Our Team
Founder, Board & Volunteers
Beyond literacy, our board has spent years working hand-in-hand with communities in the rural central mountain region of the Dominican Republic — building homes, supporting coffee-farmer education, and organizing trash pickups and food drives.
Founder & Board Chair
Francia E. Brisita, B.S. Ed., Bilingual, ESL
Now retired, Francia holds a B.S. in Education with a specialization in Bilingual Education and ESL from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. She spent nearly three decades at Indian Creek Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas — first as a bilingual executive secretary, then, from 2005 to 2018, as a bilingual classroom teacher and Grade-Level and District-Wide Reading Coordinator, earning Teacher of the Year honors in 2010. After retiring in 2019, she founded Lectura Sintetizada and, in 2020, partnered directly with the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Education to bring it into schools nationwide. Her guiding belief, after a lifetime in the classroom: if a child doesn't know how to read, nothing else matters.
Board Member
Rafael Brisita
Now retired and living in the Dominican Republic, Rafael spent nearly 30 years as a professor, department chair, and eventually Vice President at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas — the only college in the nation federally designated as both a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). He helped countless underprivileged students, many of them Latino and Black, graduate and find jobs. He has also spent decades in grassroots community development in the rural central mountain region of the Dominican Republic, including home building, water infrastructure, coffee-farmer education, and local sanitation and food-drive efforts.
Board Member
Maria D. Garza
Now retired and living in Texas, Maria dedicated 34 years to educating children as an elementary school teacher and building a strong foundation for their academic success. She was a steadfast advocate for her students, consistently implementing innovative instructional strategies to support diverse learning needs. Beyond the classroom, she served as a campus Science Facilitator and was an active member of her school's elementary leadership committee, spearheading events to advance the science curriculum.
U.S. Operations
Artur Brisita
Based in New York City, Artur leads the nonprofit's U.S. operations — recruiting volunteers, hosting fundraising events, and building the local partnerships that support Lectura Sintetizada's growth abroad.
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Whether you're in New York, the Dominican Republic, Panama, or anywhere in between, there's a place for you in this work.
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