Bruce Katz - Providence Business News

MULTISKILLED: Colleen Peters is one of the 23 students who have graduated from the University of Rhode Island’s “Blue MBA” program since it started in 2008. URI officials are hoping the program will ramp up as the blue economy gains momentum. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

URI’s ‘Blue MBA’ could be key as ocean-based supersector evolves

Education 09/17/2021

It was a curiosity about the manatees and dolphins that swam in the canal near her father’s Florida home that first drew Colleen Peters...

TRAINING HUB: Jennifer Menard, left, interim vice president of economic and business development at Bristol Community College, and Laura Douglas, college president, stand outside the future home of the school’s National Offshore Wind Institute on the New Bedford waterfront. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Unchartered training: How does region build workforce for new wind sector?

Cover Story 08/06/2021

Toiling hundreds of feet above the open ocean, sometimes amid stormy weather and battering waves, technicians in the offshore wind industry need not only...

A WORK IN PROGRESS: $45M program aims to reemploy Rhode Islanders,...

Coronavirus 09/04/2020

Scott R. Jensen watched helplessly as the number of out-of-work Rhode Islanders soared when COVID-19 hit in March. For months, unemployment claims climbed higher. And...

DIVERSE WORKFORCE: C.C. Business Corp. Vice President Ron Brewer, left, and President Marcellus Sharpe stand outside of Thundermist Health Center in Woonsocket, one of the private-security company’s clients. Brewer estimates that 70% of the company’s 39 employees are minorities. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

A question of equity: Can R.I. level the field for minority...

Coronavirus 07/10/2020

As small-business owners clambered to get in on the federal payroll relief program launched in the wake of COVID-19, Anna Mangeni held back. Her business,...

DENIED: Elyse Farnsworth, owner of Arrow Salon in Providence, tried to apply through Bank of America for a Paycheck Protection Program loan but was turned down because she did not have a line of credit with the bank. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Certain businesses left behind in dash for stimulus loans?

Business Services 05/01/2020

Elyse Farnsworth was eagerly awaiting the rollout of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. The hair stylist and owner of Arrow Salon LLC...

STRONG CONNECTIONS: Jennifer McCann, director of the U.S. Coastal Program at the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center, shown here at the URI Bay Campus in Narragansett, says Rhode Island can build a sustainable future by connecting its related industries in the blue economy. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI

Super sector: Experts say R.I.’s $5B blue economy has oceans of...

Cover Story 03/20/2020

Intertwined with Rhode Island’s economy as a source of food, recreation and power, and as a medium for transportation and defense, the ocean has...

R.I. lacks key data on minority businesses

Hot Topic 02/28/2020

People of color are underrepresented as business owners compared with their share of Rhode Island’s population, but getting a clear picture on the depth...

STAYING PUT: Adam Anderson, owner of landscape architecture firm Design Under Sky and a Wavemaker fellow, stands near the remnants of his “10,000 Suns” sunflower installation in Providence. Anderson is still paying off his student loans and says the Wavemaker program is one of the factors that kept him in Rhode Island. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI

STEM-ing the flow: Is R.I.’s Wavemaker program reducing ‘brain drain’?

Cover Story 02/21/2020

Architectural designer Kaitlin DeGregorio was weighing a job offer in New York 2½ years ago when she instead made a commitment to a construction...

Report recommends R.I. community development entity to help grow state’s economy

Financial Services 02/03/2020

PROVIDENCE – The lack of a Rhode Island-based community-development entity has made it harder for low-income communities to access private capital and leverage federal...