Profile of Honorees

WMBI 2021 Trailblazing Women Awards Honoree: Ms. Althea A. Harris

Ms. Althea A. Harris is the Supervisory, Outreach & Marketing Specialist for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Harris has been helping businesses for over 25 years since she started her federal career in 1993 at the U.S. Department of Commerce under the late Secretary Ronald H. Brown. There, she traveled worldwide in support of small and medium-sized exporters. She then helped small business owners compete for federal contracts while at the U.S. General Services Administration. Having held several positions within the SBA office in Miami since 1999, Harris now leads a marketing & outreach team serving six of the District’s 24-county territory and advocates on behalf of the over half-million small business owners in those counties. She is also the Faith & Community-Based Initiative Coordinator.

A graduate of Howard University and the University of Miami School of Law, Harris is also active in her community currently serving as a Board Member for Miami Youth for Christ and on the Missions Committee of Christ Journey Church in Coral Gables. She has also shared her time and talent with the Board of the Girl Scouts Council of Tropical Florida and as a member of the Florida Bar’s Grievance Committee, ensuring the responsible, ethical, and professional conduct of South Florida’s attorneys. A Washington, D.C. native, Harris shares her life and love with her husband Robert N. Harris, a successful commercial litigation and labor and employment litigation attorney in Miami and their four wonderful children.

WMBI 2021 Trailblazing Women Awards Honoree: Hon. Mayor Hazelle P. Rogers

The Honorable Mayor Hazelle P. Rogers was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the oldest of three children. She migrated to the U.S. in 1969 to join her mother in New York and subsequently relocated to Florida in 1982.

Having spent over 20 years of her life in public service, she began her political career in 1996, when she was elected to office in Lauderdale Lakes, where she served for 12 years, making her the first person from the English-speaking Caribbean American community elected to office in the southeastern U. S. She also served as president of the Broward League of Cities in 2004. Mayor Rogers, then commissioner, was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2008, making her the first Jamaican and second person from the English-speaking Caribbean to be elected to the House; she was reelected subsequently. She first served as a Democratic Deputy Whip from 2010-2012, and again for 2012-2016. Representative Rogers has served as the Democratic Ranking Member on the House Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee since 2012.

She has been the recipient of numerous community awards. Among them, the 2000 YMCA Volunteer Award; 2000 Lauderdale Lakes Democratic Club Leadership Award; and T. J Reddick Bar Presidential Award; 2001, Induction into the Broward County’s Women Hall of Fame, 2005 Blue Cross Blue Shield Orange Bowl Thurgood Marshall Award; 2006 Success Magazine People’s Choice Award; 2008, JM Family Enterprise African-American Achievers Nominee, 2009 Caribbean American Democratic Club Democracy Award and the Democratic Women’s Club of Northeast Broward Exceptional Freshman Year Award; 2011 Broward Black Elected Leadership and Commitment Award; 2012 Jamaica Diaspora Honors Award and ICABA’s 100 most Accomplished Caribbean Americans in South Florida; 2014 Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, City College; 2015 Harmony Development Center Outstanding Achievement Award.

Mayor Hazelle Rogers is committed to supporting the United Negro College Fund through a Family and Friend Scholarship established in her honor at Florida Memorial University. She is a Real Estate Industry Professional and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from the University of Phoenix.

M. Gill & Associates, Inc. is a specialty consulting firm that develops, administers and manages strategic growth and economic development initiatives for small, minority and women businesses, government agencies, corporations, and educational institutions that operate in the local and global economies. M. Gill & Associates, Inc., operates the MBDA Export Center – Florida, and is a CARES Act Grantee that is helping in the COVID-19 Recovery process for small and minority firms throughout the state. The MBDA Export Center is committed to doing its part to showcase and empower minority owned enterprises to continue along a positive path. Every day, the organization works to encourage entrepreneurial dreams and endeavors, helping business owners craft out a niche to grow and thrive in their chosen industry. The MBDA Export Center – Florida is a federal program funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency that provides business development services to help minority business enterprises create jobs, build scale and capacity, increase revenues, and expand into new and global markets.

Headquartered in the heart of the City of Miami since it was established in 1990, M. Gill & Associates, Inc. has grown to become recognized as an accomplished leader among MBEs and women-owned businesses throughout Florida, the Southeastern U.S. region, Canada, and in many islands of the Caribbean. The company’s geographic target has expanded throughout the entire State of Florida, with strategic partnerships throughout the U.S., the Caribbean and the Americas. M Gill has assembled a team of multilingual consultants, as employees, independent contractors, and resource providers, with knowledge, experience, and certifications in various consulting disciplines, adding to the company’s growth economically and geographically.

The company’s award-winning efforts have helped to foster economic alliances between corporations and small/minority businesses, and between government and small/minority businesses, facilitating more than $5.2 billion in contractual opportunities and financing for small, minority, and women-owned firms, resulting in the creation and retention of more than 18,000 jobs throughout the State of Florida, and in other states throughout the U.S.