PBN December 11-17, 2020

PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS

PBN pbn.com

DECEMBER 11-17, 2020

SPOTLIGHT

Digital efforts save PMC | 6

SPECIAL SECTION

PBN’s 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Awards

YOUR SOURCE FOR BUSINESS NEWS IN SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND | VOL. 35, NO. 38 | $5

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Nursing homes struggle to fill staffing positions

KEEPING THE FLAME ALIVE

BY ALEXA GAGOSZ | Gagosz@PBN.com

WHILE ATTENDING a nursing home industry event more than a year ago, Jamie Sanford came to a startling realization: Sanford, 37, was the youngest one there. By far.

“It was intimidating – the age gap was so significant,” Sanford said, recalling the room full of nursing home administrators who all appeared to be at least 20 years old than her.

Since attending that meeting, Sanford has become an

FOCUS: HEALTH CARE

SEE ADMINISTRATORS

PAGE 20

WaterFire, other arts groups key to R.I. recovery are under heavy strain

BY MARY MACDONALD | MacDonald@PBN.com

WATERFIRE

ONE LAST THING

Laura L. Douglas Connect with coffee hours | 30

Providence entered 2020 with big plans.

The nonprofit arts organization was preparing to mark the 25th anniversary since the first fires were lit on the rivers in downtown Providence. WaterFire, which years earlier had been a spark for the city’s renaissance, had corporate sponsors committing for what it thought could be as many as 18 lightings for 2020.

Organizers even had planned a gala Fire Ball for the weekend of Halloween, to be held at the WaterFire Arts Center, three years after converting what had been a 40,000-square-foot industrial building into a premier event and exhibition hall.

SEE ARTS

LIGHTING THE LAMP: Barnaby Evans, founder and executive artistic director of WaterFire Providence, lights a luminaria as part of the “Beacon of Hope” display at the WaterFire Arts Center to honor those who lost their lives due to COVID-19.

COURTESY WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE/ELAINE FREDRICK

PAGE 12

2021

January

21 2 0 2 1

4pm

For more information turn to page 16

CONTENTS

PBN

COVER STORY KEEPING THE FLAME ALIVE WaterFire, other arts groups key to R.I. recovery are under heavy strain...........................................1

400 Westminster St. Providence, RI 02903

FOR STARTERS

Main Phone: 401-273-2201

Community Service: Family Service of Rhode Island and Tufts Health Plan...... 3 5Q: Caroline Payson............................................................. 4 Franchisee: Wooma Cho....................................................... 5 Spotlight: PMC Media Group............................................... 6 Something New: Bloom Collective LLC.............................. 6 Hot Topic: Calling the shots on a new vaccine................... 7 Who Owns the Block?

Metro Center Boulevard, Warwick....................................... 8 News Briefs........................................................................... 9 What’s Happening............................................................... 10

Subscription Services: 855-813-5805

FRANCHISEE | 5

President & Publisher: Roger C. Bergenheim 680-4848 | Publisher@PBN.com

ADVERTISING Advertising@PBN.com Fax: 401-274-0270

PBN.COM

Director of Sales and Marketing: Annemarie Brisson, 680-4800

Another Look: Stepping Up: 2nd surge of free meals..... 14 Another Look: R.I.: Vineyard Wind delay no problem...... 14

Marketing and Events Manager: Donna Rofino, 680-4832

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Marketing, Events & Social Media Coordinator: Tracy Hoyt, 680-4818

Few in U.S. adopting COVID-19 exposure apps................ 15

Senior Account Managers: Linda Foster, 680-4812 Jim Hanrahan, 680-4816

IT’S PERSONAL People in the News............................................................. 24 Mackay’s Moral...................................................................25 To Savor: Jessica Norris Granatiero..................................26 Guest Column: Elizabeth C. Tippett.................................. 27 Editorials and Opinion........................................................28 One Last Thing: Laura L. Douglas.....................................30

Advertising Coordinator: Joyce Rylander, 680-4810

SOMETHING NEW | 6

EDITORIAL Editor@PBN.com Fax: 401-274-0670

Editor: Michael Mello, 680-4820

FOCUS: HEALTH CARE

Managing Editor: William Hamilton, 680-4826

Nursing homes struggle to fill staffing positions The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenge of finding enough employees to properly staff nursing homes, especially younger administrators to replace retirees..................................................................1

Web Editor: Chris Bergenheim, 680-4886 Copy Editor: Matt Bower, 680-4824

Questions raised over plan for state hospital

Special Projects Editor: James Bessette, 680-4838

Some families and patient advocates have voiced concerns about a restructuring of the Eleanor Slater Hospital that would close two of its four buildings, create a nursing home facility and discharge some patients..... 18

(EDUCATION, NONPROFITS)

Staff Writers: Alexa Gagosz, 680-4828 (HEALTH CARE, HOSPITALITY/TOURISM, WORKFORCE)

List

FOCUS: HEALTH CARE | 18

Urgent Care Centers...........................................................22

Nancy Lavin, 680-4822 (ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, FINANCIAL SERVICES)

Mary MacDonald, 680-4830 (GOVERNMENT, MANUFACTURING, REAL ESTATE/DEVELOPMENT)

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COMPANIES 401Tech Bridge Aldersbridge Communities Bloom Collective LLC Brown University CIC Providence R.I. Office of Energy Resources Entrepreneurship for All Flickers – The Newport Film Society & Arts Collaborative Groundwork

9 20, 21 6 7, 13 9 18 9 13 9

Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau

12

Rhode Island College

21

Rhode Island Foundation

12

R.I. Commerce Corp.

R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals

9 18

R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families

4

R.I. Department of Education

4

R.I. Department of Health

7, 15

R.I. Department of Labor and Training

21

R.I. Office of Energy Resources

14

20

Saint Elizabeth Community

21

Linn Health & Rehabilitation

20

Skills for Rhode Island’s Future

21

National Grid Rhode Island

14

Steel Yard

13 12

India Restaurant

14

LeadingAge RI

New Bedford Economic Development Council

9

Trinity Repertory Company

PMC Media Group

6

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Preservation Society of Newport County Providence Children’s Museum Providence Performing Arts Center

13 4 12

WHAT’S HAPPENING? SUBMIT YOUR NEWS AT PBN.COM/PBNCONNECT/

Vineyard Wind LLC WaterFire Providence Wilbury Theatre Group

www.facebook.com/providencebusinessnews @provbusnews www.linkedin.com/company/providence-business-news

2 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

9

Researcher: Cassius Shuman, 680-4884

PRODUCTION Production Director: Anne Ewing, 680-4860 Art Director: Lisa Lagreca, 680-4868

CIRCULATION PBN@cambeywest.com 1-855-813-5805

ADMINISTRATION Fax: 401-274-6580 Business Manager: Tammy D’Antuono, 680-4840

©2020 Providence Business News Inc.

14 1 12

Providence Business News is published weekly

by Providence Business News, 400 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903 (USPS 002-254) (ISSN 0887-8226) Periodical postage paid at Providence, R.I. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to 400 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

FOR STARTERS

FSRI partners with Tufts to donate, deliver turkeys WHEELING AND DEALING: Family Service of Rhode Island and Tufts Health Plan teamed up to donate and deliver 350 turkeys and kits that helped an estimated 1,400 Rhode Islanders enjoy Thanksgiving. In addition to the frozen turkeys and side dishes, kits also featured Be Safe supplies, including cloth face masks, hand sanitizer and COVID-19 safety resources for families. Family Service noted that there was a 40% increase in the number of donated Thanksgiving food items distributed this year over last year, demonstrating that the need for assistance in Rhode Island remains high this holiday season. In the photo, Family Service intern Tricia Stuard prepares to wheel bags of donated food, turkeys and Be Safe supplies to cars for delivery. The turkeys and kits were distributed to Rhode Island families on Nov. 23.

COURTESY FAMILY SERVICE OF RHODE ISLAND

Interested in having your business’s community-service project highlighted? Contact PBN Researcher Cassius Shuman at (401) 680-4884 or Shuman@PBN.com.

is part of your business.

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 3

FOR STARTERS

5Q: Caroline Payson Executive director, Providence Children’s Museum

BY MARY MACDONALD | MacDonald@PBN.com

1

What is the function of the Providence Children’s Museum?

The museum’s mission is to inspire lifelong learning for all through play, creativity and exploration. Families Together, our collaboration with the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families, uses the therapeutic value of play to help children and their guardians move toward permanency. The Creativity Initiative, launched in 2019, encourages children to connect with the creative community. And we have a tremendously important role to support families … by sharing resources that appropriately help them manage stress, grief and challenging topics.

2

How has the pandemic made people more aware of the importance of encouraging play and emotional and physical development for children?

With the COVID-19 pandemic, more people understand the stressors that families are under even during the best of times. Right now, kids are struggling with isolation, depression, learning loss and poverty. We know play isn’t frivolous but foundational. Kids are able to manage challenging situations and difficult feelings through play.

Parents can connect and bond with their children through play. The skills and tools [children] learn now will help craft a better society in the future.

COURTESY PROVIDENCE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

We know play isn’t frivolous but foundational.

3

The museum closed in March due to the pandemic and only recently reopened. How did you manage the organization in this period?

When we shut our doors in March, we assumed we would provide online content for families for two weeks and be back in the building. When we realized it would be an extended closure, we had to make some very difficult and critical decisions about how to restrict our expenses. We relied heavily on the federal funding … as well as the generosity of private funders.

4

What are some of the virtual activities that you initiated this year?

We’re fortunate to have a creative and innovative educational team that saw the opportunity to showcase our activities online, and reach thousands of families. Since March, we have continuously offered weekly educational programming. Through our partnership with the [R.I. Department of Education], we offered 12 classes – three in Spanish – to any Rhode Island public school student at no cost. And we explored additional partnerships through our Virtual Lecture Series, where we brought in experts in childhood grief and mental health.

5

How can nonprofits and museums persevere through this crisis?

My best advice is to distill down to your essence. What do you do that no one else does – and how can you bring it to life in creative ways? We know that play is our secret sauce. n

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4 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

FOR STARTERS Franchisee: Wooma Cho bb.q Chicken Brown | 272 Thayer St., Providence The pitch: Bb.q Chicken Brown is a casual, comfortable dining place that will make you forget you left your own house for dinner. It is the first bb.q Chicken franchise to open in Rhode Island, and offers a broad menu specializing in oliveoil-grilled and fried chicken wings, made with proprietary sauces and spice mixes. The restaurant also serves sandwiches, salads and side dishes.

The franchise was established in 1995 by its chairman, Hong-Guen Yoon, in South Korea. Bb.q Chicken Brown is the 54th store to open in the U.S.

“Imagine yourself in the heart of Seoul, [South] Korea, with your friends.

The excitement of exploring a new place, while also finding comfort from the smells of freshly made street food. That is bb.q Chicken. Bb.q Chicken is comfort food. We can bring the traditional crispy fried chicken of [South] Korea to you in the comfort of your home and create fun, new flavors to bring excitement with your choices.”

Years in business: Opened on Nov. 16, 2020

Employees:

Four to five full-time employees

Cost to obtain franchise: $125,000 initial fee; $312,000-$757,000 total investment; $250,000 net worth required

Before opening franchise: Wooma Cho has worked in the restaurant business throughout her entire career. She came to the United States 20 years ago with the goal of opening a restaurant business that would showcase the culture of her native South Korea. That is the experience she hopes to offer her customers with the opening of bb.q Chicken Brown in Providence.

Reason for opening: Bb.q Chicken is one of the top chicken franchise brands in South Korea.

The franchise guarantees the taste of the chicken it fries at the store. It provides top-notch support from store development to the grand opening. So, the biggest reason for opening this restaurant was the systematic consulting the company provides to franchisees. This makes menu selection and storeopening preparations much easier.

TASTE OF HOME: Wooma Cho, owner of the only Rhode Island bb.q Chicken franchise, which originated in Seoul, South Korea, in 1995, has always wanted to open a restaurant that would showcase her native culture.

PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Franchise owners interested in being included in an upcoming Franchisee feature can contact Cassius Shuman at (401) 680-4884 or Shuman@PBN.com.

“We are specialized in wings and only sell wings.

We [take] pride in our wing recipes, so you can look forward to diverse flavors for your fried wings. Every chicken we make is freshly prepared and served to our customers. We can ensure good quality ingredients for all our menu items, and the flavors will surprise you with every bite.”

RESERVE YOUR SPACE NOW

on one of our highly-read daily e-newsletters

“The bb.q Chicken Brown restaurant will have in-store dining by following the Rhode Island state COVID law.

And we will focus on our delivery operation with DoorDash, UberEats and Grubhub.

The marketing team provides tremendous help for my location and the brand.”

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FOR STARTERS SOMETHING NEW

SPOTLIGHT

GETTING CREATIVE: Bloom Collective LLC owners Heather Wolfenden, left, and Savannah Barkley hope to support small businesses while filling vacant storefronts with pop-up shops.

PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Pop-up solutions for R.I.

BY ALEXA GAGOSZ | Gagosz@PBN.com

VINTAGE CLOTHING vendors Savannah Barkley and Heather Wolfenden know many of their peers haven’t been able to catch up since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Taking matters into their own hands, the duo is looking to fill two distinct needs that Rhode Island faces: support fellow small businesses in the retail and handmade market space and occupy currently vacant storefronts that line the streets of Providence.

Bloom Collective LLC, their combined venture, inaugurates their first temporary pop-up location for the holidays at 271 South Main St. in Providence, which runs from Nov. 13 to Dec. 24. Artists and other vendors were able to apply to sell their merchandise in the space, while Barkley and Wolfenden design the displays and partner with local florists on constructing extravagant window displays.

“We’re trying to find a new way to approach a pop-up, where it’s not one big event where hundreds of people need to come in the same day. Instead, we’re spreading it out over the course of a few months to make it more practical, especially during these times,” said Barkley.

Wolfenden said they’re eventually looking to expand to include food vendors and to larger locations, potentially outside of Providence. n

STRATEGIZING: From left, Briana Tikiryan, social media manager; social media strategists Jessica Turner and Taelor Washington; and Darren Jodoin, founder and president of PMC Media Group Inc., discuss upcoming projects at the company’s office in East Greenwich.

PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Digital efforts save PMC Ad firm pivots to social media, e-commerce

BY ALEXA GAGOSZ | Gagosz@PBN.com

PMC MEDIA GROUP was coming off a record-breaking 2019. Darren Jodoin, founder and president of the media and advertising firm, said the business had grown 28% from 2018, and he had high hopes for 2020.

The company moved into its third location, flourishing from a tiny, 350-square-foot space to its current 3,000-square-foot office on Main Street in East Greenwich.

“We were anticipating 2020 to be the year of the century,” said Jodoin, whose clients come from three sectors: construction trades, which includes architects, contractors and lumber yards; restaurant groups and hotels; and event ­marketing.

Three months in, the floor fell out from underneath PMC. Within 48 hours of the coronavirus shutting down much of Rhode Island’s economy, Jodoin had to lay off five ­employees.

PMC helps plan a number of Rhode Island’s largest events, including the Rhode Island Home Show, the Newport International Boat Show, the RISE Women’s Leadership Conference and the Newport Chowder and Oyster Festival.

Every event was canceled, while

many of his other clients were canceling their services and contracts.

“Our sales plummeted,” said Jodoin, who noted PMC lost almost $500,000 in revenue practically overnight. “It was a major hit to the firm. We got destroyed.”

With the clients PMC had left, and media buying of print, radio, TV and billboard ads declining, Jodoin and his team had to think creatively to keep their small-business clients at the top of consumers’ minds during the crisis. Their response: digital marketing through content such as how-to videos, safety videos and social media clips for stronger engagement while also building e-commerce websites.

According to Briana Tikiryan, PMC’s social media manager, the firm’s traditional media clients embraced digital efforts through marketing, social media advertising and management, and website development. Clients’ messaging on those platforms had to change, too.

“If they were closed, it was sup-

OWNER: Darren Jodoin

LOCATION: 694 Main St., East Greenwich

TYPE OF BUSINESS: Media consulting and advertising firm

6 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

EMPLOYEES: 16

porting the business online. If the businesses were open, the scheduled social media posts with images that had people in them had to be changed to those wearing masks and having protective equipment on,” said Tikiryan.

Tikiryan said the firm had to readjust some campaigns, and quickly. But for Jodoin, it was worth it.

After a loan of $150,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program, long nights in the office for months and a reinvestment in digital marketing, Jodoin has brought back all five of the employees he laid off in the spring and hired two new employees in video production and one in social media.

Jodoin said he has a “comeback” attitude, and said he is prepared for Rhode Island’s second surge that could potentially shut down businesses during the winter months.

Some of his clients returned to their services at PMC, while the persistence of the firm spread through word-of-mouth, bringing the business new clients.

“It’s never about how much money we make; it’s about the success of our clients,” said Jodoin. “If we stick to that, then we will be in business forever.” n YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2012 ANNUAL SALES: WND

FOR STARTERS HOT TOPIC

Calling the shots on a new vaccine

BY ALEXA GAGOSZ | Gagosz@PBN.com

A TASK FORCE OF STATE LAWMAKERS has started meeting to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine and its distribution in Rhode Island, but House leaders say the panel isn’t looking to wrest control from another committee formed by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo to provide guidance on how to handle the soon-to-arrive vaccine.

The General Assembly has largely sat on the sidelines while Raimondo has made pandemic-related decisions since the crisis started in March, but Rep. K. Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick, who is poised to take over as House speaker in January, assembled the House COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force last month.

During its first meeting on Dec. 2, the 10-member task force of state representatives discussed vaccine distribution plans with Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, and Dr. Michael Fine, chief health strategist for the city of Central Falls.

Rep. Raymond Hull, D-Providence, the task force chairman, said at the first meeting, “We know a little bit, but we don’t know the whole picture.”

Shekarchi told PBN that he formed the panel to ensure that the state’s

underserved communities remain educated and informed about the ­vaccine.

“The task force is not designed to interfere in any way with the [R.I.] Department of Health’s work group that is overseeing the distribution,” Shekarchi said. “The purpose is to provide input from House members and keep the public informed of the vaccine process.”

Raimondo announced in October the formation of a subcommittee of

the state’s established Vaccine Advisory Committee within the Department of Health to advise on the safety of a vaccine and to help guide the distribution. Members of the subcommittee are doctors, pharmacists, epidemiologists and community leaders.

The governor also said she would devote “tens of millions of dollars” of Rhode Island’s stimulus money to resources for the vaccine distribution.

The Department of Health will welcome input from the task force of lawmakers, according to RIDOH. “The House committee will play an important role in helping relay concerns from their constituencies regarding vaccine safety, efficacy and distribution,” said spokesman Joseph Wendelken. “We look forward to working with them to help ensure all Rhode Islanders have the information they need to know how to get vacci-

‘The purpose is to ... keep the public informed.’

REP. K. JOSEPH SHEKARCHI, D-Warwick

nated when the vaccine becomes more widely available and feel safe doing so.”

When asked if the House task force can challenge decisions by RIDOH, Wendelken said, “We engage in productive dialogue all the time with [legislative] members.”

Officials are expecting a batch of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. to arrive in Rhode Island shortly after the drugmaker receives emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Rhode Island is one of four states that Pfizer selected for a pilot program to help refine a plan for the vaccine delivery and deployment.

Some remain skeptical about the vaccine’s safety.

Rep. Michael Chippendale, R-Coventry, a member of the House vaccine task force, said he believes that U.S. health officials are moving too fast to dole out a vaccine without knowing enough about it yet.

“I believe we are rushing into this vaccine and I do not feel good about Rhode Island being a testing ground,” said Chippendale, who added that he would be at risk of death if he contracted COVD-19 because of five serious medical conditions. n

The PBN Interview Issue

BEYOND COVID. PBN reporters talk with leaders in various sectors about their current status, how their companies and industries have dealt with the virus this year, their goals for 2021, and the challenges they see in getting there.

We’ll cover Health Care, Workforce, Financial Services, Entrepreneurship, Energy and the Environment, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Hospitality and Government.

PUBLICATION DATE:

Reserve your space today.

ADVERTISING DEADLINE:

December 25

Contact you account manager or Advertising@PBN.com 401.680.4800

December 16

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 7

FOR STARTERS WHO OWNS THE BLOCK?

Metro Center Boulevard (From Edman Street to Coastway Boulevard) WARWICK

125 METRO CENTER BLVD. (2011) OWNER: Rhode Island Medical Imaging Inc. TENANTS: Rhode Island Medical Imaging Inc., Gallo|Thomas Insurance, MassMutual Financial Group

117 METRO CENTER BLVD. (2008) OWNER: MSR Holdings LLC TENANTS: DiSanto, Priest & Co.; Lepizzera & Laprocina; Jensen Hughes COAS TWAY

BOUL EVARD

175 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1990) OWNER: GCMS Associates LP (RR)

METRO CEN TER BOULE VARD

TENANTS: 911Programs Career Training Institute, Rhode Island Telephone, The Mortgage Corner of New England, Graebener Press Systems Inc., Law Offices of Kevin B. Murphy

144 METRO CENTER BLVD. (2000) OWNER: Link Commercial Properties LLC TENANTS: Salve Regina University, Warwick; Tech Research Group; Link Commercial Properties & Securities Solutions

225 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1994) OWNER: Link Commercial Properties LLC TENANTS: Kaman Industrial Technologies, Warwick Paint Store, Glidden Professional Paint Center, X-Ray Imaging Technologies

255 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1988) OWNER: Four State Commercial Developers LLC TENANT: FedEx Ship Center

200 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1988) OWNER: Lehigh Realty LLC TENANTS: FEDCAP/NCISI, Drug & Alcohol Treatment Association, Summer Law Associates

EDM

AN S TREE

T

301 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1998) OWNER: Cambridge Capital LLC TENANT: Pearson Professional Center

222 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1987) OWNER: Mutual Properties 222 Metro LLC TENANTS: Control Automation Group LLC, Elite Dance Challenge

268 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1997) OWNER: BRE Homestead Portfolio LLC TENANT: Extended Stay America-Providence Airport

300 METRO CENTER BLVD. (1988) OWNER: JT O’Connell Realty Co.

PBN RESEARCH AND PHOTOS/CASSIUS SHUMAN PBN GRAPHIC/LISA LAGRECA

8 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

TENANT: Newport Restaurant Group

NEWS BRIEFS | FOR STARTERS R.I. Commerce approves incentives for 2 projects PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Commerce Corp. authorized incentives on Dec. 8 that will clear the way for the development of two projects intended to attract more residents and industry, including the first major residential development near the commuter rail station under construction on the Pawtucket and Central Falls line.

Dexter Street Commons, as it will be called, will include 150 apartments and 14,500 square feet of retail space in a new building at 71 Dexter St. The developer is New Jersey-based Peyser Real Estate Group LLC. The action by R.I. Commerce’s board authorizes up to $10.1 million in tax-increment financing to help overcome a financing gap for the $43.5 million project.

In another vote, the R.I. Commerce board authorized up to $1 million in Rebuild Rhode Island tax credits and up to $500,000 in First Wave Closing Fund incentives for the development of the 401Tech Bridge location in Portsmouth. The nonprofit is an incubator for advanced materials and technology ­companies. n

Providence gets up to $500K for guaranteed-income program

New COVID testing site opens at CIC Providence

PROVIDENCE – The city will receive up to $500,000 to launch a program to give direct cash payments to its residents, the city announced on Dec. 8 in conjunction with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.

The newly formed mayoral coalition, which Mayor Jorge O. Elorza joined in September, previously shared plans to start or expand guaranteed-income programs in their respective cities with the larger goal of advocating for national and state policies.

A $15 million donation from Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey through his #startsmall philanthropic initiative will allow the 26 participating cities to implement pilot programs, the coalition said.

Elorza said he hoped to implement the program in the spring of 2021 and is currently working to determine program parameters and eligibility.

The coalition website defines guaranteed income as a monthly cash payment to individuals that is unconditional, with no work r­ equirements. n

PROVIDENCE – CIC Healthcare has opened a COVID-19 testing site on the ground floor of coworking space CIC Providence at 225 Dyer St., WLNETV ABC 6 reported Dec. 8.

In addition to running all COVID-19 testing for the state of Vermont, CIC Healthcare has testing sites in Massachusetts.

The tests, which are self-administered, cost $80 and have a turnaround time of 24 hours. The swab is placed in a test tube and transported directly to a lab in Cambridge, Mass., WLNETV reported.

CIC Healthcare founder and CEO Tim Rowe said CIC avoids long lines by giving everyone who signs up for a test a designated appointment time.

The Providence site can accommodate 240 appointments per day and is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 7:45 p.m.

Rowe said CIC is also working with some Rhode Island businesses “that need to have people on-site,” such as construction companies, to prevent an outbreak from slowing down ­operations. n

NBEDC looks to connect bizs with outside resources NEW BEDFORD – The New Bedford Economic Development Council has launched a new platform to connect local entrepreneurs with regional and national resources to encourage growth and innovation, The Standard-Times reported on Dec. 8.

The platform is called New Bedford SourceLink and is designed to put new and existing city businesses in contact with resource partners who can provide services such as legal counseling, business planning and guidance on licensing or permitting.

The resource partners will be vetted through New Bedford SourceLink and organized in a central search engine on the platform.

The development council applied for funding from the National League of Cities through its Cities Innovation Ecosystem program.

The New Bedford Port Authority, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford Creative Consortium, Co-Creative Center, Entrepreneurship for All and Groundwork have joined as founding partners and will help fund the platform. n

Congratulations to

MARIE GHAZAL 2020 MURRAY FAMILY PRIZE FOR COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT at the Rhode Island Foundation

Honoring her success in delivering a robust, cost-effective health care system to the uninsured as executive director of the Rhode Island Free Clinic.

The Murray Family Prize for Community Enrichment is awarded for above and beyond achievement by individuals or organizations that have proven themselves to be innovative and resourceful, and have performed heroic deeds on behalf of the people of Rhode Island.

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R.I. man sentenced for conspiring to launder funds PROVIDENCE – Sayon Balogun, a Rhode Island man who is a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria, was sentenced on Dec. 4 in connection with a conspiracy to launder funds from business email compromise schemes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Massachusetts announced.

Balogun was sentenced to 42 months in prison with three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $434,832 in restitution. He was initially charged by criminal complaint on May 31, 2019, and arrested in Florida on June 10, 2019.

In January 2018, according to a news release, Balogun’s co-conspirators accessed and mimicked the email account of a Dorchester, Mass., real estate attorney, which they used to direct a purchaser in a legitimate real estate transaction to wire transfer $531,981 to the Wells Fargo account of a California woman, who then sent $60,000 to an account opened by one of Balogun’s co-conspirators under the fraudulent identity of “David Tecum” to receive fraudulent proceeds. n

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www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 9

FOR STARTERS | WHAT’S HAPPENING Discussing seafood biz

CONTENT MARKETING: Jessica Thiefels will be hosting a SCORE webinar on Dec. 15 to explain the ways to use social media for growing a business.

COURTESY JESSICA THIEFELS

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Driving your sales through social media SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to discuss the use of social media platforms to aid in driving sales for a business or entity. Jessica Thiefels, a content marketing professional, will explain the practical use of social media platforms to appeal to potential clients and customers with simple, targeted and authentic tactics. Participants will learn useful strategies for connecting before selling; a clear and simple formula for finding and qualifying potential leads; and how to create an outline for pitch flow. Thiefels will detail the sales process she used for bringing more than 50 women into her paid membership.

TUESDAY, DEC. 15, 1-2 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/ihj2gh

2021

SAVE THE DATE

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

VIRTUAL SUMMIT | 9AM

THE RHODE ISLAND Small Business Development Center is hosting a webinar meeting between seafood dealers and restaurant owners to explore ways to manage business in the new economic climate. Retail markets, dealers and restaurants will share in the informal conversation. Topics will include how business operations have been impacted; how businesses can support each other; and how to explore opportunities and collaborations within the Rhode Island seafood industry.

MONDAY, DEC. 14, 2-3 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/vnzy5j

Learning about Google Analytics SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to explain how to use Google Analytics for data mining. This webinar, featuring technology strategy and digital business analyst Mo Hossain, is a continuation of a previous webinar and will provide participants with a greater understanding for navigating Google as a resource tool, and analyze how customers use a typical website and where improvements can be made to enhance their experi-

ence. Participants will also learn how to create SMART goals and ask the right questions concerning data based on goals that were created.

TUESDAY, JAN. 5, 1-2 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/q2kgji

Hot markets and trends SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to highlight the hottest businesses, markets and trends. Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media, will discuss the breakthrough smallbusiness ideas and industries that are driving sales and connecting with consumers. Participants will learn about America’s changing demographics, attitudes and consumer behaviors, and how a small business can best adapt and address them.

Topics will include an analysis of the industry that is succeeding and how small retailers can take advantage of it; how restaurants can transform operations; which consumer behaviors

KEYNOTE SPEAKER PBN’s 2021 Economic Trends Summit will feature a keynote address by THOMAS TZITOURIS, Head of Fixed Income Research, Strategas.

For sponsorship or advertising opportunities contact Advertising@PBN.com | 401-680-4800

10 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

Interested in having your business-related event included in What’s Happening? Contact PBN Researcher Cassius Shuman at (401) 680-4884 or Shuman@PBN.com.

WHAT’S HAPPENING | FOR STARTERS have shifted and how to reach those customers; how the pandemic has created entrepreneurial opportunities; and how to pivot a small business to address changing consumer demands.

THURSDAY, JAN. 7, 1-2 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/feenfr

Streamline processes TECH COLLECTIVE is hosting a webinar to explore the benefits of no-code automation using Microsoft’s Power Automate, which is an Office 365 tool that permits users to create no-code workflows called flows. Flows automate repetitive processes resulting in efficiencies that enable businesses to maximize their operations. Participants will learn the fundamentals of Power Automate and explore different components that allow business users to create efficient no-code workflows, as well as five different types of flows.

Catherine Thenault, an information technology professional, will delve into ideas for different uses of Power Automate, while demonstrating how easy it is to get started with Microsoft’s templates.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13, NOON TO 12:30 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/fkjpa3

Acquire grants SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to explain how to apply for and acquire grants for business owners. Gerri Detweiler, education director of Nav, will provide participants with the sources for grants, including both private and federal grants; tools for researching small-business grants; application tips to increase the chances of acquiring a grant; and the current state of COVID-19 business grants. Nav offers business owners start-to-finish services to help them find financing.

TUESDAY, JAN. 19, 1-2 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/o8siil

Improving your customer service TECH COLLECTIVE is hosting webinar training sessions to provide instruction for managing and improving customer service operations. This virtual training series will be provided in partnership with New England Institute of Technology. Sean Trainor, an assistant professor at NEIT, will discuss topics such as two-way communication, true listening, adhering to a customer service culture, utilizing effective phone skills, acting in a professional manner, and the key

strategies for dealing with service breakdowns. Participants will require the service of a functional internet connection and computer with a camera, microphone and speakers.

THURSDAYS, JAN. 28 TO MARCH 18, 10 A.M. TO NOON. $400/members; $1,000/nonmembers Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/xnkhii

Data privacy SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to discuss ways to protect data for small- to midsized-business operations. Cybercrime Support Network founder and CEO Kristin Judge and Keeper Security co-founder and CEO Darren Guccione will discuss issues regarding cybersecurity, privacy, data governance and digital ethics. Participants will learn some of the data privacy regulations that are affecting small to midsized businesses; the responsibilities and potential liabilities created by these regulations; and how small to midsized businesses can take steps to comply with complex regulations.

THURSDAY, JAN. 28, 2-3 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/t4bhdx

Shipping can be a business asset SCORE RHODE ISLAND is hosting a webinar to discuss how, with the increase in online shopping, shipping can be an asset to a small business.

FedEx Sales Director Jamie Mason will share advice on getting started with shipping; how to save time and money; and insight on how small businesses can find opportunity for growth. Participants will learn how to make shipping part of a long-term growth strategy; save by using the right shipping services; simplify shipping with online tools; create an account, order supplies and ship specialty items such as perishables, electronics and dangerous goods.

TUESDAY, FEB. 2, 1-2 P.M. Free Online webinar.

INFO AND REGISTRATION: rb.gy/mveoxo

UPCOMING PBN EVENT: The 2021 Book of Lists Premier Event will be held virtually at 4 p.m. on Jan. 21. For more information, visit PBN.com.

For sponsorship opportunities, contact Advertising@PBN.com.

PANEL DISCUSSION Local business experts from various industry sectors providing thoughts on the Ocean State’s economic trends and forecasts for 2021, as well as industry-specific viewpoints.

TOPICS TO INCLUDE (not limited to): • A second round of stimulus is predicted but not yet materialized.

What is the impact to the markets with or without another stimulus package?

• The growing strain in the commercial real estate markets.

• What is the tone of the current bond market? What should we

expect near-term? And how will the results of the presidential race influence fixed income in 2021 and beyond?

• What are some of the notable provisions from the proposed Biden tax plan and what could be the impact be to companies and individuals?

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 11

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS ARTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

But in March, WaterFire Managing Director Peter Mello assembled the employees in that same event space and broke the bad news: The facility would be closing because of the initial surge of COVID-19 infections and a shelter-in-place order issued by the state.

“The idea was we were going to try to continue, and keep this team together, and work remotely,” Mello said. “My job was to try to keep everyone excited about the challenges, and to survive.”

That job only became more difficult when river lightings were canceled, ending corporate sponsorships that annually provide more than half of WaterFire’s $3 million budget.

The confluence of the Providence, Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck rivers at Waterplace Park – where the river lightings have drawn tens of thousands of spectators for years – would remain dark.

Months later, the fight to survive continues to play out not just at WaterFire but at many arts venues and nonprofit arts organizations in Rhode Island that pay bills and salaries from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships that have largely dried up. And beyond the organizations themselves, the vacuum left behind in some cases threatens the region’s ability to draw tourists and business travelers, and the spending money they bring with them.

Kristen Adamo, CEO and president of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, pointed to the signature river lightings of WaterFire as an example. Such unique events are selling points when trying to woo out-of-state convention organizers.

“WaterFire is essentially the face of tourism in Providence,” Adamo said.

‘INTERESTING EXERCISE’ WaterFire has adapted, making use of its facilities as it can and using technology to extend its reach to new audiences. But those efforts don’t come close to paying the bills.

This year, the organization has collected about half of its typical revenue, with corporate sponsorships alone dropping by $1.5 million. To keep going, the organization has laid off several people.

The 15 who remain employed are working only 20 hours a week, under a state work-share program that provides them with unemployment for the remaining hours.

Under the direction of Mello and founder and Executive Artistic Director Barnaby Evans, the organization has hosted a series of virtual and in-person events that comply with the COVID-19 health guidance.

One event was a luminaria lighting at the WaterFire Arts Center from April to August, honoring the people who have died of COVID-19. This month, with the Providence-based Wilbury Theatre Group, it is hosting the play “Constellations” on an outdoor stage in the arts center parking lot.

Some sponsors converted the underwriting of WaterFire lightings into financial grants, contributing about $350,000 to the WaterFire Relief Fund.

Performances and projects have all had contributions or fees. But none of it replicates five months of river lightings.

Mello acknowledged that he frets about the finances.

LINING UP: WaterFire Providence has built an outdoor stage and projection screen. WaterFire founder and Executive Artistic Director Barnaby Evans, on stage, helps Wilbury Theatre Group General Manager Max Ponticelli to ready the stage for the December ­performances of “­Constellations.”

PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

“I’m an arts leader. I guess we have hope and optimism and some confidence,” he said. “But I’m also a business leader. Every day, I’ve got to be realistic about things.”

Evans, the executive artistic director, said the construction of the outdoor stage is an example of the creativity the pandemic has sparked.

“In terms of creative thinking, it’s actually been a really interesting exercise,” he said. “In terms of the financial stability of the organization, it’s been a huge challenge.”

ABSENCE FELT The ability of WaterFire, as well as other large arts and performance venues, to rebound quickly is critical to the city’s identity and economics, according to community leaders.

Neil D. Steinberg, CEO and president of the Rhode Island Foundation, said the arts are vital in times of crisis. These organizations often rely on ticket traffic, but due to the pandemic many families are having either health or economic concerns that keep them home.

“Yes, they employ a lot of people,” Steinberg said of the arts community. “But they’re dependent on people being employed to go.”

Moreover, demand for the basics such as food, rent, health care, and behavioral and mental health “just overwhelm everything,” Steinberg said. “While the arts are important, it’s side by side with these incredible, immediate needs.”

What is Providence missing without WaterFire?

The river lightings, which generally occur from May through October, contribute about $114 million in economic output through people visiting Providence, which in turn has created almost 1,300 jobs, according to the organization’s filing with Guidestar, an online information service on

nonprofits.

Typically, about 60,000 to 100,000 people come to each lighting, WaterFire said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done any collateral material on Providence that didn’t have a big picture of WaterFire on it,” Adamo said. “It’s one of those things that’s truly unique to the city of Providence. When you’re looking at the overall brand and the reputation of the city, WaterFire is a key component.”

It accounts for hotel occupancy on the weekends of the events, she said, pushing most hotels into a 90% occupancy rate. And it supports a range of smaller businesses all along the WaterFire route, following the rivers. More than half of the WaterFire attendees come from outside Rhode Island, according to the organization.

Because of that, Adamo and other public officials desperately tried to schedule a series of smaller, holiday-themed WaterFire lightings in December that would have been free and would have featured a system to assure social distancing.

But Rhode Island’s recent surge in COVID-19 cases scotched that effort, she said.

“At the end of the day, once the surge started, the little group of us that was trying to make it happen just didn’t think it would be responsible,” she said. “We had to table that.”

Along with venues such as Trinity Repertory Company and the Providence Performing Arts Center, WaterFire is among the “tent pole” organizations of the arts community, she said. It’s important that they all survive the pandemic, particularly for an economic recovery.

“It’s a great sales tool for us; and selfishly, we need it,” she said of the power of the large players to drive tourism and convention business.

Adamo is equally concerned about what she

‘They’re efforts to keep art going and alive.’

BARNABY EVANS, WaterFire Providence founder and executive artistic director 12 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS ‘I’ll be damned if I’ll let this place go down the tubes.’

TRUDY COXE, Preservation Society of Newport County CEO and executive director called “second-tier” arts events and venues, such as the Rhode Island International Film Festival, operated by the nonprofit Flickers – The Newport Film Society & Arts Collaborative.

“They don’t have as much marketing and fundraising infrastructure,” she said. “A lot of those smaller organizations operate on extremely narrow margins and with small staffs.”

A $20 million pandemic relief program created

by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo in October is aimed at helping hotels, arts groups and tourism-related businesses. All of the large arts organizations statewide were expected to apply for the so-called HArT Recovery Grant Program.

Smaller state grants, for activities and placemaking efforts, have recently been announced. But the larger organizations that have incurred deep losses, including WaterFire, were waiting to learn if they’ve received their requests for direct aid.

It remains to be seen if those grants will be enough.

PAINED DECISIONS At the Newport Mansions – the state’s most popular tourist attractions – public health guidelines and travel restrictions forced the nonprofit Preservation Society of Newport County to close nine of its 11 Gilded Age homes that normally draw more than 1 million visits a year.

Instead, the society sold tickets for the first time strictly for the grounds of the Breakers and other properties, according to Trudy Coxe, society CEO and executive director.

The loss of visitors has been substantial. Coxe estimated the Newport Mansions were at 25% to 32% of the 2019 tour numbers, and most of the society’s revenue comes from those ticket sales. The organization will likely end up with about $11.5 million in revenue, she said.

Such losses weren’t unexpected. The Newport Mansions’ $27 million budget for its fiscal year beginning last March had to be scrapped almost immediately. By June, the nonprofit laid off 230 of its employees, leaving just 56 full-time workers and 74 part-timers.

“It’s been a very challenging year and very hard, from a personnel perspective,” Coxe said.

“And then just having uncertainty, every single day of the week, not knowing what is going to hit you next.”

Along the way, Coxe said, she developed a sense of determination, too. “How do we make it work?” she recalled thinking. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let this place go down the tubes.”

The Steel Yard, a nonprofit providing instruction in metal, ceramic and glass arts, as well as commercial production of public artwork, has scaled back its course offerings, making them shorter and less expensive, to appeal to a community that has been hurt by job losses and other aspects of the recession, according to Executive Director Howie Sneider. That redesign has meant many of its artist-teachers have kept at least some

of their income.

The organization hasn’t been able to continue site rentals for community events that previously drew up to 10,000 people a year. But it’s pushing through with grants and commissioned work by cities and communities for public spaces. These include a new silhouette of the British schooner Gaspee that’s part of the annual Gaspee Days celebration in Warwick, and a mobile, educational display about plastic pollution for The Nature Conservancy.

“People are investing in public spaces. People are investing outside,” he said.

Trinity Rep was forced to rethink its operations quickly given the initial shut down of arts and cultural venues. Even before the government-imposed restrictions on venues, ticketholders were canceling reservations for the performance that was then on the stage, “A Tale of Two Cities.”

“By the second week in March, we really started to see the pandemic impacting things,” said Tom Parrish, the executive director. The show was canceled March 12, and soon after the theater called off the remainder of its 2019-20 season, about 100 performances in all.

Since that time, some of Trinity’s revenue-generating operations have moved online, including the educational programs and its partnership on classes with Brown University.

Trinity initially covered the salaries of its entire staff for four weeks. It then was forced to furlough the actors and support staff, thinking they would be recalled for the start of a new season in the fall.

But when that didn’t materialize, theater administrators had to issue pink slips. The theater now employs about 28 full-time-equivalent positions, Parrish said, down from 120.

The loss of the ticket sales is just one problem.

They only cover about half of the performance costs, with the remainder made up by hard-tocome-by sponsorships and philanthropy, Parrish said.

The economics of putting on a performance

means that reduction in crowd size will require more fundraising to make up the difference.

“A Christmas Carol,” which traditionally has amounted to half the ticket sales generated by Trinity annually, has been moved online this year, through a combination of live performance and filmed scenes. The event will be free and is projected to draw in more than 50,000 viewers, based on the number of people who registered in the first 12 hours.

Registered viewers are being asked to contribute to the theater. Parrish noted, however, that the format means that the work of Trinity Rep will be accessible to a wider audience, watching from home.

KEEPING ART ALIVE Back at the WaterFire Arts Center, there have been some in-person events, such as the “Beacon of Hope,” a display in which, over the course of three months, people who had lost relatives or friends to COVID-19 were invited to light a luminaria.

The “Beacon of Hope” wasn’t intended to generate revenue for the organization. And hosting the Wilbury Theatre on the outdoor stage also isn’t bringing in money for WaterFire Providence. But Evans said the purpose of such events goes beyond money.

“The financial challenge of the organization is very real ... and we’ve been working on how to keep the team stable and come up with creative, alternative things,” Evans said. “[Those things] don’t really have an income associated with them.

They’re efforts to keep art going and alive.”

Evans said he’s certain that WaterFire will bounce back after the pandemic, as will the city itself.

“I’m sure WaterFire will return,” he said. “In doing 25 years of lighting WaterFires, one of the things that has most astonished me and delighted me is its incorporation into everybody’s imagination of how they see Providence. You mention Providence [internationally] and they say, ‘Oh! Firewater!’ ” n

LIMITED OPERATION: The Steel Yard remains open but under restrictions for class and event sizes. Tom Hubbard, a second-year resident and fellow in the ceramics department, works on pieces inspired by the plant life of his garden this summer.

PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 13

PBN.COM | ANOTHER LOOK Stepping Up: 2nd surge of free meals

BY JAMES BESSETTE | Bessette@PBN.com

(Editor’s note: A version of this story was first published on PBN.com on Dec. 1.)

PROVIDENCE – Amar Singh remembers his humble start in the United States as if it was yesterday.

Coming from India as a student, Singh didn’t have enough money to purchase an essential daily item: food. He took his first job at a restaurant so he wouldn’t starve.

“I told the owner, ‘You don’t have to pay me; I can just eat,’ ” Singh told Providence Business News.

Singh, now the longtime owner of India Restaurant on Hope Street, was recently watching a CNN report about the long lines of people who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic seeking food.

Seeing similar images locally, and understanding full well what it feels like to go hungry, it didn’t take long for Singh to respond to the crisis in his own way.

India Restaurant on Dec. 2 began offering 100 free meals each day through Dec. 31 to those struggling this holiday season due to the pandemic. The meal choices, which will be offered via pickup each day at the restaurant between 2-5 p.m., will be either chicken marsala or a vegan meal, with salad and rice as side

dishes.

This is not the first time India Restaurant has helped feed the needy during this health crisis. In the spring during the first virus surge, Singh’s restaurant offered free meals to front-line workers, such as nurses, doctors, police officers and ­firefighters.

“This time around, we talked about how we could do this for the general public but for people who had lost a job or for whatever reason that they are struggling,” Singh said.

“We want to pay it forward ourselves.”

Singh said one person seeking food from India Restaurant will be provided with two meals if they are taking them for a partner or a family.

If the family is larger and two people come to the restaurant from a single family, four meals will be offered.

“All they have to do is say, ‘I’m here for the free meal.’ No questions asked. We have to go with trust, and no one is going to exploit us,” Singh said.

Singh admits this past year has been difficult. Along with combating the pandemic, his wife was diagnosed with cancer last fall, he said.

However, Singh said he feels “very blessed” because the community has

DISHING IT OUT: India Restaurant in Providence is offering 100 free meals per day for the remainder of December to help people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured, from left, are Manager Ajay Vinoben and owner Amar Singh.

PBN PHOTO/JAMES BESSETTE

been supportive to his family and his now quarter-century-old restaurant during both crises.

“We are holding our own and doing alright,” Singh said. “I think we can weather this storm, God willing.” n

R.I. says Vineyard Wind delay no problem

BY NANCY LAVIN | Lavin@PBN.com

(Editor’s note: A version of this story was first published on PBN.com on Dec. 7.)

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island leaders insist the state’s ambitious renewable energy goals and related projects won’t be affected by recently announced delays in what was slated to be the country’s first major offshore wind farm.

Vineyard Wind LLC on Dec. 1 announced it would be pulling previously submitted construction and operating plans from federal review after signing an agreement with General Electric Co. to design and build what will now be a 63-turbine project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The project, which has been plagued by delays, was slated to receive the requisite environmental review from the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this month, with a final decision in January.

In a statement, Vineyard Wind said its internal review of construction and operation plans would take several weeks, and the company still expected to start construction in 2021 with the project generating power by 2023. While the projected 800 megawatts of power will benefit Massachusetts, not Rhode Island, local industry leaders have largely viewed the timeline and outcome of Vineyard Wind as a direct indicator of when and if other offshore wind projects will move forward. This includes developer Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind’s Revolution Wind project slated to be constructed off Block Island, as well as the state’s recently announced plans to solicit proposals for another major offshore wind farm.

Orsted declined to comment on the latest delays in Vineyard Wind, reiterating a previous statement that it expects the initial 2023 completion

ON TRACK? Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind, which owns and operates the Block Island Wind Farm pictured above, has said new delays in the Vineyard Wind project will not affect its own plans to build a 50-turbine wind farm off the coast of Block Island.

COURTESY ORSTED U.S. OFFSHORE WIND

date for Revolution Wind will be pushed back but cannot adapt a new construction schedule until it receives more guidance from BOEM. However, agreements between National Grid Rhode Island and the developer outline a series of deadlines for project benchmarks based on this original completion date, starting with receipt of all project permits by May 1, 2022, and ending with a commercial operation date in January 2024. The agreement allows the parties to extend certain

14 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

deadlines, but not the commercial operation date or project financing unless the developer posts an additional $2 million deposit for each six-month extension. Alternatively, a “force majeure” event in which unforeseen circumstances prevent the developer from meeting the agreed-upon benchmarks can bring about a 24-month extension.

Spokespeople for Orsted and National Grid said it was too early to consider agreeing upon deadline extensions or whether federal permitting delays merited appropriate use of the force majeure clause.

R.I Energy Commissioner Nicholas Ucci also said in a statement that the state “has no indication, from the developer or the utility, that the existing contract is at risk, nor would we expect that to be the case.”

He added that it is common, given the complexity of large-scale renewable projects, for agreements to contain caveats that allow for extensions on “critical milestones.”

The state already includes the 400 megawatts of power expected from the Revolution Wind project in its current calculation for renewable power statewide – 933 megawatts as of the third quarter of 2020, according to the R.I. Office of Energy Resources. The project’s contribution to current power generation would only be removed if the contract between National Grid and the developer ended, Ucci said.

A BOEM spokesman declined to comment on how Vineyard Wind’s decision to pull construction and operating permits would affect the final ruling on the project, or others in the pipeline behind it, referring to the project webpage for future timeline updates. n

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Few in U.S. adopting COVID-19 exposure apps

BY BRYAN ANDERSON AND MATT O’BRIEN | The Associated Press

SIX

months ago, Apple Inc. and Google LLC introduced a new smartphone tool designed to notify people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus, without disclosing any personal information. But for the most part, Americans haven’t been all that interested.

Fewer than half of U.S. states and territories – 18 in total – have made such technology widely available. And according to a data analysis by The Associated Press, the vast majority of Americans in such locations haven’t activated the tool.

Data from 16 states, Guam and the District of Columbia shows that 8.1 million people had utilized the technology as of late November. That’s about 1 in 14 of the 110 million residents in those regions.

In Rhode Island, the Crush COVID RI contact-tracing app was introduced in May. Since then, it’s been downloaded by 95,000 people, according to the R.I. Department of Health – about 10% of the state’s 1 million residents.

The Rhode Island app keeps a “location diary,” which tracks where a user has traveled for up to 20 days at a time.

Users can still decide whether to share the information with health officials if they’re infected by the coronavirus.

A health department spokesman

said some people have shared the data electronically while others have shared it verbally. “It has been a very valuable tool for our case investigators,” said agency spokesman Joseph Wendelken.

Such apps can bolster one of the most difficult tasks in pandemic control: Tracing the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus in order to test and isolate them if necessary. In practice, however, widespread COVID-19 misinformation, the complexity of the technology, overwhelmed health workers needing to quickly confirm a diagnosis, and a general lack of awareness have all presented obstacles, experts and users say.

“There’s a lot of things working against it,” said Jessica Vitak, an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. “Unfortunately, in the U.S., COVID has been politicized far more than in any other country. I think that’s affecting people’s willingness to use tools to track it.”

Charlotte, N.C., lawyer Evan Metaxatos was thrilled to learn in November about his state’s tracking app, called SlowCOVIDNC. He immediately downloaded it and got his parents and pregnant wife to follow suit.

But they’re still outliers in the state, which launched the app in September

TRACING HELP: The R.I. Department of Health says the Crush COVID RI smartphone app has been downloaded 95,000 times since May. The technology is intended to help with contact tracing in case of infection.

PBN PHOTO

‘There’s a lot of things working against it.’

JESSICA VITAK, University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies associate professor

with little fanfare. Of roughly 10.5 million state residents, only 482,003 had installed it through the end of ­November.

“It won’t work great until everyone’s using it, but it’s better than nothing,” Metaxatos said.

Apple and Google co-created the primary technology behind such apps, which use Bluetooth wireless signals to anonymously detect when two phones have spent time in close proximity. If an app user tests positive for the virus, that person’s phone can trigger a notification to other people they’ve spent time near – without revealing names, locations or any other identifying information.

In states such as Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C., iPhone users don’t even have to download an app. In fact, Apple prompts users via pop-ups to activate the notification system by adjusting their phone settings.

In these states, adoption rates are notably higher. But even in the most successful state, Connecticut, only about a fifth of all residents have opted into this tracking.

Virginia’s COVIDWISE app launched on Aug. 5. Since then, fewer than 1 in 10 residents have downloaded it, though the state estimates almost 20% of Virginians between the ages of 18 and 65 with a smartphone have done so. Delaware’s app downloads account for about 7% of the state’s population.

New York launched its app on Oct. 1. It recently surpassed 1 million downloads, which amounts to about 5% of the population. New Jersey and Pennsylvania have seen less use, with a 4% download rate.

Adoption is even lower in Wyoming, North Dakota, Michigan, Nevada and Alabama, with users representing only 1% to 3% of their state populations. The apps, which are free, can be found in Apple’s app store and the Google Play store for Android devices; they’re also typically available on state health-department websites.

Security experts praise the AppleGoogle system for protecting users’ anonymity, but it’s been a tough sell for many people. American users say partisanship, privacy concerns and stigma surrounding COVID-19 have kept participation low.

Lee McFarland, a loan officer from Grand Forks, N.D., was eager to download his state’s Care19 Alert app but said he couldn’t push a “Notify Others” button after getting the virus in late October.

“If you test positive, a public health official will call and verify your code,” said a message on McFarland’s app.

“This ensures that only verified positive COVID-19 people can send notifications.”

McFarland said he forgot to tell the health worker he had the app installed on his phone. He was unsuccessful in following up with the worker to get the needed code, and has since deleted the app. n With reports from PBN Staff Writer Alexa Gagosz.

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 15

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FOCUS | HEALTH CARE

Questions raised over plan for state hospital

BY MARY MACDONALD | MacDonald@PBN.com

THE

complicated finances and history of the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital may take another turn.

The network of four satellite hospital buildings, which care for more than 400 people with significant psychiatric and medical conditions, is proposed for a restructuring that would close two hospital buildings and create a new nursing home facility instead.

Involved in all that is the movement or discharge of patients, many of whom have lived in those hospital buildings in Cranston and Burrillville for years. Some families and patient advocates have been critical of the state’s reorganization plan, which has taken various forms over the past year.

In recent weeks, Eleanor Slater employees have sent letters to the House Finance Committee, which will review the plan. “This hospital should not be downgraded to a small nursing home in an attempt to save money, which would be a disservice to our state’s most vulnerable patients,” wrote Daniel Nelson, a member of the hospital’s microbiology department.

Kathryn Power, director of the R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, said a reorganization will allow the state to provide the appropriate care, a nursing home level of care, and will also provide discharged patients – nearly 100 people – with a communitybased setting that is more appropriate for them.

“What we have found is the individual patients we have, many of them should not even be in a hospital,” Power said in an interview.

Megan Clingham, mental health advocate for the state of Rhode Island, said in an interview recently that the state over the years has made insufficient investments in community-based care, which complicates the reorganization.

“It’s not a realistic plan because there is insufficient capacity in the community,” she said of the idea of transferring patients into nursing homes or group homes. “It’s not a problem if those settings exist. What I’m saying is they don’t exist.”

But Power insists that Rhode Island has enough locations that could accept

REMODELING: Kathryn Power, director of the R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, says a reorganization proposal for Eleanor Slater Hospital will provide its patients with the appropriate care.

PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

‘It’s not a realistic plan because there is insufficient capacity in the community.’

MEGAN CLINGHAM, state mental health advocate 18 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

people leaving the hospitals. “There are multiple places in the community where some of our patients would flourish and have an opportunity to be in the least restrictive environment,” she said.

What’s driving the reorganization?

In August 2019, the state stopped billing for federal Medicaid reimbursement for Eleanor Slater patients, after discovering it had allowed the hospital system to admit too many psychiatric patients. Falling out of compliance with federal Medicaid reimbursement requirements – which mandate that no more than half of a medical-psychiatric hospital’s patient volume be psychiatric patients – led to a loss of about $20 million in federal reimbursement last year.

The patient-mix issue has been resolved, according to Power. But now the state has determined that it still cannot bill for Medicaid reimbursement because it has not been providing hospital-level care at Eleanor Slater Hospital, and was told by the federal agency overseeing Medicaid services that it has to amend its service agreement. The state plans to pursue the nursing home status to more appropriately reflect the kind of care it is providing, Power said.

The hospital for many years has failed to adequately plan for the regular discharge of patients, a process that should begin as soon as the patients are admitted, Power said. While some people are not suited to living outside the hospital setting, many are, she said.

“I was around many, many years ago when we closed the Ladd School [in Exeter], when we closed the Institute of Mental Health [in Cranston],” she said, referring to the former state institutions for people with developmental disabilities and significant mental illness, respectively.

“We moved those very, very complex patients into group homes and into the community,” Power said.

“We just should have been doing that continuously for some of the people in this hospital, and we didn’t.”

Under her reorganization proposal, the Regan and Adolf Meyer buildings will be closed at the Pastore Medical Center in Cranston, and the state will open a new or significantly renovated Zambarano facility in Burrillville with the status of a nursing home rather than a hospital. The unaffected building is the Benton Building in Cranston, which has patients either civilly or criminally committed by the Rhode Island court system.

The timeline will be gradual, but the discharging of patients has already begun. According to an analysis by the House fiscal officers, the proposed reorganization would cost $65 million for a new, or renovated, nursing home facility at the existing Zambarano campus, using $53 million in bonds and $11.3 million from other state funds.

Because the volume of patients would decrease over time, the state would save money on operations.

Any reorganization will require approval from the General Assembly, potentially in fiscal 2022. n

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www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 19

FOCUS | HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATORS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

administrator herself, overseeing Linn Health & Rehabilitation in East Providence, an 84-bed facility owned

by Aldersbridge Communities. But her experience meeting other managers illustrates a looming problem in the nursing home sector: Many industry leaders in Rhode Island say that most administrators of nursing homes are over the age of 55 and approaching retirement.

Recruiting – and retaining – the next generation of administrators hasn’t been easy.

While homes have been an epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, the last nine months have put a spotlight on the difficulties of working inside facilities that are caring for society’s most frail and elderly. And any major recruitment effort might have to be put on hold while a new wave of ­COVID-19 cases hits the state.

James Nyberg, director of LeadingAge RI, which represents 14 nonprofit facilities that offer care for the state’s aging population, said he’s worried that the pandemic will have negative effects on developing a workforce that was already unstable before COVID-19.

And the issues go beyond hiring administrators. Staff members lower

❄

YOUTH MOVEMENT: Jamie Sanford is one of the youngest nursing home administrators in the state. She’s 37. Most other administrators are nearing retirement age, and the industry is concerned about finding future staffers.

PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

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HEALTH CARE | FOCUS on the ladder have become more difficult to find, too.

“It’s not seen as a desirable place to work, until they become part of the workforce and become close with residents,” Nyberg said recently.

Labor training officials are trying to set the groundwork for a recovery after COVID-19.

Skills for Rhode Island’s Future, a nonprofit that offers job-search support, career-enhancement services and free training for unemployed and underemployed Rhode Islanders, is working to recruit and train staff for nursing homes.

Spokesman Josh Singer said the program, in collaboration with the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, launched a dispatch service for congregate care settings in April.

As of Dec. 1, 140 nurses and nursing assistants have been “dispatched” to 1,220 shifts, earning a per diem “surge wage.”

In addition, Skills for RI started an emergency certified nursing assistant training program that provided a temporary, 90-day license to participants. More than 110 people completed the training, and of those, 68 have worked in congregate care centers through the dispatch program.

Marianne Raimondo, Rhode Island College professor and director of RIC’s health care administration department, founded the long-term care administration certificate program nearly five years ago after she heard from industry leaders about the dire need for a pipeline to replace administrators approaching retirement. “[Being an administrator] does require experience and knowledge of complex rules and regulations, complex reimbursement systems [such as] Medicaid and Medicare, managing a very difficult resident population, and the provision of complete care,” said Raimondo, who is Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s sister. “Financial management is difficult due to low reimbursement rates – it is very difficult to equitably and adequately compensate the workforce, especially front-line certified nursing assistants, which results in turnover and difficulty recruiting staff.”

She added, “I feel that it is one of the most difficult and challenging jobs in health care.”

Richard Gamache, Aldersbridge Communities CEO, teaches health care administration at RIC. His students have various post-graduation goals, whether they want to work inside hospitals or clinics, or be inside the corporate offices of health systems. But he said many want to become nursing home administrators, which “astounds” him, calling

the job “thankless,” “underpaid” and “under-respected.”

Gamache said most aspiring administrators have to earn a related degree with specific courses, complete an internship that is usually unpaid and pass an exam just to enter a job market with limited opportunity and a high burnout rate.

“I tell my students on the first night of class that the last ‘nursing homes’ have been built in this country,” Gamache said. “There will be no more new ones. That ship has sailed.

Nursing homes are dinosaurs just waiting on the meteor.”

He said the future of congregatecare facilities can be seen in places such as the Saint Elizabeth Community in East Greenwich, which uses a “greenhouse model” consisting of four houses, each with 12 residents.

It’s meant to provide both privacy and community, but still have around-the-clock care.

“These models are nothing like the traditional, 125-bed cinder-block institutions that were built in the 1970s.

All those buildings are falling apart,” said Gamache.

And while Medicaid is a primary source of revenue for nursing homes, Raimondo said administrators are finding that the reimbursements are barely covering costs. In turn, some administrators such as Sandford say they are having a hard time recruiting and retaining their own staff.

“In all positions, the work is hard,” Sanford said. “If you’re offered a dollar or two more somewhere else, why would you stay in a nursing home?” n

‘I feel that it is one of the most difficult and challenging jobs in health care.’

MARIANNE RAIMONDO, Rhode Island College professor

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Plus, a complete contact list with name and address MBA PROGRAMS

MORTGAGE BANKERS & BROKERS

(ranked in Rhode IslandIsland and Bristol County,County, Mass.,Mass., in 2018)in 2018) (rankedbybytotal totalresidential residentialmortgage mortgagevolume volume in Rhode and Bristol 2019 rank

1 2018: 1

2 2018: 2

3 2018: 4

4 2018: 3

5 2018: 6

6 2018: 7

7 2018: 5

8 2018: 8

9 2018: 9

10 2018: 10

11 2018: 13

12 2018: 12

13 2018: NL

14 2018: 11

15 2018: 15

16 2018: NL

17 2018: 19

18 2018: 18

19 2018: NL

20 2018: 14

21 2018: NL

22 2018: 24

23 2018: NL

CLOSER LOOK

Company Website President/CEO

Address Phone

Mortgage volume

Number of loans

Market share by number of loans

Citizens Bank N.A. citizensbank.com Bruce Van Saun, chairman and CEO; Keith Kelly, president, Rhode Island

1 Citizens Plaza Providence, R.I. 02903 (401) 456-7000

$401 mil.

2,399

5.55%

Residential Mortgage Services Inc.

100 Jefferson Blvd.

Warwick, R.I. 02888 (401) 228-8558

$378.6 mil.

1,500

3.47%

1005 Douglas Pike Smithfield, R.I. 02917 (401) 233-4700

$349.5 mil.

1050 Woodward Ave. Detroit, Mich. 48226 (800) 251-9080

$322 mil.

HarborOne Bank harborone.com James W. Blake, CEO; Bill White, Rhode Island director of banking

770 Oak St. Brockton, Mass. 02301 (508) 895-1000

$275.7 mil.

Pawtucket Credit Union

1200 Central Ave. Pawtucket, R.I. 02861 (401) 722-2212

$262.5 mil.

rmsmortgage.com Anne Horvath, branch manager, Warwick

Navigant Credit Union

B

Gary E. Furtado

navigantcu.org

Quicken Loans Inc. quickenloans.com Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman; Jay Farner, CEO

George J. Charette III

pcu.org

The Washington Trust Co. washtrust.com Edward O. Handy III, chairman and CEO

23 Broad St. Westerly, R.I. 02891 (401) 348-1200

Santander Bank N.A. santanderbank.com Timothy Wennes, CEO and president, Santander Bank N.A.; Cynthia Lariviere, president for southern and western New England

1 Financial Plaza Providence, R.I. 02903 (877) 768-2265

First Home Mortgage firsthome.com Mike Nadeau, branch manager

183 Central Ave. Seekonk, Mass. 02771 (508) 915-6009

Home Point Financial Corp.

2211 Old Earhart Road Ann Arbor, Mich. 48105 (866) 803-8185

BankNewport

10 Washington Square Newport, R.I. 02840 (401) 846-3400

homepointfinancial.com William Newman

banknewport.com

Sandra J. Pattie

Bank of America N.A.

bankofamerica.com Brian T. Moynihan, chairman and CEO; William F. Hatfield, president, Rhode Island

100 Westminster St. Providence, R.I. 02903 (800) 432-1000

$231.8 mil.

$204.7 mil.

$196.2 mil.

$185.5 mil.

2,072

1,430

1,168

1,433

1,033

966

848

789

4.79%

3.30%

2.70%

3.31%

2.40%

2.23%

1.96%

Re-ranked by number of loans:

1 Citizens Bank N.A.

No. of loans: 2,399

2 Navigant Credit Union No. of loans: 2,072

3

$168.9 mil.

$164.7 mil.

801

674

1.85%

1.56%

585 South Blvd. East Pontiac, Mich. 48341 (855) 888-8737

$159.1 mil.

609

1.40%

loandepot.com Anthony Hsieh, chairman and CEO

26642 Towne Center Drive Foothill Ranch, Calif. 92610 (888) 983-3240

$137.7 mil.

562

1.30%

Homestar Mortgage Inc. homestarmortgage.net Stephen Tetzner, founding partner and president

220 Smith St. Providence, R.I. 02908 (888) 744-3300

$137.3 mil.

511

1.18%

LIST RESEARCHED BY James Bessette NEED A COPY? To purchase a copy of this list, call (401) 273-2201 or visit PBN.com/lists.html for more information.

WANT TO JOIN? For more information about participating in PBN’s Top Lists, or to make additions or corrections, call (401) 680-4838 or write to Research@PBN.com.

NL = Not listed last year.

1.22%

 Previously listed as Randolph Savings Bank.

487

1.12%

 One mortgage in Swansea includes multiple properties consisting of both residential and commercial.

875 State Road Westport, Mass. 02790 (508) 678-1166

$110.2 mil.

397

0.91%

850 Main St. Bridgeport, Conn. 06604 (800) 894-0300

$110 mil.

5

E

0.00%

primaryresidentialmortgage.com Kenneth Knudson, CEO and president; Sean Zierak; Cosmo Laurelli, branch managers

7 8 2018: 7

10 2018: 5

11 2018: 11

12 2018: 12

13 2018: 14

2018: 13

2018: 15

16 2018: 16

2018: NL

School Website Dean/director

Address Phone

Harvard University hbs.edu Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria, dean

1 Soldiers Field Road Boston, Mass. 02163 (617) 495-6128

Boston University

bu.edu/questrom Questrom School of Business Susan Fournier, Allen Questrom professor and dean

University of Hartford

hartford.edu/barney Barney School of Business Amy Z. Zeng, dean

Massachusetts Institute of Technology mitsloan.mit.edu

Sloan School of Management David Schmittlein, dean

Bentley University

admissions.bentley.edu/graduate McCallum Graduate School of Business Michael Johnson-Cramer, dean

595 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, Mass. 02215 (617) 353-2670

200 Bloomfield Ave. West Hartford, Conn. 06117 (860) 768-4444

50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, Mass. 02142 (617) 258-5434

175 Forest St. Waltham, Mass. 02452 (781) 891-2108

Accreditation

AACSB

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

AACSB, NECHE

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

Enrollment % of applicants accepted 1,865 11%

969 49%

Avg. GMAT score Avg. starting salary Studentfaculty ratio

26 $73,440

681 NA 18.4-1

27 $53,994 full time; $1,687 per credit part time

NA $80,000 25-1

528 76%

722 $125,000 NA

407 NA

532 $66,028 12-1

362 65%

CLOSER LOOK Avg. student age Tuition

731 $135,000 6-1

32 $794 per credit

28 $74,200 full time

25 $57,600 full time; $4,800 per 3-credit course

Johnson & Wales University

jwu.edu School of Business: Graduate Studies at Johnson & Wales David Cartwright, dean, College of Online Education

NA NA 18-1

28 $2,106 per 3.0 semester course

350 86%

NA $60,000 5-1

23 $1,035 per credit

AACSB

347 20%

730 $127,100 8-1

28 $72,350 full time

285 Old Westport Road Dartmouth, Mass. 02747 (508) 999-8000

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

279 93%

520 $56,337 3-1

32 $16,390 full time in state, $29,578 full time out of state

73 Tremont St. Boston, Mass. 02108 (617) 573-8000

AACSB International, NECHE

218 71%

507 NA 6-1

27 $1,519 per credit

8 Abbott Park Place Providence, R.I. 02903 (401) 598-1000

NECHE

275 Mount Carmel Ave. Hamden, Conn. 06518 (203) 582-8029

AACSB, AACSB International

165 Whitney Ave. New Haven, Conn. 06520 (203) 432-5932

Dartmouth umassd.edu Charlton College of Business David Pedro, assistant vice chancellor for online and continuing education Suffolk University suffolk.edu Sawyer Business School William J. O'Neill, dean

Quinnipiac University

qu.edu/schools/business School of Business Matthew O'Connor, dean

Yale University som.yale.edu Yale School of Management Kerwin K. Charles, Indra K. Nooyi dean of the Yale School of Management University of Massachusetts

University of Rhode Island

web.uri.edu College of Business Administration David M. Dooley, president

Providence College

School of Business Sylvia Maxfield, dean

providence.edu

Salve Regina University salve.edu Graduate School/Business Studies Tobias M. Stapleton, dean of graduate studies and continuing education programs University of Massachusetts

Boston business.umb.edu College of Management Arindam Bandopadhyaya, interim dean

353 77%

B

35 Campus Ave. South Kingstown, R.I. 02881 (401) 874-2116

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

195 85%

540 NA 5-1

28 $655 per credit in state; $1,345 per credit out of state

1 Cunningham Square Providence, R.I. 02918 (401) 865-2294

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

161 97%

488 $69,345 8-1

25 $24,480 (per year for full time); $680 per credit

100 Ochre Point Ave. Newport, R.I. 02840 (401) 847-6650

IACBE, NECHE

138 77%

NA NA 11.5-1

29 $585 per credit or $10,530 for 18 credits over year

100 Morrissey Blvd.

Boston, Mass. 02125 (617) 287-7720

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

520 $72,400 13-1

132 57%

2019 rank

Total 2018-19 enrollment:

67

6,529

2018: NL

68 2018: 62

69

LIST RESEARCHED BY James Bessette NEED A COPY? To purchase a copy of this list, call (401) 273-2201 or visit PBN.com/lists.html for more information.

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NL = Not listed last year.

$107.7 mil.

465

1.07%

647 Oaklawn Ave. Cranston, R.I. 02920 (401) 943-9200

$97.3 mil.

428

0.99%

71 2018: NL

72

74 2018: NL

75 2018: 75

76 2018: NL

77 2018: NL

77 2018: NL

79 2018: NL

80 2018: 77

81

30 $760 per credit in state; $1,225 per credit New England region; $1,470 per credit international

2018: NL

82 2018: 82

Bryant University bryant.edu Graduate School of Business Jamie Grenon, director, graduate programs

1150 Douglas Pike Smithfield, R.I. 02917 (401) 232-6000

AACSB, NECHE

129 65%

456 $71,000 12.9-1

28 $1,118 per credit, $40,248 full time

83

Boston College bc.edu/csom Carroll School of Management Andrew C. Boynton, dean

140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 (617) 552-3920

AACSB

77 44%

636 $107,551 3.5-1

28 $50,576 full time; $1,744 per credit

84

1 Old Ferry Road Bristol, R.I. 02809 (401) 253-1040

AACSB, AACSB International, NECHE

NA NA NA

24 $951 per credit

Roger Williams University

rwu.edu Mario Gabelli School of Business Susan McTiernan, dean

2018: 78

19 NA

2018: 80

85

The Journey to Hope, Health & Healing Inc. thejourneyhhh.com

Kenneth L. Richardson, chairman and CEO

Address Phone

$5.8 mil.

December

No. of local employees Year founded 48 1987

CLOSER LOOK Type of business Opioid treatment facility

205 Hallene Road, Suite 101 Warwick, R.I. 02886 (401) 736-6450

$4.94 mil.

December

36 1987

Design and installation services for communications and security systems

DiStefano Brothers Construction

433 Main St. South Kingstown, R.I. 02879 (401) 783-1030

$4.9 mil.

December

34 2006

Residential remodeling company

steereengineering.com Patricia D. Steere, owner and president

Steere Engineering Inc.

2350 Post Road, Suite 100 Warwick, R.I. 02886 (401) 773-7880

$4.6 mil.

December

32 2010

Civil and structural engineering firm

AQUASGROUP aquas-group.com Nicholas Paolo Jr., president

830 Waterman Ave. East Providence, R.I. 02914 (401) 437-8612

$4.3 mil.

December

17 1986

Manufacturing

A Child's University

695 Park Ave. Cranston, R.I. 02910 (401) 461-1880

$4 mil.

December

108 2002

Nationally accredited earlychildhood school

Brave River Solutions Inc.

875 Centerville Road, Suite 9 Warwick, R.I. 02886 (401) 828-6611

$3.8 mil.

December

25 2000

Cloud computing, custom software development, IT managed services

1540 Pontiac Ave. Cranston, R.I. 02920 (401) 921-2434

$3.6 mil.

December

47 1966

Nonprofit mentoring organization

475 Kilvert Street, Suite 110 Warwick, R.I. 02886 (401) 921-2607

$3.2 mil.

December

22 1992

Cloud computing, IT support/ help desk, disaster recovery, network security

Creative Conners Inc.

84 Cutler St., Unit 7 Warren, R.I. 02885 (401) 289-2942

$3 mil.

December

15 2004

Manufacturing

One Check

onecheck.com Paul St. Martin, president

10 Court St. Taunton, Mass. 02780 (508) 822-8080

22 $3 mil.

Payroll services 1996 December BOL2020Covers.indd 1

Sunwatt Solar LLC sunwatt.solar Peter Hughes, owner/lead engineer

1005 Main St., Unit 2129 Pawtucket, R.I. 02860 (844) 786-9288

$3 mil.

NA

11 2014

Solar installation

East Coast Technology Group

1300 Highland Corporate Drive Cumberland, R.I. 02864 (401) 464-9005

$2.9 mil.

December

8 2002

Business IT consulting and networking services, cabling services, CCTV

859 North Main St. Providence, R.I. 02904 (401) 413-0068

$2.7 mil.

December

20 2013

Engineering

synetinc.com Stephen P. Beauvais, president

achildsuniversity.com Lynsey Colgan, president

braveriver.com Jim McAssey, president

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode

Island bigsri.org Katje Nadine Afonseca, executive director

Secure Future Tech Solutions

securefuturetech.com Eric M. Shorr, CEO; Lisa A. Shorr, vice president creativeconners.com Gareth Conner, president

ectne.com Steven J. Gietz, president

Building Enclosure Science LLC

buildinges.com Michael E. Kenney, co-founder, co-owner and president; Charles Antone, cofounder and chief operating officer

The Capital Good Fund

capitalgoodfund.org Andrew V. Posner, founder and CEO

Logicomm Inc. logicomm-inc.com Jim Van, partner; Peter Petrovich, director of security

22 A St. Providence, R.I. 02907 (866) 584-3651 111 Irving Ave. Providence, R.I. 02906 (401) 369-8730

Sponsored by

$2.6 mil.

December

$2.4 mil.

December

20 2009

15 1995

$2.3 mil.

December

6 2009

Advertising and public relations

$2.3 mil.

December

18 2002

IT service and consultation company

Swoogo swoogo.com Leonora Valvo, founder and CEO

4 Calder Drive Warren, R.I. 02885 (203) 685-5354

Marketing software

$2 mil.

December

1 2015

1004 Boston Neck Road, Suite 7 Narragansett, R.I. 02882 (401) 783-3836

$2 mil.

December

3 2000

87

$1.9 mil.

December

16 2012

Marketing and advertising

Integrated Media Group

1145 Reservoir Ave., Suite 300 Cranston, R.I. 02920 (401) 300-9921

$1.7 mil.

December

25 2015

Digital marketing firm, specializing in social media, email marketing

pmcmediagroup.com Darren Jodoin, president

growwithimg.com Gil Lantini; Ralph Coppolino, founders

Year founded: 1819

3

Centreville Bank Year founded: 1828

LIST RESEARCHED BY James Bessette NEED A COPY? To purchase a copy of this list, call (401) 273-2201 or visit PBN.com/lists.html for more information.

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12/23/19 3:50 PM

001_033TopCosBOL20.indd 17

12/12/19 8:43 AM

Financial services

378 Main St. East Greenwich, R.I. 02818 (401) 398-0050 70 Woodland Road North Smithfield, R.I. 02896 (401) 522-5200

694 Main St. East Greenwich, R.I. 02818 (401) 667-7777

2018: 85

2 BankNewport

IT services and support

Fish Advertising Inc.

John W. Larned, founder, CEO and president

2018: NL

1 The Claflin Co.

NL = Not listed last year.

fishadvertising.com Blair E. Fish, president

Global RFID Systems North America LLC globalrfidsys.com

Re-ranked by oldest companies: Year founded: 1817

IT Support RI itsupportri.com Paul Riendeau, CEO

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070_079EducationBOL20.indd 72

2018 revenue FY ends

160 Narragansett Ave. Providence, R.I. 02907 (401) 941-4488

SyNet Inc.

Inc. dbcri.com Peter DiStefano, owner

PMC Media Group

88

uri.edu/mba

72 | JANUARY 2020

Company Website President/CEO

2018: NL

2018: NL

86

Evening or One-Year Programs

12/23/19 12:24 PM

2018: 67

2018: 70

URI MBA

| 51

70

73

FOOTNOTE  Figures include both on-campus and online enrollment.

INVEST IN YOURSELF. AND YOUR CAREER.

1 Turks Head Place Providence, R.I. 02903 (401) 456-5000

2018: NL

2018: NL

1 Figures include both on-campus and online enrollment.

www.pbn.com | BOOK OF LISTS n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | JANUARY 2020

034_055FinancialBOL20.indd 51

6 2018: 4

17

Envision Bank envisionbank.com Peter DeFusco, branch manager People's United Bank peoples.com John P. Barnes, chairman and CEO

Primary Residential Mortgage Inc.

5 2018: 8

14

1.13%

1.23%

529

$117 mil.

Bank Rhode Island bankri.com Paul A. Perrault, CEO and president, Brookline Bancorp; Mark J. Meiklejohn, CEO and president, Bank Rhode Island

4 2018: 3

15

491

534

$122.4 mil.

50 Office Parkway East Providence, R.I. 02914 (401) 490-4400

D

3 2018: 6

 Formerly Shamrock Financial Corp., which rebranded on Aug. 1, 2019.

$132.8 mil.

$129.7 mil.

75 Newman Ave. East Providence, R.I. 02916 (401) 438-0202

C

provincemai.com David Currie, president

2 2018: 2

FOOTNOTES j Navigant Credit Union and the Kent County Memorial Hospital Federal Credit Union announced Sept. 11, 2019, that the two institutions will be merging in early 2020.

940 Reservoir Ave. Cranston, R.I. 02910 (401) 473-3260 128 Dorrance St. Providence, R.I. 02903 (877) 314-1499

Province Mortgage Associates Inc.

fairwayindependentmc.com Steve Jacobson, founder and CEO; Michelle Davidson, branch manager

1 2018: 1

9

Shamrock Home Loans shamrockfinancial.com Dean Harrington, CEO; Rod Correia, president

Movement Mortgage LLC movement.com Casey Crawford, CEO; Ian Aubourg, regional director

2019 rank

2018: 9

Residential Mortgage Services Inc. No. of loans: 1,500

TOP PRIVATE COMPANIES (ranked by 2018 revenue) TOP PRIVATE COMPANIES (ranked by 2018 revenue)

(ranked by 2018-19 enrollment)

MBA PROGRAMS (ranked by 2018-19 enrollment)

2018: 10

LoanDepot.com LLC

Fairway Independent Mortgage

$4.5 billion

1.82%

United Shore Financial Services LLC unitedshore.com Matt Ishbia

Total residential mortgage volume in Rhode Island and Bristol County, Mass., in 2018:

| 17

12/23/19 11:55 AM

Access the lists today!

Order online at PBN.com/lists/ For assistance, call 401-680-4840 www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 21

FOCUS | URGENT CARE CENTERS (ranked by number of patient visits in 2019) FOCUS | URGENT CARE CENTERS (ranked by number of patient visits in 2019) Center | Website Director

Address Phone

No. of patient visits in 2019 Total no. of locations

1 2019: 1

Ocean State Urgent Care Centers | oceanstateurgentcare.com John Roselli, CEO

174 Armistice Blvd.

Pawtucket, R.I. 02860 (401) 753-0500

176,000 16

2

Southcoast Health Urgent Care Centers | southcoast.org/urgentcare Bradley Silverman, executive director

39 Commerce Way Seekonk, Mass. 02771 (508) 336-6181

2020 rank

2019: 2

3

2019: 3

4 2019: 4

4 2019: 5

Concentra Urgent Care Inc. | concentra.com Mark Glovasky, center operations director, Rhode Island

Garden City Treatment Center Inc. | gctreatment.com Anthony Mechrefe, Mary Mechrefe, Tanya Gaudioso and Tara Cavanagh, owners

Atmed Urgent Care | atmedtreatmentcenter.com Elaine Narducci, executive director

290 Branch Ave. and 400 Bald Hill Road Providence and Warwick, R.I. 02904 and 02886 (401) 722-8880 and (401) 738-8100

1150 Reservoir Ave., Suite 100 Cranston, R.I. 02920 (401) 946-2400

1524 Atwood Ave. and 5750 Post Road Johnston and East Greenwich, R.I. 02919 and 02818 (401) 273-9400 and (401) 398-8760

112,327 7

53,812 2

42,000 1

42,000 2

CLOSER LOOK

Total number of clinicians Total staff

78 372

Flu vaccines, headache treatment, minor-injury treatment, occupational medicine, school/sports physicals

19 81

Flu vaccines, insect bites, lacerations, minor burns, physicals, point-of-care testing, rashes, respiratory illnesses, simple fractures, sprains

18 23

6 72

6 46

Top services

Injury and illness treatment

Free-standing emergency room, orthopedic clinic, physical therapy

Full lab and X-ray, occupational medicine services, travel clinic, urgent care/walk-in center

Primary Walk-In Medical Center | primarywalkinmedical.com Dr. Constantine Vafidis

684 Warren Ave. East Providence, R.I. 02914 (401) 434-0022

34,000 1

4 14

Drug screens, illness and injury treatment, lab services, joint cortisone injections, school physicals, weight-loss services

2019: 7

South County Health | southcountyhealth.org Aaron Robinson

268 Post Road Westerly, R.I. 02891 (401) 471-6740

29,501 2

7 21

Treatments for minor injuries and illnesses

8 2019: 8

Providence Community Health Centers Express Clinic | providencechc.org Merrill R. Thomas

375 Allens Ave. Providence, R.I. 02905 (401) 444-0400

23,684 1

5 578

Immediate treatment of various illnesses, including allergies, burns, colds, fever and sprains

9 2019: 9

Sturdy Memorial Urgent Care | sturdymemorial.org Edward Mullen, practice manager

266 Washington St. Attleboro, Mass. 02703 (844) 879-0071

9,324 1

3 9

On-site laboratory walk-in and same-day appointments, and X-ray services for adults and children

10 2019: 10

Bradley Hospital Access Center 1 | lifespan.org Kathleen Donise

1011 Veterans Memorial Parkway East Providence, R.I. 02915 (401) 432-1000

932 1

14 15

In-patient care and emergency evaluations for children and adults in crisis; Kids' Link hotline; triage

NA NA

Animal bites, burns, colds and flu, cuts, earaches and sinus infections, fractures and sprains, insect bites, sports physicals, upset stomach and diarrhea

NA NA

Animal bites, burns, colds and flu, earaches, flu vaccines, fractures and sprains, insect bites, sports physicals, upset stomach

6

2019: 6

7

11

Lifespan Urgent Care Center Middletown 2 | lifespan.org Bharat Hingorani

1360 West Shore Road Middletown, R.I. 02842 (401) 606-3110

NA

11

Lifespan Urgent Care Center Warwick 3 | lifespan.org Bharat Hingorani

17 Airport Road Warwick, R.I. 02889 (401) 606-2520

NA

2019: 11

2019: 11

1 Site| of DECEMBER service for Lifespan Health Emergency Services.

22 11-17,Pediatric 2020 Behavioral | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com 2 Lifespan's Urgent Care Center in Middletown opened on Nov. 11, 2019.

3 Lifespan's Urgent Care Center in Warwick opened on Sept. 16, 2019.

1

1

Total patient visits in 2019:

523,580 LIST RESEARCHED BY Cassius Shuman NEED A COPY? To purchase a copy of this list, call (401) 273-2201 or visit PBN.com/lists for more information.

UPCOMING LISTS Highway Projects, Rhode Island Co-Work Spaces (Dec. 18) WANT TO JOIN? For more information about participating in PBN’s Top Lists, or to make additions or corrections, call (401) 680-4884 or write to Shuman@PBN.com.

FOOTNOTES j Site of service for Lifespan Pediatric Behavioral Health Emergency Services.  Lifespan’s Urgent Care Center in Middletown opened on Nov. 11, 2019.  Lifespan’s Urgent Care Center in Warwick opened on Sept. 16, 2019.

BESTPLACES WORK

2021 AWARDS

Registration Deadline: February 19, 2021 Visit PBN.com for details

Enrollment is open for the 2021 Best Places to Work Program For sponsorship or advertising opportunities, contact advertising@pbn.com

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 23

IT’S PERSONAL Saccoccio receives Realtor honor MICHAEL SACCOCCIO was named the Rhode Island Realtor of the Year by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors. Saccoccio, a Cranston resident who has been in the real estate business for 30 years, was chosen by his peers from a field of five local board Realtor of the Year winners. He was also voted the Rhode Island Commercial and Appraisal Board’s 2020 Realtor of the Year and is a recipient of the same honor from the Greater Providence Board of Realtors.

What was your reaction to being named the Rhode Island Realtor of the Year for 2020?

It was as if I had won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. Imagine my surprise when the Rhode Island Association of Realtors awards committee arrived with balloons and a camera crew. The committee shared that I had been chosen as Rhode Island Realtor of the Year and presented me with my award. This award is a tremendous honor. To be judged by one’s achievements, accomplishments and civic participation, along with active involvement in local, state and national associations, is a great honor. Of all my career accomplishments and awards, to be recognized by my peers is what sets this award apart from all others I have received in my 39-year career.

What inspires you to work in the real estate field?

As trite as it may sound, I get great satisfaction helping people. I have been fortunate to have helped over 2,000 families with their real estate needs in my career. I am especially proud to have assisted close to 150 veterans buy or sell a home. Many clients have not been through the process previously and need expertise in the paperwork, legal issues and negotiating. I am here to help my clients navigate the path to home ownership.

What is the status of the Rhode Island real estate market, and what do you think it will be six months from now?

This winter is projected to be one of the most active seasons in recent years, which equates to a great opportunity to buy or sell. Currently, interest rates are very low, and I expect that to continue. I am hopeful in the coming months we will have increased inventory to keep up with the demand. Today, many people are currently working remotely from home. Many city dwellers find the lure of much lower housing costs in the suburbs enticing. Currently, properties under contract are ahead of 2019, and fortunately I do not see that changing.

What is most rewarding about being a Realtor in Rhode Island?

Being fortunate to live and work in the beautiful state of Rhode Island and assist others in reaping the benefits we enjoy. It is truly rewarding at a closing to witness another family that has found a new house they will soon make a home. It is fulfilling to help clients buy or sell a property. Every transaction is always different and challenging in its own unique way. The real estate industry is constantly evolving. It is rewarding to be able to think out of the box, adapt, embrace the changes and watch how the level of professionalism has grown in my long career. n

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24 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

IT’S PERSONAL MACKAY’S MORAL | HARVEY MACKAY

Management ABCs AS I BEGAN this list of management ABCs, I was determined not to confuse management with leadership. There are leaders at all levels, whether we identify them with a special title or simply recognize their ability to direct their colleagues. Managers, on the other hand, have responsibilities to the organization to achieve results.

Here are my thoughts on what managers need to know: A is for advice. Good advice doesn’t get old. Good advice is never cheap, and cheap advice is never good.

B is for bringing out the best in others to get them to believe in what you believe in: your employees.

C is for caring is contagious. Help spread it around.

D is for diverse. You get the best results from people with diverse ideas who respect each other and are committed to each other’s successes.

E is for excellence. Managers should demand nothing less than excellence because they have set an example of demanding excellence from themselves.

F is for first. Running your own business is no endeavor for anyone who feels anything other than the urge to be the first person in the door in the morning and the one they have

to drag out at night.

G is for good. The trick isn’t to get good at everything in your business.

The trick is getting to know what you are good at and figuring out how to get better.

H is for hero. As much as you would like to be a hero, look to the heroes in your company and acknowledge and encourage their contributions.

I is for impression. What’s the easiest way to check the first impression you’re making? Have someone call your company to check up on how the call is handled. Find out what your customers already know about your business.

J is for judging. We consciously or unconsciously judge a lot of companies by the attitudes of their average workers. Don’t underestimate their impact.

K is for kindness. Treat yourself and others with respect. Plant seeds of kindness by doing something kind every day.

L is for listen. You can’t learn anything if you are doing all the talking.

Listen to your staff because they often have great solutions and ideas for improvement.

M is for money. Managing money is as important as managing people.

If you don’t manage your resources well, you’ll have to manage the mess you’ve made.

N is for nice, as in nice guys can and often do finish first.

O is for obligation. Your first obligation to your company and employees is to set them up for success.

P is for pride. Take pride in your company. Take pride in your employees. Take pride in your products. But check your personal pride at the door.

Q is for qualifications. Help your employees develop the qualifications they need to take the next step in their careers.

R is for right. Always make time to do it right the first time.

S is for sales. A manager needs to sell ideas, plans and products to staff before a project can take off.

T is for team. The people who make it big in business are those who are able to put together a team and know

Being upfront builds trust.

what to do with it.

U is for upfront. Being upfront builds trust. Customers and employees appreciate honesty and will be more willing to work with people who respect them enough to tell them when there’s a problem.

V is for versatile. Of the many skills managers need to bring to the job, versatility is key to understanding the different challenges they face daily.

W is for walk your plant or office floor at least once a day. Be visible and available.

X is for eXpert. Spend at least 10% of your budget on the best professional advice available before you spend a nickel on anything else.

Y is for yesterday. The decisions you made yesterday will determine where you go tomorrow.

Z is for zenith. An exceptional manager guides a company to its zenith.

Mackay’s Moral: Managing people is an art; strive for a masterpiece. n Harvey Mackay is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive!” He can be reached through his website, www.harveymackay.com. | SPONSORED CONTENT |

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE BANKING

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With more than 20 years in the financial sector, Vieira specializes in wealth and risk management, and investment and financial strategies. Kevin focuses on building client relationships and developing personalized strategies to meet financial goals. He uses a comprehensive approach to build clients’ wealth, manage expenses, protect assets, and plan income for the present and retirement. Kevin is particularly knowledgeable in managing complex transactions involving mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, stocks, and bonds. Vieira is a Certified Funds Specialist, and previously worked for The Hartford and The Phoenix Companies.

Joelle Rocha has joined Duffy & Sweeney as a partner. She represents clients in real estate development and land use matters, business disputes and general commercial litigation.

She has successfully permitted several of the State’s largest developments, for residential, commercial, mixed use and solar projects. She has successfully litigated several class actions against municipalities regarding excessive municipal fees, and recovered litigation costs for clients as a result of unsubstantiated government action.

Rocha has been recognized by PBN with its Forty under 40 award and in RI Monthly for its Excellence in the Law and Outstanding Women in Business award.

Nicole Martucci joins the Duffy & Sweeney litigation team with a focus on business law, real estate and land use, and general commercial litigation. She is known for being a zealous litigator in Federal and State courts and a tireless advocate for her clients outside the courtroom.

Recognized by RI Monthly with its Outstanding Women in Business award, Nicole is a member of the Young Leaders Circle of the United Way, the RI Women’s Bar Association, the National Association of Professional Women, and the Associated Builders and Contractors/RI Chapter. She is admitted to practice law in Rhode Island.

Announce new hires, promotions and special accomplishments to the Rhode Island business community with PBN’s People on the Move.

The STANDARD listing includes 1 photo, 90-100 words of text, clickable links to your website, social media sharing and keywords to optimize search, and is: • published on PBN.com within 24 hours and archived on our site.

• printed in PBN. • featured on a PBN Daily Edition newsletter.

For additional information or to submit a Standard listing, visit PBN.com/pbnconnect.

The FEATURED listing includes all Standard listing elements, in a larger format, with company logo and 100 additional words of text.

For a Featured listing, contact your account manager or Advertising@PBN.com 401.680.4800

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 25

IT’S PERSONAL TO SAVOR | JESSICA NORRIS GRANATIERO

4 wines for winter WHEN THE TEMPERATURES shift downward this time of year, we naturally find ways to warm up. In the wine industry, that means moving to more hearty, often celebratory wines packing a richer body and texture.

In December, I am asked for my top wine picks of the season. Easy task, right? Well, not always. Wine picks are like children; they are all favorites for different reasons.

A wine is selected for my list because of its quality (price excluded) and also because of the stories and people behind it. It all makes the wine taste better. Enjoy the picks.

Malvira Sparkling Arneis, Piedmont, Italy. Arneis is a white grape from Piedmont, Italy, the northwestern part of the country that borders France and Switzerland. Wine made from arneis is usually unoaked and gives a medium body with citrus fruit notes. Make arneis into a sparkling wine, like Malvira does, and you have a hidden gem. Its vibrancy, small bubbles and dry texture make it my go-to for bubbles. Malvira is the Damonte family, run by brothers Roberto and Massimo, a charismatic duo who welcomed me and a group of clients two years ago. The Damonte kindness and love of their heritage

are clearly understood despite that everything they said was in Italian.

Barlow Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, Calif. This sauvignon blanc is great to drink all year. Sauvignon blanc is often considered a summer wine because of its crisp, fresh nature. Yet Barlow’s rendition is weighty and can pair with hearty winter dishes such as chicken stews and butternut squash soup. Barr Smith and his wife, Ann, have been growing grapes in Napa for some of the big-name vineyards for years.

Yet, they produce a small amount under their own label. I’ll never forget our first visit there. Before a trip to Napa, I emailed Barr, sharing my desire to visit with my husband.

Immediately, he responded and accommodated my request. As we pulled into the vineyard driveway, it became apparent that we were going into their home, not just a tasting room. Taking in the peaceful, bucolic nature of the vineyards while sipping their sauvignon blanc will always be a vivid memory.

Luiano Sangiovese, Tuscany, Italy.

A great value under $15, this sangiovese is the go-to everyday wine. It’s the “pizza, pasta, burger wine,” but really it pairs with almost anything.

A FAB GROUP: These wines were selected as favorites for the season because of their qualities, as well as because of the families and stories behind the production of the wines.

COURTESY THE SAVORY GRAPE

Medium-bodied, it’s silky with soft tannins. I don’t remember what year I met the Palombo family, who owns this tiny estate in Tuscany’s Chianti Classico, but they instantly made me feel like I was one of them. They do the same with each client who I have

ever sent there. Hard to find and up many hills with hairpin turns, Luiano is run by the energetic and vibrant brother-sister duo Alessandro and Felicia. Their comical delivery of their family stories is ever present.

Tre Monti Thea, Emilia Romagna, Italy. Those who know me are never surprised to find a Tre Monti wine at the top of my favorites list. The Navacchia family – Sergio and his sons, Vittorio and Davide – extends here to the U.S. A dear Rhode Island friend, who first introduced me to the Navacchias, is a cousin to Vittorio and Davide. Thea, made from organically grown sangiovese, is the namesake of Sergio’s late wife. The wine gives us a medium to full body with dusty cocoa and dark berry notes. The present tannins show that this wine is ageable.

I recently enjoyed a 10-year-old Thea that was fantastic – supple with tannins that had softened over time.

Everything the family touches is about quality and carrying forth the passion for wine and the land that Thea and Sergio started in the 1970s. n Jessica Norris Granatiero is the founder of The Savory Grape, a wine, beer and spirits shop in East Greenwich.

GUEST COLUMN | ELIZABETH C. TIPPETT

TikTok upends workplace policies AS THE THANKSGIVING holiday was winding down, a medical center in Salem, Ore., found itself in the middle of a frothing social media mess. A nurse named Ashley Grames posted a video on TikTok that went viral in which she mock-confessed to ignoring coronavirus health guidelines.

The video – which Grames has since taken down – was less than 15 seconds long. The nurse is wearing scrubs and seemingly at a medical facility. She lip-syncs to a short audio clip from “The Grinch” and mocks her co-workers’ outrage at her decision to flout the state mask mandate outside of work.

The nurse’s antics drew some unflattering attention to her employer, Salem Health, which on Dec. 8 confirmed she’s no longer employed there. But it highlighted the ease with which employees can pull out a phone on the sly and share a little clip before the boss is any the wiser.

Popular examples include a Domino’s Pizza cook, an Amazon warehouse worker and Starbucks baristas. Their employers thus serve as unwitting backdrops – with the logos, uniforms and workplaces on full display.

I find the mass of workplace TikTok videos somewhat surprising.

That’s because even the most innocu-

ous videos likely violate standard corporate social media policies, which tend to require a strict separation between the corporate brand and one’s personal life. Workers are generally not allowed to speak on behalf of the company or use the company brand or facilities without permission. These policies also warn against embarrassing the company or mocking customers.

It’s pretty much impossible to dance with your uniform on in the backroom without violating those rules – so why aren’t companies cracking down more?

TikTok, the preferred social media platform of the Gen Z set, is not really about connecting with friends. It’s more about recording the trending dance or fluffy topic of the moment and hoping the algorithm will spread your post to its billions of users.

Since much of TikTok is wordless and anodyne, TikTok seems the perfect corporate antidote to more pointed and politicized commentary

on Twitter or Facebook.

And for the most part, it is. In 30-second bites, workers conjure up a mini fantasy world of a job free of supervisors. A man twirls and glides in a glum potato warehouse. An Amazon worker packs boxes with Olympic speed and precision. Hospital workers in protective gear groove with balloons bulging out of their scrubs.

It’s free promotion for the employer, as recruiting and marketing companies have pointed out. Even before the COVID-19 era, these types of jobs could be difficult, dangerous, boring or low paid. Videos that present an alternate narrative, from the workers’ perspectives – showing them looking cool or being silly – can’t really be replicated in formal marketing.

It all seems like fun and games until the scandals mount.

Companies have also pounced on the faintest whiff of embarrassment.

Before there was Ashley Grames, there was Tony Piloseno, a popular TikTok paint mixer fired over the

It all seems like fun and games until the scandals mount.

26 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

summer, apparently for posting a video in which he mixed blueberries with paint.

And there have been less-highprofile scandals in recent months: a Chik-Fil-A worker fired over a video advising viewers to save money by ordering a drink with two extra pumps of mango syrup and a police officer suspended over a homophobic video about “magic” Crocs.

Companies that have not been monitoring workplace TikTok posts may be scrambling to avert the next crisis.

As sociologists Steven MaynardMoody and Michael Musheno have observed, front-line workers are mired in rules and procedures. The inevitable response to scandal, they argue, is just to impose more rules.

But much of the appeal of TikTok resides in its patina of transgression. Dunkin’s official TikTok squad is as humdrum as any other corporate social media account.

Reaping the viral rewards of TikTok may ultimately require companies to accept a little risk – and at least pretend they don’t approve. n Elizabeth C. Tippett is an associate professor at the University of Oregon School of Law. Distributed by The Associated Press.

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OCTOBER 20 PBN Events 2021: Updated 12/8/2020 subject to change

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 27

OPINION EDITORIALS

We’re all invested in fight to keep tourism, arts alive

FIGHTING ON: Barnaby Evans, founder and executive artistic director of ­WaterFire Providence, says the nonprofit will survive the pandemic. He’s pictured in front of a stage erected in a parking lot for an outdoor play.

PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Amid the plight of those struggling daily to pay for food or rent or dealing with the devastating loss of someone to COVID-19, the near disappearance of tourism in the community can go almost unnoticed many days.

But tourism normally employs thousands in Rhode Island and is a significant economic driver in an economy already desperately missing spending from out-of-state visitors.

As this week’s cover story reports, WaterFire Providence is a window to the ripple effects of those losses in the community and the promise of the arts to boost a recovery.

“WaterFire is essentially the face of tourism in Providence,” says Kristen Adamo, CEO and president of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau.

So far this year, its annual revenue is down by half. Several people have been laid off, with those remaining working under a state work-share program. But the loss of up to 18 planned river lightings and other in-person events goes much deeper.

Typically, between 60,000-100,000 people attend each lighting. They fill local restaurants and hotels, generating an estimated annual economic output of about $114 million responsible for nearly 1,300 jobs.

It’s hard to overstate the effects of those losses or the economic damage if they become permanent.

WaterFire this month is co-hosting an outdoor play on a stage in the parking lot at its arts center. The play won’t generate money for the organization, but WaterFire leaders say it serves a bigger purpose: keeping the arts alive for better days.

That’s not just a goal for the Ocean State; it’s a necessity every local community is invested in. n

Will vaccine panels work together?

The newly formed House COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force could offer some early insights into how Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and the presumptive next House speaker, Rep. K. Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick, will work ­together.

General Assembly leaders have thankfully stayed in the background most of this year as Gov. Raimondo has directed the state’s ongoing response to the pandemic.

But with lawmakers finally returning to work on a fiscal 2021 budget just weeks ahead of the next General Assembly session, it will be interesting to see how involved they try to become in that effort.

Raimondo previously set up a committee through the R.I. Department of Health to oversee the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the state. Mr. Shekarchi, who reportedly has had a good working relationship with the governor, says his task force is designed to give House members and their constituencies a voice in the process.

He doesn’t see it conflicting with the other committee.

Health department officials, at least for now, say they agree. Stay tuned. n

POLL CENTRAL EXECUTIVE POLL

Retirement interrupted?

Has the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted tax and retirement planning for your business?

Are any of these measures likely to be permanent?

No: 63%

No: 86%

Yes: 38%

Yes: 14%

What measures did you take to address the disruption? (Select any that apply)

What will you do to restore the health of your retirement plan? (Select any that apply)

We did not take any measures: 50%

We are not taking any action: 100%

We tightened our budget where we deemed it tolerable: 38%

We are increasing compensation: 0%

Our leadership suspended payment of salaries and wages: 13% We lowered the amount of federal and state withholding tax: 0% We halted contributions to the company’s retirement plan: 0%

PBN.COM POLL

Is it time for Rhode Island to legalize adult recreational marijuana use? NOV. 27-DEC. 3 Yes, Rhode Island really needs the additional revenue that would generate

40%

Yes, states across the country are doing so

21% We are increasing tax withholding: 0% We are increasing retirement plan contributions: 0% We are getting back into the stock market: 0% The Providence Business News Executive Poll is a weekly survey of 70 business leaders throughout the state, representing small and large companies in a variety of industries.

28 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

No, many business groups remain opposed due to workplace safety concerns

14%

No, the longterm health risks still need more study

13%

I don’t know 14%

Will you go out of your way to “buy local” this holiday season to help those businesses survive the pandemic?

THIS WEEK’S POLL:

• Yes, it’s an investment in the local community • Yes, but only if the prices are competitive • No, local businesses are getting enough government help • No, I can barely afford essentials this year • I don’t know To vote, go to PBN.com and follow the link on the home page

OPINION OPINION

The morality of canceling student debt KATE PADGETT WALSH GUEST COLUMN

President-elect Joe Biden promised to forgive at least some student debt during his campaign, and he now supports immediately canceling $10,000 per borrower as part of COVID-19 relief measures.

Such proposals are likely to be quite popular. But there are those who question the idea of debt forgiveness and call it unfair to those who never took out student debt or already paid it off.

Should student debt be canceled?

Educational debt is often regarded as an investment in one’s future. Millennials with a bachelor’s degree, for instance, typically earn $25,000 more than those with a high school diploma.

Given the benefits of college education, canceling student debt appears to some as a giveaway for those who are already on their way to becoming well-off.

Canceling debt also seems to violate the moral principle of following through on one’s promises.

A borrower signs a promissory note agreeing to pay back the government and, ultimately, the taxpayers. And so student borrowers seem to have a moral duty to pay their debts unless mitigating circumstances arise.

Fairness and respect, however, also demand that society addresses the magnitude of student debt, and especially the burdens it imposes on low-income, first-generation

and Black borrowers.

Young people today start their adult lives burdened with much more student debt than previous generations. Almost 70% of college students now borrow to attend college, and the average size of their debt has risen since the mid-1990s from less than $13,000 to about $30,000.

This explosion in student debt raises two significant moral concerns.

The first concern is that the distribution of costs and benefits is very unequal. Fairness requires equal opportunity. Yet, while borrowing for education is supposed to create opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, those opportunities often fail to materialize due to educational challenges and wage gaps.

Data shows that low-income students, first-generation students and Black students face much greater struggles in repaying their loans. About 70% of those in default are first-generation students, and 40% come from low-income backgrounds. Twenty years after college, when white borrowers have repaid 94% of their loans, the typical Black student has repaid only 5%.

These repayment and default rates reflect significantly lower graduation rates for students in those groups, who typically need to work long hours while also in school.

But they also reflect significantly lower post-graduation incomes for such students,

Canceling student debt appears to some as a giveaway.

due in no small part to continuing social and racial wage gaps. Black men with a bachelor’s degree make, on average, more than 20% less than white men with the same education and experience, though that wage gap is smaller for women. And firstgeneration graduates typically make 10% less than students whose parents graduated from college.

A second moral concern is that student debt is increasingly causing widespread distress and constraining life choices. Consider that even before the pandemic, 20% of student borrowers were behind on their payments, and first-generation borrowers and borrowers of color struggle even more.

The financial distress indicated by this high rate of delinquency is undermining both the physical and mental health of young adults. It prevents young adults from starting families, purchasing cars, renting or buying their own homes and even starting new businesses.

Some analysts have argued, however, that canceling student debt will create a problem of moral hazard. A moral hazard arises when people no longer feel the need to make careful choices because they expect others to cover the risk for them.

Moral hazard can be avoided by combining student debt cancellation with programs that reduce the need for future borrowing, especially for first-generation students, lowincome students and students of color.

Ultimately, morality requires a forwardlooking and a backward-looking approach to debt cancellation. n Kate Padgett Walsh is an associate professor of philosophy at Iowa State University.

Distributed by The Associated Press.

Amid pandemic, can we find more nurses?

DR. RAYNA LETOURNEAU GUEST COLUMN

With a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases this fall and hospitals nearing capacity, health care workers nationwide are scrambling to save lives – at great personal risk.

But the extraordinary number of people flooding hospitals has shined a spotlight on another crisis: a nursing shortage.

The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for nurses, including fear of workplace exposure. Since nurses have the most direct, hands-on patient contact, they face the greatest risk of infection of all health care workers. Many have been reassigned to the emergency room, “COVID units” or other high-risk departments.

It’s become an extremely dangerous job.

More than half of the 20,000 nurses surveyed by the American Nurses Association in the summer reported having to reuse singleuse masks or treat patients with little or no personal protective equipment. Many are working 12- to 16-hour shifts. Some who have tested positive for the virus have been asked to continue working to care for the glut of patients.

Some 36% of health care workers hospitalized with COVID-19 were nurses or nursing assistants, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

As of September, 213 registered nurses had succumbed to the virus.

Some 4 million registered nurses make

up the U.S. workforce; about 60% work in hospitals. By 2022, the nation needs 1.1 million new RNs to avoid a nursing shortage, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Hospitals can’t function without enough nurses, who spend more time caring for patients than any other health care professional. To keep hospitals staffed amid current shortages, some administrators are replacing nurses with technicians or asking nonhospital nurses to work in hospitals.

These are life-and-death decisions: choosing either to treat patients under circumstances that could risk medical errors – or turn them away.

The current and projected shortages have many causes and vary widely, with the largest shortfalls in southern and western states.

Some of the looming problem is demographic. The average age of a U.S. nurse is 51, and 1 million nurses will be eligible for retirement in 10 to 15 years. Nursing schools are expanding, but it’s not enough.

As the nursing workforce shrinks, the stress on the health care system is rising.

The nation’s 73 million baby boomers are aging, with many suffering from chronic illnesses that require intensive levels of care.

Under normal circumstances, nursing is considered one of the most stressful careers.

Demands of the job tend to take precedent

over self-care; one study found that 68% of nurses put their patients’ health and safety before their own.

Working under intense stress causes burnout in about half of all nurses. It may spark physical or emotional ailments, drug or alcohol misuse or depression. Nurses have a substantially higher risk of suicide than the general population.

And now, the pandemic has made a tough job exponentially harder. Without serious efforts to recruit more nurses and improve working conditions, the U.S. is in danger of serious breakdowns in the health care system.

There are many ways to address the nursing shortage. Solutions include offering better salary and benefits, saner work hours and less physically demanding roles for older, experienced nurses to keep them working longer. Reaching out to youths and continued funding for nursing education under the Public Health Service Act will help spark interest in the profession and build a more diverse workforce.

A strong nursing workforce is essential to the health and wellness of the nation. n Dr. Rayna Letourneau is an assistant professor of nursing at the University of South Florida. Distributed by The Associated Press.

www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 29

ONE LAST THING

Connect with coffee hours

WHEN

the pandemic began, “leading with safety” became our motto. How could there be a higher priority for the people you care about and the lifeblood of your organization – our students, faculty and staff?

To lead with safety, we have had to learn everything we can about the virus. We use the expertise of our faculty and staff, consult with experts and follow scientific reports.

This knowledge has helped us develop plans and protection strategies and anticipate decision-making to keep our college community as safe as possible.

While safety comes first, supporting our employees through these times is just as important. Shortly into the pandemic, we began a weekly virtual “coffee hour” to connect and check in with one another. Our employees discussed bread

making, exercise routines and their favorite entertainment.

We introduced games and relaxation techniques, and musical colleagues performed live. For many, coffee hours became the highlight of our week. Some employees told us that through these events they feel more connected to the college and their colleagues than ever before.

We wondered how we could build on this success. We began offering “Bristol Updates Live” before the coffee hour to share news, updates about the virus and how we were adapting.

Employees were invited to provide updates. One of the key outcomes of this program is highlighting the great work and innovation being done at the college. It reminds us of our mission and passion for serving students. It makes us proud to be Bristol Bayhawks! n

Laura L. Douglas Bristol Community College president In 2017, Laura L. Douglas was named the fourth president of Bristol Community College. She previously served as provost of Des Moines Area Community College’s Urban Campus, in Des Moines, Iowa, and has served at community colleges in Japan, Michigan and North Carolina.

COURTESY BRISTOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE

30 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

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www.pbn.com | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | 31

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It’s what we live for.

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32 | DECEMBER 11-17, 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | www.pbn.com

EC-434150 12/20

SUMMIT & AWARDS DIVERSITY & INCLUSION 2020

Overall diversity champion Stephanie Huckel

Her life’s work is helping others Pg. 5

PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PARTNER SPONSORS

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2 | DECEMBER 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS n DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 | www.pbn.com

SUMMIT & AWARDS DIVERSITY & INCLUSION 2020 PARTNER SPONSOR MESSAGES

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is proud to sponsor the PBN Diversity & Inclusion Summit and Awards Program.

Congratulations to the 2020 awardees!

Our vision is to passionately lead a state of health and well-being across Rhode Island— and that wouldn’t be possible without you.

By celebrating the diversity of your employees and customers, you’re making our state a better place to live and work.

CBIZ & MHM New England is honored to support the 2020 Providence Business News’ Diversity & Inclusion Summit and Awards Program. Congratulations to this year’s honorees for your contributions to this space!

We have taken the next step in strengthening our diversity and inclusion efforts by joining a network of over 1,000 organizations across the country who have signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion Pledge, the largest executive-driven business commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We thank the PBN and the participating organizations who are committed to achieving real progress in this area.

A workplace of belonging: Where the unique views of our employees strengthen enduring relationships with our customers and each other.

Amica congratulates this year’s honorees. We’re proud to be among you.

Diversity and Inclusion at Amica www.pbn.com | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

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DIVERSITY& INCLUSION AWARDS PROGRAM 2020

FROM THE EDITOR

D&I has no finish line THAT PROGRAMS DESIGNED to promote diversity and inclusion have become much more common at local companies of all sizes in recent years is a sign of progress in the Ocean State.

But for their most ardent proponents, including this year’s overall PBN diversity champion, Stephanie Huckel, and her employer, International Game Technology PLC, there is no finish line or point at which they can claim that the work is done.

Huckel’s impressive credits include developing IGT’s Diversity and Inclusion Groups program, but such formal initiatives are just the first steps in making – and keeping – a workplace inclusive.

“Stephanie understands that the power of inclusion lies in everyday actions and interactions – those moments … that say, ‘My employer sees and appreciates me,’ ” said Kim Barker Lee, IGT’s vice president of diversity and inclusion.

Indeed, such authentic, daily interactions typically occur independent of the programs and managers, such as Huckel, IGT’s senior global program manager of diversity, who support them.

And so, her job, like those

of this year’s other honorees in PBN’s Diversity & Inclusion Awards Program, is one of constantly measuring feedback and targeting improvements.

It’s a long-term commitment that is increasingly becoming connected to the bottom line for companies in competitive industries, says Lawrence E. Wilson, managing director of The Wilson Organization LLC, this year’s award winner for diversity training.

“If you want … to be on the cutting edge of profitability and innovation, you need to be on the cutting edge of social change,” he said.

His clients include banks, law firms and colleges that are increasingly buying in, the first of many steps to meaningful, lasting change they can profit from.

It’s because of our partner sponsors that PBN is able to present our third annual Diversity & Inclusion Awards Program. We’d like to thank returning sponsor Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and CBIZ & MHM New England.

The most important thing you can do while you’re here is to ensure the world will be better when you’re not.

rifoundation.org/dei or call (401) 274-4564

Michael Mello Editor Providence Business News

Bringing us Closer It’s more than just a tagline. Inclusion and diversity is who we are and how we operate. They drive innovation as we work to meet the evolving needs of our customers, communities and people, connecting them to what they care about.

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11/20/20 4:02 PM

2020 AWARDS PROGRAM DIVERSITY& INCLUSION

OVERALL DIVERSITY CHAMPION Improving the lives of others has been Huckel’s life’s work

BY JOHN A. LAHTINEN | Contributing Writer

STEPHANIE HUCKEL WAS ALWAYS TAUGHT the deep value and importance of being an active member of the community. From a downtown Providence cleanup with her mom’s employer to being part of City Year’s Young Heroes program in middle school, Huckel spent a great deal of her youth volunteering with her family.

Stephanie Huckel

Huckel, the senior global program manager of diversity and inclusion for International Game Technology PLC, was also well-educated in committing to community service when she attended the Alan Shawn Feinstein High School for Public Service in Providence and then earned her master’s degree in nonprofit management and philanthropy at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Mass.

“I was never quite sure how I wanted to channel that mission and energy, but I knew that helping to improve the lives of others was part of my path,” Huckel said.

With a bit of good fortune and a boss who, Huckel said, was “looking for someone with complementary, rather than duplicative, skills,” Huckel accepted a diversity specialist role at Baystate Health in western Massachusetts in 2008. She started working in diversity-related roles long before many companies began thinking of investing in this area.

Huckel’s career in helping others proceeded to skyrocket.

After five-plus years at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, serving first as senior diversity and inclusion consultant and then manager of culture and diversity and inclusion, Huckel connected with Kim Barker Lee, IGT’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, in 2018. In addition to connecting as peers to discuss their work, Huckel and Lee also talked about the position of senior global program manager within the gaming tech company’s newly created diversity and inclusion office.

Huckel said the role was a natural fit.

“I was excited about what IGT was starting,” Huckel said. “The role also attracted me because it represented a shift from a local to a global scope of responsibilities.

I’m proud to work for the global leader in gaming.”

Huckel has been very active since she joined the prominent gaming company in Providence.

Her work there includes developing People Partner D&I Circles, which assist human resources professionals in learning more about diversity and inclusion, and practicing skills in small cohorts.

She also established IGT’s Diversity and Inclusion Groups program, which supports employee networks structured around dimensions of diversity, and she supported the planning and execution of IGT’s global strategic plan for diversity and inclusion.

Huckel’s work with DIGs also includes education through “Let’s DIG In” sessions that tackle timely topics such as the company’s IGT Community “Talk” About Race series, she said.

“These were virtual meetings open to all employees that we facilitated in late summer following high-profile incidents of police violence against Black community members in the United States, and the discussions were attended by more than 1,000 employees. Related to that, we also developed email signature blocks for employees that state IGT’s commitment to racial justice, equality and equity, and I’ve also supported customers on their own journeys.”

In partnership with her husband, Ethan, and consultant Ralph Tavares, Huckel also established Huckel Inclusive. The Providencebased organization provides clients with strategic diversity

GROUP SESSIONS: Stephanie Huckel, senior global program manager of diversity and inclusion at International Game Technology PLC, established IGT’s Diversity and Inclusion Groups program, which supports employee networks structured around dimensions of diversity.

COURTESY INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY PLC

and inclusion consulting services with a specialization in LGBTQ+ topics, curriculum development for organizational change, workshop facilitation and executive coaching.

Lee said that diversity and inclusion is not just Huckel’s job, but in truth influences all aspects of her life, from her board memberships to how and with whom she spends her personal time.

“I was honored that she joined our team at the early stages of IGT’s [diversity-and-inclusion] journey,” Lee said. “For the two

‘

of us, this journey would never be about checking the box or focusing solely on external recognition.

Authenticity and a desire to be part of a legacy of change motivated our partnership. Stephanie understands that the power of inclusion lies in everyday actions and interactions – those moments in your work life that say, ‘My employer sees and appreciates me.’ She also understands that sustainable impact happens through equitable and inclusive systems.” n

I was never quite sure how I wanted to channel that mission and energy, but I knew that helping to improve the lives of others was part of my path.’

Stephanie Huckel,

International Game Technology PLC senior global program manager of diversity and inclusion

www.pbn.com | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

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DIVERSITY& INCLUSION AWARDS PROGRAM 2020

ACCOUNTING Collaboration is key component to a welcoming environment

BY JOHN A. LAHTINEN | Contributing Writer

AT GLOBAL PROFESSIONAL-services provider Ernst & Young LLP, the idea of diversity and inclusion is not taken lightly. The company, which has a Providence office, has regularly been recognized for its commitment to creating a workplace where ideas and perspectives are freely shared.

EY has been recognized with the International Institute of New England’s Inaugural Corporate Citizen Award and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2020 Corporate Equality Index – 100% rating and “Best Place to Work for LGBT+ Equality,” among other awards it received both regionally and nationally.

Brendan McCorry, EY’s Providence office managing partner, said that a diversity-and-inclusion plan is critical because an organization should always strive to be welcoming to all.

“From a short-term perspective, it demonstrates to all of your employees that the organization views diversity and inclusiveness as a very important organizational value,” McCorry said. “From the long-term perspective, a diverse and inclusive environment will allow your employees and the organization to perform at their highest level.”

Through four integrated service lines – assurance, consulting, strategy and transactions,

and tax – EY helps clients capitalize on new opportunities and assess and manage risk to deliver responsible growth via its team of more than 300,000 employees worldwide, including nearly 90 in the Providence office.

EY said women represent 48% of its global workforce, and 25% of the firm’s partners, principals, executive directors and directors. That commitment continues in Providence, where women made up 63% of this year’s promotions at the firm.

The company also collaborates with diverse membership associations to attract diverse and inclusive talent, including the National Associa-

tion of Black Accountants, the Association of Latino Professionals for America, Reaching Out MBA and the Forte Foundation.

McCorry, who values diversity in the recruiting process and works with external associations and student groups to identify and recruit diverse talent, said that taking some extra time to look out for the interests of the company’s diverse employees is critical.

“We rely heavily upon differential investment in our people,” McCorry said. “This acknowledges that we have room for improvement in fostering the success of our diverse employee population and it requires a higher level of investment and support in order [to ensure] that all our employees enjoy the same level of career opportunities.”

EY is also committed to maintaining a diverse supplier base and building relationships with suppliers that reflect the market, clients and communities it serves. To that end, EY has earned recognition by seeking vendors that are certified as at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by at least one minority, woman, LGBTQ veteran, service-disabled veteran, person with a disability, Aboriginal-Indigenous person or a historically underutilized business.

BY JOHN A. LAHTINEN | Contributing Writer

Belvoir Properties

CONGRATULATES

Congratulations to IGT’s

Stephanie Huckel PBN Diversity Champion and to all PBN D&I Award Winners!

IGT stands with our employees, customers, players, and communities in the fight for racial justice, equality, and equity.

Rhode Island for Community and Justice winner of the PBN

Diversity & Inclusion

Award for Education.

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2020 AWARDS PROGRAM DIVERSITY& INCLUSION

Ernst & Young LLP

FEELING OF PRIDE: Ernst & Young LLP Providence employees gather during a recent Pride Day event.

COURTESY ERNST & YOUNG LLP

Kenny Adefiyiju, an EY tax manager in Providence, wanted to be an accountant ever since middle school. He fulfilled his dream of becoming a certified public accountant through hard work and determination – characteristics he learned from his two Nigerian immigrant parents. Adefiyiju describes their work ethic as “supernatural.”

Adefiyiju said EY has always done an incredible job at providing a path for underrepresented minorities like himself.

“Our key initiative is figuring

out ways that we can broaden the diversity of potential candidates within the firm,” Adefiyiju said.

“In terms of the direct impact in … Providence, I believe that EY is doing a good job in trying to assist underrepresented minorities by investing in the community.”

An example of that dedication is EY’s College MAP program, designed to help high school seniors in inner-city schools navigate their path to college.

Having a diversity-and-inclusion plan is imperative to any business, Adefiyiju said, noting

that it is important that all organizations ensure that all their people feel comfortable coming to work every day.

“If you want to develop highperforming teams, it starts with the mindset of the people,” Adefiyiju said. “All organizations should see this as an area of importance and develop a game plan to achieve this. With the constant change in the world today, it is critical that all businesses get different perspectives from their people to ensure a competitive edge.” n

‘

It is critical that all businesses get different perspectives from their people to ensure a competitive edge.’

Kenny Adefiyiju,

Ernst & Young LLP Providence office tax manager

CONGRATULATIONS! We are proud to work with The Wilson Organization, award winner for Diversity Training.

CHISHOLM CHISHOLM KILPATRICK

BEQUEST MANAGEMENT | VETERANS LAW | LTD & ERISA LAW

401.331.6300 | cck-law.com

www.pbn.com | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

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DIVERSITY& INCLUSION AWARDS PROGRAM 2020

DIVERSITY TRAINING The Wilson OrganizatioN LLC

EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL: Lawrence E. Wilson, managing director of The Wilson Organization LLC, connects with clients by way of sharing personal yet powerful stories with them.

COURTESY THE WILSON ORGANIZATION LLC

It takes ‘TWO’ to reduce systemic bias in society

BY ANDY SMITH | Contributing Writer

THE WILSON ORGANIZATION LLC Managing Director Lawrence E. Wilson says he’s earned the credibility it takes to consult with business clients on issues around diversity, equity and inclusion.

Partly it comes through a wide range of experience in both corporate and nonprofit realms. But beyond that, Wilson identifies as Black and Native American, and he can relate stories of racism and prejudice firsthand.

“What has helped me communicate with clients is sharing my own experiences with them, painful stories, sometimes poignant stories,” Wilson said. “In many cases I was the pioneer, the only Black person in the room.”

Wilson, who was born in Mystic, Conn., has a master’s degree in business from The Wharton School.

His corporate experience included stints with Phillip Morris, General Motors and consulting for Miller Brewing Co. and Procter & Gamble. Later, Wilson became president of the American Baptist Foundation, the fundraising division of American Baptist Churches USA in Valley Forge, Pa. From 2012 to 2017, Wilson worked at Rhode Island College as executive director of economic and leadership development. In 2018 he formed The Wilson Organization with the goal of helping his clients reduce systemic bias and achieve greater diversity and inclusion within their workforces.

Wilson said there is an obvious value to business in having your employee base more closely resemble your customer base. But the issue goes beyond just the bottom line.

“If you want your company to be on the cutting edge of profitability and innovation, you need to be on the cutting edge of social change … we as a society are driven by new ideas, optimism [and] hope. We are problem solvers,” Wilson said.

His clients are mostly midsized organizations – banks, law firms, colleges, etc. – in Rhode Island, Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts. Wilson typically coaches senior management, as well as offers seminars and workshops for middle management.

“It has to start with the C-suite,” he said. “Unless you get the buy-in from senior management, you aren’t going to get anywhere.”

Zach Stolz, a partner in the Providence law firm Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick Ltd., said the firm has grown at a rapid pace over the past decade with a diverse client base. CCK wants to have a diverse workforce, including both attorneys and other employees, to represent them.

“We’re looking for diverse people to join the team,” Stolz said. “You have to really work to bring them in the door.”

Wilson and Stolz are co-chairing a diversity committee within CCK that meets once a month to work on diversity and anti-bias programs within the firm.

“I’m happy with the committee,” Stolz said. “This is something you have to constantly work at. I feel good about where we are.”

Stolz said Wilson is a valuable resource since he has experience as a Black man in the corporate world.

“He has a lot of practical advice – and some philosophical advice,” Stolz said.

Wilson said some corporate leaders contact him because they are responding to a specific incident, such as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, that illuminates social inequities.

That’s natural, Wilson said, but sometimes when public outrage dies down, management enthusiasm will also wane.

Many companies face a Catch-22 when it comes to hiring. If they do not already have meaningful minority representation, people of color are reluctant to apply for jobs.

So the company cannot improve its minority demographic and candidates do not apply for jobs.

Wilson has two solutions. One is to create training programs to advance people from lower-level jobs.

The other is to expand recruitment strategies to, say, include colleges that graduate a high percentage of students from underrepresented populations.

Like so many companies around the country, Wilson’s has faced new challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s particularly true for a company in which in-person relationships are a key part of the business model.

“I miss the personal contact,” Wilson said. “To make that connection over Zoom is more difficult.

But it can be done, as long as you come from a place of honesty and transparency.” n

‘

If you want your company to be on the cutting edge of profitability and innovation, you need to be on the cutting edge of social change.’

Lawrence E. Wilson,

The Wilson Organization LLC managing director

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2020 AWARDS PROGRAM DIVERSITY& INCLUSION

EDUCATION Rhode Island for Community and Justice YOUTH MOVEMENT: From left, Chelcie Speaks and Michelle St. Onge are regular participants in Rhode Island for Community and Justice’s multiple youth programs that promote community empowerment.

COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOR COMMUNITY AND JUSTICE

Understanding discrimination, and fighting against it

BY HAROLD AMBLER | Contributing Writer

FOR ROSE ALBERT and many others at Rhode Island for Community and Justice, 2020 has been a year of growth, a year of challenge and a year when new subsets of people in American society – and the world – came to grips with the realities of racial injustice that have been all too present for too long.

“The [COVID-19] pandemic meant that everyone was home and forced to watch George Floyd’s killing, and to see it and pay attention to it,” Albert said. “But situations like that happen all the time in our community and have been going on like that for years. The shift that has happened this year, because of COVID-19, was that everybody was home, and the busyness of their life wasn’t as distracting and allconsuming as usual.”

Albert, RICJ’s senior associate for youth programs, indicated that the technological shifts the pandemic prompted will leave the organization stronger in the long run. She said, in hindsight, the health crisis is pushing the Providence-based nonprofit, and the world, to think “outside the box.”

“In the past, we never had online meetings with students, and right now we are able to do so and make it more convenient and increase participation,” Albert said.

Albert has been involved with RICJ in one way or another for most of the last 12 years, describing her time there as “a long journey, and a beautiful journey.”

“When I was in high school, I was invited to participate in Project Respect, a summer camp that RICJ organized, and because of that, I was able to stay connected through their after-school youth action council program, and then went into different positions and grew with the organization,” Albert said.

After attending the camp herself, Albert became

a counselor and eventually a director of RICJ-run camps. She said that the most memorable single experience for her and many Project Respect camp attendees was being part of an event called Gender Night. That’s when Albert said she realized that as a Black woman, people perceived her in all of the stereotypes that one can pick up.

“Wherever I go, I carry that with me. But just doing this exercise with other participants and having people tearing up when we all realized that we had the same experience was profound,” Albert said. “It is a cruel world out there, but when you have that solidarity of realizing that you are not alone with that, that’s important. It opened my mind to the fact that discrimination exists and is real, and also that there are other people who are experiencing it and standing up to it.”

Among the upcoming high school students active with RICJ whom Albert had worked with is Sarah Ortes, a senior at Classical High School who is helping launch a new project at the organization known

as the Young Womxn’s Equity Coalition. Ortes said that the idea of the coalition is mentorship by women of color for women of color.

“We get to network with people who are older than us who can guide us and be there for us when we need them,” Ortes said. “It’s basically female empowerment, because there are a lot of things going on in the world. Women of color are very marginalized, so their accomplishments are different from the accomplishments of other women.”

Asked whether her peers at Classical are as politically engaged as she is and support her in her work at RICJ, Ortes drew an interesting distinction.

“I don’t think that I am politically engaged,” Ortes said. “I think that people confuse politics with social justice. But social justice is a different matter; I am more of a social justice-focused person. I don’t really talk to anyone about it, but the people I do talk to share that same passion for social justice.”

Above all, Ortes said she is grateful for the positive influence on her that RICJ has had. “I would say that RICJ is really helping me with my character development,” she said. “If I compare myself now with who I was when I started in the summer of 2019 going into my junior year of high school, I’m a completely different person.” n

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It is a cruel world out there, but when you have that solidarity of realizing that you are not alone with that, that’s important.’

Rose Albert,

Rhode Island for Community and Justice senior associate for youth programs

www.pbn.com | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

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DIVERSITY& INCLUSION AWARDS PROGRAM 2020

GOVERNMENT R.I. Office of Rehabilitation Services

‘BEST’ IN SHOW: Members of the R.I. Office of Rehabilitation Services’ business engagement specialist team collaborate in their downtown Providence office.

COURTESY R.I. OFFICE OF REHABILITATION SERVICES

Giving all a chance at being employed

BY JOHN A. LAHTINEN | Contributing Writer

FOR RON RACINE, promoting diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace is a critical component to success.

Racine, the associate director at the R.I. Office of Rehabilitation Services – a branch of the R.I. Department of Human Services – said the office cannot be effective if it does not understand how staff and clients are feeling. Morale and productivity will suffer, Racine said, even if one does not feel they have the same opportunities as everyone else.

“We need to understand our implicit biases, engage in self-reflection and communicate openly. We all need to strive to make our culture better,” Racine said.

With the overarching mission to “empower individuals with disabilities to choose, prepare for, obtain, advance and maintain employment, economic self-sufficiency, independence and integration into society as a guide,” the ORS Vocational Rehabilitation program assists individuals with disabilities so that they can be gainfully employed.

According to Racine, the return on investment on the vocational rehab program is high. Data from ORS shows that for every dollar spent on the program, $15 to $17 is returned to the economy in taxes that the worker pays, becoming less reliant on public benefits as a result.

“Aside from it being a good business and economic decision, by having an employee with a disability on staff, businesses can learn from those individuals who are essentially a free subject-matter expert that can help the business,” Racine said. “We always hear from employers how lucky they were to hire someone with a disability, as they have learned so much from them.”

While serving as the lead agency for the assistivetechnology access partnership, ORS also offers

services for the blind and visually impaired, including independent-living services, children’s services and its business-enterprises program. Disability Determination Services, a unit within ORS funded through the Social Security Administration, determines eligibility for all Rhode Islanders who apply for Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

The agency helped 425 individuals with disabilities find employment in the 2018 program year. Additionally, 2,565 individuals received services, such as evaluations, medical and psychological therapies, personal-assistant services, job placement and training, that were purchased from vendors; 114 individuals received rehabilitation-technology services to help enter employment; and 1,500 youths with disabilities received pre-employment transition services.

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented ORS internal operational challenges, Racine said individuals with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by layoffs and reduced work hours due to the crisis. Because of this, Racine expects ORS to see more applications come to the office.

Many ORS counselors, even with in-person consultations being limited currently due to the pandemic, have been pressing forward by creating or updating clients’ resumes, as well as providing direct

job referrals and information on employment opportunities and hiring events.

“Some of the challenges include identifying vocational services and providers to keep cases moving forward in a timely manner,” ORS Assistant Administrator Michael Montanaro said. “The importance of this is to keep clients engaged in services and to complete possible continuum of services, including vocational evaluations, community-based work experiences and job development and placement.”

Hugely beneficial to this ongoing effort is the creation of the business engagement specialist team, or BEST. The group is designed to support businesses as a secondary consumer, facilitating disability awareness, technical assistance, accessibility and assistive-technology consultation, and meeting business hiring needs. A BEST website, still being built, will include information for employers about tax incentives, assistive-technology and services that ORS may assist individuals with.

“We fill in the gaps where no one even knows one exists,” Montanaro said. “What makes the BEST team passionate about the work we do is the fact that we get to use our knowledge and expertise to make meaningful differences in the lives of people with a disability. We are also actively involved in the schools, providing that initial employment opportunity to students with disabilities in partnership with school departments and educational-service agencies. These students could be the employees of the future.” n

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We always hear from employers how lucky they were to hire someone with a disability, as they have learned so much from them.’

Ron Racine,

R.I. Office of Rehabilitation Services associate director

10 | DECEMBER 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS n DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 | www.pbn.com

2020 AWARDS PROGRAM DIVERSITY& INCLUSION

HEALTH CARE Providence Community Health Centers

FEELING SAFE: In 2019, two Providence Community Health Centers locations were designated as LGBTQ “Safe Zones” by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. From left are Dr. Andrew Saal, chief medical officer; Merrill Thomas, CEO and president; Michael Spoerri, health center director; Guillaume Bagal, former head of diversity and inclusion at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; and health center staffers Maria Quiroa, Ester DaCruz and Diane Sette.

COURTESY PROVIDENCE COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS

A big safety net to keep the community healthy

BY JENNIFER L. GRYBOWSKI | Contributing Writer

AS THE LARGEST primary health care provider in Providence, and with a patient base of more than 60,000, Providence Community Health Centers cannot help but tackle diversity head on every day. But it is the organization’s commitment to inclusion that makes PCHC so impressive.

Along with having an active and engaged diversity-and-inclusion committee for the past four years, PCHC has developed a diversity-and-inclusion strategic plan and a diversity/racial-equity action plan. PCHC also instituted a community-relations department dedicated to outreach in all the Providence neighborhoods that the organization serves.

“It is important we are hearing from the community and have a venue where we could celebrate things,” PCHC Chief of Human Resources and Marketing Cheryl Perry said.

For hiring, PCHC has filed an affirmative-action plan with the state, works with local Black community leaders of management openings, and posts jobs on various industry-specific and professional websites – including websites to attract minority and female candidates. So far, the organization this year has hired 59% minority individuals and 78% female individuals across all open positions, and 38% minority and 63% females across all management openings.

“Being so diverse, we typically hire folks from the community,” Perry said. “Having a true mix of diversity gives us a better understanding of what the community and employees are looking for.”

Perry said PCHC’s proudest achievement recently was working with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island to achieve Safe Zone certification. The certification identifies health care practices that provide safe, affirming and inclusive care to the LGBTQ+ community.

“It is really important for us to make sure the com-

munity feels safe when they come to us, that we are educated on how to talk to people, that we are aware of what people are going through,” Perry said. “We wanted to not just provide services, but to educate people that we are one, regardless of who we love or who we want to be. We are an organization that embraces everyone, and regardless of your background, gender [and] religion, we want to service you.”

PCHC is considered the safety-net provider for people who are facing major financial, social, cultural and language barriers to quality, affordable primary care. Perry said health care does not always provide a positive experience, especially when someone receives bad news or has specific restrictions on medical care based on their religion or culture.

“The key piece is our patients see people that look like them, speak their language [and] dress like them,” Perry said. “If we can make them feel comfortable and embrace their background, it can make a big difference in the service and care they need as they move forward.”

PCHC also provides educational opportunities for employees to learn to speak Spanish, and offers diversity, leadership and LGBTQ+ training for employees.

PCHC also looks to provide indirect financial support to surrounding underserved neighborhoods by doing things such as seeking out minority- and female-owned businesses when remodeling or building a new facility.

Perry said PCHC’s commitment to diversity and inclusion extends far beyond its offices. The organization has a long history of collaborating with like-minded organizations to build and nurture partnerships with key organizations, groups, and leaders and nontraditional partners representing the diverse communities they serve.

PCHC also builds trust by consistently having a presence in the community and delivering a message that is linguistically and culturally appropriate. PCHC has a team of dedicated community health advocates with a primary mission of working with patients in the community to address social determinants of health.

“Once someone gets comfortable, there is a community relation,” Perry said. “It gets people talking and gets people to really understand that as an organization, if this person works here and they’ve built a relationship with them, maybe they will come in. If you look like me, if you sound like me, people are more open to trusting you and the organization.” n

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Having a true mix of diversity gives us a better understanding of what the community and employees are looking for.’

Cheryl Perry,

Providence Community Health Centers chief of human resources and marketing

www.pbn.com | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

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DIVERSITY& INCLUSION AWARDS PROGRAM 2020

INSURANCE/FINANCIAL SERVICES AMICA MUTUAL INSURANCE CO.

PROBLEM-SOLVING: Amica Mutual Insurance Co. employees, from left, Kimberly Meriweather, Keila Bianco and Esther Garcia work together at a computer station at the company’s Lincoln office.

COURTESY AMICA MUTUAL INSURANCE CO.

The right talent provides customers peace of mind

BY ANDY SMITH | Contributing Writer

FOR AMICA MUTUAL INSURANCE CO., a commitment to diversity and inclusion is not only the right thing to do, but it is also a key part of the Lincoln-based company’s identity.

“We consider diversity and inclusion to be ingrained in our corporate culture,” said Jill Andy, Amica’s senior vice president for human resources. “It’s not just about checking a box or doing something because you ‘have to.’ You have to deeply believe in it and make it part of everything you do.”

Ramona Royal, Amica’s talent acquisition and diversity officer, said diversity and inclusion directly relate to the company’s mission, which is to provide peace of mind for its customers while building enduring relationships.

Having employees who can reflect Amica’s customer base, and the communities they live and work in, is important, Royal said. But she said the values are important not just for customer service but for all of Amica’s 3,800 employees.

A more diverse company, Royal said, tends to be a more innovative company, and innovation is vital in a dynamic business environment.

“Amica aligns its diversity-and-inclusion strategy with its overall business objectives,” Andy said.

“Metrics are important in measuring our success, but diversity and inclusion aren’t just quantitative. There is also a qualitative piece where we want employees to know they work for a company that accepts and respects them for who they are.”

Amica also looks at the companies it does business with. There is a supplier diversity program to incorporate companies owned by minorities, women, gay and lesbian people, and disabled veterans into Amica’s competitive bidding processes whenever possible.

Royal said hiring is a key element in creating and maintaining a diverse workforce. The first step toward that, she said, is to have a wide pool of candidates by reaching out to them at colleges and career fairs.

Amica started reshaping its talent pipeline in 2010, and the number of employees from underrepresented populations has increased every year since 2012.

Amica has trained hiring managers on interviewing techniques and introduced digital interviews even before the COVID-19 pandemic to allow more candidates to apply for jobs in person.

Royal said a commitment to inclusion has to be authentic. “People talk to each other,” she said. “The people who are applying to you need to feel comfortable.”

Amica takes pride in the longevity of its employees, with an average tenure of more than 10 years.

The grow-from-within philosophy means a continual process of training and mentoring, including quarterly training on diversity and inclusion. Topics have included gender diversity, world beliefs, exploring perceptions, being an ally, working across cultures and building resilience.

Royal said some of the training examines the “filters” people might bring to work with them.

“We naturally see the world based on our lived experience,” she said. “Sometimes we forget how these lived experiences influence the way we see things and interact with people.”

Royal is impressed with a learning-management system at Amica that uses videos, which she called a very engaging combination of sound and visuals. “They’re not flat, they’re very dynamic,” Royal said. “It’s a hallmark of how we drive this forward.”

Amica does not limit its efforts to formal training sessions. There are also articles in the company’s internal media, Amica News; presentations in the amphitheater; summer luncheons that explore the food of other cultures; and posters around the offices.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have complicated things but it has not changed the company’s values, Royal said. Amica has continued to hire even during the pandemic.

Many of the new hires start working from home and then transition into Amica offices when possible.

The company has also created training programs to explain the culture of Amica for the newcomers who are unable to experience it in person.

“We’ve changed the mediums in which we operate but not how we operate,” Royal said. “We just don’t have the ability to meet face to face as much as we’d like. We still have Zoom, and we still send out training materials to our employees. We haven’t left anything on the back burner.” n

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We consider diversity and inclusion to be ingrained in our corporate culture.’

Jill Andy,

Amica Mutual Insurance Co. senior vice president for human resources

12 | DECEMBER 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS n DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 | www.pbn.com

2020 AWARDS PROGRAM DIVERSITY& INCLUSION

IT/TECHNOLOGY Cox Communications Inc.

SUPPORTING INCLUSION: Cox Communications Inc. employees hold colored cloth to support the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

COURTESY COX COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Like-minded employees create endless possibilities

BY JENNIFER L. GRYBOWSKI | Contributing Writer

BEING INNOVATIVE WITHIN the technology realm is nothing new for Cox Communications Inc. Employees collaborating and bouncing new ideas off one another is part of the normal process at the national telecommunications company, which has a West Warwick location.

Add diversity and inclusion into the mix, and the possibilities at Cox are endless.

“When you put a group of people together that have a diverse range of talents and experience, you, by default, increase innovation,” said Jay Allbaugh, senior vice president and Cox’s Northeast region manager. “You get different ideas, feedback with peers you wouldn’t get from a more homogeneous group.”

Cox addresses diversity and inclusion at every level throughout the business. Allbaugh said it has been a company cornerstone for more than 50 years.

The company has been recognized 15 times for its commitment to diversity and inclusion by national digital publication Diversity Inc. This year, Cox was ranked No. 17 among its “Top 50 Companies for Diversity.” The company also ranked high for supplier diversity, executive diversity councils and for philanthropy. For 10 years, Cox has been recognized as a best operator for women by Women in Cable Telecommunications.

Allbaugh also said that when a company has a diverse workforce, employee performance and engagement increase.

“When employees feel comfortable and accepted, I contend they are more likely to engage in active problem-solving and be more productive,” he said.

Cox offers various programs to support employee professional development, including several mentoring and sponsorship opportunities for leaders to en-

gage and empower employees. It also offers employeeresource groups (Black/African Americans, THRIVE, veterans, women’s and several others), tuition reimbursement, a 20/20 Vision Leadership program and access to hundreds of training programs.

“We are pretty proud of our employee benefits.

They are wide, and when it comes to diversity, we include things like domestic-partner health coverage,” Allbaugh said. “It’s about listening and valuing their feedback to where an employee feels accepted so they are more productive.”

Cox empowers employees to direct and manage their growth and success. It also regularly engages employees’ opinions about diversity and inclusion through opinion surveys, focus groups and meetings.

“The reason why Cox is a staunch supporter of diversity and inclusion is because they know they value their employees,” said Rosie Fernandez, Cox’s community relations manager. “At the end of the day everyone wants to feel valued. I think when they walk into Cox Communications, that’s exactly how they feel.”

Fernandez said the recruiting team works with several nonprofit community partners that support diverse communities to provide them with career opportunities. However, it is not just about getting people in the door. Cox has sponsorship and mentoring programs that encourage front-line employees to

consider leadership roles with the company.

Cox also provides coaching and training to women who are interested in careers outside of traditionally female roles.

“We are recruiting in all areas and giving opportunities to groups that are sometimes overlooked,” Fernandez said. “We pride ourselves on that.”

Allbaugh said Cox employees live and work in communities the company serves throughout Rhode Island and work to build team trust among a diverse customer base.

Cox also meets customer needs by collaborating with diverse suppliers.

“We value and encourage contracting with a wide forum of suppliers,” Allbaugh said. “Without a doubt they have to have highquality products and services, but I think it provides such a mutually beneficial partnership with a wide array of diverse partners.”

Additionally, Cox addresses diversity and inclusion in its charitable endeavors. Cox has invested millions by supporting STEAMfocused initiatives (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), presented innovation labs and offered the low-cost internet program Connect2Compete to help low-income families gain access to internet at home. Earlier this year, Cox presented Tech Boosts grants to help local agencies purchase the necessary technology to continue to serve the community.

“Our charitable giving focuses on education, especially for disadvantaged groups,” Allbaugh said.

“We try to address a social responsibility with emphasis on supporting [youths].” n

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At the end of the day everyone wants to feel valued.’

Rosie Fernandez,

Cox Communications Inc. community relations manager

www.pbn.com | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

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DIVERSITY& INCLUSION AWARDS PROGRAM 2020

NONPROFIT DOING MORE WITH LESS: With a lean staff, Women’s Fund of Rhode Island focuses on its mission through advocacy, grant-making, informal education sessions and intensive grassroots training.

COURTESY WOMEN’S FUND OF RHODE ISLAND

The power of addressing barriers and breaking through them

BY NANCY KIRSCH | Contributing Writer

FOR KELLY NEVINS, executive director of Providence-based Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, the organization’s mission to invest in women and girls through research, advocacy, grant-making and strategic partnerships in order to achieve equity and change is as personal to her as it is professional.

Nevins learned very early on about difficulties young mothers can face. She recalled growing up with a single mother struggling to care for three daughters in a time when men weren’t compelled to pay child support.

“I didn’t realize at the time I was also learning about strong female models who, against all odds, found a way to make things work,” Nevins said.

Nevins has chosen to help women achieve everything they have the right to achieve, and to address the societal and cultural challenges women face.

With only two employees, a dedicated board and committed volunteers, the 19-year-old organization has an ambitious portfolio: The Women’s Policy Institute and “Run As You Are” workshops teach women across the state to become grassroots advocates. Some participants have won elective offices and others have played key roles in getting progressive legislation enacted.

An annual research project presents new findings on the status of women and girls in Rhode Island.

This year’s project addressing Rhode Island Women’s Well-Being Index will be released soon.

Although the index is not wholly finished, Nevins said that more women than men, both locally and nationally, are being negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of this dual economic-pandemic crisis, Nevins said the “she-cession” may set women back 10 years. “We can’t think of an austerity budget [in Rhode Island] this year; we have to focus on those

most impacted by the economy and COVID,” Nevins said.

Nevins added that the organization’s research drives its advocacy. That advocacy has helped enact progressive laws in Rhode Island, including the Safe and Healthy Workplaces Act, the Reproductive Privacy Act and the Rhode Island Parentage Act. Women’s Fund also makes grants to nonprofit organizations promoting gender equity and hosts gender-equity programming, such as the Cocktails & Conversations series and the Women’s Financial Wellness series.

Asked which initiative offers the “biggest bang for the buck,” Nevins said, “They all address systems change; it’s hard for me to pick a favorite child. Our advocacy work includes many volunteers, not just from [Women’s Fund] but from the community at large.”

Women’s Fund welcomes volunteers, whether policy wonks, event planners or anyone supporting the nonprofit’s mission.

This summer’s Black Lives Matter rallies shined a light on widespread racial injustice. In response, Women’s Fund board President Bev Wiley said the board and staff have been reviewing its policies and

Women’s Fund of Rhode Island activities to ensure it is addressing both gender and racial inequalities.

A racial-equity coach is evaluating the Women’s Policy Institute’s curriculum and training materials, identifying more speakers of color, helping develop Women’s Fund’s racial-equality statement, and conducting racial-equity training for staff, board members and some institute alumni.

Wiley, Community College of Rhode Island’s athletic department compliance officer, noted a renewed focus on expanding the board’s diversity – of location, gender, gender identity, age, socioeconomic status – as well as ways to reduce the financial barriers for institute applicants. While it’s a tuition-free program, participants may incur child care or transportation costs or lost wages during the program’s session days.

“The biggest challenge is having enough resources to do everything we want to do,” Wiley said, “and the biggest success is seeing the results of our work being manifested throughout the state.”

“If we don’t use a gender lens, white men and boys typically rise to the top and everyone else falls through the cracks. We use a gender lens and a racial lens so we can focus on people who need help the most – women and girls of color who suffer the most inequity,” Nevins said. “If we take those barriers away and address them, we believe things will get better for everyone. I want the [Women’s Fund] to continue to work until we achieve equity for everyone. Our job is not yet done.” n

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We use a gender lens and a racial lens so we can focus on people who need help the most.’

Kelly Nevins,

Women’s Fund of Rhode Island executive director

14 | DECEMBER 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS n DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 | www.pbn.com

2020 AWARDS PROGRAM DIVERSITY& INCLUSION

SOCIAL-SERVICES AGENCY Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island

HOLIDAY CHEER: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island employees gather for a Christmas party at the office.

COURTESY BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF RHODE ISLAND

Providing local children with the right match

BY MATTHEW ENRIGHT | Contributing Writer

AS AN ORGANIZATION devoted to providing children in Rhode Island communities with professionally trained and supported adult mentors, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island understands the value of diversity and inclusion in its operations.

“Particularly when it comes to the mentoring program, the [youths] that we serve [are] extremely diverse, which is great. And so, we want to make sure our employees and our board of directors [match] that so that we’re coming to the table with shared experiences,” BBBSRI Executive Director Katje Afonseca said. Finding adults that match the lives of the children in the program is key to the organization. Afonseca said one of the things the organization looks for in employees is proficiency in multiple languages. That helps to match mentors with those living in a Spanish-speaking household.

While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted plans to grow both the staff and board of directors, Afonseca said diversity and inclusion are prioritized when adding new people.

“As we think about growing in the future or even adding people to the board, [diversity and inclusion are] top of mind,” Afonseca said. “So, what are we doing when we’re hiring or onboarding mentors or board members? What are we doing that could possibly stop someone because of something that might be systemically wrong?”

One example of that is checking a resume for grammar. Afonseca noted that if someone’s first language isn’t English, their grammar skills may not be the best but that person may be the perfect social worker.

It is thinking about where people are coming from and finding the right person to fill necessary positions to serve the children that the organization does.

Grant writer Shelley Peterson said BBBSRI men-

tors have a great network of resources and support from the parent organization to learn about diversity and inclusion, which includes trainings. Afonseca said the leadership team has read “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi and has paid for other trainings.

Peterson said she enjoyed a conference last year that dealt with trainings in Washington, D.C. “Being able to have that extra training and being able to sit and listen in with like-minded professionals that work on this day in and day out from organizations like MENTOR or My Brother’s Keeper and others all over the United States, it’s great to be seeing what they’re doing,” Peterson said. “Their organizations are doing something perhaps a little bit different or tailored a little bit differently, and just being able to have availability to all of these different workshops, it was great. It was eye-opening, really.”

BBBSRI is a diverse environment, Afonseca said.

She works with people who are both like her and different from her.

“We accept everyone, their quirks, and we have some quirky people that work with us and we have some really formal people,” Afonseca said, “and they can all sit in a room and laugh together, which shows that there’s ‘no sense’ of you have to be one way to work here. You just have to be an honest, hard-working person and you’re pretty much golden.”

Afonseca said social and racial injustice, as well as COVID-19, have presented their challenges. But the social workers’ jobs are to provide positive opportunities for children and keep them safe. That may align with one political party or another, but it’s not a political position; it’s sticking to the social worker code of ethics.

“Mentoring is not a right; it’s a privilege and we’re very happy when people want to assume that privilege. But if you want to do that, you have to realize that we serve children who are oftentimes victims of social injustice and we’ll train you to ensure that you don’t contribute to anything like that in a child’s life and support them,” Afonseca said.

This training ensures that mentors realize that it’s not about them or about political parties, Afonseca said. “This is about the little. That’s all it’s about, this child as a person, and here are the tools that you can help that child grow,” she said. n

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Mentoring is not a right; it’s a privilege and we’re very happy when people want to assume that privilege.’

Katje Afonseca, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island executive director

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PEOPLE MATTER We recognize the importance of amplifying all voices, sharing experiences, and collaborating to achieve lasting and meaningful change. Both within the workplace and in the communities we serve, we put people first.

Congratulations to this year’s Diversity & Inclusion honorees.

www.cbiz.com/newengland

MHM (Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C.) is an independent CPA firm that provides audit, review and attest services,and works closely with CBIZ, a business consulting, tax and financial services provider.

16 | DECEMBER 2020 | PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS n DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS 2020 | www.pbn.com