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Honoring Philadelphia’s Small Business Women Leaders in Recognition of Women’s History Month.
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WHEREAS, Small businesses are an economic engine for Philadelphia’s local and regional economy; and
WHEREAS, In 2012, the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) reported that, “Small businesses continue to be incubators for innovation and employment growth in the Unites States”. SBA also reported that small firms account for 63% of the net new jobs created between 1993 and mid-2013, which equals 14.3 million of the 22.9 million net new jobs. The impact of small business are indisputably far-reaching and vital to the United States economic well-being; and
WHEREAS, Morgan Berman, a graduate of Philadelphia University, is the co-founder and CEO of MilkCrate. MilkCrate is a company that helps organizations track social and environmental goals while giving users ideas for taking sustainable steps. Through her work with MilkCrate, Morgan was honored by the United Nations Foundation as one of the “Top Female Entrepreneurs to Watch”, was selected by Forbes Magazine for the 30 Under 30 Pitch Summit, visited the White House to discuss clean energy policy, auditioned for the ABC hit show Shark Tank, and won the Rad Girl Product of the Year Award for her design of MilkCrate. Morgan became an entrepreneur at the age of 16 and has been featured extensively on local and national news outlets like WHYY, the Philadelphia Business Journal, Boston Metro, Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC10, Forbes, and Philadelphia Magazine's Be Well Blog; and
WHEREAS, Lucinda Duncalfe is the CEO of Monetate and graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School by earning a MBA in Entrepreneurial Management. Lucinda is a seasoned entrepreneur, innovator, and has exceptional experience in building mature sales and developing product strategies that accelerate company growth. She has served on Monetate’s Board of Directors for the past seven years, and helped Monetate create and establish a multi-billion dollar market for digital personalization. Prior to Monetate, Lucinda was Founder and CEO of Real Food Works, a start-up delivering meal programs, using local restaurants as suppliers. Lucinda has founded and ran a number of venture capital-backed companies, including ClickEquations, TurnTide, and Destiny WebSolutions. She has won many awards including the Eastern Technology Council’s Enterprise Award for CEO of the Year, was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Philadelphia, and was named America’s 17th Most Influential Consultant by Consulting Magazine. She has also served on the boards of Semprae Labs, The Montessori School, and the World Affairs Council; and
WHEREAS, Justine Haemmerli is the Founder and President of Pedalogical, a company that convenes communities around social good, and helps nonprofits to retain and nurture their staff and volunteers. She is also the founder of Make it Right PHL, a community of over 2,000 Philadelphians working on social justice initiatives across the City. Justine is currently working on a project named, “Girls Gone Happy”, an online community for women committed to personal growth and collective change. Justine was named one of Billy Penn's Who's Next Entrepreneurs of 2017, and she is a Leadership Philadelphia 2017 Connector & Keeper. She's also a proud mom to her beautiful one-year old daughter, Rosie; and
WHEREAS, Nakisha Jones is the founder and owner of the brand, “Educated Pretty Girls” (EPG). Nakisha was born and raised in North Philadelphia. She attended the Community College of Philadelphia and graduated from Chamberlain College with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing. Nakisha’s EPG movement was inspired in response to her fight against peer pressure that impacted her young daughter’s life. EPG inspires disadvantaged young girls and women by exposing them to the successes of women from all walks of life. Nakisha is currently working on establishing a non-profit, where she hopes to build on her brand of “P.R.E.T.T.Y” by emphasizing that success can only be established through positive, respectful, educated, tenacious, and through attitude of young girls and women; and
WHEREAS, Prasanna Krishnan is co-founder and CEO of SmartyPal, a platform for context-based and personalized learning. Before founding SmartyPal, Prasanna was General Manager at Jetsetter where she started a new travel planning service. She was a venture capitalist and Kauffman Fellow at the firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson where she invested in early-stage technology companies, with a focus on education and cloud computing. Prasanna has held product and business development roles at Microsoft and Comcast respectively. Prasanna received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School where she was a Palmer Scholar and also holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Illinois where she was a Siebel Scholar; and
WHEREAS, Sonia Lewis is the founder of the Student Loan Doctor LLC, a company that is designed to help others create a plan to pay down and resolve their federal and private student loans. Student Loan Doctor LLC also provides services or coaching to help with consolidation, loan rehabilitation, and refinancing. Sonia also served as a volunteer with the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy and an academic coach at Pierce College. Sonia was referred to the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy through the GED Ministry at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. Sonia has always been passionate about adult learning and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Adult Education at Walden University; and
WHEREAS, Cristina Martinez is co-owner and chef of the South Philadelphia Mexican Restaurant, “Barbacoa”. Cristina Martinez and her husband, Ben Miller always use their food as a way to engage with the community and affect change in the wider world by mobilizing restaurateurs on behalf of the many undocumented immigrants who work in America’s kitchens. Cristina came to the United States illegally in 2009 to earn money for her daughter’s tuition and expenses in Mexico. As a single mother of four, Cristina made the trek across the desert to the United States many times before being caught by the U.S. Border Patrol in 2006. She obtained an “unlawful presence” on her record, which makes her ineligible for a green card. Despite not being allowed to see her family, Cristina went on the offensive and added movement-building to her restaurant’s menu. Her restaurant hosts several meetings and screening documentaries throughout the year in hopes to overhaul the immigration laws in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Stacey Mosley is the founder of FixList, a real estate data analysis company that provides tools and services to help anyone discover real estate opportunities, and use data to inform their investment decisions. Prior to launching FixList, Stacey worked for the City of Philadelphia for five years practicing data science and operations engineering for the City of Philadelphia’s Vacant Property Strategy Initiative. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and Savannah College, where she focused on manufacturing, design engineering and art. Stacey is also the former Programming Chair of Young Involved Philadelphia and an active member of the Urban Land Institute. She also sits on the Policy and Land Use Council, Young Leadership Council, and NEXT cohort; and
WHEREAS, Yasmine Mustafa founded the Philadelphia Chapter of Girl Develop It, while running her first software company which was acquired in late 2011. She is currently the CEO of ROAR for Good, a social impact company aimed at decreasing the incidents of assault against women with fashionable safety accessories and educational programs. Yasmine also serves on the advisory board of TechGirlz, an organization focused on encouraging middle-school girls to pursue careers in technology and CodedbyKids, a non-profit providing free tech education programs to disadvantaged inner city youth. Yasmine graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a degree in Entrepreneurship. She was selected as one of the BBC's 100 Women of 2016 as well as Upstart 100's Most Dynamic People Shaping Businesses. She was also recognized as one of Philadelphia’s Top 20 Tech Disrupters for her work empowering women; and
WHEREAS, Rakia Reynolds is the founder of Skai Blue Media, a multimedia public relations agency with an all-star roster of lifestyle, technology, non-profit and fashion clients. Rakia is sought after by companies to provide her expertise in creative development, branding, and strategic communications. Rakia’s path to entrepreneurship started with creative ventures, including a role producing shows for MTV, TLC and Discovery Health networks. Rakia currently serves as the co-president of the Philadelphia chapter of Women in Film and Television, serves as a board advisor for Fashion Group International, and the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. Rakia is also a chapter leader for the Young Entrepreneur Council, and was presented the Power to the Community Award by PECO for being a community trailblazer. In 2014, she was appointed to the United Nations Global Accelerator and was recently named one of the 25 tastemakers on Dell’s “Inspire 100” list, a list of the most socially influential people in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Megan Smith is the founder of Brownstone PR, a Philadelphia-based creative agency specializing in integrated communications and digital strategies for clients in the sectors of health, hospitality, tourism, and technology. Brownstone PR implements approaches that effectively influence consumer decisions, engage communities, and empower audiences to act. Brownstone PR has grown to include clients such as Nike, PECO, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Virtua Health Systems. Megan is a member of the Forbes Council, a collection of entrepreneurs across the U.S. that work to advise Forbes on business partnerships and strategic development and growth. Megan is also a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In 2016, Megan was honored by Billy Penn as one of 17 Entrepreneurs Under 40 to Watch; in 2015, she was recognized by The Philadelphia Tribune as one of 10 Leaders Under 40 To Watch; in 2014, she was awarded the PECO Power to the Community Award by the National Coalition of Negro Women, and was selected to participate in the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Access Network; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby honor Philadelphia’s small business women leaders in recognition of Women’s History Month.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to the honorees of Philadelphia’s Small Business Women Leaders in Recognition of Women’s History Month, as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
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