Board Members

Joseph A.“Tony” Mesa, III, Esq.
President / Chair / Director

Joseph A. “Tony” Mesa III is the founder of Mesa Law Firm in Miami, Florida. Tony attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C., and earned his Juris Doctorate in 2002. While at Georgetown, Tony served as a student ambassador as well as a founding officer of the Association of Cuban American Law Students. After his first year of law school, Tony was recruited and selected to work as a summer associate at one of the largest and most prominent multinational law firms in the world.

Following graduation from Georgetown, Tony was recruited and hired to join the trial practice of a large, nationally recognized law firm in Miami, Florida, where he gained extensive experience in complex commercial litigation.

After several years in practice at this prominent firm, Tony followed his dream and founded Mesa Law Firm, pursuing his passion for representing injured persons and fighting for justice, and making communities safer by holding accountable those responsible for harm. He now fully concentrates his practice on personal injury and wrongful death litigation. During his career, Tony has achieved many notable victories for his clients, one of which featured him in the Daily Business Review as one of the attorneys who obtained a multi-million dollar settlement in a difficult and hard-fought case against a governmental agency.

For 13 years, Tony has been selected for inclusion in the highly regarded publications of Super Lawyers and Florida Legal Elite, in which a very small percentage of lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement are annually named. In addition, Tony is rated “AV Preeminent” by the prestigious publication Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating available for legal ability and professional ethics. He is also a proud member of the American Association for Justice and the Florida Justice Association.

Throughout his professional career, Tony has always placed great importance on giving back to the community. From his service on the United Way Miami Board of Trustees and as a United Way Miami Young Leader, to his pro bono legal services for Habitat for Humanity and service as chairman of a Florida Bar Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee, Tony has made community work part of his personal mission.

Tony considers some of his most meaningful community involvement to be his work with the SLAM! Foundation and the Sports Leadership Arts and Management (SLAM!) network of public charter schools. Tony serves as the Chairman and President of the SLAM! Foundation and the Vice Chairman and Vice President of the SLAM! network of schools. The SLAM! Foundation, of which Tony is a founder, is a non-profit educational organization supporting the expansion of SLAM!’s K-12 tuition-free, public charter schools in underrepresented communities nationwide. Among other things, the Foundation helps direct the network’s growing list of corporate partnerships and supports the network’s current campuses, as well as the network’s expansion nationwide. Tony believes deeply in SLAM!’s mission and the work that it does for its overwhelmingly minority and underserved student population, their families and the communities that it serves throughout the country.

Alina Riveron Lopez
Vice President / Vice Chair / Director

Alina Riveron Lopez has been in the field of Education since 1999.  She holds a B.A. from Florida International University in Psychology, M.S. from Nova Southeastern University in Elementary Education and an Educational Leadership Certificate from Florida International University. She began her teaching career as an Elementary teacher at Doral Academy Charter School in 1999. She taught for seven years in the public charter school system prior to her first administrative position at Mater Academy East Charter School as an Assistant Principal. While an administrator at Mater Academy East, Ms. Lopez also received her first appointment as Principal of Theodore R. & Thelma A. Gibson Charter School in 2007. In the 2007-2008 school year, she assisted in opening Mater Academy East Charter High School and transitioned from an elementary administrator to a middle and high school administrator. Later in 2009, she had the opportunity to return to Doral Academy Charter Middle and High School, where she had started her teaching career, as an assistant principal.

In 2011, Ms. Lopez was named Principal of Doral Academy of Technology (DAT). During her tenure, she helped develop and implement an innovative and challenging curriculum which focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The program included advanced and pre-AP courses in the core and content areas and electives in computer engineering, computer programming, robotics, and video game design. The students competed and placed State and National math and science competitions like Future City and First Lego League. In the 2011-2012 school year, Doral Academy of Technology was ranked the top performing middle school in the State of Florida and has continued to be one of the top performing schools in Florida.
 
In 2015, Ms. Lopez was named principal of Somerset South Homestead, a charter school in Florida serving student in grades 6-12. By 2019 she was responsible for the program’s expansion to three additional charter schools in Homestead. She is experienced in building a school culture where teachers and staff believe that every individual student is unique and can attain academic success. As a highly effective school leader, Ms. Lopez contributes her expertise in the areas of budgeting, marketing, curriculum and school operations. Serving on the SLAM local school’s boards since its inception, Ms. Lopez is a board member who understands the unique needs of the communities SLAM serves.

Rene F. Ruiz, Esq.
Director & Secretary

Rene Ruiz co-founded Sports Leadership Arts and Management Academy Charter School in Miami.
He serves as the corporation’s director and secretary. As such, he helps with the schools’ growing list of corporate partnerships and supports SLAM’s of its successful model throughout the country.

Mr. Ruiz is a shareholder at the law firm of Stearns Weaver Miller, and is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. Mr. Ruiz has been honing his craft as a labor and employment attorney in Miami since his admission to the Florida Bar in 2001, at the age of 23.

While in law school, Rene interned with the Honorable Stephen T. Brown and the Honorable Ted E. Bandstra in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Rene also served on the Editorial Board of the University of Miami Law Review.

In 2007, Mr. Ruiz was first included in The Best Lawyers in America as an associate lawyer (one of the very few attorneys to do so in the history of the prestigious publication). The following year, he was voted into partnership at the age of 30.

Mr. Ruiz partners with private and public sector employers to formulate winning strategies for achieving effective labor relations and other business goals. He also litigates wage and hour disputes, discrimination, retaliation, whistleblower and harassment cases, and matters arising under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.