A son of working-class Salvadoran immigrants, Ricky grew up in rural North Carolina and is a product of North Carolina’s public schools. Throughout his career in public service, Ricky has focused on fostering engaged citizens across the state and creating effective public policy to build strong, vibrant communities, primarily through public education.

Ricky is a former nonprofit practitioner and educator. In 2018, he co-founded LatinxEd with Elaine Townsend Utin to advance education equity and Latino leadership. He also has taught at the UNC School of Education. His leadership on education issues has led him to serve North Carolina in different ways, including serving on Governor Cooper’s DRIVE Task Force on education equity and teacher diversity; as a commissioner of My Future NC, an initiative focused on college attainment across the state; and even as a NC House Representative, where he represented Alamance County (District 63). His significant efforts in public education and service to the state led to Governor Stein awarding him the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2025, one of the state’s highest honors for civic leadership.

More recently, Ricky served as Senior Consultant at Frontline Solutions, where he supported nonprofits nationwide to increase their impact through strategic planning. He is now a Program Officer at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Ricky received his Bachelor’s in Business Administration from UNC-Chapel Hill where he attended as a Morehead-Cain Scholar and a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University.