Founder & President

From the land of pura vida, Costa Rica, and a family of poets, activists, educators and entrepreneurs, Renata adopted the U.S. South as her home almost three decades ago. She began her nonprofit career right out of college in Atlanta, GA, and has honed her social entrepreneurial spirit in Nashville, TN, for the last 25 years.

Before Mosaic, Renata led Conexión Américas, the nonprofit organization she co-founded in 2002 to serve Tennessee's Latinx and other immigrant communities — and where Mosaic was seeded.

After 17 years at the helm of Conexión Américas, Renata spent two years, 2020 and 2021, as a fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, where she focused on developing Mosaic Changemakers as an independent social impact organization.

Nationally, Renata served for 10 years on the board of directors, and as chair from 2015-2018, of UnidosUS, the largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. Currently she serves as board chair of its sister organization, UnidosUS Action Fund, which works to expand the influence and political power of the Latino community.

Vice President

A child of the Great Migration raised in Central New York and seasoned in the South, Tasneem is a humanities scholar and performance artist who facilitates engagements that explore the soul connection of our collective humanity.

Before Mosaic, Tasneem served at the Nashville Public Library as an associate director of programming in the Civil Rights Center. For nearly 20 years she worked as a newspaper journalist and has worked with several non-profits — in Syracuse, NY; Nashville, TN and Belize, Central America — as a community engagement manager, content creator and editor.

As a student and teacher of the global struggles for liberation, she continues to use conversation and stories as a pathway to developing, and sustaining, community. Her writing and performances have been featured in local productions of “How to Catch A Flying Woman,” with Actors Bridge Ensemble. She is an inaugural cast member and featured writer in the stage production and anthology “Listen to Your Mother.”

Tasneem makes a mean pot of curry collard greens and loves crochet, karaoke and running at sunrise.

Director of Operations

Teri, a native of the flatlands of rural Gibson County, TN, has deep ties to communities across her native state.

Teri holds a degree in business administration from Middle Tennessee State University and a master’s degree in the same field. Teri has worked in the insurance, hospital, nonprofit, and education industries and served on many nonprofit boards.

Before Mosaic, Teri worked as a magnet school site coordinator with Metro Nashville Public Schools as part of the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grant from the Department of Education to transform five traditional elementary schools into whole-school magnet programs with science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM)-related themes.

Not only does Teri enjoy creating order and calm in various environments, she loves truffle fries and telling all who don’t know that her hometown of Trenton, TN, is home to the world’s largest collection of teapots.