Friday, November 14, 2025

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FAMILY ATMOSPHERE: Mery Polanco, left, owner and director of Nery’s Land Learning Center, and teaching assistant Felipa Ponte, third from right, work with kids at the day care center in Pawtucket.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Everybody’s Business: Day care offers kids a sense of belonging

(Editor’s note: This is the 62nd installment in a monthly series speaking with minority business owners and leaders. Each will be asked their views...

Rhode Island Black Business Association expands board of directors

PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Black Business Association is adding five members to its board of directors, expanding the board to 19 total members,...
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES: City Personnel founder and President Dawn Apajee said she created her Providence-based staffing agency because she wanted it to be personal, inclusive and community-driven. 
PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

Dawn Apajee

PBN Leaders & Achievers Awards 2025 DAWN APAJEE City Personnel Founder and president DAWN APAJEE’S RECRUITING ­CAREER began in London in 1989. From the start, she loved...
STAYING THE COURSE: Dawn Apajee, founder and president of professional staffing service City Personnel Inc., speaks to Recruiting Coordinator Adora Andrade, who is writing on the board. Apajee says the nature of City Personnel’s business – which provides legal, administrative, accounting and support staffing services – calls for a commitment to diversity.
PBN PHOTO/
MICHAEL SALERNO

DEI TEST: Roll back? Push ahead? For many organizations, a critical...

The diversity pledges flooded corporate inboxes across the country as protests filled the streets over George Floyd, a Black man who died under the...
ALL IN: Dawn Apajee, right, owner and founder of professional staffing service City Personnel Inc., says the company is not pulling back on its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Writing on the board above is Recruiting Coordinator Adora Andrade.
PBN FILE PHOTO/­MICHAEL SALERNO

DEI commitments tested by federal rollbacks

Business and civic support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives remains strong across the Ocean State. But as this week’s cover story reports, federal efforts...
GIVING GUIDANCE: Long-time ­basketball coach Ramel “Mel” Moore says he ­realized during the COVID-19 pandemic that his skills with leading athletes on the court serve him well as a life coach. 
PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Everybody’s Business: Moore found his coaching applied beyond the court

(Editor’s note: This is the 58th installment in a monthly series speaking with minority business owners and leaders. Each will be asked their views...
BUSINESS ASSISTANCE: The Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce will host R.I. Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore at the Chamber’s monthly Eggs & Issues Breakfast event on May 14 at Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln. 
PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Editor’s Choice: R.I. Secretary of State Amore to speak at Chamber...

EDITOR’S CHOICE R.I. Secretary of State Amore to speak at Chamber breakfast THE NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND Chamber of Commerce will host R.I. Secretary of...
TAKING A TALLY:
 Of the first 50 minority 
business owners featured 
in the Everybody’s Business 
monthly series since August 2020, 30 were men and 20 
were women. Two of those businesses have closed, and 
another is in receivership – all three of them operated by men.
PBN ILLUSTRATION/ANNE EWING

Everybody’s Business: Minority owners resilient in face of uncertainty

Providence Business News’ ­Everybody’s Business monthly series began with the intention of providing a voice to minority business owners in the tumultuous summer of...
ON THE MAT: 
Nic Cortes, left, owner of the jiu-jitsu studio Cortes BJJ LLC in Warwick, teaches Kevin Madden of Warwick a mixed martial arts move. Cortes, a minority business owner, recently opened a second location in the city. 
PBN PHOTO/
MICHAEL SALERNO

An equity check: ‘Much of this movement is being dismantled’

Nina Reed’s bakery products are popular, but that doesn’t mean running her business has been a piece of cake. Reed, the owner of Sarcastic Sweets...
UNDER ­PRESSURE: 
Lisa Ranglin, president of the Rhode Island Black Business Association, says minority-business growth is threatened by federal efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs. 
PBN FILE PHOTO/­RUPERT WHITELEY

Progress for minority businesses endangered by DEI rollbacks

Government and anecdotal data suggest Rhode Island in the last few years has been a generally supportive environment for most minority entrepreneurs. The question for...
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