Rachel (Afua) Ansong, Ph.D. and MBA, has written a dissertation on West African Adinkra symbols as a material practice of Black diasporic cultural survivance. An accomplished poet and winner of multiple grants and writing residencies, Afua has published three chapbooks as well as poems in numerous literary journals. Her many contributions to intellectual life at URI include organizing The Caged Bird Sings Poetry Festival in 2021 and mentoring students from underrepresented backgrounds. Afua’s mentors describe her as “a natural leader and a tremendously motivated and resourceful writer-scholar” whose poetry is “singular and important.”