A Partnership Built on Care: Inside a Special Mentor–Mentee Journey

When Bernadette Vasquez entered the 2025 Coaching and Mentoring Leadership Academy (CMLA), she brought with her more than two decades of NYCHA experience, genuine devotion to her work, and a central ambition — to understand what her new role would call for and to grow into that new role confidently. What she didn’t expect — though it became clear almost immediately — was that getting matched with longtime NYCHA staffer and CMLA graduate Dixon Rivers as her mentor would be a lucky development and directly helpful to that ambition.

For Ms. Vasquez, the CMLA opportunity arrived at just the right time. After over 20 years serving in a variety of roles — seasonal worker, caretaker, Heating Plant Technician, and later maintenance — she stepped into a new title and role in 2024 as Assistant Property Maintenance Superintendent at Vandalia Houses. The responsibilities were significant, as were the expectations.

“I thought the CMLA program could help give me the deeper understanding I needed,” she said. “I’d already been working in the [new] role for five months. But the CMLA felt like the chance to finally get the kind of one-on-one guidance that could help me grow.”

Enter Dixon Rivers — who has spent 36 years at NYCHA and who speaks about colleagues like they’re family. Mr. Rivers completed the CMLA program last year – he was a mentee himself then – and he’d found it transformative. When he got the list of this year’s cohort, he reached out to Ms. Vasquez right away. His message was simple: call me anytime – I’m here to help.

“I like helping people — that’s just who I am,” Mr. Rivers said. “You have to listen to your staff with empathy, really communicate. Everybody has challenges in their life. Sometimes the best kind of leadership is just to ask, ‘Are you doing OK today? Do you need help?’”

That approach made an impact on Ms. Vasquez. Even before their formal sessions began, she felt that she had found someone she could rely on. “His caring, his reassurance — they really mattered. It let me know I wasn’t all alone as I stepped into something new,” she said.

Their partnership has since grown into what the designers of the CMLA aim to foster: honesty, encouragement, shared learning, and a mutual commitment to aiming high in one’s work. Mr. Rivers and Ms. Vasquez meet regularly, in person whenever possible, and they are in constant communication.

For Mr. Rivers, mentoring is all about being of service. His own early-career years — starting out as a caretaker, learning each job deeply, maturing into his current role as Resident Building Superintendent at Johnson Houses — inform how he shows up. “So many good people have helped me. Now, it’s my turn,” he said.

For Ms. Vasquez, this partnership has opened the door both to new skills and to a new sense of pride. “I am going to come out of this program with as much knowledge as possible — and also, a long-life friend,” she said.