SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Sandra Cano, a former Pawtucket state senator and the city’s commerce director, has landed a new job at her alma mater, the University of Rhode Island.
URI recently announced that Cano, also a past R.I. congressional candidate, has been named the new director of industry relations for the University of Rhode Island Foundation & Alumni Engagement. In this new role, Cano will lead the development of new opportunities between URI and industry partners to help support the state’s land-grant school, the university said.
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URI President Marc B. Parlange said Cano will serve as a catalyst for advancing Rhode Island’s innovation economy in building partnerships between the university, industries and government. Parlange added that Cano will also lead efforts in attracting “external funding, convene interdisciplinary collaborations and advise on strategic economic development initiatives.”
“Working closely with offices across our campuses, Sandra will align institutional strengths, particularly in research, with regional economic opportunities,” Mark Antonucci, vice president for advancement and CEO of the URI Foundation, said in a statement. “Sandra brings a unique combination of government leadership and community insight to URI and an ability to build partnerships that create real opportunity.”
Cano said in a statement she looks forward to connecting URI’s research to real-world impact and to elevating the university’s position as a premier public research institution “powering the future of our regional economy.”
Cano served in the R.I. Senate representing her home city from 2018 through 2024. She resigned from office in September 2024 to briefly work for the U.S. Small Business Administration as its regional administrator for New England at the time. Leadership within the SBA changed after President Donald Trump was elected to office in November.
Cano was first elected to the R.I. Senate in a special election after then-Sen. James Doyle II resigned. In 2019, Doyle was sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to 33 counts of bank fraud and tax crimes.
Then, after David N. Cicilline resigned from the 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House to become the Rhode Island Foundation’s top executive, Cano was among a large field of Democratic candidates vying for the seat. It was an election that saw a myriad of controversies with other contenders.
Cano finished third in the special primary election. Gabe Amo, a Pawtucket native, won the seat.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
