Business Women Awards 2019 | HONOREE
Lisa Ranglin, Rhode Island Black Business Association
For Lisa Ranglin – risk and compliance manager for Providence-based Citizens Bank – it’s been a busy professional track.
Her executive experience includes more than a decade at Bank of America, having filled a senior program-manager role there before she left the company in 2016. Over the course of her career, she’s earned accolades and awards for her leadership and achievement.
That may have been enough for some people.
But the worlds of technology, banking and business need more equity, in Ranglin’s view. She’s long been concerned about statistics that document the ongoing struggle for women and many minorities to receive equal opportunities in work and business.
That includes blacks in Rhode Island earning less than the median income and being incarcerated, underemployed or unemployed more than white counterparts, she says.
“These stats are real people,” she said. “Most black families don’t have emergency money.”
So, she started an initiative to address the disparity.
While at Bank of America in 2011, Ranglin founded the Rhode Island Black Business Association, creating a volunteer role for herself as president.
RIBBA works to boost economic vitality and revenue opportunities for member businesses. The nonprofit is open to organizations, providing resources, networking, events, referrals, development, advocacy and investor services. Its goals are to improve the quality of jobs and foster business growth for people of color.
“We help them develop a business plan, ready them for loans and for creating revenue,” she said.
Unconscious bias around race still exists, and much of RIBBA’s job is to educate, said Ranglin.
“A lot of it is about identifying resources in the state today, leveraging partnerships and building empowerment,” she said, “learning how to take advantage, educate and gain access.”
Raised in poverty in Jamaica, the youngest of nine children, she said her father, Eric, opened the family home to people in need. Though the family did not have much, Ranglin learned about giving back.
After her father’s death, she came to the U.S. as a teen with her mother.
Her mother, Mavis Ranglin, 90, still lives nearby.
“Growing up on an island, education was very important,” Ranglin said. “Going to college was a part of my upbringing, not an option. I was coming to the [United States] … for opportunity, to seize them all.”
She worked in a factory during the day. At night, she attended New England Institute of Technology. Her supervisory strengths were quickly apparent. The factory made Ranglin a “lead girl,” responsible for taking orders and supervising operations.
Now, years later, with an NEIT degree in computer programming, banking career established and RIBBA rolling along, Ranglin is still improving herself. She’s a candidate for a master’s degree in human resource management at Johnson & Wales University.
RIBBA is moving forward, too, looking to grow from a grassroots organization into a widely recognized and respected brand identifying and removing systemic barriers of race and ethnicity.
“We are lifting communities up. It’s a win-win for all of us. I am so blessed and privileged to have this honor – to be given a place where I can share knowledge,” she said.
