DWAYNE KEYS, director of programs, multifamily, for Compass Working Capital in Boston, was recently named board chair for the Economic Progress Institute. The Providence-based nonprofit is a research and policy organization that works to ensure economic security for low- and modest-income Rhode Islanders. Keys succeeds former board Chair Jessica Sherwood, a Johnson & Wales University sociology professor who retired from the board after six years. Keys has been with Compass Working Capital, a nonprofit dedicated to ending asset poverty with a focus on Black and Latina women-led households, since 2017. Prior to that, Keys spent 13 years working in for-profit banking and financial services, holding roles in sales and customer relationship management and service.
What attracted you to wanting to be involved with the Economic Progress Institute? I’ve supported the work of the Economic Progress Institute since its inception when it was known as the Poverty Institute. As a practitioner and advocate in anti-poverty and economic mobility work, EPI’s mission to advocate for policies that improve the economic security of low- and modest-income Rhode Islanders resonates with me deeply. As a result, both EPI and I share a commitment to ensuring all Rhode Islanders have access to economic resources, opportunities and public services to grow and reach their full potential.
What are your goals for the organization as its board chair? This year EPI will be celebrating 25 years of advocacy and excellence. As board chair, I am most looking forward to leading EPI into another quarter-century of growth and continued impact on the lives of Rhode Islanders.
Where do you feel Rhode Island is lacking with its economy and how can the Economic Progress Institute help the state improve economically? For too many Rhode Islanders, their earned income is not meeting their basic needs of food, clothing, housing, child care and health care. Work-support programs can help narrow the gap between earnings and expenses. Since Black and Latino Rhode Islanders are overrepresented as a share of Rhode Island’s low-wage workers, enhancing such programs, as well as paying all workers a living wage, would serve to decrease disparities. EPI’s research and policy recommendations to our state leaders will help guide them in closing the economic divide and improving the lives of Rhode Island’s low- and modest-income earners.
How will the organization hope to make advances on expanding paid family leave, ending predatory lending and centering equity in decision-making? EPI will continue to work alongside the Rhode Islanders most impacted by these policies, as well as our allies to achieve the dream of economic justice for every Rhode Islander. EPI will persist as a tireless advocate working with our neighbors and in the Statehouse to make sure that Rhode Islanders are protected from predatory lending, giving them the time and space to care for loved ones, and making equity the starting point for policy.
