Rockefeller fellow

John Rodriguez '83 (photography) has been named a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership program. The program was created in 1997 to build a network of leaders who collaborate to help devise innovative, community-based solutions to many of today's challenges.

Each year, a nominating committee appointed by the foundation selects fellows who represent a cross-section of professions and communities in the United States. Rodriguez is among 25 cohorts in the most recent group. During the two-year fellowship, the group will participate in sessions focusing on issues of race, citizenship, immigration, globalization, and the role of the media and information technology in a democratic society.

For more than two decades Rodriguez has worked on Latino political, economic and advocacy issues in Rochester and Monroe County. He is a co-founder and past president of the Rochester Hispanic Business Association and current chairman of the Latino Advocacy Coalition of Western New York.

After some 20 years in marketing, advertising and communications, Rodriguez made a career shift into the field of organizational development and now works with The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group Inc. of Troy, N.Y. The company assists private and public organizations in building inclusion and leveraging diversity to benefit people, organizations and communities.

“Our company works with organizations all over the country,” says Rodriquez, who joined KJCG in 2000. “It's absolutely interesting work, and incredibly meaningful.”