Meet Janie
I learned early on that working hard doesn't always mean getting ahead.
I watched my mother raise five children on her own — working full time, taking night classes, and still finding ways to show up for us. On weekends, before I even started kindergarten, my siblings and I would wake up early to collect cans so we could buy our own lunches and stretch her dollar just a little further. That experience shaped how I see community. Nobody gets through hard times alone, and nobody should have to.
My husband Christopher and I chose Warwick Neck as our forever home, and we're raising our two daughters here. Christopher is a proud Teamster who works third shift stocking shelves. We just celebrated our oldest, Destiny, graduating high school and heading to Bard College this fall. Our youngest is still in middle school.
Like so many families in our community, we're balancing work, school, rising costs, and the constant question: How do we make sure our children have more opportunity than we did? Lately, that question has gotten harder to answer. Utility bills that keep rising. Grocery prices that don't stretch the way they used to. The quiet but constant pressure of trying to stay ahead while everything around you gets more expensive.
That's why I'm running.
I'm stepping forward as a neighbor, a mother, and the Founder and CEO of a statewide parent advocacy organization that shows up for families and communities across Rhode Island — not just in the school system, but in the everyday ways people need support. We help parents navigate schools and find the right fit for their kids. We also run a small food pantry that feeds elderly neighbors and community members. We organize clothing give-backs for families who need them. I hold a Master's in Community Development from Roger Williams University — a credential that gave language and structure to work I was already doing instinctively — building community, organizing around shared need, and pushing systems to be more responsive to the people they're supposed to serve.
But no matter how much of this work I do, it always comes back to the same thing: showing up for people. I've sat at the kitchen table helping my daughters with schoolwork, thinking about whether they, and every child in Rhode Island are truly being prepared for the future. I know what it feels like when a school is the right fit for your child, and what it feels like when it isn't. I've packed grocery bags for elderly neighbors and families, organized back to school events for kids and families, and spent countless hours sitting with parents, helping them navigate a system that wasn't designed to be easy to navigate. And through all of it, I've experienced firsthand what it feels like when a community shows up for you, and what it feels like when no one does.
It's neighbors showing up for neighbors. I've seen what's possible when a community comes together. That's what it's like to live here in District 22 — it's the quiet gestures. A neighbor checking in after a storm to make sure you're okay. The small gifts left at your door, or the flowers that show up on your doorstep every spring, just because. That's not something you can legislate, but it's something leadership should protect and reflect.
That's the kind of leadership Rhode Island deserves: leadership that understands these challenges not as talking points, but as lived reality. Leadership that understands the complexity of people, the real impact policy has on day-to-day lives, and is willing to listen, learn, and lead side by side with the people it represents.
Our History
When we bought our home on Warwick Neck in 2022, we weren't just buying a house.
We were becoming part of a story that stretches back nearly 300 years.
The Edward Anthony House — our home — dates to 1755. It was rebuilt in 1809 by Edward Anthony, who inherited his grandfather's Warwick Neck farmland and used materials from the original structure to build what still stands today. The house is featured in Warwick's Historic Homes, Places and Personalities and Warwick Neck: A Collection of Memories — two books that now sit on our shelves and remind us daily of the ground we walk on.
This year, America turns 250. And this house was here before the country was.
During the Revolutionary War, American troops were stationed near this very land. The Anthony family farm sat at the center of one of Colonial Warwick's most important trade routes. Smuggling operations launched from Warwick Neck helped supply the Patriot cause. The British commander captured in the famous 1777 Prescott Raid — one of the boldest attacks of the entire war — was held at the nearby David Arnold Tavern on West Shore Road.
We live in that history every day.
The house still holds its original character — mortise and tenon construction, hand-numbered timbers, wooden pegs, and six fireplaces. Our daughter's closet? It used to be — and technically still is — a working dumbwaiter.
We moved to Warwick Neck because we fell in love with this community, this coastline, and this history — and the wildlife that shares it with us. The deer and fawns that wander our yard. The turkeys that cross the road like they own it. Rabbits, fox, coyote, mink. The herons along the bay. This land is teeming with life — and it is worth protecting.
As Rhode Island and the nation mark 250 years, I'm running to make sure the next generation inherits something worth celebrating — a community that's affordable, protected, and full of opportunity. That's what this land has always stood for. That's what I'll fight for at the State House.
