Gabrielle Rivero

About Gabrielle Rivero

I am Gabby Rivero, and I\'m running for School Board because I know what it takes to govern with care, courage, and accountability.As a business owner, I understand budgets, management, and long-term planning. I’ve served on the City of Durham’s Recreation Advisory Commission, where I worked across differences—analyzing budgets, questioning programs, and pushing back when decisions failed to serve the whole community.I currently serve on the board of the Greater Durham Black Chamber of Commerce and chair its Membership Committee. That role has taught me what real governance looks like: holding leadership accountable, asking hard questions, and building collective power. I advocate for Black businesses as an ecosystem, because equity requires addressing racism at its roots.I’m also a parent and foster parent, and a proud PTA Vice President at Southwest Elementary, a dual language Title I school. For the past two years, I’ve advocated for transportation, stood up against ICE-related fear, and supported families during moments of crisis.As a foster parent, I’ve experienced Durham Public Schools from multiple perspectives—Burton Elementary, Jordan High School, and Southwest Elementary. I’ve seen how inconsistent policies and supports can be for vulnerable students, especially foster youth. Our children deserve consistency, dignity, and care in every school.My professional work centers on restorative and therapeutic practices. Through my therapeutic dance company, I focus on addressing root causes rather than punishing behavior. When children are overwhelmed, the solution is regulation, connection, and support—not discipline alone. That mindset must guide our schools.I’m bilingual, raising children in a bilingual, biracial home, and deeply committed to child advocacy—especially for marginalized, immigrant, and foster students. I believe schools should be safe, inclusive, and healing-centered spaces.School board service is about governing, not grandstanding. It requires transparency, equity, accountability, and the courage to ask: Who does this decision help? Who does it harm? And how can we do better?That’s why I’m running.For our children.For our educators.For our families.

Experience

1. Founder & Chief Movement Officer

   Express & Release Therapeutic Dance

   Sep 2022 — Present · Durham, NC, US

   Recent research has proven that we store emotions in our bodies unwittingly, and it affects our mental, physical, and social health. To address our emotional health needs, I founded Express & Release Therapeutic Dance, which creates accessible movement practices to help individuals learn how to accept the emotions in their bodies, express these emotions through movement, to release these emotions from the self. We offer virtual and in-person workshops, webinars, and educate mental, fitness, and wellness practitioners in the Lenae Release Method, which is our research-based movement method that helps individuals feel comfortable and confident expressing their emotions through movement.We are available to hire for speaking requests, in-person and online workshops, educational webinars, After-school programs, and access to licenses and certifications.

Education

• University of Florida

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Recreation and Event Management

  2010 — 2014

• Fuller Theological Seminary

  Master of Arts - MA, Theology/Theological Studies

  2015 — 2018