Meet the 2025 TRIS Judges

Gregory W. Bowman

Dean and Professor of Law, Roger Willimas University School of Law

Gregory Bowman serves as dean and professor of law at Roger Williams University School of Law. During his 21-year teaching career, he has advocated for greater representation and inclusion in the legal profession, and enhanced experiential learning and service opportunities for law students.

During his academic career, Dean Bowman has held board and leadership positions at the Law School Admission Council, the Association of American Law Schools, the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, and the American Bar Association’s Police Practices Consortium. In recognition of his contributions to the legal profession and legal education, Bowman has been an American Bar Foundation Fellow, an Association of American Law Schools Fellow, and a member of the American Law Institute. Dean Bowman received his juris doctor degree from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and his master’s degree in international economics from the University of Exeter in England. Prior to teaching, Bowman practiced international trade law in Chicago and Washington, DC for a decade with the law firm Baker McKenzie.

Bowman and his wife Elizabeth live in Bristol, Rhode Island with their 16-year-old rescue dachshund, Paddington.

Angélica M. Infante-Green

Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education

Angélica Infante-Green has served as the Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education since 2019. As Commissioner, she has instituted several major efforts to improve PK-12 education across the state. Commissioner Infante-Green helped lead Rhode Island’s state education system in responding and mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 and reopening schools. During the pandemic, the Commissioner convened the Learning, Equity & Accelerated Pathways (LEAP) Task Force, a group of local and national education experts, which released its report and recommendations in April 2021 to help guide accelerated learning opportunities to rebuild Rhode Island’s educational system post-pandemic. Commissioner Infante-Green has also spearheaded efforts to reimagine the high school experience through the successful passage of new readiness-based graduation requirements approved unanimously by the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education in November 2022, after a comprehensive 18-month public engagement process.
Recently, Commissioner Infante-Green received national recognition for Rhode Island’s comprehensive efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism in the wake of the pandemic. In 2023, Infante-Green launched the statewide #AttendanceMattersRI campaign, which has contributed to a significant decline in chronic absenteeism since the height of the pandemic. With support from stakeholders including elected officials, policymakers, health professionals, business owners, educators, students, families and more, Infante-Green has energized the greater Rhode Island community around promoting regular attendance through new and enhanced data dashboards, targeted school-based interventions, and a robust media campaign.
Notably, the Commissioner also led a comprehensive review of the Providence Public School District (PPSD). She is now leading the state intervention in the capital city’s schools to overcome decades of neglect and poor performance. In August 2024, independent reviews of PPSD from SchoolWorks and the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University found that the District has made notable progress, mitigating learning loss better and accelerating learning faster post-pandemic than similar districts in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
Prior to leading RIDE, Infante-Green served as the Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Instructional Support. Infante-Green began her career as a bilingual classroom teacher in the South Bronx. Since leaving the classroom, she has served in a variety of roles focused on improving instruction for all students, particularly multilingual learners. She held several leadership positions for the New York City School Department, and she was a member of the first cohort of the Chiefs for Change Future Chiefs program. In June 2023, Commissioner Infante-Green was named to the Board of Directors for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), becoming the first Latina Rhode Island education chief to be selected to serve in the leadership role. In October 2023, United States Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona appointed Infante-Green to the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), marking the first time a woman of color education chief from Rhode Island has been appointed to this role. In March 2025, The Aspen Institute named her a Pahara Fellow.

As a first-generation American, Infante-Green sees her first day as a teacher as a life-changing moment where she realized her personal calling. Having herself learned English in school, and as the parent of a child who is differently-abled, she has fought to replace a “deficit” view with an “enrichment” view for students who need more. Infante-Green earned an M.A. in Education and in School Administration and Supervision from Mercy College. She is married with a son and daughter.

Sherise Chantell Rogers, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor, Brown University 

Associate Director, Community Outreach & Engagement, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Brown University Health

Sherise Chantell Rogers is a nationally recognized medical oncologist, researcher, and healthcare leader with a passion for advancing innovation at the intersection of medicine, technology, and systems transformation. She has led multidisciplinary teams at institutions such as the University of Florida, spearheading initiatives that improve medical education, expand clinical trial access, and enhance clinical operations.

Dr. Rogers currently serves on the faculty at Brown University, where she is also an Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement. A Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellow and recipient of the Robert A. Winn Award, she earned her MBA and completed a health equity leadership fellowship at Yale University, where she honed her focus on strategic innovation in healthcare. She has collaborated with non-profit organizations, academic institutions, and national research consortia to advance impactful, scalable healthcare solutions.

With a growing focus on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence and digital health technologies, Dr. Rogers brings a forward-thinking, results-oriented approach to every endeavor. Her work bridges clinical excellence with business insight, all in service of building smarter, more accessible healthcare systems.

Linda Rekas Sloan

Associate Justice

Rhode Island Superior Court

Linda Rekas Sloan is an Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court. She was appointed by Governor Raimondo in December 2020. Judge Rekas Sloan was born in Taipei, Taiwan and is the oldest of 4 girls born to Bao Yu and Russell Rekas. Her father was a career Navy man serving on nuclear submarines. They were stationed in Hawaii for a several years until her father moved the family back to his hometown of Coventry, Rhode Island. Linda attended Coventry High School, Providence College and Boston University School of Law.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, she practiced law in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and before the United States Federal District Courts for the Districts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Judge Rekas Sloan served as the Rhode Island Bar Association President from 2017 to 2018. She was also a Rhode Island Bar Foundation Fellow and a past President of the New England Bar Association. She was appointed to chair the Rhode Island Bar Association’s Task Force on Diversity & Inclusion in August 2020 which surveyed Bar members to assess the state of DEI in the Rhode Island legal profession and made proposals to raise awareness and understanding among its members and others of the vital role diversity plays, and to identify ways to advance inclusion and diverse perspectives in the activities, services and educational programs of the Rhode Island Bar Association so that all members have the opportunity to fully participate and succeed in the profession.

Judge Rekas Sloan was an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University School of Law as well as Providence College. She has been a member of the Pawtuxet Valley Rotary Club since 1999 and served as a board member on many other non-profit organizations such as Camp E Hun Tee, Coventry Public Library Board, Louttit Library Board, the Thurgood Marshall Law Society and the Center for Southeast Asians. She was elected to the West Greenwich Town Council in 2014 and served as the Vice President from 2016 until she took the bench in 2021.

John Tarantino

Managing Trustee, Papitto Opportunity Connection

Senior Counsel at Adler, Pollock & Sheehan P.C.

CEO IYLON Precision Oncology

John Tarantino has received numerous awards and recognition for his outstanding work that spans more than 40 years. He has consistently been recognized by Best Lawyers of America and several other organizations as one of the top attorneys in the country.

A lifelong Rhode Island resident, who graduated from Dartmouth College and Boston College Law, John has successfully tried many high-profile cases, both civil and criminal. John’s passion and dedication to his work and his profession are well known. He has won significant trial victories for Atlantic Richfield Company, the Governor of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Senate, the House of Representatives and many other entities and individuals in cases ranging from toxic tort to constitutional law, to bribery and wire fraud, to ethics violations, to voting law and redistricting.

Mr. Tarantino is equally proud of the work that he has done for clients who are lesser known. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his pro bono work.

The number of awards he has received would fill a trophy case. He never made it to Cooperstown but has earned a hall of fame status. In 2019, John was honored with the RI Lawyers Weekly’s Hall of Fame Award, a special lifetime achievement award for the senior leaders of the profession.

Mr. Tarantino’s passion for defending his clients in the courtroom is equally matched by his ardent desire to help the BIPOC community- something that was instilled in him more than 40 years ago.

Mr. Tarantino played on the Dartmouth club volleyball team as a college freshman. At that time, the Dartmouth team nickname was the Indians. When John arrived at class one day wearing a Dartmouth Indians t-shirt, a classmate who was an Indigenous woman, told John the name and symbol (the head of a Native American warrior) on his shirt were both offensive and demeaning. John immediately turned his t-shirt inside out and finished his conversation with his Native classmate. Pleased with John’s efforts, she thanked him for listening to and addressing her concerns. John credits his classmate giving him a gift that day – one of understanding and perspective, which 40 years later, continues to fuel his passion to help the BIPOC community.