 by Routledge. He is also the co-author of the 2008 Latino Policy Forum report “Nuestro Hogar: Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis in the Latino Community.”
Ruben has served on several boards, both locally and nationally. These include being part of the Executive Board of Directors of the ASPIRA Association Inc. in Washington D.C. as well as the local chapter of ASPIRA Inc. of Illinois, a national Puerto Rican/Latino youth leadership development initiative whose mission is to empower youth through education. He also served on the Boards of the Near Northwest Neighborhood Network and the Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services Program Student Advisory Taskforce at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ruben holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a major in Latin American & Latino Studies, a minor in Political Science, and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Policy with a concentration in Community Development. Ruben currently works for the Illinois Department of Human Services where he is responsible for connecting families and individuals to various state programs and resources. Ruben intends to go to law school and specialize in Public Interest Law. His driving mission is to become an attorney and practice jurisprudence with the aspiration of bridging both the law and public policy for the advancement and empowerment of historically disadvantaged communities.
