Cranston native Justin D. Bibee has been inducted into the Marquis Who's Who in America for his work advancing human rights across the globe.

The Marquis Who’s Who, founded in 1898 by Albert Nelson Marquis as a counterpoint to a UK publication by the same name, is an American publisher that has spent over 100 years printing short biographies of notable people from a variety of fields. The Marquis focuses on celebrating and recognizing the achievements of outstanding professionals, researchers, scientists, artists, and other notable individuals who have made significant contributions to their fields of expertise. 

To be inducted into Marquis Who's Who in America, an individual must have achieved outstanding success and recognition in their respective field. They must have made significant contributions to their profession, demonstrated leadership and excellence in their work, and have a proven track record of success.

Bibee was chosen for his work in advocating for human rights around the world while working for both the Peace Corps and the United Nations. This isn’t the first time Bibee’s dedication has been recognized. In 2019, then Mayor of Warwick Joseph Solomon, named February 18th as Justin Bibee day. Bibee was also named one of Providence Business News’ 40 under 40 last July and received a citation from the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 2021 for his “faithful service and commitment to raising awareness and inspiring others to stand up in the fight for human rights.”

“I actually thought I was in trouble,” Bibee said. “They mailed it to my place of work. Some staff member came in and was like there’s mail for you. We’d been told no personal mail at work, so I was a little nervous at first. I was like what is this? I didn’t see the Marquis Who’s Who coming at all. It was a pretty cool surprise”

Bibee grew up in Cranston and spent the majority of his youth in Rhode Island. He attended public school in Cranston, attended CCRI and then moved on to RIC for his bachelor’s. In 2013 he finally left Rhode Island to move on to graduate school in Vermont where he attended the School for International Training and earned a master’s in peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

With a passion for helping people, it was only natural Bibee would end up joining the Peace Corps. It was there, as a Peace Corps volunteer, that Bibee would meet his now wife.

“It’s funny I went to Morocco with no intentions to meet anybody,” Bibee laughed. “My father even had a conversation with me about being careful. ‘You’re a single guy, it’s another country and there are different laws.’ But then my wife, Yousra, actually worked for the Peace Corps.”

Yousra caught Bibee’s eye immediately, but after seeing her once on his first day there he was sent to three months of intense language learning. Fate, however, would intervene by bringing them back together months later as Bibee prepared to take on his role teaching English to the locals.

“Literally on my very first day I noticed her. I noticed her smile,” Bibee said. “I actually didn’t even talk to her until six months later when I ran into her in Marrakesh. She was a Moroccan herself that was hired by the Peace Corps as a language and cultural facilitator.”

While his main focus in Morocco was teaching English, Bibee said that it was not originally what he wanted to do. He had hoped instead to work on a sports program emphasizing peacebuilding. A lot of sports, Bibee explained, can help to encourage teamwork and bring people together. Specifically, he wanted to create a peacebuilding program around surfing. It quickly became apparent to Bibee that what the people wanted was to learn English, so that is what he taught.

Despite his work helping people, Bibee really wanted to help push the idea of human rights. However, he found a surprising amount of push back from the Peace Corps.

“The Peace Corps has a lot of committees,” Bibee said. “They have a gender advocate committee dedicated to girl’s rights and education. They have an environmental committee. I wanted to start a human rights committee. Just like all the other committees I would just literally provide training, resources and encourage volunteers to raise awareness about these issues.”

Bibee said that he was told by his superiors to not even use the words human rights, being told that they were not there to push human rights or change local beliefs. They were only there to build friendships and support the work efforts already in progress. Which is understandable, Bibee said. This didn’t completely stop him from trying though.

“We would be planting trees or picking up trash or litter in a playground,” said Bibee. “That was our project, but during those projects I would raise awareness about human rights. I would explain, like, do you know that a clean environment is a human right? I kind of found a loophole where I was able to talk about human rights and raise awareness in every project we implemented.”

In addition to all his hands-on work helping others during his time with the Peace Corps, Bibee eventually worked to push his human rights work further than they would allow, by writing several books. The first of which was a manual for teachers to help progress learning about what human rights are in their own classrooms.

Over the next six years Bibee would complete half a dozen works, all regarding the importance of human rights and ways to help those in need. His work has earned him recognition from local, national, and international governments, including nominations for the Human Rights Tulip by the Dutch government and Morocco's Leader of the Year Award. He was even named a finalist for Forbes' 30 Under 30.

Now back in Rhode Island, Bibee continues earning his Ph.D. while taking on a position as a refugee resettlement case manager with Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island’s Refugee and Immigrant Navigation Services Department. He has worked with refugees from countries such as Congo, Burundi, Angola, Sudan, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Colombia, Syria, Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Ukraine.

“I literally have clients here in Rhode Island where when I was working in the Nyarugusu refugee camps they were there in that camp,” Bibee said with pride. “Now seven years later they’re here in Rhode Island and I can say you know in 2017 I was there in Nyarugusu with you. I actually had a chance to take on a position with higher pay, twice actually, but both times I turned them down to do the work I’m doing with Dorcus. I wake up excited to go to work every day.”