OUR MISSION
Women In The Black New York Inc. is a Harlem based entrepreneurial organization created for the purpose of educating, training and supporting women business owners. Women In The Black is committed to educating and equipping women with the skills and resources necessary to start, build, lead and grow successful small businesses in their communities, primarily in the New York metropolitan area.
OUR VISION
We are committed to strengthening our communities through fostering the growth of women owned businesses and promoting entrepreneurial excellence through innovative programing, extended learning and networking.
WHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurship provides freedom to explore your passion while creating an opportunity to build a best-in-class Business. As entrepreneurship grows in this country women of color will account for the highest growth rate of all new entrepreneurs over the next decade.
While many will start low-entry, service and home based businesses they will continue to look for creative ways to enhance their business skill sets. These women owned businesses create new jobs for both themselves and others while bringing a unique management style to their industries.
NEEDS
Studies show that women of color face increasing obstacles as business owners; limited resources, competing demands on their time and access to capital. This greatly contributes to the underperformance and under capitalization of their businesses.
GOALS
To provide women of color in underserved communities with the skill sets to open and build new businesses; to give them the encouragement to pursue non-traditional industries; to build a network of support around them to increase their business survival rates; and to highlight women business owners as an untapped important source.
IMPACT
- Independence
- Financial Literacy
- Increase Annual Revenue
- Create Employment Opportunities
- Build Legacy Businesses
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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PRINCESS JENKINS, FounderThe Brownstone | Majestic Images
Entrepreneur, Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker In 1998, Princess Jenkins founded Women In The Black with one goal in mind, to provide support and resources to female entrepreneurs like herself. She is the President of The Brownstone, Harlem's Contemporary Women's Clothing Boutique, which has been featured on Good Day New York, Good Morning America, Living It Up With Patti LaBelle and a host of other TV and Cable shows. She is a graduate from The College Of New Rochelle, where she is currently a professor in their CEO Program. She also hold a BA in Communications from The College of New Rochelle. Ms. Jenkins is an award winning business owner and is the recipient of many accolades including; Small Business Administrators Champion of the Year, Elliot Spitzer Small Business Award, the Crain's Magazine 8th Annual Small Business of the Year Award, the Harlem Chamber Small Business Award and the Stern School of Business-Business Plan Writing Award. She is the only African-American featured in a permanent exhibit on entrepreneurship at the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street.
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PAT STEVENSON, Vice President
Pat Stevenson is the CEO, founder and publisher of the Harlem Community Newspapers, Inc., a Harlem–based corporation that publishes several community newspapers including; the Harlem Community News, Brooklyn Community News, Bronx Community News, and Queens Community News. The motto of her corporation is “Good News You Can Use.” More than twenty five years ago Pat noticed that Harlem was one of the few places in New York where there was no “free” community newspaper. She also observed that there was plenty of negative press given to Harlem, when in fact there were many positive things going on in the community. Therefore she pooled all her resources and began publishing the Harlem Community News, a publication focused on “positive” news and information concerning health, education, business, housing and events happening in the community. Later she expanded her efforts into the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn in areas with a predominantly African-American population.
Prior to owning her own publishing company, Pat's background was in the area of advertising and media. She has held positions as media director and vice president of advertising agencies in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, such as Rosenthal & Martin, The Advertising Agency, UniWorld Group, Inc., Chisholm-Mingo Group and J.P., Martin Associates. In positions in these companies she planned and executed national media campaigns for fortune 500 corporations such as Anheuser Busch, General Foods, General Motors and AT&T. She has also held positions in sales and administration at several newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television stations, including at NBC in New York and San Francisco. Ms Stevenson has had an outstanding career and has won several awards, including: Young Outstanding Woman of America Award in 1980; Kizzy Award for Achievement as a Young African-American Woman in 1981; Outstanding Community Organization Award 1998 from the Greater Harlem Real Estate Board; The Cutty Award for being an associate in the Economic Empowerment of The People of Harlem 1997; Nguzo Saba Award “In the Spirit of Self Determination” from the Kwanzaa Foundation 2002; the 2005 “Spirit of Hope” award . and “The Percy Sutton Award” for excellence in media from the Harlem Business Alliance in 2005, The Media Excellence Award from the Harlem Arts Alliance 2006, the Excellence in Community Service award from Take Wing and Soar Productions in 2007, Excellence in Media award from The Grandparents Assoc in 2010, the .Women of Excellence award from the Women Chamber of Commerce in 2010, McDonalds Media Legend 2013, Healthfirst Community Service Award 2019. Pat is a member of the 100 Black Women, Founder of the Harlem Tourism Board, on the board of the Bradhurst Merchants Association and was previously on the board of the Foot Center of New York. Pat moved from her home Savannah, Ga. to New York in 1968. She has also lived in Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Pine Bluff, Arkansas and Denver. She graduated from Andrew Jackson High School in Queens in 1970. She attended Long Island University in Brooklyn, the American Institute of Banking, Taylor Business Institute, Marinello-Cormer School of Beauty in New York and Northwestern University in Chicago. Pat is from a big family with nine sisters and brothers. She is currently a single mom and resides in Harlem with her son Dominic. |
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LIL NICKELSON, Treasurer
Lil Nickelson is an effective business professional that started college at 16 years old who received her BBA in Accounting from Adelphi University and her MBA in Finance from New York University. Ms. Nickelson held management positions with several global corporations in the insurance, financial news information and the consulting industries. Lil’s stand out organizational, people, verbal and written communication skills has helped her forge relationships associated with being a trusted resource and advisor to senior management teams and independent business owners.
Her passion for food led Lil to work in various roles within the industry: caterer, manager of operations at The Institute of Culinary Education, manager of 2Harvest Home farmer’s markets and chef at 2 Just Food’s farmers markets. Lil owned the Original Soupman franchise food business in Harlem for 3 years. Lil has written her food column “Dining with Miss Lil” since 2008. In 2016 she entered Columbia University’s Community Scholars program which she completed in 2018 and she continues to fine tune her Healthy Living for People of Color project, which strives to empower people to achieve and/or maintain healthy lives from childhood to our senior years. Lil has worked as her church’s comptroller since 2014. |