Around New England

Framingham’s $125K-a-Year Diversity Officer Says Her ‘Work Is Forever Going To Be A Factor’

April 3, 2021

The city of Framingham’s first chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer says she sees ending racial inequality as a goal, but she doesn’t foresee when that might happen.

“This work is forever going to be a factor,” said Maritsa Barros, who started in January, according to The MetroWest Daily News, which ran a profile on her Friday, April 2.

Barros, whose LinkedIn page includes her pronouns of choice (she/her/hers), is the daughter of immigrants from Cape Verde. She said working with a female mayor of color – Framingham’s mayor, Yvette Spicer, is black – was a draw.

As an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where she majored in psychology and African-American studies, an African-American studies professor “lit the fire of an activist in Barros, a fire that has continued to burn,” the newspaper reports.

Barros has a doctorate in education. She “describes herself as innovative and creative,” according to the newspaper.

She has served in multicultural recruitment positions at Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Framingham State University, and in a comparable position at Lesley University in Cambridge.

Barros’s salary is $125,000, according to the newspaper.