Rini Fonseca-Sabune, Esq.
Principal, Rini Fonseca-Sabune Consulting LLC
New York, New York
As an attorney, educator, and advocate, Rini Fonseca-Sabune has worked for over twenty years to build power and capacity in low-income communities of color. Rini is the founder and principal at Rini Fonseca-Sabune Consulting LLC where she supports mission-driven organizations seeking alignment between their mission, values, policies, and practices. In this capacity, she works on issues of race, equity, diversity, and inclusion, both internally and externally, as well as strategic planning, organizational development, and coaching. Previously, Rini served as New York City’s first Chief Democracy Officer where she launched the DemocracyNYC Initiative, creating opportunities for civic engagement throughout New York City, particularly in marginalized and historically disenfranchised communities.
Rini previously served as a Skadden Fellow with the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project where she partnered with community-based organizations to bring affirmative litigation against landlords harassing low-income rent regulated tenants, and as a Karpatkin Fellow at the ACLU Racial Justice Program, where she litigated school-to-prison pipeline cases in state and federal courts around the country. As an educator, Rini taught high school seniors at the Bushwick School for Social Justice, where she partnered with community organizers to develop a first-in-kind, yearlong social justice seminar. She has also designed and taught GED and writing courses to incarcerated women on Rikers Island and investigated police misconduct with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Internationally, Rini worked with Partners in Health in Rwanda to roll out a community health worker training program. She also taught secondary school in Uganda.
Rini has earned degrees with honors from Harvard College (BA), Harvard Law School (JD) and Fordham Graduate School of Education (MST). Rini is from a family of immigrants from Uganda and Guyana; she was born in New York City and grew up in Jersey City and Newark, NJ.