We rescheduled our January Women Warriors Winning the Business Battle program booked for the same date as the Presidential Inauguration to February. We are excited to kick-off the first quarter with an in-depth panel discussion on "Making Money While Doing Good: The Era of Social Entrepreneurs.”
Join our distinguished panelists Lauren Edwards, Executive Director, SEA Change; Suzanne Smith, Founder & CEO of Social Impact Architects; and Eva Szalkai Csaky, PhD MSF, Executive Director, Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity.
VWEC 2021 Theme: Women Helping Women
To support our Women Helping Women theme, we have launched a daily social media engagement campaign where you can post your business, share a tip or help another women conquer a challenge. This strategy is designed to move us beyond just sharing information but getting to know each, our businesses and our areas of expertise.
Start connecting Facebook Live monthly for Managing Mondays-First Mondays, Technology Tuesdays-2nd Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays-3rd Wednesdays, Trending Thursdays-4th Thursdays, and Financial First Fridays-5th Fridays.
Our 2021 Format includes the following:
11:00AM - 11:05AM - Welcome & Opening Remarks
11:05AM - 11:15AM - Speed Networking with a Twist
11:15AM - 11:20AM - $30 for the Best 30 Second Business Pitch.
11: 20AM - 11:30AM - Wednesday’s Wellness -is now integrated into each monthly event to remind everyone that our health is the foundation of our wealth. Get ready for a series of engaging activities and conversations. Our featured wellness consultant for Black History Month is Masako Mai, Owner, Professional Development Coach, Masako Mai Training.
Masako Mai is currently in the process of experiencing motherhood. She has diversified Masako Mai Training, LLC into Masako Mai Training, Healing Through Exercise; Hit Like A Girl Publishing; and Mommy, Mommy2Be & Me where she is a Personal Development Coach utilizing journalism and cognitive skills with health and wellness training to reach and assist her audience/clients to end stress and burnout by motivating, empowering, nurturing, teaching, optimizing, and reinforcing.
Masako is Executive Producer and Creator of Hit Like A Girl with Masako Mai; Freelance Journalist; Healer and Fitness Expert in Personal Development; Motivational Speaker; author of How I Met Jesus; owner of Masako Mai Training, LLC. Earlier on took up a career in boxing, where in record time became the Women’s International Welterweight Boxing Champion. Inspired to empower others, she obtained certifications in personal development coaching, health and wellness, and certificate in ministry where she helps individuals, families and couples create life balance as they pursue healthy lifestyles, happiness, and personal success. Additionally, she joined the Armed Forces where she became an Intelligence Analyst and continues to play a dynamic role in leading team efforts to preserve the integrity of her home country.
Masako graduated from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics; Cochise College with Intelligence Operations; Kim Dawson Conservatory with Film, Theatre & Dramatic Arts; San Diego College Certificate of Ministry.
11:35AM - 11:45PM - Introductions Partners, Sponsors & Keynote Speaker - Get connected to the resources you need to succeed with a brief presentation from partners and sponsors supporting this and other VWEC events.
11:45PM - 12:00PM - Words of Wisdom - In honor of Black History Month, we will kick off our panel discussion with an overview from VWEC’s NLBT Fellow Kelli Mumphrey, Founder & CEO MilkSpace, LLC discussing her “MATCH IT 4 HER” social program.
12:00PM - 12:45PM - Making Money While Doing Good: The Era of Social Entrepreneurs - Prepare for an engaging conversation as:
Lauren Edwards reminds us that “Businesses that were created with the purpose of doing good are not new, but they are the next big thing in entrepreneurship. Every day more entrepreneurs recognize their ability to connect passion with profit, more and more consumers demand it, and our society learns that it will never be equitable without it. We will all have to work together to create change - and your Social Enterprise business is an important step towards making the world a better place for all.”
While Suzanne Smith explains that “Social entrepreneurship, while going mainstream in the last decade, will continue to be a trend into this decade. A few trends to highlight: 1) increasing the professionalism of the field as well as a disciplined approach to social change – ensuring that our “good work” truly creates impact; 2) embracing our #throwback origin story where the best solutions come from those we serve and equity is at the center of every decision; 3) embedding intrapreneurship as an equally effective strategy for making social change; and 4) a true “meeting in the middle” with businesses being catalysts for social change as well as nonprofits embracing entrepreneurial thinking as a mindset for growth and change.”
Dr. Csaky summarizes these perspectives noting that “We are at the dawn of a new era, one when technology revolution coincides with some of the most apparent human suffering, divisions, inequalities and inequities of most of our lifetimes. Our greatest opportunity, and challenge, is to empower social entrepreneurs in local communities with the transformational technologies being developed by fellow social entrepreneurs around the world. In order to do so we need to create robust social enterprise ecosystems both at the local and the global level.”
MEET OUR FEATURED GUESTS:
Kelli Mumphrey:
In 2018, Kelli Mumphrey created MilkSpace, LLC a business that provided event planners with a service solution to accommodate nursing women during events.
Due to Covid-19, Kelli has pivoted from an in-person business to an e-commerce business offering MilkMama Sanity Kits filled next with breastfeeding essentials that focus on sanitation and convenience to keep women sane and smiling while on the go. In addition, the new business model includes a social impact initiative “Match IT 4 HER!” aimed to close the gap in breastfeeding disparities in Black women by partnering with community-based-organizations to receive and distribute FREE breastfeeding products and services to disadvantaged and underserved Black women.
In 2019, Kelli took the leap of faith and became a full-time entrepreneur and is optimistic about using her breastfeeding experience to be of value to breastfeeding mothers while making an impact to address breastfeeding disparities in Black women. Kelli holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from @Virginia State University, a master’s degree in Management and has completed her master’s degree coursework in Entrepreneurship with a concentration in Small Business from @American Military University (May 21, 2021 Commencement).
Lauren Edwards:
Lauren Edwards is the Executive Director of SEA Change, the Principal/Owner of Next Step Business Consulting, and an associate professor of City and Regional Planning and Social Enterprise at the Ohio State University. Her passion lies in helping organizations and individuals alleviate poverty through program and business development, vision realization, and facilitated conversation.
Lauren is the owner and principal of Next Step Business Consulting, where she works tirelessly alongside clients to expand capacity through program and social enterprise development, project management, and building organizational efficiency. Lauren is a highly regarded lecturer and facilitator; during just the past several years she has been a guest speaker with more than 50 central Ohio organizations. She also currently sits on the board of the Franklinton Urban Development Lab (FUEL) and the YMCA of Central Ohio – downtown. She was also honored to be included in the 2020 Columbus Business First’s Class of 40 Under 40.
As the Executive Director of SEA Change, Lauren has played a role in guiding over 140 organizations through the live social enterprise training program. In 2018 these alumni earned over $2.3 million in revenue and impacted over 350,000 lives.
After earning her Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University, Lauren gained experience in working with government, private practice, and non-profit organizations before launching her firm. Lauren lives in Grandview Heights Ohio with her husband and three daughters.
Suzanne Smith:
Suzanne Smith (@snstexas) has a deep belief that everyone is a changemaker. As a serial social entrepreneur, she strives to harness the powerful force of organizations, including nonprofits, foundations and socially responsible businesses, and individuals, especially students and young entrepreneurs, to maximize the potential of the social sector to create real, scalable impact.
In 2009, Suzanne founded Social Impact Architects, a registered Benefit Corporation, to reshape the business of social change. She combines her MBA know-how with two decades of experience as a nonprofit innovator to serve as a consultant, advisor and thought partner. She is also a highly sought-after public speaker at conferences nationwide, including being selected as a featured speaker at TEDxTurtleCreekWomen. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. In this work, she has pioneered open-source frameworks for the creation of better social solutions, including layered logic models, ecosystem mapping and social alchemy. For her outstanding work as a leading thinker, she was recognized with the Next Generation Social Entrepreneur Award by the Social Enterprise Alliance. Since 2015, Social Impact Architects was recognized as one of the “Best for the World” small businesses by B Corp.
Suzanne also authors Social TrendSpotter (@socialtrendspot), one of the sector’s top blogs according to The Huffington Post. Known for its relatable way of blending important concepts and new ways of working with storytelling, Social TrendSpotter has been hailed by readers as “the only blog I read each week.” She is frequently interviewed by regional and national media on social entrepreneurship and has published articles in Forbes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, See Change, Nonprofit Business Advisor, Upstart and Grantmakers in Health.
Suzanne has been at the epicenter of game-changing social solutions for more than two decades as a social intrapreneur. Her first jobs at the City of Garland and Texas Municipal League taught her the power and potential of local government to impact change. Later, she worked for Phoenix House to scale evidence-based prevention and treatment programs to Texas and for the American Heart Association to build a national state advocacy strategy. One of her greatest achievements was co-founding the Alliance for a Healthier Generation – one of the country’s first movements focused on combating childhood obesity – with a team from the William J. Clinton Foundation. She also co-founded Flywheel: Social Enterprise Hub in Cincinnati, Ohio, to help nonprofits build meaningful and sustainable social enterprises.
Suzanne holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where she was selected as the CASE (Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship) Scholar. Nationally, she was selected as a member of Peter Senge’s Society of Organizational Learning and has served on the national board of the Social Enterprise Alliance. She has advised many federal agencies on their efforts on social entrepreneurship and system change.
A third-generation Texan, her roots run deep through her work to improve her community with Leadership Dallas, Leadership North Texas, Dallas Summit, and the Junior League of Dallas. She has served a number of appointed posts for the City of Dallas and currently serves on the Library Board. In the past, she served in leadership roles on the Dallas Commission on Homelessness and the Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty. She was honored to receive the Dallas Business Journal’s 40 under 40 award in 2012 and the Dallas Regional Chamber’s Young ATHENA Leadership Award in 2014.
Raised by career educators who were deeply committed to making a difference through education, Suzanne found her calling at an early age as both a social activist and entrepreneur. When she is not traveling to speak, consult or discover new places, she can be found playing with her eight nieces and nephews or writing her first book on the social sector.
Eva Szalkai Csaky:
Eva Szalkai Csaky is the Executive Director of the Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity at SMU and the co-founder of the Inclusive Economy Consortium. She has 25 years of global experience fostering climate-smart inclusive economic solutions through innovation and social entrepreneurial approaches.
Her work leverages transformational technologies for high impact solutions, from energy efficiency, renewable energy and water purification to climate smart agriculture and sustainable and inclusive value chains. Financial and policy innovations are integral to all her efforts to ensure sustainability and systemic impact. Prior to the Hunt Institute, Dr. Csaky worked for 18 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, where she developed innovative programs and financial mechanisms to empower small businesses, farmers and social enterprises.
Dr. Csaky has served as an advisor to the G20, OECD and various UN agencies. She has also served on the Dallas Mayor’s Poverty Task Force and on the advisory council of the Dallas 100 Resilient Cities Initiative. Dr. Csaky has an MS in Finance from George Washington University and a PhD in Public Policy from Duke University.