Independence Charter School

Pedro Rodriguez is a seasoned community activist and organizer and a nationally sought-after speaker and workshop leader with a special interest in government and public relations and in policy development and implementation. He is currently serving as Interim Director of the Open Borders Project. Mr. Rodriguez was Executive Director of the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens of Greater Philadelphia from April 1999 to June 2007. Prior to that, he was an Action Alliance legislative and health care issues organizer from 1997-99. Under Mayor Ed Rendell, Mr. Rodriguez served as Assistant Director of the Philadelphia Empowerment Zones from 1994-96. He was responsible for personnel administration, set up governance structures for each of the Zone’s three nonprofit entities ─ which still exist today ─ and developed detailed budgets and plans. From 1990-94, Mr. Rodriguez served as Legislative Director for former Philadelphia City Councilman Daniel McElhatton. Mr. Rodriguez also served as AIDS educator, Congreso de Latinos Unidos and conducted a prevention program for HIV-positive intravenous drug users. Mr. Rodriguez was executive vice-president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, a national organization of retirees and senior citizens with more than 3 million members and, from 1996 to April 2007, an associate editor of the weekly Community Focus/Enfoque Comunal, the largest bilingual newspaper in Pennsylvania. He has been a teacher of Spanish for the last 11 years, part time, at the Spanish Language School in Center City Philadelphia. Mr. Rodriguez is married to Pamela Waltz and has two children, Anatolia, a graduate of Philadelphia University and Daniel, who is entering first grade this fall.