Board Members
Tyrone Cabral
Term ends 2027
Tyrone recently moved to RI from Massachusetts, is a graduate of RIC and is a member of the policy and advocacy committee for RI-NASW. Tyrone recently accepted a position as program manager at The Providence Center and has held previous positions at Youth Villages, Child and Family Services, and Lifespan.
His vision for RI-NASW is a strong presence in state and federal legislation working actively towards furthering the social work profession, decreasing homelessness in the state of RI and playing an active role in child welfare.
Cristina Costa
Term ends 2026
Cristina Costa, LICSW has been a NASW member since 2012 and serves on the NASW Program Planning Committee for our annual NASW Symposium. She obtained her Masters in Social Worker from Boston College, in addition to her two Bachelor's Degrees, a B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Rhode Island. Cristina is an alum of URI’s Talent Development, as well as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. In 2004, Cristina became the first Providence Law Enforcement Advocate with the Providence Police Department, Day One and Sojourner House, where she worked alongside the Special Victims Unit in assisting victims of sexual assault, child molestation, domestic violence and hate crimes. In total, Cristina has over 20 years of experience working in the field of social work with many different populations including youth in residential care, victims of crime, foster care, adoption, LGBTQ+, first generation families, elementary/middle school students and families, emergency room and inpatient medical services and operations for afterschool programs.
Cristina was born and raised in Providence, RI, growing up in a bi-lingual household, she is fluent in Portuguese and English, as well as speaking Spanish as her third language. She currently works as a Clinician with Rhode Island College’s Counseling Center, after spending 8 years as a School Social Worker in both charter and public schools. She also has a private practice in East Providence, RI, where she enjoys working with children and young adults who are first generation and/or identify with the LGBTQ+ community. Cristina’s passion is to promote diversity in the social work field and to provide professional development opportunities to increase the field’s awareness of privilege, bias, and oppression as part of her commitment to building inclusive and culturally appropriate services for clients and communities.
Heidi Ross
Term ends 2025
Heidi Ross, BSW, MA has been an NASW member since 2011. She received her BSW from Washington State University and MA in Counseling from Saint Mary's College. She started out as a Candy Striper and quickly found a field of work and passion. Originally from the West Coast, she has found her way to Rhode Island with work and volunteer experience in senior centers, nursing homes, retirement and assisted living communities, hospital geriatric services, Medicare/SHIP and extensive personal family caregiving.
Advocacy has become a natural path to take, because once we see and experience holes in "the system," it becomes a mission to find others with like-minded solutions. She is currently doing advocacy and outreach work with AARP RI, the Alzheimer's Association, and other long-term care and disability entities. With a background in Montessori education, Heidi believes that with resource-sharing, reaching out to elected officials and overall networking, it is important to realize where the person "is at" before we can expect and effect change.
Michelle Baptista, LCSW
Term ends 2026
Michelle Baptista, LCSW has been a NASW member since 2018 and has been working with children and adolescents as a social worker for the past five years. Michelle obtained her bachelor of social work from Salve Regina University in 2018 and her masters of social work from Rhode Island College in 2021. Since 2018, she has been working in child welfare providing services to children and adolescents with trauma, youth in foster care and adoptive homes, and children with sexual abuse histories and families. Michelle is now working with youth in her current position as a school social worker at an elementary school in Providence, RI and has the opportunity to provide counseling to students, support families with community resources and assist with crisis management, among other duties. Although Michelle is still early on in her career, she has an abundance of passion, ambition and commitment to this career that is very evident in her work ethic. Michelle has had a long-term passion and joy for community service. She spent many hours of her time in high school and college doing community service work and it was through this network that she discovered her interest in the social work field. In 2016, she received the Campus Compact award for outstanding community service work in a higher education setting and the 2016 Big Sister of the Year award from Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean state. Michelle has a strong commitment to honoring the values of social work and especially the value of service. She looks forward to advocating for social workers across Rhode Island and empowering disadvantaged populations that we serve.
Kristin Stelter
Term ends 2027
Kristin “Kris” Stelter (they/them/theirs) has been a member of NASW since 2020. They earned their MSW from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2022 and their Master of Fine Arts in Contemporary Performance: Theater from Naropa University in Boulder, CO in 2018. Prior to moving to RI in July 2023 to be closer to family, Kris worked at TRU PACE and Envision Hospice. They have extensive experience in de-escalation techniques and crisis management from their prior career in retail and banking and have participated in over 30 theatrical productions in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
Kris hopes to bring their lived experiences to an organization that has helped them gain footing in a world that is constantly shifting. They have learned enough to know how much they have yet to learn, and hold a particular affinity to conversations around accessibility, grief, death and dying, and the LGBTQIA2S+ community. They are interested in formulating a new committee centered around supporting the LGBTQIA2S+ population. Kris approaches their work through a trauma-informed lens, and challenges NASW RI to acknowledge and address the ongoing impacts of the pandemic on its members and our clients, as we have yet to collectively grieve the experience, and are still bearing witness to its effects to this day.
MSW Student Representative
Matthew Petersen
Term ends 2025
Matthew graduated from Salve Regina University in 2014 with an MS in the Administration of Justice and Homeland Security. While pursuing his graduate degree, he began working in a residential treatment facility for children who had experienced abuse and neglect. It was during this time he discovered my passion for youth empowerment and strengthening families. Since then, he has amassed over a decade of child welfare experience in residential treatment, foster care, the Providence school system and adoption. Currently, he is the Adoption Program Director at Child & Family Services of New Bedford, MA where his focus is achieving permanency for children in Massachusetts DCF custody. Throughout, his leadership has focused on outcome driven program development, stakeholder engagement, trauma informed care and innovative solutions strengthening child welfare practice. He is pursuing an MSW from Rhode Island College.
Matthew describes himself as a fierce advocate for people in need who is guided by his core beliefs that everyone should be treated with respect and able ot achieve their idea of success. His vision is to contribute his skills to an effective team while inspiring meaningful systemic change for children and families in this country.
BSW Student Representative
Margaret Fallon
Term ends 2025
Margaret Fallon is a freshman at Providence College. She recently completed her first semester as a Social Work major and received Dean’s List recognition. As a student and future social worker, Margaret sees a desperate need for social workers and believes in their ability to create large, systemic change. She sees social media and education to be valuable means of spreading awareness to pressing social justice issues, and wants to bring fresh eyes and perspectives to solutions to difficult challenges facing the social work profession.