Riyza Jose Morales

("Raisa"/"rise-ah") is a dedicated network weaver and community catalyst. Accompanied by over a decade of deep civic engagement and a non-profit career centered on coalition building at growing levels of influence, Riyza engages her joy for connecting with others through her alliances with distributed advocacy networks and action coalitions. She champions missions that put people over profit and build the capacity of humanity for a more liberated, resilient, and peaceful future.

Through her practice at Rooted Networks, Riyza elevates networks/community as critical infrastructure for systems change and transformation. Her role as a weaver is to cultivate trust, belonging, and intuitive interrelationality as networks collaboratively act/innovate to address our world's complex polycrisis. Her work is steeped in an ethos of participatory governance, intersectionality and interculturalism, and authentic leadership.

Riyza's roots are found in her hometown of Tampa, Florida - her life a confluence of diverse socio-cultural experiences and a long-held personal mission to simply do what she can to advocate for herself and her community. While pieces of her heart are scattered in many parts of the world, she has called Cary, North Carolina (Skaruhreh/Tuscarora, Catawba, Lumbee lands) home since 2023, where she continues to find her dreams coming true one day at a time.

She is often found loving life while laughing among treasured friends, cooking (and eating) soup, hollering from the crowd at a live jazz night, or scoring points at her weekly mahjong club. Other interests include open-air naps, spicy food competitions (more eating), karaoke, Star Trek, and her banana collection (surprisingly, no eating here). Though woefully unfunny herself, Riyza remains a lifelong fan and student of comedy.

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Interested in collaborating? Please say hello! In the meantime, feel free to keep in touch via LinkedIn, and follow along with my musings on Substack.

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