On course to empower women business owners

Filling a vital gap in her community

As a counselor working for social service agencies in the Orlando area, Denisse Lamas saw a need in her field: bilingual and culturally competent therapy for the local Hispanic-Latino community. Born in Puerto Rico, Lamas moved to Orlando in 1996 and went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work. Yet barred from accepting anything from clients on home visits or sharing a customary kiss on the cheek, Lamas felt constrained. “In my culture, turning down a cup of coffee is like turning down the person,” she says. “It’s disrespectful.”

To better serve this community, Lamas founded Hispanic Family Counseling in 2012. Nearly a decade later, the agency has more than 60 clinicians and more than 100 staff members within all departments, and it has served more than 9,000 clients in Central Florida. But because her background is as a clinician, Lamas knows she still has room to grow as an entrepreneur. “I’m always looking for ways to network, to advocate for the Hispanic community and to learn more as a leader,” she says. That led her to enroll in the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell.

Taking what she learned in the program, Lamas refined her organization’s mission statement and added a new service that conducts the kinds of psychological tests needed for schools, pre-surgery exams, immigration applications and other outlets. “It gave me the tools to set up the program,” she says. “It’s not only helping us grow but also helping the community.” Plus, Lamas has been energized by the experience of working with other women leaders. “Listening to other females experience the same frustrations, discrimination and challenges, that’s really empowering and refreshing,” Lamas says. “It’s good to know you’re not the only one going through this.”

Forging a new path to help others like herself

As a first-generation college graduate, Anh LyJordan followed a familiar path after earning a degree in labor relations from Cornell University: a corporate job, law school and a position at a prestigious law firm. “I was doing what I was supposed to do to be the high-achieving first-gen graduate that everyone in the family expected,” LyJordan says. Unfulfilled, she became a trial attorney with the Department of Labor. Then nearly five years ago, she turned off that path altogether, moving her family from Washington, D.C., to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the lower cost of living would give her breathing room to figure out her next act: how to support first-generation college graduates.

Accelerate the Climb is the nonprofit she started that aims to build a supportive community for first-gen college grads making the transition from school to a career without the benefit of advice from family members who’ve made the same leap. With Accelerate the Climb, LyJordan is doing something she’s passionate about by helping schools create and build alumni networks. Her career as a lawyer hadn’t prepared her for entrepreneurship, however, so in 2020 LyJordan enrolled in the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell. Not only was she able to learn about the financial aspects of running a business, but she was also inspired. “Having these smart and confident women telling you that you could do it and giving you the knowledge was a really strong component,” LyJordan says. She also appreciated that the format allowed her to dip in and out of classes as time permitted. “It feels like a program for real working women with real lives,” she says.

Since completing the Cornell program, LyJordan has embarked on a second venture: providing legal and practical advice to anyone who has experienced workplace discrimination, with a focus on women and people of color. To get Exit Wisdom off the ground, she and a partner are first publishing an e-book, then expanding to a consulting business in 2022.

Pivoting a business during tough times

Tina Fears, a dancer and founder of the entertainment firm Stage Ready, calls her experience with the Cornell program a “game changer.” She’d been running her event management firm since 2005, but when the pandemic struck her industry, forcing her business to pivot, she says, “I wanted to figure out what the future looked like for Stage Ready.”

In the video below, Fears discusses her experiences as a female entrepreneur and what she took away from her Cornell experience. Plus, Sharon Miller, president of Small Business at Bank of America, and Deborah Streeter, the faculty director at the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, share why the bank and Cornell have partnered to support women entrepreneurs. “Helping women business owners and empowering women to really move forward moves our entire community forward,” says Miller.