Women in Business After Hours at The Elms

Weayonnoh joined the Economic Progress Institute as executive director in January 2022, with a vision towards people-powered transformational and equitable budget and policy changes in Rhode Island.  Before joining EPI, Weayonnoh worked as a legal aid attorney at South Coastal Counties Legal Services and then Community Legal Aid (CLA), first as a staff attorney and then managing attorney of CLA's Worcester and Fitchburg offices. Her areas of expertise include general poverty law, medical-legal partnerships, the effect of structural racism on communities of color, public benefits, and housing law.

Weayonnoh is a member of Leadership Rhode Island Upsilon II Class of 2024.  Previously she served as a small group faculty and capstone project mentor of the Patient Care in Complex Systems Gateway Program at Brown University Medical School and an adjunct professor at the Community College of Rhode Island. She was named one of GoLocal Prov 22 to Watch in Rhode Island in 2022. She has also received several recognitions for her social justice advocacy work including the 2023 Rhode Island Black Business Association’s Christiana Bannister Civic Leadership Award, 2020 Roger Williams University School of Law Alumni Public Interest Champion of Justice Award and the 2017 Massachusetts Bar Association Access to Justice Rising Star Award. She is a proud alumna of the Rhode Island Foundation’s inaugural Equity Leadership Initiative, the Institute of Nonprofit Practice’s inaugural Black Leadership Institute, Leadership Worcester, the Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Institute, and City Year Rhode Island. She received her Juris Doctorate from Roger Williams University School of Law and undergraduate from Rhode Island College.