(she/her/hers)
Casandra (Cas) Inez is excited to join the team as an Engagement Coordinator. She comes bearing a deep respect for the early caretakers of this land and water, which is known as Providence today, and a sincere interest in learning local history and legacies in order to contextualize the present. Her dedication to helping build and sustain a vibrant community stems from the ancestral principle that the decisions we make today should positively impact the world seven generations from now.
Equipped with six years of public service as a schoolteacher, the experience of running for city council, the training received as a Green Justice Zone cohort member, and insight from growing up as an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, Cas has a unique understanding of her community. It is this understanding and her dedication that drives her hopes of meeting the goals of this position to coordinate RI Humanities’ activities as part of the nationwide United We Stand initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For this initiative, RI Humanities is mobilizing the Rhode Tour app and website, a partnership with the RI Historical Society, to tell community stories that relate to the initiative’s goals to build empathy and combat hate-based violence.
Cas is a first-generation Guatemalan-American who has identified as an artist and poet since her early years. She earned a B.A in Secondary Education, English from Rhode Island College. In 2019, she and her partner opened Public Shop & Gallery – a community and creative space in the Olneyville neighborhood – in hopes of providing a gathering space for locals, and exhibition and project space for artists. She is the proud mother of two young children and enjoys the outdoors, being near moving water, curating intentional gatherings, and collaging.
