Photography by Jehadu Abshiro.
Roselle Tenorio has dedicated her career to empowering women and girls. The graduate of Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School and The Hockaday School studied gender, women and sexuality at Grinnell College with the goal of working for a nonprofit organization. She started her career as an AmeriCorps VISTA member at an educational nonprofit in Savannah, Georgia. In 2019, she joined the Texas Women’s Foundation as the grants and programs coordinator. The foundation grants more than $7 million annually to advance economic and leadership opportunities for women and girls. In April 2020, the Resilience Fund was created to support low-income women and families in need of assistance amid the pandemic. Nearly $3 million has been distributed. In her free time, she volunteers at Junior Players, Abide Women’s Health Services, the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas and the Junior League of Dallas.
WHAT MAKES A FIERCE FEMALE: The fierce females I look up to are the ones who have trailblazed in their careers, given back and furthered themselves. It’s the drive and motivation, as well as making things happen for yourself and others.
WOMEN SHE ADMIRES: Rosaura Cruz at Junior Players, Karla Loya-Stack at Catch Up and Read and Cristal Retana at Children’s Health. They’re local to the area.
ON COVID: It was difficult seeing increased need because of the public health crisis. We really had to shift how we were granting. Before, it was on a timeline. When the pandemic came, we immediately started to accept proposals and started granting monthly. We granted a lot more money than we typically would. We still plan to grant monthly through the summer. People are still recovering.
HOW WOMEN AND GIRLS WERE AFFECTED: We saw so many women leave the workforce. Child care centers shut down, which made it harder for women who were still working. Child care workers, who are primarily women, lost their jobs. Young girls in school have had a lot of learning loss, engagement loss and attendance loss. Women at home were at an increased risk of dangerous situations through domestic violence and child abuse. Systems to flee and go somewhere safe, those were no longer there or harder to access. More young girls were sex trafficked because of economic pressures.
ON VOLUNTEERING: Some families go to church or have family dinner nights. I grew up in a family where volunteering was part of everyday life. Volunteers have made a big difference in my life. Volunteers taught me how to dance and taught me science experiments in school. Volunteers made things happen for the nonprofits I was involved in. I see the need to continue so they have those resources in our community. Even if I volunteer from home, it’s still going to happen.
ON GENDER DISCRIMINATION: My first experience, like a lot of Latinas, is you can’t do certain things and when you ask why, it’s because you’re female. That came early on. My older brother, did he get to do things because he was older or because he was a boy? I’ve been entrenched in the work for women, so it’s rare now.
HER HIDDEN TALENT: I grew up as a dancer. I danced as soon as I could walk. I did that through school. There was a prima ballerina who had a dance studio off Lower Greenville, so I got to dance with a famous Russian prima ballerina.
HER GO-TO RESTAURANT: I’m an aspiring vegan, so anywhere I can order tofu. I’m vegetarian. It was a recent decision. My mom had been a pescatarian for a long time. Living with her, I got used to not eating meat. When I started living on my own, I really only ate meat when I ate out. I slowly cut it out. I do it for environmental reasons, but it’s also partly how I grew up.
HOW SHE’D SPEND $10,000: I would spend it on creating a community space, maybe something that’s already there but making it more inviting and interactive so people can come together and share in live music, dance and food. I love that, and it’s what I miss during the pandemic.
WHAT SHE LOVES ABOUT EAST DALLAS: I grew up in Casa View for almost 20 years. Where I am now is the best of everything — close to the city and to White Rock Lake. I have a membership at the Arboretum, and I walk there. I have access to the natural and urban environment. Those two things have kept me on this side of town.
WHAT SHE’S PROUDEST OF: What I’m most proud of is coming full circle. Growing up, I was on the recipient side of nonprofits, participating in programs and getting scholarships for camps and enrichment opportunities so I could obtain higher education. Then I returned to the nonprofit sector that invested so much in me and was able to invest my time and career in that. It’s personal to be in this position. I don’t take it lightly.
To read more about our 2021 fierce females, click here.
