Arts & Sciences Advisory Council

Akanksha Aga serves as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Loews Hotels & Co.

In this role, Aga is responsible for developing, implementing and oversight of its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Prior to joining Loews Hotels, Aga was the experience director at FLIK Hospitality Group, where she led the experience strategy and service culture differentiation. At FLIK, she chaired the Diversity & Inclusion Action Council with a thoughtful approach to celebrating diversity and fostering a culture of belonging.

Aga was born and raised in India, where she learned to appreciate different cultures at an early age. Her military family traveled state to state every other year, and her K-12 education spanned 10 different schools.

Aga began her career with the Taj Group of Hotels, a five-star hotel group in India. In 2001, she moved to the USA and earned her MBA in Hospitality Management from JWU Providence. Upon graduation, she joined JWU to build their industry relations as director of employer relations. She is a member and past committee chair of Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF), Multicultural & Foodservice Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), and a mentor for the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (MSMH).

Natalie Frazier Allen serves as chief executive officer of the Arts Empowerment Project, which she founded in 2011. She is an attorney whose passion for the arts and commitment to advocating on behalf of at-risk children impacted by violence and trauma inspired her vision for the Project.

Since its pilot launched in 2014, the Arts Empowerment Project is now celebrating 10 years of impact and reaching over 3,000 children and teens in Charlotte by inspiring positive self-expression, resilience and community connections.

Allen formerly served as chief of the domestic unit in the Attorney General’s Office for the District of Columbia. She has served the Charlotte community as a Mecklenburg County Guardian Ad Litem volunteer, where she assisted the court for several years by representing and promoting the best interests of abused and neglected children.

Allen currently serves as Immediate Past Chair of the Mint Museum’s Board of Trustees, and has previously served on the boards of the Women’s Impact Fund and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture. She earned her J.D. from George Washington University’s National Law Center, and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Spelman College. She lives in South Charlotte with her husband and their two children.

Michael Barnes is a dedicated educator and leader with more than 35 years of experience. He currently serves as the director for education and workforce development at Brown University Health’s Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Research Design, and Informatics (BERDI) Center. In addition, he is working with the Providence Public School District as they redesign a high school to prepare students for college and careers in the life sciences.

Barnes began his career teaching robotics and computer-aided design to high school students. He subsequently served as a fellow at the RI Department of Education for 6 years; he also served as the superintendent of the Foster-Glocester school district for 14 years.

Barnes is recognized for his innovative approaches to education and has served on dozens of committees and work groups at the local, state, regional and national level. As a superintendent, he brought millions of dollars into the district to enhance the quality of education for students and adults, while mitigating the financial burden on local taxpayers. He established career and technical education programs in a variety of employment sectors to provide students with a competitive edge and prepare them for high-demand, high-wage positions. Some of his career recognitions include being selected as a Milken National Educator; earning the American Association of School Administrators’ RI Superintendent of the Year and the New England Secondary School Consortium’s Champion of Education; and receiving the Glocester Business Association Joan M. Scorpio Award for service to the community.

Elizabeth Francis leads Rhode Island Humanities’ promotion of public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement.

Francis has expertise in building partnerships and initiatives that bring together humanities scholars, community members, public humanities practitioners, and policymakers in economic and cultural development.

Deeply interested in the connection between public participation in cultural activities and overall civic health in communities, Francis recently co-authored “Culture is Key: Strengthening Rhode Island’s Civic Health Through Cultural Participation,” an initiative that led to the development of the state’s first-ever Civic Health Index (2022) by RI Humanities.

Francis earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at Brown University and a B.A. at Hampshire College. She worked at Brown for over 10 years in Corporate and Foundation Relations. She currently serves on the College of Arts & Sciences Advisory Council at Johnson and Wales University and is a member of the boards of The Public’s Radio and the Grantmakers Council of Rhode Island. She also serves as the vice president of the RI PBS’ community advisory board and the secretary of the State Commission commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. 

Everett Handford is a seasoned public servant and health policy expert deeply committed to advancing equitable healthcare access. He currently serves as the chief government affairs officer of Caring Health Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Before his current role, Handford was appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve as the Region 1 director for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, encompassing all six New England states and 10 federally recognized Native American tribes.

Handford was the first African American to serve as Region 1 director and played a pivotal role in coordinating federal health initiatives across the region during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this role, he worked closely with local, state, and federal legislators, health agencies, policymakers, and community organizations to analyze data, direct critical resources, and address health disparities in pandemic response efforts.

In addition, Handford served as a direct liaison to the U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, advancing secretarial priorities, including maternal health, reproductive rights, behavioral health, substance abuse prevention and harm reduction.

Handford previously served as the Deputy State Director for U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). In this role, he was responsible for overseeing Senator Warren’s Massachusetts state operations, constituent services portfolio, and political outreach across the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Handford received his master’s degree from the University of Southwest in Hobbs, New Mexico, with a concentration in Public Health Administration, a master’s in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston, and a bachelor’s degree from Johnson & Wales University’s Providence Campus.

Jason T. Machan serves as the director of Lifespan Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Research Design and Informatics (BERDI), which supplies a broad range of scientific and data consultation and collaboration to researchers at Lifespan, Brown, Care New England, and the University of Rhode Island (URI). He also co-directs the Advance-RI BERD, a multi-institution collaborative grant.

Machan is an assistant professor of orthopaedics and surgery at Brown University’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine. He is also adjunct assistant professor of psychology at URI, through which he directs a biostatistics externship. He has extensive training and experience in experimental methodology and statistics.

Machan has served the Rhode Island biomedical research community since 1996, when he arrived as a new Brown University graduate student in experimental psychology. At Brown, he used computational process models paired with experimental designs to study animal cognition and memory.

Machan has been heavily involved in work based learning and Career and Technical Education since 2012, co-chairing the RI Department of Education Career Advisories, and working with secondary and postsecondary schools, colleges and universities. He has longstanding ties with JWU faculty and leaders, including a recent consultation with a department chair and a Directed Educational Experience.

Chintan Modi, Ph.D., serves as principal scientist at Amgen, with expertise in protein chemistry, animal cell culture, process development and analytical development.

Modi has managed more than 10 complex projects from inception to completion using protein engineering, protein/viral expression and protein/viral purification, molecular biology, bioinformatics, viral and mAbs characterization by immunoassays, biochemical and biophysical assays. Specifically, he has led projects to elucidate biochemistry, structure-function relationships in proteins by screening engineered protein libraries for protein stability, protein oligomerization and aggregation.

Modi has established and maintained more than 15 collaborations with multidisciplinary teams at five institutions (Amgen, Brown University, University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Arizona State University, Merck, UT-Arlington). These projects have resulted in successful technology transfer for biologics method development and implementation at Amgen; vaccine development to manufacturing department at Merck; and obtaining SEED funding to study enzyme biochemistry at Brown University.

Javier Montañez serves as superintendent of the Providence Public School District (PPSD). He has dedicated nearly his entire career in education to supporting PPSD students as a teacher, assistant principal and principal.

Montañez began his career in Providence as a bilingual teacher at Spaziano Elementary, then known as Laurel Hill Elementary, in 1996.

On a personal level, Montañez understands the transformative power of education because it changed his life. As a student in Providence, he experienced homelessness and often attended school only because he knew he would receive two meals a day. As a student at Hope High School, he struggled with reading and ultimately dropped out. Through perseverance and a drive to succeed, he later returned to school and received his GED. Decades later, he has earned his doctorate and superintendent’s certification.

Montañez received a Master of Education from Rhode Island College and a doctorate in educational leadership from Johnson & Wales University. 

Kelly Nevins has been a leader in the RI nonprofit sector since 1990, with expertise in strategic development, motivating teams and individuals, workplace equity and community relations tools, program development and public speaking.

The CEO of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island since 2016, Nevins often speaks about the status of women and girls, why investing in women pays off, and how using a gender lens can create systems change. 

In 2020, Nevins was honored by the Providence Business News as a “Social Sector Industry Leader” and received the Secretary of State’s Medallion Award. In 2021, she was named as a fellow of Women Leaders of the World and the RI Nonprofit Innovation Lab.

Nevins serves as the secretary of the RI Coalition for Reproductive Freedom and on the boards of the United Way of Rhode Island’s Community Advisory Board, Grantmakers Council of RI, Charitable Gift Planners Association of RI, and Women’s Funding Network.

Nevins holds master’s degrees in Education and Leadership. Her top Gallup Strengths include Learner, Input, Responsibility, Achiever and Relator.

Charles Wanjue, Ph.D., serves as a Humanitarian Assistance Officer and deputy office director for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Madagascar. He previously served at USAID bureaus in Washington, DC, Nigeria, Liberia, and Sudan.

Before joining USAID in 2010, Wanjue worked with various international humanitarian and development organizations. He holds a Ph.D. from Walden University, (Minneapolis, Minnesota), an MBA in organizational leadership from Johnson and Wales University (Providence, RI), and a B.A. from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Joe Wilson, Jr. serves as the director of Art, Culture and Tourism for the City of Providence. He serves on the boards of the Providence Tourism Council, the Providence/Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau and WaterFire Providence.

Previously, Wilson served as a member of the Resident Acting Company. He was part of the artistic staff at Trinity Repertory Company for 18 seasons and founded Trinity Rep’s Center for Activism and Performance. He is the recipient of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities Public Scholar Award and the Providence NAACP’s Medgar Evers Award for Public Service. 

Wilson holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, and an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre training program. He is Professor of Practice in Theatre and Dance at Wheaton College. He has performed On Broadway (earning two Tony Award nominations), Off Broadway, and in regional theaters around the country. He has taught acting and art activism; he has lectured at high schools, colleges and conferences.