Sabina Matos was appointed as the 70th Lieutenant Governor of the State of Rhode Island on April 14, 2021. She is the second woman to hold this post and the first woman of color. Additionally, she is the first Dominican American to hold the position of Lieutenant Governor in the United States.

Before she was appointed Lieutenant Governor, she served on the Providence City Council from January 2011 until April 2021. During that period, she was elected as the first Latina to hold the position of City Council President Pro Tempore in 2015, and in 2019 she was elected City Council President by her peers. She has the distinction of being the first Latina to hold both positions in the city’s history. As the Councilwoman for Ward 15, she represented the neighborhoods of Olneyville and parts of the Silver Lake and Valley.

Lieutenant Governor Matos was born in the province of Barahona in the Dominican Republic. In April 1994, she emigrated to the United States.

She is a proud graduate of Rhode Island College, where she earned her BA in Communications and Public Relations in May of 2001. She is also a graduate of the Latina Leadership Institute and Leadership for a Future.

Matos is also a graduate of the Aspen Institute’s Rodel Fellowship Program – an invitation-only fellowship program for elected officials at all levels in the United States.

The Lieutenant Governor has served as the past President of the ECAS-Educational Center for the Arts and Sciences, the RI Latino Civic Fund – The Latina Leadership Training, and the Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee. She has also previously served as the Board Secretary of the Olneyville Housing Corporation and on the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Council and Latino Policy Institute boards. Matos has also been a member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association. She is a founding member of LUCHA-Latina’s United for Change.

Lieutenant Governor Matos lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband, Patrick, and their two children, Diego and Annemarie.