Lisa is the founder and president of Hope & Main, Rhode Island’s first—and now nationally recognized—food business incubator. Launched in 2014, the 501(c)(3) has helped over 500 food entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses, 60% of whom are women and 45% people of color. These ventures have created thousands of jobs and infused tens of millions of dollars into Rhode Island’s economy, establishing Hope & Main as a key driver of inclusive economic development and entrepreneurial opportunity.
Her career spans more than 30 years in healthcare, higher education, nonprofit strategy, and public health—with every chapter rooted in distributive justice and systems-level change. She holds a BA in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University and an MPH in Epidemiology from Boston University School of Medicine. She spent nine years at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, where she built one of the first ethics programs in managed care in the country and launched a pioneering DEI initiative in the healthcare sector. She has held senior roles at Brown University including as an Clinical Assistant Professor of Ethics and Public Health at the Warren Alpert School Medicine, and taught Public Health and Nutrition at Roger Williams University, where she also serves on the Board of Trustees.
Lisa’s work lives at the intersection of moral imagination, civic infrastructure, and radical hope. She listens for what systems silence and lifts what mainstream agendas often bury. communities bury. She has served on numerous boards including the Specialty Food Association Foundation, Rhode Island Center for Justice, and is a founding Board members of Local Return, home to Rhode Island’s first diversified community investment cooperative.
In 2024, she was named USA Today’s Woman of the Year for Rhode Island and received the Christiana Carteaux Bannister Award from the Rhode Island Foundation for her trailblazing work in economic mobility and equity-centered leadership.
Lisa lives in Bristol, RI, where she celebrates her most important roles as a mother of three accomplished children and two mischievous grandpeople. She believes in the radical potential of local food to build thriving communities—and yes, she really loves pie.
