{"id":101119,"date":"2025-03-24T17:41:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T17:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=101119"},"modified":"2025-03-24T17:41:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T17:41:43","slug":"congressman-gabe-amo-to-speak-at-uri-women-of-color-conference-march-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/congressman-gabe-amo-to-speak-at-uri-women-of-color-conference-march-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressman Gabe Amo to speak at URI Women of Color Conference March 29"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 24, 2025 \u2013 The University of Rhode Island will host its annual Dr. Rose Butler Browne Leadership and Mentoring Program Women of Color Conference on Saturday, March 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.<\/strong> in Avedisian Hall, 7 Greenhouse Road, Kingston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual program celebrates the achievements and contributions of women of color in various fields throughout Rhode Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s conference will feature Congressman Gabe Amo, who represents Rhode Island\u2019s 1st Congressional District, and URI alumna Monda Raquel Webb \u201990, an award-winning author and filmmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amo will host a town hall at URI as the opening keynote speaker at the annual conference. Registration is open to the public. Lunch and snacks will be provided. RSVP here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URI Town Hall with Congressman Gabe Amo to open conference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Filmmaker URI alumna Monda Raquel Webb \u201990 will deliver closing remarks at the annual Women of Color Conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cBy inviting Congressman Amo to host a town hall as the opening of our conference, we hope to engage URI students, faculty and staff to attend and ask the congressman questions pertinent to their concerns,\u201d says URI Women\u2019s Center Director Ana Barraza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amo\u2019s story, and that of his family\u2019s, is one that is familiar to many students at URI\u2014one of hard work, resilience, grit, and determination. Before embarking on a career in public service in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., Amo was raised in Pawtucket by parents who moved to the United States from West Africa. His mother, a native of Liberia, worked as a nurse, and his father ran a liquor store to support the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amo went on to serve as White House special assistant to President Joe Biden and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. He also served as director of public engagement and community affairs for former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo. Earlier in his career, he served in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alumna Monda R. Webb \u201990 to deliver day\u2019s closing keynote<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Webb, a performing artist and independent storyteller, will deliver the day\u2019s closing keynote address at 3:15 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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The annual conference celebrates the groundbreaking legacy of alumna Rose Butler Browne. (Photo courtesy Rhode Island College Adams Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A 1990 URI graduate, Webb received a full athletic scholarship to URI for basketball, later switching to track. Webb held the University’s triple jump record for more than a decade. She majored in journalism and minored in English. Webb is also a charter member of the Pi Theta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first intercollegiate historically African American Sorority, chartered at URI in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Webb was voted Filmmaker of the Year in 2020 by the National Black Movie Association and has received international recognition and more than 40 awards for her short films. She serves as juror for multiple film festivals and is a juror for the NAACP Image Awards, the NAACP ACT-SO Competition, and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Webb also served as executive vice president for Women in Film and Video DC and is the executive vice president and programming coordinator for the Chesapeake Film Festival. She has served as a contributor and host for \u201cBlack Art in America\u201d and is currently working on a documentary titled \u201cPortraits in Black: Honoring Our National Treasures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legacy of Rose Butler Browne at URI, and beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At URI, Amo and Webb will join an event named for Rhode Island\u2019s Rose Butler Browne<\/a>. The first Black woman to graduate from URI in 1921, Browne went on to receive her doctorate in education from Harvard University in 1939, the first Black woman to earn a doctoral degree there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After URI, Browne embarked on a 47-year career teaching at Black colleges in the South, training more teachers to teach young people across the region, to ensure equitable education for all and point out unequal treatment of Black teachers at that time. Browne\u2019s work and advocacy resulted in better salaries, facilities and educational environments for Black teachers and students in the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barraza, also a URI alumna, co-teaches a class in Browne\u2019s name at URI with Melissa Camba-Kelsay and describes herself as a testament to the legacy of Browne\u2019s work and advocacy, one of many women of color able to access education because of Browne\u2019s work and the challenges she overcame decades earlier, at and after URI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about or to register for this year\u2019s Rose Butler Browne Women of Color Conference, visit <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. The conference is sponsored by the URI Women\u2019s Center in collaboration with the University\u2019s Center for Student Leadership Development and is open to all URI students, faculty and staff; priority will be given to students but other community members are welcome to attend. Registration for non-URI community members opens on March 24. The event is free.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 24, 2025 \u2013 The University of Rhode Island will host its annual Dr. Rose Butler Browne Leadership and Mentoring Program Women of Color Conference on Saturday, March 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Avedisian Hall, 7 Greenhouse Road, Kingston. The annual program celebrates the achievements and contributions of women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":101120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101119"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101126,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101119\/revisions\/101126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}