Our Team

PR PASS Workshop is able to advance its overarching goal of advancing the appreciation and application of social sciences thanks to the support of its Board of Directors, its Operational Team and the collaboration of our members. Below we provide a brief introduction to the key people making PR PASS Workshop a reality.

Board of Directors

Enid Flores, Esq., President of the Board

Ms. Flores is a lawyer with 19 years of experience in banking and a highly sought after business consultant among the non-profit sector. She has worked in government banking, serving as Vice-President of the Economic Development Bank as well as in private banking. Her experience in both public and private banking made her a key figure in the establishment of the first bank catering to micro-finances in Puerto Rico. She served as Vice-President of Microfinanzas Puerto Rico until 2013. As of 2015, Enid Flores is the President of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Business Development Corporation.

Ms. Flores also co-founded in 2012 E2 Solutions, a business consulting firm which complemented their service to their clients with a mission to educate a wider public. From 2014-2018, Enid Flores and Efraín Sánchez, her partner in E2 Solutions, produced a weekly TV, radio and internet broadcast specializing in economic topics and financial analysis.

Edith Santos, Vice-President of the Board

Michelle Fabelo,  Treasurer

Operational Team

Laura Gorbea, Executive Director

As Executive Director, Dr. Gorbea oversees the daily operations of PR PASS Workshop and ensures alignment with the organization's mission and vision. She also serves as lead researcher, responsible for developing projects that engage PR PASS members, student interns, and community collaborators to advance research objectives and knowledge sharing. With over 20 years of experience as an applied anthropologist, Dr. Gorbea has conducted research and designed programs serving communities across all 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico.

In recent years, she has specialized in disaster recovery research and program evaluation. As a Research Fellow for the Natural Hazards Center in 2021, Dr. Gorbea collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to examine the health impacts of disaster recovery fund distribution in Puerto Rico. She also served as Lead External Evaluator for Habitat for Humanity's $63 million Puerto Rico Recovery Program (2018–2023). The community-driven impact evaluation methodology she developed to assess this program has been featured in workshops at the National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters, FEMA’s Office of Policy and Program Analysis, the Natural Hazards Center, and the Society for Applied Anthropology. Her expertise in participatory methodologies and knowledge translation has supported planning efforts in 10 communities across the island. Currently, Dr. Gorbea is evaluating capacity-building programs designed to promote entrepreneurship among economically disadvantaged populations, as well as courses focused on citizen-led environmental protection of watersheds.

Dr. Gorbea is also a technology entrepreneur and education policy consultant. Her work has strengthened school-community engagement, advanced corporate social responsibility initiatives, and developed multimodal communication strategies. As an education consultant to the Puerto Rico Department of Education, she has addressed issues such as bilingual education and the impact of children’s exposure to violence on learning. Through her research and practice, Dr. Gorbea has visited over 200 schools across the island and developed curricula for programs impacting more than 14,000 students. She maintains an active media presence, frequently speaking on topics related to technology and innovation.

Dr. Gorbea is the President and Founder of Altamente, a company that designs social outreach programs and provides technology integration solutions and multimedia communication services to private enterprises. She has served on the boards of several private industry associations and is a dedicated mentor and advocate for technology startups, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the advancement of the arts and humanities.

Dr. Gorbea holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned a Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University and a Doctorate in Applied Anthropology from Stanford University in 2012. She remains actively engaged in fieldwork and regularly presents her findings at academic conferences.

Liliana López, MBA, Administration & Strategic Development

In her administrative role, López provides PR PASS Workshop support with project logistics, contracts and reports. Her direct involvement with project logistics places her at the forefront of identifying talent and opportunities for PR PASS Workshop to advance the efficiency and efficacy of projects, programs and services. López is also responsible for exploring benchmarks and defining best practices.

Ms. López is a social entrepreneur, renowned creative and strategic planner, with over 20 years of experience working in the public, not for profit and private sectors. Ms. López is considered an authority and pioneer of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Caribbean, as founder of ConectaRSE, the 1st CSR center in the Caribbean, that spearheaded innovative CSR initiatives in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Ms. López is the Chief Sustainability Officer & Co-Founder of DoGood Artist, a social enterprise that strategically partners the arts with other industries (such as technology, fashion, tourism, health, etc.) in order to innovate and move the needle on social issues.

Ms. López is an expert in social risk management and "social license to operate" in Europe, US, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She has worked as a consultant for the fur, mining, sugar, construction, energy, pharmaceutical, fashion, and agriculture industries. She is also Co-Founder of SEquilibre, Inc. Ms. López holds an MBA in Fashion and Luxury Industries, Master's in Public & Corporate Communication, Master's in Corporate Social Responsibility & Social Auditing, and is Certified in Nonprofit Management.

James O'Malley, MSW, Director of Direct Services

Mr. O'Malley oversees the design and development of services to non-profit organizations and public agencies providing social services.

Mr. O’Malley has a Masters in Social Work Administration from the Interamerican University. Mr. O'Malley is an active volunteer with La Fondita de Jesús, giving capacity building seminars on various topics to people experiencing homelessness and serving on the Social Justice Committee. Mr. O'Malley has also provided resources and training to Fondos Unidos de Puerto Rico (United Way Puerto Rico) in the form of tools to manage data within evidence based practices.

Mr. O'Malley also serves as Technology Consultant at Altamente. In his work at Altamente he has been responsible for managing the information systems and web presence of several of Puerto Rico's top 100 companies. Throughout his career, Mr. O'Malley has developed fundraising platforms for Coro de Niños de San Juan and has been the key developer of the online platform of CienciaPR, a nonprofit dedicated to networking scientists who share an interest with Puerto Rico.

Mr. O'Malley's ample computer and Internet expertise dates back to 1995. In 1996, he was sought out for his expertise in HTML and web technologies to work for NBC and Microsoft in the integration of sound, video, graphics, and text during the first ever live webcast of a sports event, Super Bowl XXX. From 1996-1998, Mr. O'Malley worked in Spain with Ibermática, the country's largest Application Service Provider and Intranet Developer. He also freelanced as a web designer for Sarenet, a Bilbao based Internet Service Provider, and currently has clients of his own around the world.

For over 8 years, Mr. O'Malley has volunteered as a mentor within the juvenile prison system in Puerto Rico. Mr. O'Malley has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

Membership

Membership to PR PASS Workshop is open to individual social scientists or individuals active cultural production, in the arts and or humanities or entities whose stated objectives include social science research or the generation of products or services of cultural or humanistic value.

Students

PR PASS Workshop is committed to offering hands on learning opportunities for University students. In select cases, university students have the opportunity to work side by side our members and learn how social science theory is put into practice and can impact social services. Every semester there are a limited number of internships that are eligible for educational stipends. Volunteers are also welcome on a case by case basis. To find out more about current opportunities available contact: internships@prpassworkshop.org