Our 2026 Bannister Awards

Christiana Carteaux Bannister knew better than anyone how to draw on her background to empower her work. A hair doctress and entrepreneur born to Black and Indigenous parents in North Kingstown in 1819, she built her business and wealth and reinvested in her community. Alongside her painter husband, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Christiana participated in the Underground Railroad, advocated for Black military veterans and founded a home for elderly women of color. Her legacy lives on in the community institutions that share her values today.

The winners of this year’s Christiana Carteaux Bannister Awards, like their namesake, have drawn from their diverse life experiences to work toward a Rhode Island that is better for all. From the state’s board rooms to its prisons, from street patrols to academic lecture halls, this year’s recipients demonstrate that it takes individuals from every background combining their skills and perspectives to build a more equitable Rhode Island. Now in their sixth year presented by Rhode Island Monthly and the Rhode Island Foundation, these awards continue to recognize the good accomplished across the state. In memory of a woman who held equity at the forefront of everything she did, we proudly present the winners of this year’s Bannister Awards.

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Judges:

Anna Cano Morales, vice president of equity and inclusion, Rhode Island Foundation
Jocelyn Foye, executive director, The Womxn Project
Markeisha Miner, vice president for community, equity and diversity, University of Rhode Island

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ANTHONY ROBERSON

Educating a new generation of police officers.

Photography by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

Anthony Roberson is a big proponent of education in law enforcement. He should know: He holds six degrees, including a doctorate in educational leadership from Liberty University.

Encouraging his officers to continue their education is one of the tenets of his approach as police chief of Central Falls. He points out that studies have shown an educated officer is less likely to use excessive force.

“We wield a lot of authority. We can take freedom, albeit temporarily, by way of arrest, and can use force by law. So at the bare minimum, we should be educated,” he says.

Growing up in Providence’s poorer neighborhoods, he says, police were a frequent sight, most often in response to an incident. Roberson’s own philosophy calls for a broader presence — establishing relationships within the community and addressing issues before incidents happen.

After attending Mount Pleasant and Hope high schools and graduating from the now-closed Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, he completed a stint with AmeriCorps and began his law enforcement career in Brown University’s Department of Public Safety. In 2002, Roberson was hired by the Providence Police Department, where he would spend the next nineteen years shaping his approach to policing. As a young patrol officer, he says, he was inspired by those who gave back to their fields during the infancy of his career.

“You have that ‘protect and serve,’” he says. “I think [being] strong on the protect side, but an emphasis on the service part is key. And being more innovative and more proficient in that service part. When I say that, I mean being service-minded.”

His community policing initiatives have earned recognition both nationally and within the state. In Providence, he founded the Leading Ladies Initiative, which empowers young women by connecting them with professional mentors through weekend retreats. Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera, he says, has been a strong supporter of the initiative and champions its mission. He also founded Cops and Docs, a career program that connects students with professionals in both the medical and law enforcement fields, and Breaking Barriers, which exposes young men to fields they would not traditionally encounter, such as aviation. Another program, the Handshake Initiative, gathers adults from various fields to welcome students at school.

“There’s an undercurrent to all of these programs,” Roberson says. “Stephanie, Mom and Dad get to know Anthony behind the shield. And I get to know them. That makes me a better professional in this field.”

He also partners with community organizations, bringing in the Nonviolence Institute to train his officers and serving on the board of directors for the YMCA of Pawtucket. He views professional development as critical to the department, requiring command staff to complete training in senior management and leadership and encouraging all officers to continue their education.

“The field of law enforcement, it’s so much more complex today than it was years ago. There’s a great benefit to that officer regardless of where they rest in the organization,” he says.

In a world that demands more of its law enforcement professionals — Roberson names addressing the trauma of victims as one element that’s come into sharper focus since he joined the profession — he prioritizes community partnerships as a way to implement long-term change.

“Addressing how you can better serve any community in a collaborative manner in order to address those issues for the short and long term is just better. That’s the way to do it,” he says. —Lauren Clem

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ROSIE FERNANDEZ

Expanding digital access for all.

Photography by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

When Rosie Fernandez was first hired at Cox Communications in the early 2000s, she had no idea a temporary position would turn into a lifelong career engaging the community and seeking out opportunities to benefit young people.

Twenty-three years later, after two decades working in government and public affairs, she reflects on the path that led to her work today.

“For me, it’s because of all the programs and initiatives I benefitted from in Providence growing up,” she says.

The daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Fernandez says her parents instilled the importance of education in her and her seven siblings, but didn’t always know how to access it. She credits community programs such as
SPIRIT and the Rhode Island Educational Talent Search with expanding her horizons while she attended Providence public schools. She would go on to study communications at the University of Rhode Island, apt training for her future in public affairs.

Today, she continues her work as a community and public affairs professional at Cox, a role that includes overseeing Cox Charities East, the company’s charitable giving arm for its eastern region. Much of her work centers around ensuring that young people have equal access to technology regardless of their ZIP code. The company does this through its Tech Boost program that provides grants to nonprofits looking to invest in technology equipment as well as digital equity initiatives that offer affordable internet access to families of low-income students. The company also partners with Boys and Girls Clubs to support Innovation Labs where students learn digital skills.

“You need it to survive,” Fernandez says. “We’re now in a space where if you don’t have a device, it’s hard for you to look at your medical records. It’s hard for you to receive an update from school on your child. Technology and having a device and having internet is super, super important.”

Beyond her work at Cox, she serves on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island and as president of Latino Dollars for Scholars of Rhode Island, a scholarship-granting organization. She is also a member of the Providence Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, an organization focused on scholarship, sisterhood, service and social action. Most of her work, she says, has focused on expanding opportunities for young people, whether through digital equity or access to education.

As many companies and nonprofits pull back from language around equity and inclusion, Fernandez notes that advocates continue to do the work by speaking out and showing up for one another.

“Some people are afraid. So many of our nonprofit partners depend on government funding. But I know that we have people who are committed to the work, who are going to continue to do the work and advocate for all,” she says. “I think as individuals we just need to continue to fight and push back.”

She stays hopeful by keeping a positive lens and seeing the good that others are doing in the community. And by staying invested in the next generation, including her own two college-age daughters.

“I’m hoping that the next generation of young people helps this country turn into a better place to be. That they take it and make it a more equitable and safer space for everyone,” she says. —L.C.

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DINA BRUCE

Creating pathways to recovery and stability.

Photography by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

Dina Bruce, deputy director of OpenDoors, says she’s grateful she went to prison.

“I remember sitting in the back of the police car, and it felt like I could finally breathe,” she says. “I knew it was over … I have that experience of hitting rock bottom and then pulling yourself back together.”

Sometimes, the wrong path can open the door to the right one. Bruce, who helps head the state’s largest transitional program for people leaving prison and returning to the community, had once been in the same spot as many of her clients. Having faced incarceration and navigated addiction and recovery herself, she now prioritizes helping others, holding them accountable and working to create a community built on support, trust and safety.

After her release from incarceration, Bruce was paroled to the Providence Center’s Women’s Roads to Recovery program. There she completed a ninety-day residential treatment program, the first step in her long-term recovery. Program Manager Jasmin DiMaio promised that if she stayed clean and remained in contact, she would one day offer her a job. Three years later, she kept that promise and hired Bruce as part of the organization’s team.

Bruce worked for the Providence Center for the next eight years, beginning in direct care and eventually moving up to management. Former supervisor Lauren D’Andrea encouraged her to work for OpenDoors, where she applied for a shelter manager position.

Under Bruce’s guidance, OpenDoors’ first homeless shelter flourished, and the organization opened a twenty-four-hour warming center for those who had no other choice but to brave New England’s harsh winters. Bruce has since helped open several additional shelters and housing sites with hundreds of beds, guiding many to a path of recovery and an escape from the hardship of living on the streets.

“For me, it’s about purpose. I feel like through my struggles I found strength,” she says. “Every day I get up and I get to give back, and I absolutely love it.”

Her story is a source of resilience, and her efforts remain an integral part of the organization’s mission. Bruce oversees all of OpenDoors’ emergency shelter operations, including sites within Providence, Woonsocket and Pawtucket, as well as reentry-focused transitional sober housing for women and mothers with children. She serves on the Governor’s Council on Housing and Homelessness and as a member of the Rhode Island Reentry Alliance and previously served on the Rhode Island Continuum of Care Board. In 2023, she received the Courage Award from the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness, and the following year was the recipient of the Juneteenth Human Rights Award.

Bruce’s goal has never strayed from helping as many people as possible and uplifting those who need it most. A mother
of four and grandmother of six, she says family is a constant reminder of why her work matters. Whether it’s tackling the affordable housing crisis or offering transitional spaces for those coming out of prison, Bruce hopes to continue helping fellow Rhode Islanders in need.

“I remember saying to myself if I ever get the chance, because I want to do this work, I’m going to do it differently,” she says. “Everything that I’ve been through in my life has led me to where I am today.” —Lynsie Olivier

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CHARLES ROBERTS

Preserving Rhode Island’s BLACK and indigenous history.

Photography by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

Charles Roberts, founder and executive director of Rhode Island Slave History Medallions, remembers when he first learned about Christiana Carteaux Bannister.

As a student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in the nineties, he began studying Black history in addition to art. The two interests converged when he came across Edward Bannister.   

“And because of him I learned who [Christiana] was, and I was shocked to learn that she was an Indigenous and Black woman, and that she really supported him. The work that they did together, to me, created
a renaissance of Black art and history in Providence,” he says.

Roberts moved back to his home state in 2000, but over the years grew concerned about the lack of general awareness surrounding other important local BIPOC figures and historical events.   

“My family has been in Newport since 1889. They came here to escape persecution in the South. And what they’ve done, since I was a child, really influenced me to give back to the community,” he says.

Most significant was his uncle, Paul Gaines, who became one of the first African American mayors in New England when he was elected to lead Newport in 1981. In fact, it was Gaines’ 2006 dedication of the first monument to honor the 1st Rhode Island Regiment (known as the Black Regiment) in Portsmouth that inspired Roberts to establish RISHM as a nonprofit in 2019.

The soul medallions — or Soul Effigies, as Roberts refers to them — are placed in historic locations across the state that have connections to the lives of enslaved and freed African Americans and Indigenous people, especially those whose stories have been widely ignored or overlooked.

More than just markers, they serve as public educational tools — each medallion features a QR code directing visitors to RISHM’s website to learn more about the figure in question — as well as public acknowledgments of the state’s deep involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. They’re sculpted from bronze — a nod to the bronze work Roberts witnessed from the Berber tribesmen during his travels in Egypt — and set atop vertical cement slabs.

There are sixteen medallions installed across the state, from Providence to Newport to Coventry, with several more coming in the next five years. Roberts has also set up a guided Black History walking tour through the Newport Historic District, where many of the medallions are stationed. Tours generally take place Saturday and Sunday mornings, May through October, and are led by Roberts’ wife, public historian Margaret Baker. The tours and medallions not only help shift locals’ awareness but have also enticed visitors traveling to events like the Newport Jazz Festival.

“It’s important that we tell these stories so that everyone knows this is a famous person that contributed so much to the building of America and the artistic culture that makes it possible,” Roberts says.

One such example is Charity “Duchess” Quamino, who came to the area as a slave working for William Ellery Channery but was able to eventually buy her freedom by selling pastries. One of her customers was George Washington, who would seek out her plum cakes when he was in town.

“You don’t often hear about people like Duchess, or Christiana, even though she did so much, because the history has been told by rich white men in power,” says Roberts, who was invited to speak about gender equality at the United Nations earlier this year. “But we make sure that everyone’s story is told.” —Kaitlyn Murray

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Coleen Daley Ndoye

Removing barriers to peer-led care.

Photography by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

In 2005, Pawtucket and Central Falls were facing high rates of drug use and street-based sex work, and subsequent arrests. Struck by the dehumanizing attitude of community members — “How can we get rid of these people?” — Colleen Daley Ndoye worked with police departments and community organizations to create a compassionate alternative to arrest.

Her solution was Project RENEW, a peer-based street outreach program for people engaged in street-based sex work. Within two years of the organization’s services being available, prostitution arrests in Pawtucket and Central Falls dropped by 90 percent.

From the beginning, peer-led care has been central to the organization’s model, which centers people with lived experiences
in its advocacy, support and outreach efforts. Daley Ndoye has found that “people who have the experience will often be the ones who have the most creative solutions or will have solved the problem in the past.” Today, more than 70 percent of the organization’s staff come from similar backgrounds as the clients it serves. About a dozen of those staff members were once clients.

Not long after Project RENEW began, a similar organization, Project Weber, was founded to provide peer-based harm reduction and recovery support services to men engaged in drug use and sex work. In 2016, the organizations merged to become Project Weber/RENEW, expanding their reach to serve a broader population of people at risk of overdose or contracting HIV.

Under Daley Ndoye’s leadership, Weber/RENEW has expanded its impact far beyond the areas it initially targeted. The organization opened the first state-sanctioned overdose prevention center in the country in 2024, placing it in a position to provide guidance to newly created centers. In 2024, Vermont passed legislation authorizing its own overdose prevention center, and organizers have sought out Weber/RENEW for technical assistance, Daley Ndoye says.

The stigma that she recognized at the very beginning of her advocacy work is ever-present for her clients, making the Providence drop-in center one of the few places where they can seek services without the risk of judgment. The organization also offers specific peer-based services for the LGBTQ+ community.

By removing barriers that can often prevent people from seeking essential health services, Project Weber/RENEW gives an at-risk population access to case management, showers, laundry, onsite medical care and basic needs assistance. The organization also offers substance use disorder treatment, free syringe exchange, fentanyl
test strips, safer use supplies, Naloxone distribution and safer sex resources. Daley Ndoye’s work fills some of the gaps that traditional health care systems leave open, serving the people they often leave behind.

“We always talk about the fact that our services are some of the first nontransactional services that people are experiencing,” she says. “Or nontransactional relationships, where people come in and they just receive support or services or connections to care. And there’s no expectations. There’s no payment. We don’t get paid per client. It’s really just, ‘You’re here, you’re a human being, and we care that you exist and we want you to stay here.’”

The organization serves more than 7,000 Rhode Islanders each year who may have otherwise been forgotten.

In thinking about the impact, Daley Ndoye says, “It’s just a very overwhelming feeling. There’s so many people that don’t have just that one person or those few people that they can rely on to support them. And it’s really been an honor to be able to be that for people.” —Julia Cote

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MELAINE FERDINAND-KING

Designing the future of cultural institutions.

Photography by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

Melaine Ferdinand-King’s work does not lend itself to easy description. A cultural researcher, writer and curator who holds a Ph.D. in Africana Studies from Brown University, she’s most recently found herself leaning into the identity of “cultural strategist.”

“I was always really interested in questions of community engagement models, power, disenfranchisement and allocation of resources,” she says.

Originally from New Jersey, she studied at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, before completing her doctoral studies at Brown last year. Since then, she’s immersed herself in curating and interpreting Rhode Island’s cultural history, particularly as it relates to Black aesthetics, social change theory and policy. Last fall, she was brought on as the inaugural curator at the African American Museum of Rhode Island, where she oversaw strategic planning of the first gallery space and curation of the inaugural exhibit at the museum’s first physical space on Broad Street this past April. “Welcome to the Neighborhood: Mapping Black Providence in Art and Archives (1940s–1970s)” focused on the vitality of Black businesses, social and political organizations as well as policies of urban renewal and displacement in Fox Point, Lippitt Hill, University Heights and the South Side, as told through archival data and community photographs. Her current title at the museum is associate director of curatorial affairs and development.

“It’s a true honor,” she says. “For people who are from here and born here to entrust me with their family histories and the stories of their lives is something I could have never foreseen and I hold very close to my chest.”

Outside the museum, she has worked with Cade Tompkins Projects to exhibit the work of Black artists, including Rhode Island-based artist Bob Dilworth and Donnamaria Bruton, the first Black woman and Black person to chair the painting department and the first Black person to receive tenure at the Rhode Island School of Design. Earlier this year, Ferdinand-King curated the first exhibit of Bruton’s never-
before-seen works on paper, titled “Twenty Recipes for Patience.”

“I’ve been speaking out more about the role of Black artists in the Rhode Island ecosystem and working with artists to recover their legacies to ensure they have places to be remembered,” she says.

She is the founder of Mprovise, a cultural studio and public research lab that opens in residency at Slate Studio in Providence in October. The residency hosts resources and programming on the topics of culture and media as well as humanities and AI policy and seeks to create a research hub accessible to New Englanders outside major academic institutions.

She is also a poet whose work has been recognized with the Michael S. Harper Memorial Prize for jazz poetry. Her cultural work often brings her into close collaboration with other local organizations — including The Womxn Project, Gallery Night Providence, Boston Art Review and the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society — and earlier this year she worked with the Stillhouse Cove Remembrance Project to help establish a monument to honor enslaved Africans and their descendants at Cranston’s Stillhouse Cove.

“So often when I talk to folks who are from here, they feel like they have to leave Rhode Island to make a name for themselves,” she says. “Part of my work in staying here is to cultivate a different kind of infrastructure so that folks who are from here as well as transplants like myself see Rhode Island as a place they can stay and call home.

“I mean business,” she adds. “I’m here to work and I’m here to serve and I’m here to learn. I want people to walk with me in this journey and in highlighting the many talents and gifts that the state has. —L.C