The Dominican American National Roundtable (Roundtable) has as its central mission to serve as “a national forum for analysis, planning, and action to advance the educational, economic, legal, social, cultural, and political interests of Dominican-Americans” by establishing a national presence for our community. The Roundtable is a non-partisan, non-profit corporation based in Washington, D.C. As reflected by its history, the Roundtable is grounded on principles of empowerment, inclusiveness and community consensus.

The concept of the Roundtable emerged in December 1997, when over 200 Dominican-American leaders from around the country met in Miami, Florida, to discuss the educational, economic, legal, social and political status of the more than one million people of Dominican origin in the United States. This historic gathering was organized and hosted by the Dominican American National Foundation of South Florida under the leadership of Margarita Cepeda, President, and Radhamés Peguero, Executive Director, the Office of New York State Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, and Rhode Island’s Quisqueya In Action Youth Organization. Embracing the theme “The National Agenda,” the conference included workshops and symposia addressing education, public safety, health care, immigration reform, community empowerment and economic development, among other topics. The attendees included representatives from states and cities with large Dominican populations, including New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Florida, Illinois and Washington D.C., as well as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The December 1997 conference marked the beginning of a unique and positive effort to identify and develop a national agenda designed to unite Dominican Americans behind a common goal. Faced with many challenges, conference participants undertook to build a strategy to address the many important issues that affect the Dominican-American community. From the participants’ consensus view of our community’s needs emerged the concept of the Roundtable.

Following the December 1997 conference, at Alianza Dominicana, Inc. in New York City a meeting was organized that brought together a broad spectrum of Dominican community leaders. The participants created a national interim steering committee to develop the formal structure and initial agenda of the Roundtable. In April of 1998, the interim steering committee met at the Dominican Studies Institute of the City College of New York to plan a path forward that included several other gatherings designed to secure the grassroots and leadership buy-in necessary to ensure the Roundtable’s success and effectiveness. For example, during a working conference held in Washington, D.C. in June 1998, 47 Roundtable participants met with Federal officials to introduce the Roundtable and its national agenda. In May 1999, the Roundtable gathered again in Rhode Island, at a public conference attended by over 600 people. In addition to numerous educational symposia, the Rhode Island conference provided attendees with formal opportunities to provide input to the national steering committee concerning the structure, future activities and vision of the Roundtable.

The Roundtable’s initial stage of organizational development ended with the formation of a non-partisan, non-profit corporation based in Washington, D.C. In keeping with its goal of grassroots empowerment, the Roundtable is organized as a membership corporation whose members have the right to vote in the election of directors and other matters presented to the membership. The Roundtable strives to promote the interests of Dominican Americans through a broad range of educational and advocacy activities.

As a result of these four years of planning, reaching out to other Dominican Americans, meeting together, and forging consensus, by early 1999 the Dominican American National Roundtable had arrived at a level of organizational development which included: successfully organizing the first Roundtable event in New York City with the partnership of Columbia University and major corporate sponsors, establishing the membership participation, allowing paid dues members to vote for new board of directors entering the organization, and obtaining Federal Exempt Status. Most important, the Roundtable set out to raise the funds needed to create its first day to day operational budget, and make possible the hiring of an Executive Director to execute the activities and legislative action proposed in its Mission statement.

During this development process, the Board has elected three Presidents, Victor Capellan (1999- 2000), Adriano Espaillat (2000-2001) and most recently Ana Garcia-Reyes (2001-2002). In 2001, the Roundtable also opened its office in Washington D.C and appointed Jose Bello as its Executive Director.