2025 Bannister Awards

Edited by Lauren Clem with contributions by Jamie Coelho, Erin Malinn and Justin Theriault

When Rhode Island Monthly launched the Christiana Carteaux Bannister Awards in partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation in 2021, the state was in the midst of a reckoning. The COVID-19 pandemic had laid bare health discrepancies driven by income, race and other socioeconomic factors, and the murder of George Floyd a year earlier renewed national calls for a more just and equitable society. In the first Bannister Awards — named for a trailblazing businesswoman and unequivocal voice for justice — the program recognized an emergency room doctor; a financial educator; a longstanding advocate; an accessibility activist; a community visionary; and a refugee helping others settle in Rhode Island.

Four years later, the conversations around diversity and equity have changed, but the work continues. The recipients of the fifth annual Bannister Awards have fought for justice at the State House, in our health system, in the courts, on the canvas and in our philanthropic giving. They’ve dedicated their time and, in many cases, their careers to ensuring all Rhode Islanders can live healthy, successful lives. As with those recognized before them, this year’s winners demonstrate that equity is not a distinct field but something to aspire to in every part of our society.

Christiana Carteaux Bannister was a hair doctress and salon owner who spoke out on behalf of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable — including Black servicemen and elderly women of color — while financially supporting her famous painter husband, Edward Mitchell Bannister. In her memory, Rhode Island Monthly and the Rhode Island Foundation are proud to present the winners of this year’s Bannister Awards.

________________________________________

Judges: Anna Cano Morales, vice president of equity and inclusion, Rhode Island Foundation; Lauren Nocera, founder, Expedition Consulting; Rosie Fernandez, manager, community and public affairs, Cox Communications

________________________________________

JUAN WILSON JR.

Democratizing and demystifying community-led philanthropy

Photography by Dee Speaks

For Juan Wilson Jr., founder of the MUSE Foundation of Rhode Island and a first-generation Black philanthropist, nonprofit work is all about giving his community a seat at the table.

Wilson, who has a background in marketing and creative entrepreneurship, founded MUSE in 2021 with the goal of giving back to the community that supported him through his adolescence. He was inspired in part by his cousin, civil rights advocate Michael S. Van Leesten (namesake of Providence’s Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge). His passion for philanthropy, he knew, could create a tangible difference within communities of color.

“When you look at philanthropy, you always think it’s people with affluence, people with certain resources always giving down,” he says. “Communities do philanthropy all the time with time and talent and treasure. It’s not always monetary. They go to churches, tithing, soup kitchens and donating — that’s what is big in this community.”

The foundation’s motto calls for “enriching communities through education and inspiration, empowering them through advocacy and action, and equipping them with essential resources and networks.”  It’s a mission that allows Wilson to spread his message, not just within his community, but to decision-makers, too.

None of those “E” words, he points out, is “equity.”

“I’ve always looked at that equity word as ‘We’ll fit you in now.’ Then something else will change, and you’re fighting for it,” he says. “I’m more about liberation. How do you implode the system and build it intentionally to take care of everyone?”

Wilson wants to show communities that they hold the power to make change.

“Every time you create that hierarchy, there’s that separation, and that’s why I wanted to de-mystify philanthropy,” he says. “I want to democratize and make sure people know it’s obtainable.”

Thanks to the organization’s efforts, Rhode Island was the first state in New England to recognize August as Black Philanthropy Month. MUSE also created a Black Philanthropy Month Legacy Fund that establishes a new model for unrestricted, Black-led giving to support Black youth. In addition, the group’s Youth Empowerment Society of Providence County helps young people develop entrepreneurship and other skills to help them gain confidence and reach their full potential.

The organization also played a crucial role in establishing Juneteenth as a paid state holiday in Rhode Island, starting in 2024. Wilson helped get the legislation crafted and was among community members who testified in front of legislators in 2023 in favor of the bill, which was sponsored in the House by Representative Brianna E. Henries and in the Senate by Senator Tiara Mack.

Following the holiday’s recognition, the MUSE Foundation founded the Taste of Juneteenth, an event showcasing food and food culture from the African diaspora. For the past ten years, Wilson has also organized a youth summit called #TurnUpRI to empower and equip the next generation of leaders. The conference has reached hundreds of young people, a number that expands into the thousands when MUSE Foundation grants and scholarships are included.

As time goes on, Wilson hopes to leave a legacy that extends beyond the state’s borders and expand his work to Connecticut and Massachusetts. —Justin Theriault

________________________________________

MELISSA LONG

Promoting a fair and bias-free court system

Photography by Dee Speaks

In 2015, Melissa Long was working as a lawyer in the administration of then-Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea when she picked up a copy of The Providence Journal. There, on the cover, was a headline about the lack of judges of color in Rhode Island’s judiciary above the headshots of twenty-five justices — nearly all of them white.

“What stood out — what was meant to stand out — was the lack of diversity,” she says.

The article served as a call to action for Long, who would go on to become the first Black justice appointed to Rhode Island’s Supreme Court. The daughter of a Black Army helicopter pilot-turned-dentist and a white Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps member, Long was raised in an environment of public service. Her parents married in Washington, D.C., six months before the United States Supreme Court struck down state laws against interracial marriage.

“I like to say that nine judges paved the way for me to be here,” she says.

After graduating from the University of Virginia, she attended the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Though she initially had her sights set on a job with the Federal Trade Commission, she moved instead with her family to Rhode Island, her husband’s native state. After several years working for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and Gorbea’s administration, she was appointed as an associate justice to the state’s Superior Court in 2017.

Four years later, she was sworn into the Supreme Court on Jan. 11, 2021 — her late mother’s seventy-seventh birthday.

Upon learning of her appointment, the first person she called was her dad.

“They faced hardships so that we could live the American dream,” she says. “My dad and I are fully
in agreement that it’s only in this country that we live up to these ideals, that my family’s story is possible.”

The year of her appointment was a turbulent time for Rhode Island’s judiciary. At the urging of retired Superior Court Associate Justice Edward Clifton and other judges of color, the state Supreme Court in 2020 established the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. Long serves as chair of the committee, which was formed to enhance public confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and promote a fair and bias-free system of justice.

One of its greatest accomplishments toward that goal, she says, was urging reform to Rhode Island’s system of court fines and fees. In 2022, legislation removed these costs for those unable to pay. Before that, however, individuals could remain in debt to the court system long after they’d served their sentence. As of May 2023, the judiciary’s fines and fees clinics had served 662 people and successfully eliminated $2.21 million in debt.

“It was life-changing for people,” Long says.

More recently, the committee coordinated a self-funded judicial education trip to Alabama and continues to review data to ensure constituents feel they’re being treated fairly in the courts.

Aside from her judicial activities, Long serves on the board of Sophia Academy and devotes her time to education initiatives. She urges young lawyers to remember the importance of the state courts and always prioritize civics and civility.

“We don’t all agree, we don’t all have to agree, but we do need to model how to listen and how to speak in ways that promote problem-solving,” she says. —Lauren Clem

________________________________________

MILDRED NICHOLS

Inspiring women to enter the workforce and run for office

Photography by Dee Speaks

When ninety-six-year-old Mildred Nichols learned she was a recipient of one of this year’s Bannister Awards, she was grateful and surprised.

“I thought it was pretty amazing,” Nichols says. “My second thought was, ‘I think they’re being very bold with all the recent attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, and I love that idea.’ And I said, ‘If they’re being bold, I’m going to be bold.’”

Nichols was nominated multiple times over the years due to her remarkable family history and her vast involvement in politics, policy and education in Rhode Island. She was born in northern Virginia in 1929, the great-grandchild of founding members of the Loudoun County Emancipation Association on her mother’s side, with her father serving as the association’s last president. Her paternal great-grandfather’s freedom papers, along with the tin box he carried them in, are on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Her maternal grandmother, Eppie Clark, was one of the first women in Loudoun County to register to vote, and Nichols is proud to maintain a copy of the roll with her name on it, marked with a “C” for colored. Nichols also graduated as valedictorian in a segregated high school in Leesburg in Loudoun County.

She met her husband, Charles Nichols, while studying at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia. They married two months after she graduated and had two children when they relocated to Germany in 1959. That’s when Charles became a tenured professor and director of the department of North American literature at the John F. Kennedy Institute for American Studies at the Free University. A decade later, the family — now with three children — moved to Providence when Brown University offered her husband a tenured position in the English Department. He became the founding director of the program in Afro-American studies, now known as the Department of Africana Studies.

Once she moved to Providence, Mildred became active in politics while raising their children, then a college freshman, an eighth grader and a four-year-old. She is one of the founding members of the Rhode Island Women’s Political Caucus and was a George McGovern delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention. She was later elected to the Democratic National Committee, while inspiring more women to run for office.

Back then, a news reporter asked her on camera if she thought her race had anything to do with her appointment to the DNC. “And I said, ‘No. I don’t think so. I think I earned this,’” Nichols says with a smile.

Rhode Island governors appointed her to the Economic Development Corporation, the Board of Governors for Higher Education and the Women’s Commission. Then- President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the National Advisory Council on Adult Education.

Her proudest achievement involves raising three accomplished sons, David, Keith and Brian Nichols, who each lead respective careers in medical, financial and diplomatic
fields. But she’s also proud of leading the charge to integrate displaced homemakers into the workforce. She joined the Career Education Project in 1972, which counseled women by telephone on potential job skills.

Later, she became the director of The Career Counseling Service at the Rhode Island Department of Education. In 1978, she became the director of the Rhode Island Occupational Information Coordinating Committee, aiding anyone making career and job decisions, where she spent the next twenty-two years, until her retirement.

So how did she do it all while raising three kids? “I was extraordinarily lucky and blessed that I had three healthy children. They were never any trouble to raise,” she says. “But then some nights here I think, ‘Oh, my goodness, I must have been neglecting them.’”

Quite the contrary, according to a quote about motherhood by author Rochelle B. Weinstein. “A mother’s job is to teach her children to not need her anymore. The hardest part of that is accepting success.” —Jamie Coelho

________________________________________

JOCELYN FOYE

Advocating through art for reproductive and LGBTQ+ protections

Photography by Dee Speaks

The 2016 presidential election marked a major political shift in the United States and highlighted the country’s deep divisions in race, class and gender. Communities across the nation were divided like never before, even in Rhode Island.

Sculpture artist Jocelyn Foye recognized this schism and, along with four co-founders, started the “Creating Together” lecture series at Hera Gallery in South Kingstown to address relevant topics. The series, streamed online throughout 2017, was overwhelmingly received.

After seeing the response, she and the co-organizers founded The Womxn Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for reproductive freedom, gender equity and LGBTQ+ rights. The group uses a combination of art and activism — “artivism” — along with civic engagement and policy advancement to make Rhode Island a more socially just state.

“I don’t think that art and politics can be separated,” Foye says. “I think that there is a deeply necessary relationship between them.”

Early on, The Womxn Project advocated for the Reproductive Privacy Act, which codified the protections afforded by Roe v. Wade into state law. It passed in 2019, in part due to the grassroots activism of The Womxn Project and other organizations.

With a background as a spectacle-based artist, Foye has worked as a graphic designer and taught graphic and web design and sculpture at El Camino College in California. She used her visual and design skills to amplify The Womxn Project’s message, growing its presence on social media and drawing in a crowd of supporters who resonated with their mission.

“I always felt like it was important to stand up for the lesser voices in the room, and I often got myself in trouble for that,” Foye says. “I do believe that the training as a fine artist teaches you about how to respond to injustice … I believe that all art is political.”

The Womxn Project recently moved into a new headquarters at 301 Harris Ave. in Providence. Called the A|R|T Lab — short for Artivism, Research and Tactics in Community — the space supports art activism related to reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ protections. The building, Foye says, is an incubator and hub for people to feel empowered and conduct their own art activism.

It hosts an exhibition space, makers’ workshops and lectures and serves as the home of The Womxn Project Education Fund, the organization’s art and education branch. The group’s goal for the upcoming year is to provide artists with a safe, empowering space to create and share their work. Members will also continue working on policy advocacy and the Bodily Freedom Forever Index, a tool that shows where candidates stand on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.

“My hope is that we, as a society, decide to truly build what real democracy looks like, which includes all the voices rather than [only] the white cis male voices in America,” Foye says. “I hope [The Womxn Project] inspires people to want to run and to do better for their community and truly listen to who’s their neighbor and think about people outside of their own frame of life.” —Erin Malinn

________________________________________

MICHELLE WILSON

Fighting disparities in public health

Photography by Dee Speaks

Michelle Wilson grew up around civil rights activists. Whether through family, friends or fellow members of the Mount Hope neighborhood in Providence, she’s seen the power of community at work.

As a child, she took road trips to visit her grandparents in South Carolina, where, looking back, she recognizes the impacts of racism on full display.

“It’s an eighteen-hour trip, and we wouldn’t stop,” she says. “The thought of stopping at a hotel — you just didn’t. It wasn’t until we got to my grandmother’s house that we felt safe.”

Wilson serves as chief of the Health Equity Institute at the Rhode Island Department of Health. It’s one of many roles she’s occupied throughout her career; she also leads the state Office of Minority Health and oversees the State Refugee Health Promotion Program and the Rhode Island Commission for Health Advocacy and Equity. She describes herself as being “the conscience in the room” for those in need.

“It was natural, even though I didn’t know it at the time, that this is what I would end up doing,” she says. “All I can remember is being around family members who were doing this kind of work.”

Among her most important battles was her advocacy to increase COVID-19 relief efforts in neighborhoods disproportionately affected by the pandemic, especially Central Falls. The state’s smallest city was among the hardest hit in the early days of the pandemic.

“The lack of understanding of what some people were going through and what they were struggling with — we had to fight, and we did,” Wilson says. “Eventually, we were able to get things to turn around, and once we did, the number [of cases] started to come down.”

Following the experience, Wilson and colleagues from the Department of Health and the Brown University School of Public Health published a data brief titled “Rhode Island COVID-19 Tiers,” an equity-
focused, place-based approach to reducing hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. The publication outlines the strategy developed by the Health Equity
Institute during the pandemic and showcases the impact of a person’s ZIP code. She hopes her team’s research will influence the state to take a “data to action” approach to future public health emergencies.

“If you’re coming from a place where you already have a number of challenges, how you can expect people to get through this if you don’t tailor certain responses and resources to their needs?” she says.

Besides serving as an advocate for others, Wilson mentors students pursuing their master’s degrees in public health and serves on the board of Beautiful Day, a Providence nonprofit that connects refugees to job training and education resources. Prior to her work with the Department of Health, she served as director of community services at the Urban League of Rhode Island and led efforts to advance STEM and digital literacy among Black and Latino communities at Career Communications Group in Baltimore.

Utilizing her three decades of equity experience combined with the influence of her upbringing, Wilson doesn’t see her advocacy work stopping anytime soon.

“I want to invest in the next generation, those that are up and coming. And to the extent that I can share my wisdom, my knowledge and my experience to help others, I want to do that,” she says. —J.T.