2023 March Issue: Celebrating Women's History Month

Happy Women's History Month!

For generations, women have been the backbone of our families, our communities, and our society. Thee M.O.gul Mag. is proud to illuminate everyday SHeroes, making HERstory as entreprenuers, civic and executive leaders, mothers, and more.

Thee M.O.gul Mag. is dedicated to sharing their journeys and honoring the untold sacrifices that come with being WOMAN.

It is with admiration that we present to you Thee Women M.O.guls of Excellence, in celebration of the great accomplishments they've made and the barriers they've shattered to reach success.

This year's honorees have exemplified the embodiement of grace and has shown up as exempliary leaders as they build their empires of legacy. To this year's Women M.O.guls of Excellence, we honor and celebrate you, and are honored to be a part of your journey. To ALL women, Thee M.O.gul Mag. celebrates your success and overcoming the silent battles that no one sees. We see you and YOU MATTER.

Michelle O'Kennard Editor In Chief

DISCIPLINE + RESILIENCE: THE REAL KEYS TO SUCCESS

Discipline + Resilience: the Real Key to Success

By Michelle O'Kennard, MHS

While studying to become a certified addictions counselor, I learned about the practice of Rolling With The Resistance while using the tool of Motivational Interviewing in counseling, and it teaches counselors what to do when receiving resistance from a client. We were taught to be tolerant and avoid conflict with the client by applying this practice. I know you’re probably wondering “what does this have to do with the subject of Disciplined Resilience? “ Allow me to elucidate. Sometimes in life and business, situations and circumstances occur that are out of our control and impacts us in many ways. It is the ability to bounce back (roll with the resistance = resilience) and keep going (discipline) that separates the wheat from the tear/chaff.

The Facets of Discipline

Discipline yourself to be resilient.

The Webster’s online dictionary defines Discipline below:

Definition of Discipline:

noun

1.

the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

2. a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education. verb

1. train (someone) to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

Although these definitions define a certain kind of discipline, I would like to focus on the kind of discipline that outputs reward. The kind of discipline that causes you to establish a legacy that lives beyond you. Discipline comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes. Whether it's making your bed every morning, showing up consistently for your health by exercising daily, or putting in overtime to finish your project, all counts. What matters the most is that you show up for yourself and business with consistency and you will eat the fruit of your labor.

Introducing... Mental Health

Khalid's Korner

Licensed Social Worker Superstar Khalid Scott, MSW, LCSW, will be sharing his knowledge on M.O.gul Mental Health, beginning April 15, 2023! Welcome KhalidToTheeM.O.gulMag.!

Khalid Scott

NEW Contributing Writer

ONE BUSINESS CHICAGO INDUCTED BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS INTO THE 2023 BUSINESS HALL OF FAME

One Business Chicago inducted 40 business and civic leaders into the One Business Chicago Hall of Fame in honor of Black History Month on Saturday, February 18, 2023. This years ’ Business Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place at Bare Copper Restaurant Filled with support and encouragement, this affair was sold out with standing room only

CONGRATULATIONS JIM ALLEN AND ONE BUSINESS

CHICAGO ON A SUCCESSFUL INDUCTION CEREMONY

The WDB L.E.G.A.C.Y. Awards Gala Highlights

The WDB L.E.G.A.C.Y. Awards Gala Highlights

Founder Felicia Atlas takes over Chicago at this year's Start Something Chicago Brunch, located inside of Kitchen + Kocktails, Chicago.

Felicia Atlas is the visionary behind The Start Something Chicago initiative, connecting Chicago's business and media community.

Surrounded by the beauty of Chicago's downtown scenery and hosted at Kitchen & Kocktails, The Start Something Chicago Brunch provided small business owners the opportunity to hear from some of Chicago's leading business leaders to gain visibility and resources. A media expert, Felecia Atlas fostered connection and community to build a brighter future for Chicago's business community.

Watch Highlight Reel

Congratulations to Michelle L. Thames and Thames Media Solutions on a Successful Event: The CEO Summit

The CEO Summit 2023

The CEO Summit, a 3-day online summit, teaches entreprenuers how to make money online doing what they love and how to leverage their skills and passion to leave their 9-to-5, find clients who appreciate their talents, and ways to create a fulfilling online business!

PhotoCourtesyofWDBMarketing,Inc.

Special Radio Feature

Michelle O'Kennard , Thee Marketing M.O.gul, will be featured on The Radio

Reconstructed Morning Show, Monday, March 27, 2023 between 6 and 10 am cst.

You can hear it live by visiting their website at: hitusaradio.com. Thank you Hit USA Radio for this opportunity!

The Gender Equality Index is a tool to measure the progress of gender equality in the EU, developed by EIGE. It gives more visibility to areas that need improvement and ultimately supports policy makers to design more effective gender equality measures. Learn

Purchase Tickets

The Black Women Professionals League (BWPL) is a membershipbased company honoring influential Black women. BWPL provides leadership development, resources and support to emerging and established professionals.

Their annual 40 Under 40 Award and GEMS Award serves as the official induction into the Black Women Professionals League (BWPL).

Their mission is to support the holistic advancement of Black women by expanding our members professional network, enhancing their leadership skills, providing personal development resources and trainings, and creating opportunities for them to make a social impact.

Creating Opportunities For Social Impact

Through their Social Impact Partnership with a focus on College Completion and Workforce Development Initiatives and serving the community at-large.

This talented intern will be responsible for assisting the Brand Manager with creating and implementing digital marketing strategies, collateral, and campaigns.

Work With

Michelle O'Kennard

Money .O.GUL

Learn from the experts with SCORE’s FREE small business training workshops

Find low or no-cost, targeted training in both in-person and online formats on topics that matter to you and your small business. Join a business expert at an interactive in-person or virtual workshop or learn at your own pace with one of our recorded webinars.

Resourcess

The L.E.G.A.C.Y. Awards Weekend was a meeting ground for aspiring and established entrepreneurs to network, collaborate and celebrate each other.

This event was the top celebration for Black Entrepreneurs in the City of Chicago, attracting over 800 businesses and over a 1,000 attendees this year.

Black Excellence was represented all around. To connect with entreprenuers, download the FREE Book of Business below.

Resourcess

EVOLVE YOUR SMALL BUSINESS WITH LENOVO Get Started

Resources .O.GUL

In 2021, Lenovo launched the Evolve Small Initiative, based on the belief that small businesses are the heart of North America. With the help of partners across the United States and Canada, Lenovo has led a rallied effort to provide financial aid, mentorship resources, and community support to minority and woman-owned small businesses as they recover from the impact of the COVID19 pandemic. Because we know that when they thrive, we all thrive. But we're not done. We saw the true impact these resources can have for small businesses, and are expanding Evolve Small to be bigger and better. With the help of AMD and Microsoft, we're partnering with Queen Latifah, Goodie Nation, the Carolina Panthers, local organizations, and more - all to make sure YOU have the right tools to be successful.

Presented by JinJa Birkenbeuel, Illinois Google Digital Coach, Host of The Honest Field Guide Podcast, and NFT and Web 3 Instructor. Learn how to sell your products online. In this webinar, we will walk through listing your products for free with Google Business Profile and Merchant Center and the basics of creating a free account and a product feed. We will show you one way to sell on your website, using an ECommerce store built with Shopify. Plus, you will learn about more helpful tools to stand out online, such as Local Opportunity Finder and Grow My Store.

Thee M.O.gul Mag. is now accepting nominations for our exclusive M.O.gul M.O.ney April 2023 issue, dedicated to providing financial literacy, resources for our M.O.gul community members, and highlighting M.O.ney M.O.guls improving the lives of others. If this is YOU or SOMEONE YOU KNOW, please nominate them below!

A short list of professionals we are interested in featuring include:

-Tax Professionals

-Tax Attorneys

-Financial/Wealth Advisors

-Certified Public Accountants

-Stock Trader

-Financial Planner

-Financial Coach

-Money Managers

-Banking Professionals

-Financial Analysts

There is no cost to participate and this M.O.gul M.O.ney expert will receive a feature in our April issue. Don’t Delay! Nominate TODAY!

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If you or someone you know is looking for ways to grow and expand, Thee M.O.gul Mag. offers you affordable advertising opportunities, starting at an introductory offer of $49! You will receive graphic design support and a turnaround time of 48 hours or less!

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Celebrating Women M.O.guls of Excellence

Making HERstory

In celebration of all the women across the nation who have contributed to making our society at large better, we honor you.

Thank you for all that you do. Happy Women's History Month to ALL Women from Thee M.O.gul Mag!

Women's

Afrika

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Afrika Porter is a qualified social leader with the ability to influence awareness and demand for advocacy by providing services like creative marketing and community outreach.

An experienced project manager, Afrika specializes in building strategic relationships with diverse stakeholders through her strategically inventive approach. A beloved community ‘actionist’, Afrika is an active organizer with a solid reputation of orchestrating ideas, securing resources, and generating large high volume results and followings for her clients.

Connect With Afrika

Women's

Cierra L. Hayes

Cierra L. Hayes Consulting

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

As a Human Resources Consultant, Cierra L. Hayes advises business leaders and executives on how to achieve their organization's strategic objectives via their greatest asset, their people. Cierra uses business acumen and interpersonal skills to align business objectives and the people strategy to drive results. She has close to 10 years of experience working in various industries from an HR perspective, including for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and across various industries. Her most recent accomplishments can be found aiding in increased employee engagement, leading professional development programing, and advocating for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Cierra also sits on the board of Urban Community Builders, where the mission is to improve the financial well being of Chicago’s urban communities through wealth and real estate education and programming Academically, she holds an Associate Degree in Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resource Management. Cierra is married with 3 children and enjoys roller skating, traveling within and outside of the US, and visiting new restaurants to enjoy a good meal.

Connect With Cierra

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Who is SHE? Joyce Dawkins is the Founder and creator of She ROCKS It Celebrating Women Who Rock, S.H.E. Inc Sisters Helping Each Other nonprofit, She ROCKS It Magazine, and Founder of the National I AM SHE Day which will be celebrated Nationally on the 2nd Sunday in March each year! Joyce has a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, an M.A. in Organizational Leadership with a concentration in Higher Education, she also holds a Degree in Executive Career Coaching. She is a Corporate Educator in her professional career and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She ROCKS It, is an organization that hosts event experiences that honors and empowers women. The events have engaged over a thousand women since launching in 2016. S.H.E Inc is a nonprofit that partners with other organizations whose mission aligns with S.H.E. Inc, which is to help women live beyond their past and focus on rebuilding their future.

She ROCKS It Magazine is a lifestyle magazine that was birthed during the pandemic to stay connected with followers of She ROCKS It. To date, the online publication has reached over 20 countries and has over 48,000 readers and impressions. I AM SHE Day was launched to celebrate Women’s history month in March, it’s a day where women come together to celebrate the accomplishments women have made throughout history. On this day women are asked to Affirm I AM SHE; Joyce believes whatever follows your I AM, is your truth. Joyce has had the opportunity to share her SHE Brands on several platforms including being the headliner for the 2020 Chicago Auto Show Women’s Day (hosting her signature event The She Lounge Experience) appearing on WCIU The JAM Morning Show, featured on ABC7 Chicago, Rejoice 102, Power 92.3 Chicago, as well as featured in several magazines and newspapers. Her SHE brands have allowed her to receive numerous awards and accolades.

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Cheresa “Reese” LaFrances Purnell is a Social Entrepreneur with more than 20 years of expertise in creating and implementing programming for organizations. She currently works as the Founder/CEO of the Black Women Professionals League (BWPL) and is the Owner/Principal Consultant at the King Maker Concierge. Ms. Purnell also serves as a Board Member for the FireHouse Community Art Center. The majority of her career has been in the nonprofit sector and has afforded her the opportunity to facilitate evidence-based SEL curricula to empower thousands of teen girls. Her journey in the nonprofit sector began in 2001 as a part-time Outreach Specialist for Demoiselle 2 Femme, NFP (D2F). In her last position as Education Manager, she was responsible for the development, implementation and training of D2F educational content and curricula. During that time, Cheresa developed and piloted D2F’s “Pathways to Peace” which is a suspension alternative/restorative discipline model that implements innovative restorative practices to increase problem solving, conflict management and critical thinking skills among girls. P2P was first piloted at Fenger High School and reduced suspensions among high-risk girls by 80% over a ten-week period. In 2015, she founded The Black Women Professionals League (BWPL). BWPL is a membership-based company honoring influential Black women. BWPL provides leadership development, resources and support to emerging and established professionals. Since its inception, BWPL has honored and inducted 240 young women leaders through their 40 Under 40 Award Ceremony. They have also served over 500 young women ages 16-24 through their college completion and workforce development initiatives. BWPL has been featured in publications such as Rolling Out, Jet Magazine, Ebony, N’Digo Magapaper, The Chicago Defender, and The Chicago Citizen. In the Fall of 2020, she used the knowledge and skills she’d gained to empower girls and women to build a company, The King Maker Concierge (KMC) that specifically supports Black businessmen. KMC offers their members exclusive access to image/branding consulting, monthly networking events, and business concierge services. As a known Social Impact Strategist and Award-Winning Community Leader, Cheresa "Reese" LaFrances Purnell continues to build platforms that support the personal and professional development of business and community leaders.

Connect With Reese

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Lovely Brack is a Registered Nurse with 18 years of experience caring for patients and has improved the lives of numerous patients over the years. She has extensive expertise as a devoted registered nurse who works closely with patients to deliver excellent patient care.

Lovely Brack achieved a BLS & ACLS certificate via the American Heart Association. She studied at Olympia College in Skokie, where she attained a Diploma in Medical Assisting in 2004. She attended Romeoville Fire Academy in Romeoville in 2016 and underwent an EMT-B & BLS Instructor Course. Lovely recently studied at Rasmussen University School of Nursing, graduating with honors with an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing (ADN) in 2022.

Lovely Brack has worked in several organizations and gained crucial professional experience. Some of the experience she has achieved in her profession includes accurate recording and documentation of charts, performing phlebotomy, working with various EMR systems including EPIC, ASAP, Juvare, EMTrack, AtheNet, Cadence scheduling, CliniCare, Allscripts, IDX flowcast scheduling and ERMA referral. She also has experience with but not limited to performing Vision Acuity Test, Hearing Test, Pulmonary Function Test, and EKGs along with demonstrating knowledge of common maintenance medications and nursing protocols as well as acting as a dynamic team member.

Aside from being an exceptional medical professional, Lovely is the founder of From Our Hearts Chicago Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to providing food, warm items, and personal hygiene products to Chicago's homeless and less fortunate individuals.

Women's History Month .O.guls Ma

Honoring Genesis A. Emery-Foley

The Blueprint Haus

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Genesis A. Emery-Foley is a published entrepreneur, national speaker, award-winning Chief Marketing Officer, and global philanthropist. She is also a lauded Guest Lecturer for business school students at Loyola University, University of California, Berkeley, and Morehouse College.

Genesis is the Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at The BluePrint Haus Agency – a leading integrated digital marketing and startup development agency led by the industry’s most innovative brand engineers and resultsdriven accelerators.

Her recognized talents and impactful business leadership has led to her work being published across national media platforms such as ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS, Right This Minute, and many more! She’s also been a highlighted speaker at some of the most prominent universities across the country and at many of the industry’s largest conferences such as “The Mamas Making Money Conference,” “MommyCon,” “The Chicago Women’s Leadership Summit,” and many more! Historically, Genesis has been recognized as a trusted accelerator among companies with a desire to scale, accelerate market profitability, and drive meaningful impact.

She is described by colleagues as a trusted business accelerator and world-class professional leader with talent spanning across growth marketing, corporate communications, and serial entrepreneurship. To learn more about Genesis Emery please visit: www.blueprinthaus.com To book Genesis Emery for speaking engagements and lecture opportunities, please contact: genesis@blueprinthaus.com

Connect With Genesis

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Trina Butler-Satchell Founder and CEO of Jiptwist, LLC., a reusable fabric twist tie company based out of Matteson Illinois that helps with organization by securing and identifying things all over your house with style. Inspired in 2012 by her 70 year old dementia diagnosed mother, Trina created them to help with her daily struggles and as an added bonus, they provided her with color sensory and visual stimulation. Soon Trina realized how useful they were in her space as well. Encouraged by her late father to do more with them, she finally stepped out on faith and launched her business March 2016. Since that time, Jiptwist has offered its customers endless possibilities of uses in home and office spaces across the US, with rave reviews.

The growth of her brand continues, and has created a greater purpose by donating 5% of all of her proceeds to Alzheimer’s Research. Trina’s advocacy and philanthropy with Alzheimer’s had led to multiple interview opportunities with various platforms like ALZ, WBBM Newsradio, Gifted with Sheila White podcast, Wendy 4 Lyfe Show and Faith Rising Show. She was also honored as the 2022 Paige Foundation Business Award Recipient. Trina is a wife, mother of three and grandmother of two. Her family and her faith are very important to her. She the co-business owner to Satchell properties LLC since 2004, and worked in Operations management for 17 years.

GOD took the devastation of her mother’s 2012 diagnosis of Dementia that robbed her of her memory that lasted 8 years and birthed a new purpose that was never imagined. The fight continues because Alzheimer’s has a new diagnosis every 65 seconds, with no cure to date. To learn more and offer support go to www.alz.org.

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Kendra Thomas serves as the Chief Administration and Finance Officer at the Office of the City Clerk. In this role, Kendra guides the financial planning, hiring and workplace culture initiatives for the office.

Previously, as the Director of the CityKey Program, Kendra’s role ensured that all Chicago residents had access to government-issued IDs regardless of age, gender, immigrations status or housing status. Prior to the Office of the City Clerk, Kendra served as the Business Resource Manager at World Business Chicago for ChiBizHub.

Within this role, Kendra educated, encouraged, and empowered entrepreneurs and business owners across Illinois by connecting them to vital resources. Kendra has also volunteered her time serving as a Young Professional Mentor for the inaugural Global Youth Ambassadors Leadership Program with World Business Chicago in 2019. In 2022 Kendra was inducted as a 40 under 40 Honoree in by the Black Women Professional’s League.

Most recently, Kendra was selected as a Chicago Defender Women of Excellence Honoree in 2023. Kendra resides on the Near North Side of Chicago. She holds a MA in Human Resource Management from the Keller Graduate School of Management, a BA in Sociology from DePaul University and certificate in Leadership Development.

ConnectWithKendra

Women's History Month

Honoring Jewel D. Lucas

TwoJewels&ATaylor,LLC

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Jewel D. Lucas is the proud mother and owner of Two Jewels & A Taylor, Interactive Learning. In the wake of Coivd-19, Jewel, her daughter, and her mother (also named Jewel) were greatly impacted. As a parent working full time and being tasked with teaching her then 3-year-old daughter at home, things grew to be very challenging.

Knowing that these were her daughter's formative years, Jewel knew it was her responsibility to equip her daughter Taylor with what she needed to be successful in life- learning how to read, write, add, and subtract. This task, which she views more so as a passion, inspired her to share learning tools that all parents/guardians can use to teach their toddlers as well.

From this desire, Two Jewels & A Taylor Interactive Learning was created! The business has been growing and thriving and Jewel and her team could not be more excited! They have sold over 200 copies of their 2JT Interactive Workbooks, and over 100 copies of their 2JT Sight Word Flashcards and 2JT Short Sentence Books, which was co-written by Taylor herself!

Their 3-step learning system is designed to tap into those Past, Positive, Practices (PPP) that we’ve drifted away from as technology advances and learning becomes remote. While Jewel is a VP in corporate America with over 15 years of experience and a degree in Finance with a minor in Accounting from Roosevelt University, she is also a full-time entrepreneur with no plans of slowing down any time soon.

Connect With Jewel

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Kelly Fair is the Founder and Executive Director of Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program, an Illinois Gold Star rated mentoring program that enhances the life skills, career readiness, and leadership ability of girls and young women. She is the author of "They’re All the Same Girl" and "Every Girl Is a CEO." Kelly is an award-winning social entrepreneur and sought-after speaker who advocates for girls, women, mentoring, and workforce pipelining. Since launching Polished Pebbles in 2009 in Chicago, Kelly’s signature communications and job readiness programming has expanded from elementary age girls to include high schools, college programs, families, prominent women leaders, and to sites across the Chicagoland area and in Northwest Indiana, Dallas, Texas, and North Carolina.

Polished Pebbles has worked with over 10,000 African American and Latinx girls and young women and provided over 600 mentors in hundreds of schools and has raised $7 million for partnering schools and communities. Kelly is a sought-after speaker for mentoring, communication skills, girls’ development and job readiness, professional leadership development, and social entrepreneurship.

Her work on behalf of girls and young women has earned recognition from the U.S. State Department, Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women, Crain’s Chicago Business, Bank of America, Ann Taylor, Vital Voices, ComEd, Verizon, Google, Duke University, Chicago Foundation for Women, Operation PUSH, Social Enterprise Alliance, and more. She has been featured by ESSENCE, EBONY, and Black Enterprise magazines, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, The Chicago SunTimes, Chicago Woman magazine, and The Kelly Clarkson Show. She currently serves on the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls Taskforce and the Illinois Council for Women and Girls. Kelly is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Iowa, with honors. She is a true “south side girl” and lives in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood.

Connect With Kelly

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Sharron Troupe is the Associate Managing Director for CIBC Bank at the Bronzeville, IL. location. Sharron worked for Seaway Bank (Midway & O’Hare) last served as an Operation Officer, Urban Partnership Bank, she last served as a Branch Manager/Assistant Vice President, she worked for Amtrak Corporation where she last served as a Lead Service Attendant, she worked for Austin Bank of Chicago where she last served as a Branch Manager/Assistant Vice President, Firstar Bank/US Bank of Chicago and St. Louis, where she last served as a Branch Manager/Ambassador. In addition, McDonalds Corporation in St. Louis for over 20 years as an Area Supervisor, and in Chicago, Oak Brook, and West Loop (new world headquarters) as a Consultant. Sharron has executed corporate and private event programs for the 100 Black Men of Chicago, Inc., National Restaurant Association, General Motors Autos Show, McDonalds, ASCAP Awards, UNCF, Grammy Awards and BET Awards just to name a few.

Sharron was educated in the St. Louis Catholic and Public High Schools. Sharron holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from DePaul University Chicago. Sharron holds a Business Manager College Diploma from McDonald’s Corporation Hamburger University, Oakbrook, Illinois. She had Business Management Studies at University Missouri St. Louis. Sharron was a recipient of 7 th Annual Chicago Defender Women of Excellence Award, Spirit of Excellence Award for Excellence in Business &; Community Leadership, Austin Chambers of Commerce Outstanding Community Service Award, US Bank Outstanding Customer Service Award, Tabitha House Community Service of Appreciation Award, and Alderman Willie B. Cochran of the 20 th Ward Certification of Appreciation Award, 100 Blackmen of Chicago Volunteerism Award, Winner of the Circle of Service Excellence Award and Bronzeville Community Impact Award just to name a few.

Sharron has been active member of the community, where she has served on several Board of Directors to include Austin Chambers of Commerce, Tabitha House, Cluster Tutoring, and Lutheran Children and Family Services of Illinois. Sharron loves traveling, movies, running, event planning, and dancing. Sharron is a proud member of Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois. Sharron has an identical twin sister named Millicent who is her pride and joy. Sharron is a native St. Louis and currently lives in South Shore, IL.

Connect With Sharron

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Portia Mittons began her professional career as a civil engineer apprentice with Sargent & Lundy, shortly upon graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, where she studied civil engineering. Although she studied engineering, her inner M.O.gul screamed out for innovation and entrepreneurship. She has worked as a ballet instructor, closing officer, event planner for a non profit, consultant in the entertainment industry, even alongside Big Boi of Outkast on a dog shampoo before entering into the cannabis space. In 2016 she bet on herself and applied for a recreational cannabis retail license in Oregon with her then partner Cheryl. This self funded venture resulted in The Coughie Pot Dispensary. In 2019 she joined Bridge City Collective's Illinois team, where they were also awarded conditional licenses for adult use dispensary, craft grow, and transportation making her quite possibly the 1st black woman to hold cannabis licenses in multiple states. In March 2022 Portia changed partners at The Coughie Pot while increasing her ownership from 30% to 51% majority ownership.

While in Oregon Portia spent all her time working IN the cannabusiness but upon her return back to Illinois she was able to start to focus more ON the cannabusiness. Portia is discovering her passion in championing more inclusiveness and equity within the cannabis industry. This is partially done by utilizing the Legit Trappin forum to inform, educate, train, mentor, and connect professionals from all walks of business. In 2020 she added a Legit Trappin clothing line to encourage normalization of cannabis and the cannabis industry as a whole.www.legittrappin.com.

She sees the mantra “Legit Trappin” as a celebratory idiom that high-lights the hustle required to see a dream, idea, or concept into fruition and onto the market and to show homage to those who are working towards making their Trappin Legit.

Her leader and ownership accolades include:

Co-Owner The Coughie Pot Dispensary, 2017-present

Partner and VP Retail Bridge City Collective IL 2019-present Cook County Cannabis Commission

CBAI as Executive Committee Treasurer, Board of Directors & Chair of the Minority Access Committee

CIAO.(Cannabis Industry Alliance Oregon) as a board member

Oregon's Cannabis Equity Investment PAC member

Oregon Business Development Dept: Cannabis Steering Committee & Cannabis Market Analysis Steering Committee

Advisor, Illinois Cannabis Training Center

Women's History Month .O.gu

Honoring

Carrie Ann Dickson

ManagingDirector, GomezPartners

Celebrating M.O.gul Women of Excellence

Raised in Texas, Carrie Ann Dickson migrated to Illinois to pursue higher education and professional growth. Attending Lake Forest College, Carrie Ann maximized her college experience by earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a double minor in English Literature and Theatre.

Carrie Ann has over 15 years of experience in recruiting and acquiring accounts for high-growth organizations. Serving as the Managing Director for Gomez Partners, Carrie Ann is a passionate team leader that strives to mitigate gender and racial discrimination in the workplace by diligently seeking diverse minority executives and negotiating with employers to close the pay gaps between genders and racial groups.

A dedicated lifelong learner, Carrie Ann possesses a gift for writing and research, allowing her to serve the detailed needs of her clients and candidates. An experienced performance professional, Carrie Ann applies her unique skillset and sense of humor to equip candidates with appearance presentation and interview preparation techniques.

Connect With Carrie Ann

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