2023 Speakers

Agonza

Her name is Angela Gonzalez, but everyone knows her as AGONZA.  She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in Manton Heights. AGONZA then spent eight of her teenage years living in the Dominican Republic in an adoption-care convent run by nuns. Her earliest memories of the DR were of dirt streets, farms, and happy people living in small rusty houses of corrugated metal.

AGONZA believes that the work of humans is to teach others what they have learned from life; she teaches with her art, calling the pieces “communicative stories without sentences.” Every art piece AGONZA has created has a purpose and a story. When she paints, she likes to immerse herself in the worlds of her paintings and live within them, as if they were settings in her actual life.

AGONZA has been a social worker since 2014 and has served on the board of directors at The Avenue Concept since 2019. She continues to use her skills as a social worker and her life experiences to connect with her community. AGONZA says that, “the best feeling is having viewers of all ages and all ethnic backgrounds be able to sit together in front of your painting, relate, smile and get lost in their gaze. When viewers immerse themselves within my art, and my vision, I hope they appreciate the ways they are included in my community.”

Barnaby Evans

Barnaby Evans is an artist, designer, developer, thought leader and consultant who uses his experience in many fields and media to create original solutions in planning, public art, public space, environmental resiliency and urban interfaces.  Originally trained as a scientist focusing on environment and ecology, Evans creates original art works and design solutions involving major urban interventions, site-specific sculpture installations, photography, landscape, architectural and design projects, writing, and conceptual works. Evans combines his technical and ecological expertise, an awareness of spatial psychology, his sensitivity as an artist and a design philosophy to create unique solutions to public art and urban issues.

Evans created WaterFire in Providence in 1994 as part of an effort to rebrand and re-establish Providence as a destination.  Frustrated by the intense negativity of the local residents about their capital city and recognizing that the just finished award-winning river relocation plan and park would need pump priming to be an effective change agent, Evans designed WaterFire as a city-scale intervention that combines a design approach with aesthetics, land art, installation, site specific work, music, ritual and spectacle.

Christian Cowan

Christian Cowan is a senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in technical manufacturing operations an marketing in the IT networking, energy and textile industries. He brings both domestic and overseas hands-on manufacturing experience to the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation (URIRF), Polaris MEP’s parent organization.

He most recently served as the Center Director of Polaris MEP. Christian earned his BSEE degree from Villanova University and his MBA from the University of Rhode Island.

Daisha Jackson

Daisha is a junior at Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, wants to create yoga mats with QR codes that would provide constantly changing information on health and wellness and is a finalist in the Papitto Opportunity Connection Transform RI Scholarship.

Dr. Sendurai A. Mani

Sendurai A. Mani is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and Associate Director for Legorreta Cancer Center at Alpert Medical School, Brown University. Previously, he was a co-director of Metastasis Research Center and co-director, Center for Stem Cell & Developmental Biology, and Professor of Translational Molecular Pathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Frans Johansson

With the launch of his fifth company in 2022, Frans Johansson continues to put his ideas and insights into action. Often far ahead of the market, Frans offers an indispensable perspective on the issues of the day that impact business, global competitiveness and innovation. His unique take translates into a signature stage style that has made him one of the most compelling speakers in the world.

Frans’s perspective and ethos are articulated in his books, The Medici Effect, which proves the power of diversity as a driver for innovation, and The Click Moment, which rewrites the rules for success in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Over the last 15 years, Frans has brought his books to life, inspiring audiences worldwide with his provocative, often counterintuitive ideas, while impelling action with methods and tools now implemented by over 5,000 teams worldwide. As an advisor to executives, he has put diversity, equity and inclusion on the CEO agenda – and making this central to a company’s growth strategy.

In 2023, Frans will be debuting his latest thinking on the key topics keeping executives up at night: How deglobalization and demographic shifts impact innovation and how organizations can accelerate change to stay ahead.

Gabrielle QueenG Gibson

Dedicated to her craft, Gabrielle “Queen G” Gibson is a multi-faceted creative, educator, and public speaker. Utilizing her diverse background in the arts, she spent years performing and teaching all over the United States and around the world, engaging diverse audiences on various platforms. Her creative work investigates identity, challenges oppression, and reimagines community, culture, and faith as it reinforces her belief in the power of storytelling. As a published author and professional spoken word artist, she won multiple titles; Button Poetry, Write About Now, Sanctified Podcast, You Had Me at Black Podcast, My Vulva and Me: Volume 3 book, Poets in Autumn national tour, Bandaloop, and Voyage Magazine have featured her work. She uses her affinity for words on and off the stage as host of The Royal Room podcast and as a voice actor (for clients like Scholastic and Harvard). Her professionalism and passion present her as a skilled consultant and copywriter.

She has extensive experience in community development and education; this lends to engaging, enlightening, and culturally competent content when she creates curricula, cultivates programs, and consults for corporations and independent clients. She worked domestically and internationally, with over 18 years of experience in non-profits, workshop facilitation, public speaking, youth development, and leadership training. She is the founder of the #UnfilteredDecember challenge, the Living Unfiltered project, and the Unfiltered Poetry youth program—all focused on empowering us to live our most unapologetic, unadulterated, unfiltered, abundant lives.

Currently, she is a NAS Creative Community Fellow, manages Queen G Creative full-time, leads The Unfiltered Collective, facilitates for Roger Williams University part-time, and continues to formulate programs and strategies that prioritize the pursuit of equity, empathy, and education through creativity and communication.

Isabelle Mitchell

Isabelle Mitchell is a tenth grade Massachusetts resident who attends the Wheeler School and is a finalist in the Papitto Opportunity Connection Transform RI Scholarship.

Jalisa Ramos

Jason Allard

Jason Allard is a filmmaker and urban explorer covering everything that he finds interesting and exciting. Abandoned from Above is his current project, where he visits historic abandoned locations throughout New England (and sometimes beyond). He also manages Uncommon Sense Media, a full-service multimedia studio specializing in video production and still/portrait photography. He has produced a range of digital products for corporate and small business clients, including digital shorts, music videos and feature-length documentaries. In 2014, Rhode Island PBS broadcast his documentary “My Old School” to more than 40,000 households.

Jim Owens

Jim is a mission-driven systems expert working in service of a secure and equitable future.

-Leader of a team focused on the rapid development, prototyping, and transition of novel textile-integrated systems for DOD and commercial customers

-Deep experience with high-value networked sensor systems including the Indonesia Integrated Maritime Surveillance System (IMSS) and global Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) systems

-Educator and supporter of STEM education in Rhode Island

-Mentor and supporter of impact-focused technology entrepreneurship

John Tarantino

John has been recognized by Best Lawyers of America, Chambers USA, Benchmark and Lawdragon as one of the top attorneys in the country. He has tried many high-profile cases, both civil and criminal, in state and federal courts, and has also argued many appeals in state and federal appellate courts. His clients are broad-based and diverse: governors, senators, representatives, CEOs, boards of directors, entrepreneurs, major chemical companies, railroads, athletes, sport coaches and managers and leading real estate developers. His practice areas are equally broad-based and diverse: complex issues of constitutional law, antitrust and trade regulation, intellectual property, product liability, toxic torts, business and commercial disputes, white collar crime, employment law and sports law. John is equally proud of the work that he has done for clients who are not as famous or well known, often at reduced rates or on a pro bono basis, and he has received numerous awards and recognitions for his pro bono work.

John’s passion and dedication to his work and his profession are well known. He lectures frequently on trial practice and techniques and is a leading author of 11 legal texts and more than 200 articles on product liability, discovery, evidence, procedure, legal ethics and trial strategy.

He has won significant trial victories for Atlantic Richfield Company, the Governor of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Senate, the House of Representatives and many other entities and individuals in cases ranging from toxic tort, to constitutional law, to bribery and wire fraud, to ethics violations, to voting law and redistricting.

Joshua Roman

Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer, hailed for his “effortlessly expressive tone… and playful zest for exploration” (New York Times), as well as his “extraordinary technical and musical gifts” and “blend of precision and almost improvisatory freedom… that goes straight to the heart” (San Francisco Chronicle). His genre-bending programs and wide-ranging collaborations have grown out of an “enthusiasm for musical evolution that is as contagious
as his love for the classics” (Seattle Times).

Committed to bringing Classical music to new audiences, Roman opened the acclaimed 2017 TED Conference, and his performance of the complete Bach Solo Cello Suites after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was the most-viewed event in the history of TED’s social channels, with nearly a million live viewers. Roman has collaborated with world-class artists across genres and disciplines, including Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, DJ Spooky Tony-winner/MacArthur Genius Bill T. Jones, Grammy Award-winning East African vocalist Somi, and Tony Award-nominated actor Anna Deavere Smith.

As a soloist, Roman’s “exceptionally high quality of performances” (LA Times) combines “the expressive control of Casals with the creative individuality and virtuoso flair of Hendrix himself” (Gramophone). He has performed with leading orchestras around the United States and the world, including the ​Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Toronto Symphony, BBC Scottish, and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra,
and he was principal cellist at Seattle Symphony from age 22 to 24. Roman’s 2022-23 season highlights include his debut with the St. Louis Symphony, recitals with the Cliburn and Princeton University Concerts, and a performance of Tavener’s The Protecting Veil at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. For the 2023-24 season, Roman will continue as Las Vegas Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist In Residence, and will perform as a soloist with the Detroit, Oregon, Monterey, Vermont, and Greenville Symphonies. His ongoing trio project with Edgar Meyer and Tessa Lark will also have a performance at the acclaimed Big Ears Festival.

Roman has long been a leader and innovator in his use of digital and social media, with projects like his Popper Etude videos amassing nearly 2 million views. His solo performance with the YouTube Symphony at Carnegie Hall was viewed by 33 million people across nearly 200 countries, with Yo-Yo Ma introducing him as “one of the great exemplars of the ideal 21st century musician.”

Leslie Moore

Mack Scott

Mack Scott is a historian, educator, and member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. His work focuses on the intersections of race and identity and employs agency as a lens through which to view and understand the voices, stories, and perspectives of traditionally marginalized peoples. He has published works illuminating the experiences of African American, Native American, and Latinx peoples. He is currently working on a project that traces the Narragansett nation from the pre-colonial to the modern era.

Mariam Kaba

Mariam Kaba, the 15-year-old daughter of West African immigrants, who is a sophomore in the Career and Technical Center at Woonsocket High School, is the first-ever winner of the Transform Rhode Island Scholarship (TRIS), the only scholarship program of its kind in the United States. For her transformative idea, focused on Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities in Rhode Island, Mariam will receive a $25,000 scholarship and will have a seat at the table as the Papitto Opportunity Connection invests $1 million to make her idea come to life.

Mike Reyes

Thomas Dorwart