diff --git a/.github/workflows/r-check.yml b/.github/workflows/r-check.yml
index fad2ca8e5..7edf3a81b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/r-check.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/r-check.yml
@@ -10,10 +10,12 @@ on:
 
 env:
   CELLXGENE_CENSUS_USERAGENT: "CZI-test"
+  AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: "us-west-2"
 
 jobs:
   build:
     strategy:
+      fail-fast: false  # Don't stop the workflow if one of the jobs fails
       matrix:
         tiledbsoma_version: [tiledbsoma_release, tiledbsoma_latest]
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest