Sapientis - About Us

Kristin Ehrgood
President & Founder

Kristin Ehrgood is President & Founder of Sapientis. After earning her Master's Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2001, Mrs. Ehrgood and Kennedy School classmate Vadim Nikitine started Sapientis in Puerto Rico. Since 2003, Sapientis has provided training to more than 450 people working in public education, including outstanding college graduates, teachers, school directors, and parents. Sapientis members have taught more than 3,000 students in 56 public schools in Puerto Rico. In 2005, Ms. Ehrgood was named Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in the area of Social Responsibility. In addition to her work at Sapientis, Mrs. Ehrgood is a member of the Dean's Alumni Leadership Council at the Kennedy School and chair of the Millennium Fund.

Adelisa González is our Senior Director of Development. She works to create and build relations with those who support Sapientis, in order to expand our group of investors and ensure that the organization maximizes its financial resources and operates efficiently. As a member of our senior administrative team, Adelisa contributes to the strategic efforts that lead the organization to fulfill its purpose of improving the quality of the public education system in Puerto Rico on a long-term basis.

Before joining Sapientis, Adelisa worked for Mellon Financial Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts. As Associate Vice President and Corporate Donations Manager at Mellon New England, she shouldered the responsibility of identifying and granting $2 million a year to community-oriented organizations that supported educational programs, as well as economic and community development.

Her work at Mellon won her several acknowledgements, including the 2003 and 2004 Mellon Premier Achievement Awards. In 2005, she was also among one of 30 employees selected to receive the prestigious Mellon Star Award.

Lilia M. Miletti
Senior Director of Finance and Administration

As Senior Director of Finance and Administration, Lilia M. Miletti provides leadership to safeguard Sapientis’ financial health and to continuously improve services in support of Sapientis' vision and programs. She is responsible for the overall financial affairs, human resources and administrative processes for Sapientis.

Before joining Sapientis in 2007, Ms. Miletti worked for The Salvation Army as Assistant to Finance Director. She has also held positions of Director of Finance and Administration at Newland Associates and Senior Accountant at Lucy López Roig & Associates.

Ms. Miletti has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, a bachelor’s degree in Accounting, and is completing a master’s degree in Economics, all from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.

Yasmin Vélez Sánchez
Mobilization Director

Yasmin Vélez Sánchez has the responsibility of establishing the strategies to organize, develop and mobilize the network of change agents that work to improve the quality of the public education system. She supervises the initiatives to expand network participant’s capabilities with the intention of helping them exercise leadership to contribute in the transformation of the public education system. She also directs all internal and external communications efforts of the organization, social marketing campaigns and all efforts related to create awareness and mobilize the society.

Previously Yasmin worked as Network Manager in Sapientis. Before that, she was Marketing and Public Relations Official for the Ponce Museum of Art. She was also Communications Director at the Puerto Rico Foundation for the Humanities, where she had the opportunity of creating the Communications Division. This allowed her to develop a new institutional image for the foundation. Vélez has a Bachelor’s degree in Communications with a concentration in Editing for Media Communications from the University of the Sacred Heart. She is currently working on her thesis to obtain a Master’s Degree in Public Relations at the same university.

Maricarmen Ortiz Figueroa
Leadership Planner

As Leadership Planner of Jóvenes en Acción, Maricarmen Ortiz Figueroa is responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the program, which seeks the active participation of students in the efforts to improve the quality of education at their schools.

Previously, Maricarmen Ortiz worked for six years in the Municipality of Comerío where she held positions as Director of the Culture and Tourism Office, Mayor Assistant and City Administrator. Maricarmen has a Bachelors Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Phoenix.

As Network Coordinator, José León is responsible for coordinating all activities of the network, update the database and website. Further more, he is responsible to keep informed all members of the network on all the work of the organization.

Before joining Sapientis,. Jose Leon worked on "Camera Mundi" as IT in the area of technology; he was responsible for providing technical support to all schools in the east area of Puerto Rico. Leon holds a BA in Information Systems with a mayor in Management from the Interamerican University and holds certifications in Comptia A+ and Microsoft MCP.

As Office Administrator, Amarilys Figueroa is responsible for organizing and coordinating the day-to-day functions of the office. She provides administrative and accounting support to ensure organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

Before joining Sapientis, Amarilys Figueroa worked as Assistant Comptroller in Somascan, Hato Rey, where she was responsible for the accounting process of five different locations.

Amarilys has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting from the University of PuertoRico, Mayagüez Campus.

Elizabeth Cancel is responsible of coordinating all initiatives to organize, develop and mobilize the Coalición por la Equidad y Calidad Educativa (Coalition for Equity and Quality Education), which main purpose is to improve the quality of the public education in Puerto Rico. She also provides direct support in the coordination and execution of all programmatic activities of Sapientis. At the same time she does clerical and customer service work to guarantee organizational efficacy and efficiency.

Before joining Sapientis Elizabeth was secretary, teacher, coordinator of an after school program and summer camp of the Department of Education in Puerto Rico. Also, she was a member of the School Council and the fiscal component of the school in which she worked.

Elizabeth has a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education from University of the Sacred Heart. She has 12 credits towards a Master’s Degree in Technologic Education from Cambridge College in Puerto Rico.