CHANDA WOMACK, MPA
Executive Director | she/her/hers | chanda@ariseducation.org
Chanda Womack is the Founding Executive Director of the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE.) The intersection of her identity as a Cambodian Refugee woman and mom of two bi-racial (Black and Cambodian) children have shaped her ideologies,
advocacy and organizing. These identity markers fuel how she shows up, occupies and shares space not just for education justice but for all issues that impact the historically excluded. She is unapologetic for what she stands for and how she carries out her
work. Her leadership and movement building has garnered local and national recognition for ARISE and Rhode Island. Mostly recently she was the named the 2020 recipient of A Leadership Journey’s, Mary Marsh “Community Leader Award,” ARISE & her leadership was
named in Providence Monthly’s “Who to Watch in 2020.” In 2017, Chanda was the recipient of NAACP Thurgood Marshall, the YWCA’s Women in Achievement Award and the Providence Youth Student Movement POWER Award.
Chanda was conceived and born in a refugee camp in Thailand, immigrating to the United States in January of 1981 with her family. Chanda is married to Tiger Womack, her husband of over 14 years and has a daughter Amaya and son named Justice. She is a product
of the Providence Public Schools and earned a B.A. degree from the University of Rhode Island in 2004. She has a Masters of Public Administration also from the University of Rhode Island as well as a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from Rhode Island
College. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Leadership in Schooling from UMASS, Lowell.