Black Women Lead in Rhode Island

Kimberly has a passion for serving underserved communities and an undeniable belief in the citizens’ ability to succeed when given the right opportunities. This is evident in her work through her positions within the corporate sector, to her post as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for the Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE); Vice President of Business Development for the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, Managing Director, Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, Executive Director, Northern Region for Education Pioneers; Director of Apprenticeships with the distinguished non-profit Year-UP, Inc., with her contributions to the Girl Scouts of Eastern MA, as visiting Scholar and Principle Investigator at UMass Boston and her consulting work with the Urban League of Eastern MA and International Youth Partnerships. Kimberly officially launched Wassia Consulting Llc in 2017 to aid business leaders in developing structurally sound, efficiently run, highly impactful, mission-driven organizations.

Lisa Ranglin, CEO of Ranglin & Associates; Ranglin & Associates is a consulting firm dedicated to helping individuals and organizations perform at the highest level. Lisa is also the founding President of Rhode Island Black Business Association. She is a sought-after professional who brings over 20 years of corporate experience in project and program management and 10 years of leadership experience in business and community development with a lens of diversity and inclusion to ensure equality of access and opportunities to diverse individuals and communities. Throughout her career, Lisa has been a leader of teams responsible for coordinating all aspects of large complex multi-year, multi-million-dollar initiatives with an emphasis on technology, regulatory compliance, process improvement, and organizational change management for businesses within Fortune 500 companies. Throughout her career, Lisa has received many accolades for her work: Rhode Island’s most powerful and influential women by Rhode Island Monthly Magazine, Community Person of Year by RI Affirmative Acton Professionals, Rosa Parks Award from NAACP, Woman of Achievement Award, and Rhode Island Entrepreneur of the Year and Women of Achievement in Business by Congressman David Cicilline. A graduate of Johnson and Wales University, she holds a Master's degree in Human Resource Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Programming Technology from New England Technology College. Lisa is a certified Project Management Professional and she holds a Six Sigma Green Belt Certification.

Reza Clifton is a writer, artist, educator, and cultural savant. She brings all these things together by using traditional and new media tools to teach and tell stories, and to explore and celebrate the African Diaspora, women, and other marginalized and/or oft-oppressed groups and communities of color. She posts and blogs about her life as an educator on her personal @rezaclif social media accounts and under #teachingisthenewblack. Her blogs, venussings.com and ambitiousblackfeminist.com, feature archives and samples from her various multimedia projects and artistic collaborations over the years, and recent samples of Reza’s poetry as well as artistic and political work can be seen digitally through “3 AM is the New Black,” a zine and series of online spaces she created to showcase her art, essays and poems - found at @3amblack.

Ditra Edwards is the Co-founder and Director for SISTA FIRE. She is an African American woman born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, with over 20 years of experience working on racial and economic justice issues. Throughout her career, she has carried the thread (and accent!) of her upbringing in Rhode Island and has woven it with lessons she learned everywhere from Boston to Washington, DC, and beyond. The theme that runs through all of her work is making connections between people, their values and vision, and the change they want to bring about. Because of this, she believes in a people-centered approach to changing structural conditions and building community power. In 2015, Ditra’s heart brought her back to Rhode Island to be closer to her family. In 2017, she won the Rhode Island Foundation Innovation Fellowship to start SISTA FIRE. Before returning to RI full time, Ditra served as the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Program Director for The Praxis Project, a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health justice. During her tenure, Ditra led fundraising efforts, strategy development, and special initiatives design and implementation. In addition to her work with SISTA FIRE RI, Ditra supports grassroots organizations, alliances, and movement support organizations through strategy development, capacity building, training, and technical assistance.