Shawndra has been a serial entrepreneur and advocate for women’s equality for over 20 years. For as long as she can remember, she has loved coaching, teaching, and leading as a captain, hype-woman, and big dreamer. She started her career as a college volleyball coach, then high school English teacher and coach before turning to storytelling and supporting other entrepreneurs.

She has worked as a marketer and brand manager for companies including Snyder’s of Hanover, The Cotton Sail Hotel, and Savannah Taste Experience, which became the 2nd-most booked food tour in the world during her tenure. Her work includes more than 1,000 interviews with small business owners and community leaders through her contributions for The Great Reset Podcast, Asheville Design District Podcast, Capital At Play, Mountain Xpress, Citizen-Times, South Magazine, Savannah Morning News, Explore Asheville, and Visit NC.

Living in Asheville for 10 years, Shawndra has seen the power of the region’s women entrepreneur ecosystem and works to strengthen and support this circle and help other women do the same in their communities. She’s also an ambassador for the Entire Entrepreneur System focused on the 5 Is: Impact, Integrity, Interests, Intimacy, and Impact.

We work toward world abundance through strong women entrepreneur ecosystems. Our programming aims to support, inspire, and connect women in our region through a variety of events and opportunities. For the past year, we had the only space exclusively for women in business located in Asheville, North Carolina, and we learned so much about what women entrepreneurs need and want with over 50+ curated events impacting 500+ women. 

We focus on women because wealthier women equals healthier families, communities, and economies. We aim to combat the inequality that women face, including:

• Women still earn only .80 cents of what men earn

• Closing the gender gap could give the global economy a $7 trillion boost

• Women only receive 2% of venture capital funding

• Women only hold 32% of leadership positions globally

• 42% of women report they have faced workplace discrimination because of their gender

• Companies with 3+ women in senior management functions score higher in all dimensions of organizational performance

• Women perform 3/4 of unpaid care and domestic work

When women succeed, the world succeeds.