Telling Women's Lives

Molly Grace Entrepreneur Profile By Hannah Lafferrandre

“Is this the chocolate shop?” a lost shopper asked as she poked her head through the doors of a boutique in downtown Winston-Salem. Founder and owner of Kleur, Molly Grace, erupted in laughter, replying “I wish!”

Grace, an artist, mother, activist and entrepreneur, opened up shop in September, 2016 on Trade Street, right next to Black Mountain Chocolate. In a space flooded with natural light, handmade home goods, accessories, jewelry and clothing are thoughtfully dispersed on racks and tables for sale. Kleur also offers workshops and seminars in the comfy back room of the shop.

But Grace is also an advocate for human rights of all kinds. Most recently, she has spoken up against the recent billboards on Interstate 40 between Greensboro and Winston-Salem. The first of these reads “Real men provide, Real women appreciate it” and the most recent displays “Real men don’t use coupons.” After the first billboard went up in February, Grace organized a protest with a turnout exceeding 100 people. As the issue drags on, news stations continue to ask Grace for comments, especially in reference to the new billboard messages.

“It’s all just a monstrous attempt to shame women,” Grace said. “It’s the same message every time, and I’m tired of responding.”

But for Grace, activism is nothing new. Her dedication to human rights issues plays a large role in her business, as she hosts community discussions as well as artistic craft workshops in the back room of Kleur. These include ‘photographing the birth cycle,’ indigo dyeing, and ‘accessing and activating empathy,’ which Grace teaches.

“Our shop motto is ‘Normalize compassion, normalize kindness, normalize empathy,'” Grace said. “Empathy is always the thing lacking in any human rights issue.”

Unlike most, Grace can remember the exact day she accessed empathy: September 11, 2001. She was a middle school student cutting gym class to sulk under the bleachers, and write “brooding” poetry.” But when she returned to class, she saw footage of the planes colliding with the Twin Towers and became aware of a world outside of herself.

“I realized I wasn’t as important as I thought I was,” Grace said. “I later learned that feeling was empathy.”

Grace is familiar with middle schoolers. She taught them for several years as an English teacher at Paisley IB Middle School and the Arts Based School in Winston-Salem. She hopes to bring her passion for teaching to adults now by offering affordable workshops, none of which exceed $30. With these prices, Grace hopes to present a source of empowerment to people with lower incomes. But these prices also appeal to college students, since Winston-Salem is home to four major colleges and universities.

“We want to offer a space for college students to be in the community,” Grace said. “They’re not just workshops. They can be a life-building practice.”

Grace also wishes to share her love of words by offering free used books to anyone who walks through the door. Books add to the variety of goods the shop offers, such as handmade home goods, accessories, jewelry and clothing.

“We try to support vendors who really take their work seriously and make quality products,” Grace said.

With the multitude of responsibilities that come along with owning her own business, Grace finds the most joy in meeting with vendors, as one artist to another. Grace has dipped her toe in many different art forms over the years, from writing to painting to singing and songwriting. Currently, Grace focuses on music as her artistic outlet. She is part of a duo called Grace and Nails with local musician Tyler Nail.

The pair found each other when Grace opened for him at The Garage, a music venue in downtown Winston-Salem. From there, they covered a Tom Waits song and realized they weren’t done working together. For the past two years, they have been in the process of recording an album of original songs.

“It’s been a very slow process,” Grace said. “We don’t have a lot of time because we both work hard.”

However, the duo has written half a dozen songs and continue to collaborate. Like any partnership, their collaborative process involves give and take, as they push each other to take creative risks.

“Molly has a unique balance of willingness to influence, and willingness to be influenced,” Nail said. “Artists often have such a fear of giving someone else any room to persuade a piece.”

Another partnership in Grace’s life is with her employee and friend Allison Beilharz, who has worked for Grace since October 2016, after Grace parted ways with previous partners and designers Amanda Vaughn-Redmond and Emma Wallace, who had shared a shop with her on 6^th Street. Beilharz contacted Grace about a job, to which Grace replied, “Job? I can’t give you a job. But I can be your friend!” Grace proceeded to connect Beilharz to people in town who could help her, as well as giving her career advice.

The friendship and mutual respect between these two is obvious, as they hollered playful comments to each other across the shop during a recent visit. Beilharz has a background in marketing and branding and uses this expertise to compliment Grace’s aptitude with the creative side of the business.

“Molly has so many ideas jumping around in her head at all times, and then she actually does them,” Beilharz said. “It’s inspiring to be around that kind of energy.”

It’s that energy that allows Grace to balance being a mother to her six-year-old son, Abbott, with activism and creativity, as well as owning and running a business. But she is also quick to credit other entrepreneurs in town who have supported her and her vision, such as Mary Haglund, the owner of Mary’s Gourmet Diner, located across the street from Kleur.

“I’ve gotten to the point where I know a lot of the entrepreneurs in town,” Grace said. “But Mary has been a great source of comfort and advice.”

As Grace looks ahead, she hopes to get more people through her doors to participate in community discussions. Through honest conversations with a varied group of people, Grace believes community is born and sustained. It is this commitment to authenticity that guides the way she runs her life, and therefore, her business.

“Sometimes I’m embarrassed and think ‘This could look better,'” Grace said. “But I value transparency in the real world and I like the messiness of what we do.”

Misty Gabriel Community Leader by Jess Jordan

As the sun peaked over the trees this morning, Misty Gabriel lifted her eyes from her downward facing dog and scanned her full yoga studio. The entire room breathed in unison to the sound of Gabriel’s voice, a gentle reminder to breathe in through the nose and out through the nose. Gabriel could feel her mind wandering to her impending responsibilities for the day, but she silenced it with her breath. In through the nose, out through the nose.

Gabriel finished teaching her yoga class with one final breath, leaning towards her studio with an open heart. It was only 7 AM, yet Gabriel had already impacted a room full of people.

By noon that day, Gabriel was elbows deep in research on food access in Winston-Salem. As a member of the Beta Verde team, an organization dedicated to producing local food and supporting local businesses, Gabriel works on concrete steps to expand food access in Forsyth County. The first step for Gabriel is simple: the Winston-Salem Shared Kitchen Project.

Through the Winston-Salem Shared Kitchen Project, Gabriel and the other members of Beta Verde aim to create sustainable opportunities for local businesses. In order to meet the needs of Winston, Gabriel holds community input sessions during which local businesses can share their thoughts and needs. She reviews and manages the funding in creative ways so that programs like this can be accessible for everyone in the community, regardless of their income.

On Saturday mornings, Gabriel takes a break from planning the shared kitchen space to work the Farmer Foodshare Table at Cobblestone Farmer’s Market. Here she encourages market goers to donate money or produce so that all of Winston-Salem can have access to healthier food options. Gabriel arrives at the market at 8:00 AM each Saturday to prepare for a day full of educating shoppers about food access and interacting with the farmers. Through this table, Gabriel connects people who grow food with people who need food.

Gabriel has found life to be the most meaningful when she cultivates her skills to better her community. Community, however, is a continuously changing concept for Gabriel. She and her husband have moved often for his job as a college basketball coach, which can be challenging. However, each move has brought a unique set of skills and the ability to adapt.

“Since we have moved so much, I sometimes feel myself itching for that change and that unknown,” Gabriel said. “As soon as I’m in a new place, I don’t waste any time digging in. Where are those places I want to eat? Where are those places I want to shop? How can I feel connected?”

Upon moving to Winston-Salem two years ago, Gabriel quickly found the Cobblestone Farmer’s Market as a place to shop and feel connected. She began shopping at there for local and sustainably grown food and developed a close relationship with the market’s founder, Margaret Norfleet Neff.

Food had not always been Gabriel’s top priority, however. Although long interested in food and health, she dismissed these as “hobbies.” Ten years ago, she graduated from Ohio University with a degree in design and marketing, but an unclear vision for her future. Gabriel applied her marketing skills to the business world, working for a year as a marketing coordinator in Ohio, but did not feel fulfilled.

“I felt in my gut that I wanted to do something with more meaning and that I wasn’t being fulfilled by my job,” Gabriel explained. “Once you start reflecting on how quickly time passes, you start to wonder why you’re spending any time doing something that isn’t meaningful.”

Over the next eight years, Gabriel used her marketing skills at six different jobs, ranging from sales associate at Kohl’s to marketing manager at an all-girls school in Raleigh. Although each experience was different, her passion for food issues grew. She found herself reading articles each night about the inhuman treatment of animals, statistics on excessive food waste, and food systems as a whole. When Gabriel attended a Leadership in Sustainable Food System Certificate Program at the University of Vermont in June 2014, she felt all the pieces coming together as she learned different ways food is grown, harvested, consumed and disposed.

“It just all started to take shape in my mind — this whole cycle of food systems, how it is all connected and what it really means,” Gabriel said.

Cobblestone Farmer’s Market in Winston-Salem has largely contributed to Gabriel’s exploration of food systems. Working at the Farmer Foodshare table connected Gabriel to local farmers and deepened her sense of community here in Winston. At the end of her first summer working there, Gabriel’s dedication and organized were noticed and the market manager offered Gabriel a job working at Beta Verde. This is where she channels most of her energy now, working with other community members on food projects supporting local businesses and community building through shared food spaces, like the Winston-Salem Shared Kitchen Project.

Eric Gabriel, Misty’s husband, believes her biggest strength is her persistence. “She never just settled,” he said. “A lot of people in their jobs just settle in. For her, she was never satisfied with that. She still isn’t. She wakes up and talks everyday about having a bigger impact.”

Each day, Gabriel does make a bigger impact. She credits her good listening skills as part of the big reason she can help the Winston-Salem community and has enjoyed watching different parts of the community come together to help increase access to food for people who typically don’t have these opportunities. While Gabriel initiates the shared use kitchen space, Cobblestone Farmer’s Market and the Farmer Foodshare Table are also expanding to include a full week market and to include more farmers.

Gabriel also teaches vinyasa yoga at Dancing Dogs in Greensboro. For her, yoga is a holistic approach to physical wellbeing and aligns with her health values. Training to become a yoga teacher helped her move past her tendency to overthink and eased some anxieties she had about the future.

“One of the big things I took away from yoga teacher training is not to ‘should’ on yourself,” Gabriel said. “I used to be really hard on myself. Now I just keep trying to make progress every day and trust that I am going somewhere. I am moving.”

Becky Filar, one of Gabriel’s closest and oldest friends, credits Gabriel’s passion as her biggest strength. “When Misty gets excited about something, you’re going to know she is excited about something. And then she will make sure you get excited about that too.”

Gabriel’s longer-term goal is to open a holistic wellness center featuring yoga classes, nutrition counseling and a shared kitchen space. She hopes it can be a place where people come together to share a passion for food and healthy life choices.

“I still question every day,” she said. “Where can I go next? Am I doing enough? I think that’s natural for anyone who starts to feel passionately about something. I am always moving to the next step.”

Community Leader Profile – Rebeccah Byer | By Jorge Fournier

By Jorge Fournier

Just ten minutes from campus, students can now ignite their creative spirit at temperatures above 1,000°F. Inside a refurbished warehouse at the West End Mill Works in downtown Winston-Salem, adjacent heaters –called “glory holes” –reheat glass to soften and keep glass hot enough to allow visitors to experience the magic of glass blowing.

Since she was a teenager, Rebeccah Byer has cherished a dream of one day opening a glassblowing studio that would help the community. In September 2014, it became a reality. A former bartender, fundraiser, producer, entrepreneur, and cook, Byer started The Olio, a non-profit glassblowing studio and entrepreneurial school that combines her love of glass blowing and teaching.

“We are not just a glass studio,” Byer said. “We are an art studio and entrepreneurial studio. A studio for learning an arts-integrated approach to entrepreneurship.”

Byer first started glass blowing by accident. “I was really struggling in school and was about to quit college because I wasn’t enjoying myself,” Byer said. After failing to register in a pottery class, Byer took glass blowing and found her calling. “I realized it was something I wanted to do and to teach,” Byer said. The class eventually led her to start the first glassblowing studio in the Triad in September 2014.

To Byer, The Olio serves as a place where you can capture your artistic, entrepreneurial, or community spirit. “I love when people’s eyes light up when they blow glass for the first time,” Byer said.

An olio is a hodge-podge, medley, or a dish of many flavors. “At The Olio, you are going to have a different experience from somebody else,” Byer said. “Because people are different.”

The Olio has lots of fans. “We have people who bring us their bottles that they have accumulated at home. People who come shop, go for the pay-what-you-want stuff, and other people just come to take a class or a field trip,” Byer said. At The Olio, there is something for everybody to tap into in some way, whether you are a customer or a person interested in glass blowing.

Even though Byer has been quite successful in launching The Olio in the community, she frequently experiences challenges as a female entrepreneur.

Byer recently had someone come in and ask about classes at The Olio. “I showed him the list and the offerings of what he could do,” Byer said. After he made clear that his teachers at other studios had been men, he left when he realized Byer was going to be the instructor.

Byer’s glass-blowing interest, a common profession for men, has not stopped since she first started in 1993. “When I was 19, it never occurred to me that because it is male dominated, I can’t do it,” Byer said. “To me, I was going to be one of the few women to start.”

In another instance, she was once working in her studio, holding a power tool, when a guy on his lunch break passed by. She was in her usual work clothes; he was in a suit. “He just looks at me and says, ‘Do you need help with that?'”

Byer has never felt that she cannot blow glass because she is a woman. “When men walk by, or say something directly to me, I look at it as an opportunity, because I am never really that offended,” Byer said. “It’s just simply their own ignorance.”

Byer tends to look at what she cannot do as just simply things she has not learned yet. “She is very hard working and dedicated, with extremely high ideals and integrity,” said Mary Haglund, a local restaurant owner and Byer’s friend.

The Olio not only offers services to people who are willing to pay, but also has apprentices year-round who spend their afternoon’s glass blowing. The apprenticeship program is The Olio’s core program, open to people aged 14 to 24. With the aim of helping young kids in the community, The Olio manages to bring apprentices with a strong desire to learn and explore glass blowing.

Haglund admires Byer’s work with apprentices: “She has taken an art form with expensive materials and has made it accessible to people who would have never had training in glass blowing.”

Byer recognizes that not everyone is as interested in glass blowing as she, but she manages to accomplish much more than just teaching glass blowing to students. At The Olio, apprentices learn a variety of skills, ranging from bookkeeping to chemistry.

“We engage our apprentices and our students in a variety of ways,” Byer said. “It’s not just about art. It’s about professional development, life skills, teamwork, and communication.”

By empowering the next generation of glassblowers, Byer is tapping into people’s creativity and helping them build life-long skills.

Jan Detter, a Wake Forest professor of practice in Entrepreneurship, sees Byer as extremely determined to take on challenges –going where a lot of women have not gone before. “She didn’t establish a big school,” Detter said. “She started an individual studio with a mission of sharing her love of glassblowing to unlikely people for the rest of her life.”

Haglund agrees: “She makes this art form available, and art changes lives.”

Although an introvert, Byer said she has to constantly balance her love of helping and teaching with her own time for work and for selling and fundraising. With this in mind, she has started a blog on her website to further involve the community in The Olio’s endeavors so that it remains sustainable.

“She is the only woman in North Carolina that started a glass-blowing studio as a non-profit,” Detter said. By starting The Olio, Byer’s work has pursued directions which women are sometimes not encouraged to follow.

“I want to see us coining the term ‘social enterprise,'” Byer said. The business needs to make money in order to survive, and how The Olio invests its money is what’s important.

“We are investing the money into our people and the community,” Byer said. “Not in a CEO.”

Community Entrepreneur Profile: Shana Whitehead, Muddy Creek Cafe and Music Hall

Profile on Shana Whitehead of Muddy Creek Cafe and Music Hall

Allie Hubbard

You never know what can come from a dilapidated shed. For Shana Whitehead, it turned her dreams into a reality. From the first time she drove past it, her vision was born: “I just kept looking at the little side building that’s now the cafe and thinking it would make a perfect little sandwich shop, something like that.”

Working in natural food cafes throughout high school and college in Florida, Whitehead always felt passionate about food and cooking. Whitehead dreamed of opening a cafe of her own, even admitting to doodling menus in her spare time. But for many years in Winston-Salem she earned her living as a yoga instructor and preschool teacher before she spotted the shed in Bethania, a historic village a few miles down Reynolda Road from Wake Forest.

With the help of volunteers and lots of sweat equity, the shell of a building —located next to the recently restored 19th century grist mill known as Bethania Mill and Village Shoppes and a few hundred feet from the cafe’s namesake stream— was turned into a place suitable for serving food by scrubbing inches thick of dirt and bird poop.

In August 2011, Whitehead opened Muddy Creek Cafe to the public. Quickly it became known for its live music, homemade pimento cheese and pressed panini sandwiches. While her vision for the cafe has evolved over time, one thing that remains constant is the importance of community, the original reason why Whitehead felt so passionately about her endeavor.

However, not everyone supported Whitehead’s new venture. Mentors, like Mary Hagland of Mary’s Diner, strongly questioned her decision to open the cafe in Bethania. Ultimately, Whitehead felt passionately that there would be a strong sense of community at this location. It all came down to instinct.

“You can do your best business plan, A to Z, but what it really comes down to is your gut feeling,” Whitehead said. “If it doesn’t feel right, there is no sense in doing it.”

Muddy Creek originally started off selling breakfast and lunch. Whitehead came in at 6:30 am every day to whip up muffins, scones, and quiche. It later evolved to lunch and dinner. Music was not even a part of the original equation until Whitehead was approached by musicians.

“I had friends coming to me after I opened asking if they could play music at Muddy Creek on Saturday nights,” Shana said.

One of these musicians was Bill Heath, Whitehead’s now significant other and co-owner. Their love story is central to the story of Muddy Creek. The two first met when Heath contacted Whitehead about his band playing at Muddy Creek and the rest, as they say, is history. Heath became an integral part in the success of Muddy Creek and even led the effort to expand Muddy Creek to include a music hall in 2015.

“We started to outgrow the cafe, we wanted to expand that great sense of community the cafe exhibited, we learned people really had a desire for local music,” Whitehead said. “There is so much talent in North Carolina and genres specific to this area. We wanted to create a home for this type of music.”

Heath credited Whitehead’s dedication and enthusiasm for the success of Muddy Creek Cafe and Music Hall: “Shana will think of an idea and I’ll always question her, ‘Well how’s that going to happen?’ But that never stops her. She always figures it out.”

Muddy Creek has energized the tiny town of Bethania: “I really wanted to add value to the community,” Whitehead said. “Muddy Creek solves the problem of what to do on a Saturday night, the problem of musicians in our community having no place to showcase their talent.”

“We are creating a sense of community in a very disconnected world these days, when you’re here you are talking with people and engaging with friends, family, kids, music, there are no TV’s in these places,” Whitehead said. “I love the way people connect to live music. It is so rewarding to see and get to experience joy, happiness, even tears, and to hear the stories of the musicians.”

Elizabeth Ottenjohn, a WFU alumni and now Winston-Salem resident attested to this sense of community: “I know when I step into Muddy Creek I can always count on seeing multiple people I know, whether that be neighbors, co-workers, or friends. I love the community here.”

However, opening and running Muddy Creek as a woman entrepreneur has not come without challenges for Whitehead: “It is very much an old boys’ network. There is a lot macho sexism that exists. I try to turn my head and move forward, just keep moving forward.”

Whitehead recalled one sexist incident that happened just days before Muddy Creek Cafe was set to open. Despite multiple prior inspections, one inspector seemed to be determined to give her a hard time. He went into the bathroom, took out a tape measure, and measured to see if the toilets were the correct distance from the wall. That really bothered Whitehead.

“I wondered if I was man if he would really be doing this,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead’s tenacity and resilience is shown through the triumph of Muddy Creek, whose success story has been written about and televised across the Triad area. So much so that Whitehead and Health will be opening a second location in Sparta, North Carolina within the next year to provide place for community, just as they are in Bethania.

“We are not sure where this community came from. We don’t know if we created it, or if it created us. But when people find us, they come back because of this sense of belonging at Muddy Creek,” Whitehead said.

You never know what can come from a dilapidated shed. For Shana Whitehead, it turned her dreams into a reality. From the first time she drove past it, her vision was born: “I just kept looking at the little side building that’s now the cafe and thinking it would make a perfect little sandwich shop, something like that.”

Working in natural food cafes throughout high school and college in Florida, Whitehead always felt passionate about food and cooking. Whitehead dreamed of opening a cafe of her own, even admitting to doodling menus in her spare time. But for many years in Winston-Salem she earned her living as a yoga instructor and preschool teacher before she spotted the shed in Bethania, a historic village a few miles down Reynolda Road from Wake Forest.

With the help of volunteers and lots of sweat equity, the shell of a building —located next to the recently restored 19th century grist mill known as Bethania Mill and Village Shoppes and a few hundred feet from the cafe’s namesake stream— was turned into a place suitable for serving food by scrubbing inches thick of dirt and bird poop.

In August 2011, Whitehead opened Muddy Creek Cafe to the public. Quickly it became known for its live music, homemade pimento cheese and pressed panini sandwiches. While her vision for the cafe has evolved over time, one thing that remains constant is the importance of community, the original reason why Whitehead felt so passionately about her endeavor.

However, not everyone supported Whitehead’s new venture. Mentors, like Mary Hagland of Mary’s Diner, strongly questioned her decision to open the cafe in Bethania. Ultimately, Whitehead felt passionately that there would be a strong sense of community at this location. It all came down to instinct.

“You can do your best business plan, A to Z, but what it really comes down to is your gut feeling,” Whitehead said. “If it doesn’t feel right, there is no sense in doing it.”

Muddy Creek originally started off selling breakfast and lunch. Whitehead came in at 6:30 am every day to whip up muffins, scones, and quiche. It later evolved to lunch and dinner. Music was not even a part of the original equation until Whitehead was approached by musicians.

“I had friends coming to me after I opened asking if they could play music at Muddy Creek on Saturday nights,” Shana said.

One of these musicians was Bill Heath, Whitehead’s now significant other and co-owner. Their love story is central to the story of Muddy Creek. The two first met when Heath contacted Whitehead about his band playing at Muddy Creek and the rest, as they say, is history. Heath became an integral part in the success of Muddy Creek and even led the effort to expand Muddy Creek to include a music hall in 2015.

“We started to outgrow the cafe, we wanted to expand that great sense of community the cafe exhibited, we learned people really had a desire for local music,” Whitehead said. “There is so much talent in North Carolina and genres specific to this area. We wanted to create a home for this type of music.”

Heath credited Whitehead’s dedication and enthusiasm for the success of Muddy Creek Cafe and Music Hall: “Shana will think of an idea and I’ll always question her, ‘Well how’s that going to happen?’ But that never stops her. She always figures it out.”

Muddy Creek has energized the tiny town of Bethania: “I really wanted to add value to the community,” Whitehead said. “Muddy Creek solves the problem of what to do on a Saturday night, the problem of musicians in our community having no place to showcase their talent.”

“We are creating a sense of community in a very disconnected world these days, when you’re here you are talking with people and engaging with friends, family, kids, music, there are no TV’s in these places,” Whitehead said. “I love the way people connect to live music. It is so rewarding to see and get to experience joy, happiness, even tears, and to hear the stories of the musicians.”

Elizabeth Ottenjohn, a WFU alumni and now Winston-Salem resident attested to this sense of community: “I know when I step into Muddy Creek I can always count on seeing multiple people I know, whether that be neighbors, co-workers, or friends. I love the community here.”

However, opening and running Muddy Creek as a woman entrepreneur has not come without challenges for Whitehead: “It is very much an old boys’ network. There is a lot macho sexism that exists. I try to turn my head and move forward, just keep moving forward.”

Whitehead recalled one sexist incident that happened just days before Muddy Creek Cafe was set to open. Despite multiple prior inspections, one inspector seemed to be determined to give her a hard time. He went into the bathroom, took out a tape measure, and measured to see if the toilets were the correct distance from the wall. That really bothered Whitehead.

“I wondered if I was man if he would really be doing this,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead’s tenacity and resilience is shown through the triumph of Muddy Creek, whose success story has been written about and televised across the Triad area. So much so that Whitehead and Health will be opening a second location in Sparta, North Carolina within the next year to provide place for community, just as they are in Bethania.

“We are not sure where this community came from. We don’t know if we created it, or if it created us. But when people find us, they come back because of this sense of belonging at Muddy Creek,” Whitehead said.

Kook – Community Leader Profile on Danielle Kattan

Whisk-y Business: Where there’s a whisk there’s a way
Danielle Kattan Cakes of Winston-Salem
By E. Emma Kook

The woman rummaged through her purse, past the school notes, the home bills, and the ‘To- Do’ lists, until she finally found what she was looking for. The paper was crumpled and weathered. Yet there on the page were beautiful works of art.

Danielle Kattan, owner of Danielle Kattan Cakes, does not just bake cakes. She crafts edible artwork. She may run her business from her home kitchen but her creativity and skill have earned her several baking awards, including the 2017 Couple’s Choice award from the website Wedding Wire.

“I have always had this fire within me, this strong desire to do something of my own,” Kattan said in a recent interview.

A native of Honduras, Kattan grew up in an entrepreneurial family. From a young age, she believed she would work in the fashion industry alongside her father. Initially, Kattan traveled to Mexico and Miami to pursue her career in Fashion Design. But things changed when she returned to Honduras, met her husband and started a family.

When she and her family moved to Winston-Salem, Kattan became driven by her desire to do something. She returned to school to study culinary arts, winning high honors. Uncovering her passion for cake design, she then studied as an apprentice to Chef Donald McMillan at the Stocked Pot, a local kitchen used for teaching, where she became the chief pastry chef.

“Danielle came to me full of energy, and not once did she lose that spark. There were those days that family and responsibilities took center stage, but that did not stop her,” said Chef McMillan “She held her ground with all of us men.”

Kattan knew she could do this for herself but the dream kept slipping from her grasp. Family took priority.

“You have to take one day at a time. Do you pay someone else to raise your children so you can focus on your business?” Kattan said, as if asking herself, “Family is very important in Honduras and many people do not have the luxury to work for [what they] want.”

So she started working from her home kitchen. This gave balance to life and work while providing an example to her sons. The business launched in 2006 but she encountered a great deal of backlash from community friends. “Other mothers were not supportive,” Kattan said. “They were not afraid to share their opinions. Many thought it was stupid of me to open a business because of my children or because of my family’s mortgage.”

In spite of that criticism, the greatest obstacle Kattan overcame was personal dissuasion. To let go of sacrifices and risks are hard, especially when the mother is the glue that keeps the family together. But able to silence the discouraging voice, Kattan realized everything she needed was right there along with her family support.

In 2009 the Kattan family’s relocation to Thailand was a major turning point for Danielle Kattan Cakes. Kattan returned to culinary school and successfully completed the Thai Cuisine program at Le Cordon Bleu School. With her children a bit older and living in a foreign place, she was able to reach out to the community through her baking. Networking with locals, in particular, helped strengthen her goals. Among the many people she met, Allena, a Greek chef, left a special mark. The owner of four Greek restaurants in Thailand, she helped Kattan see the value of sticking to your dreams.

Kattan’s business was fueled by the support of female entrepreneurs. Working with InnovateHER, a local Winston-Salem company that helps women with start-up ideas, her confidence grew to move the business forward.

“When I first met Danielle I was impressed by her drive and desire. She had done so much research and preparation,” said Fay Horwitt, owner of InnovateHER. “I saw her confidence grow working with InnovateHER. I realized this woman was going to accomplish whatever she set her mind to.”

Kattan believes starting a business is often easier for a man. There is no worry of running out of time to start a family nor any pressure to have a family in the first place. However, Kattan mentions the importance for women to be open to advice and mentorship from men.

“When I first started out, the chef career was like a men’s club. They thought because I was a young woman I could not possibly be experienced,” said Kattan, who won first place winner in the Kellogg’s ‘Make It Special’ dessert recipe contest in 2007. “Because of their ignorance, I was able to hold my ground and learn. I am proud of myself.”

By 2012 Danielle Kattan Cakes was re-launched in the Winston-Salem area – this time with a new desire to achieve. More advertising, more networking, and more time went into the business. Now the only thing holding back Danielle Kattan Cakes is funding. Still in hopes of finding an angel investor, Kattan has continued to delay her expansion project. Kattan’s long-term goal is to turn her cake business into a wine-and-cake evening café. But nevertheless, Kattan is very pleased with the success of her company.

She proudly folds the piece of weathered paper and places it back into her bag. It falls to the bottom, below the school notes, the bills, and the ‘To-Do’ lists, but it stills holds an important place in her purse.

“If you want to taste the fruits, you have to be willing to plant the seeds, shower it with nutrients and love, and have the patience to watch it grow through all types of weather and seasons,” Kattan said. “But I promise, if you do this, it will give you fruits.”

Community Entrepreneur/Activist Profile

Profile on Chelsea Tart

by Lauren Raveret

What if the secret to baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie was not baking it at all? Chelsea Tart, owner, founder, and baker of Tart Sweets bakery in Winston-Salem made dreams come true this March when she opened her bakery’s newest feature: an edible raw cookie dough bar.

Now on Friday afternoons and for six hours on Saturday, Tart Sweets features its Dolci Dough cookie dough bar—a selection of cookie dough flavors made with pasteurized egg and heat-treated flour to ensure safe consumption. Until now, the West End’s popular bakery and café was best known for its French macarons.

“It was the best decision we’ve made here,” Tart said. “If you don’t like raw cookie dough there’s something wrong with you.”

With her homemade edible dough, Tart, 26, is again showing a keen sense for the latest trends. She got the idea for her first hit—French macarons—from the T.V. show Gossip Girl. “I was watching Gossip Girl one night, and Blair had macarons—Chuck had given them to her,” Tart said. “I was like I’m going to learn how to make those.”

After selling baked goods out of her house for three years while attending UNC Greensboro, Tart initially opened her first commercial space on Hawthorne Road before moving to her current location on West 5^th Street. For her, it’s a dream spot for her bakery: an old historic home to make her own.

In addition to moving downtown, Tart also brought her mother, Lynn Tart, into the business as a 50% owner. Tart’s mother is the reason she discovered her passion for baking.

“I started baking profusely when I was in high school when my mom was diagnosed with cancer,” Tart sad. “It was very therapeutic.”

Tart’s decision to expand with her mother was not difficult. “She was just always there.” Tart said. “She’s able to pick up the pieces when something shatters.”

And shatter it did, when Tart came home after her first year of studying pharmaceutical engineering at Virginia Tech “screaming and kicking and crying” because she hated it so much.

Tart ended up registering late for business classes at Forsyth Tech because those were the only classes available—and to her surprise, loved them. She later transferred to UNCG and earned a degree in entrepreneurship.

Tart opened her first Tart Sweets location about eight months after graduating. “The hardest part was convincing somebody that I was worth the risk at 22,” Tart said.

But Tart has no problem with taking risks. In fact, moving Tart Sweets to its current location was the biggest risk she has ever taken. “I can’t tell you how many people told me not to do it,” Tart said. “People tell me I’m crazy because I don’t get scared.”

Now, even with her considerable success, she is still often dismissed. A lot of the judgment, she says, has to do with her small physical size. “It’s not uncommon for me to work at the counter and people to stand here and have whole conversations with me about the owner,” Tart said. “And I’m thinking I am the owner!”

“People don’t expect to find someone 25, 26, 27 running this company—and running it successfully,” Tart said. “The look on people’s faces when I introduce myself most of the time is priceless.”

Tart often finds herself doing business with people who do not expect her to know what she’s talking about. “It’s just a matter of standing up for yourself and knowing what you’re talking about,” Tart said. “Because if someone asks you a question and you can give them an educated response back quickly, their whole perception may change in that 30 seconds.”

One of Tart’s strategies to success is framing failures as learning experiences. “I was raised under the theory that the only time you fail is if you don’t do it at all.”

Not only does Tart live by this mindset, but she teaches it to her employees as well. “I’ve had a few spills,” Tart Sweets barista Hunter Beck said about some mishaps in the kitchen. “She just tells me that it’s a learning experience—trial and error. She always boosts my confidence.”

Tart’s positive outlook has been a force in her personal life as well as her business life. When Tart Sweets opened its new location, Tart started to butt heads with one of her new baristas. “I snapped,” Tart said. “I mean total mental breakdown. Ended up being diagnosed bipolar II.”

Tart was formally diagnosed in early 2016, but it took time for her doctors to find the right medication.

“If I didn’t have a mom I wouldn’t even be in business anymore because I spent from June to October crying in the corner,” Tart said. By early this year, she is finally feeling like herself again.

Tart’s condition is no secret, especially to her employees. In fact, one of the earliest conversations Tart had with her employee, Alexine Carr, was about her bipolar disorder.

“She called me into the kitchen one day to let me know that because of her bipolar disorder there are certain days when she might not be acting like herself,” Carr said. “She made the comment, which is kind of funny, ‘If I ever snap at you please just look at me and tell me to stop.’ So it’s pretty cool to know she’s open about it.”

Despite her experience, Tart does not regret anything. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve learned so much about myself.”

Along with the new diagnosis has come a new cause for Tart. “The stigmas have to go,” Tart said. “Anybody can be anything they want to. Nobody should be put in a box. Look at me. I mean I’m running a business—and successfully—and I’m bipolar. It can be done.”

And she wants to do more. “One day, I would like to figure out how to advocate for mental health” Tart said.

It looks like she already has.

Kailen Gore: Community Profile- Ms. Joy Nelson-Thomas

Ms. Joy Nelson-Thomas

By: Kailen Gore

Joy Nelson-Thomas always had a knack for design.

“I’ve always been real fascinated with colors, how spaces affect people, the architecture of things, and how things look.” Nelson-Thomas said.

However, she wasn’t satisfied with how things looked for the low-income girls in Winston-Salem. Equipped with an interior design degree and some management experience, Nelson-Thomas took a risk and did something about it.

In October of 2015, she found LEAD (Learning Everyday Accomplishing Dreams) Girls of NC, a non-profit organization that provides resources and mentorship for low-income and at-risk preteen girls to inspire them to excel academically, emotionally, and creatively.

After only 18 months, LEAD is not only serving 103 girls, but has also contracted with Communities in Schools, won grants from the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem, received the BB&T Lighthouse Project, and has partnered with the Winston-Salem Urban League, Goodwill Industries, and local Title One Schools to expand its impact.

Before LEAD, Nelson-Thomas found a desire to help others through her college senior project called ‘Digits’.

The purpose of Digits was to address the issue of digital technology availability.

“People want to believe that everyone has access,” Nelson-Thomas said, “but the reality is it’s still a mass quantity that is suffering and don’t have access to computers or cell phones.”

At the S. G. Atkins Center, a non-profit focused on revitalizing neighborhoods surrounding Winston-Salem State University, Nelson-Thomas created a resource center that offered classes, and had books and computers for under-privileged people to utilize.

She had to use some of her design skills to pull this off. The building of this resource center was not already created when Nelson-Thomas came up with the idea for it: it was a swimming pool.

She emptied it out and took advantage of its architecture.

“I actually used the structure of the pool,” she said, “[to create] components where the kids can go down in it and read. I added flooring in it, [as well as] interactive flooring for the kids.”

A new perspective blossomed.

“My life was about design,” Nelson-Thomas said, “but not about a physical space. But to design this opportunity for low socioeconomic status individuals. My vision was the redesign of a life.”

After graduating from high school, Salem College, and doing some design and management work, she prepared to move forward in the non-profit business.

“My plans,” she said, “were to open an organization that allowed girls with a passion for arts to be cultivated in design [work] and use that to give back to the community.”

This would accompany her design degree nicely. But Nelson-Thomas knew that she wanted to have an effective impact on the entire community. So she broadened her scope.

“With our current poverty rate,” she said, “I realized that I wanted to focus my attention on reality. This would include cultural awareness, individuality, communication styles, conflict styles, etc.”

Nelson-Thomas hit the ground running. “Steady but smart,” she said.

“I knew I wanted the organization to have phenomenal women on the board to bring something dynamic,” she said. “so I went to women that I knew could do just that.”

Nelson-Thomas recruited an executive board that includes: a sociologist, a psychologist, and Salem College professors who are experts in art, architecture, economics, and entrepreneurship.

The program began with 62 participants, some at High School Ahead Academy in Guilford County (Greensboro) and some at Salem College, where girls from any middle school can attend.

Since then, Nelson-Thomas has extended the program to three other school sites: Allen Middle School in Guilford County, and Wiley Magnet Middle School and Philo-Hill Magnet Academy in Forsyth County.

The girls in the program meet once every other week and participate in workshops, perform skits, write in journals, and hear guest speakers and presentations centered around topics related to LEAD’s principles: Awareness, Communication, Leadership, and Perspective.

Last year, the topics included team building, goal setting, building positive support, saving and managing money, suicide prevention, and one called “Making Our Yes Real and Our No Real.”

Another topic was art appreciation and the associated activity had the girls do similar work as seen on the hit TV show “Project Runway.”

“One of my board members is heavy into textiles and repurposing.” Nelson-Thomas said. “The girls actually went to Goodwill, they had like a set theme, and they repurposed clothing around this theme.”

Volunteerism is another aspect of LEAD Nelson-Thomas likes to include, so the girls also had the opportunity to volunteer behind-the-scenes of Winston-Salem Fashion Week.

Despite how much fun this was for the girls, Nelson-Thomas was impressed by their suggestions for next year. She is already working on top of it.

“They loved fashion week because it was a different experience,” Nelson-Thomas said, “but they really wanted to do something like feeding the homeless or doing something for animals. So that’s kind of what our focus will be this year with any volunteer activities that we do.”

In addition to running workshops and events effectively, Nelson-Thomas also wants facilitators to maintain a certain atmosphere for the girls.

A safe space for them is top priority.

“As one girl said, LEAD means protection to her so I want them to feel secure when they come in and comfortable saying whatever it is that they want to say,” Nelson-Thomas said.

“I love the honesty.”

The LEAD program works off of an evidenced based curriculum. At the beginning and end of each meeting, the girls fill out surveys that are later analyzed by researchers on the board.

That way, Nelson-Thomas can track LEAD’s effect on the girls, and shift the program if need be.

“You want to make sure with any program,” Nelson-Thomas said, “that it’s working and if it’s not, what’s not working?”

Nelson-Thomas wants LEAD to be a great experience for these girls and for the people working with her.

Her board members can attest to this.

“I think everyone should know,” Ms. Gillian Morrow said, “that she is genuine and real and she has nothing but the girls’ best interest at heart for the future.”

Dr. Rosa Otero, another board member, said, “She listens to those she leads and allows for everyone to have a voice. I believe that a true leader is one that inspires others to do better and I clearly see that with Joy.”

Nelson-Thomas is currently working to expand LEAD to another school in Forsyth County and she is also planning the recruitment and training of new volunteers for this year’s programming.

“I have found my passion, my purpose,” Nelson-Thomas said, “and I am committed to giving girls in our community resources and opportunities that will help them chart a path of success.”

Unfinished Business

I fully support and agree with the idea of having more women in higher positions within corporate America and more. However, I disagree with the thought of just “having one-third women unlocks the door to change.” My thoughts and sentiments align with the phrase, “Women should feel no acceptable limits”. I think that in any social movement or initiative, the goal should be to achieve above and beyond, not just mediocrity. Steps have been taken so far, but I think it is up women to say that is not enough and we want much more. I think there should be more women at the front lines spreading awareness of the issue, not just for the sake of better government and/or better businesses, but because it is fair and just. We shouldn’t have to make arguments and provide facts/reasons as to why we need more women in these fields. On the other hand, it is nice to see the evidence of strong, independent women as not only examples of leaders but also empowerment within the community of women.

Unfinished Business’ Reader’s Response, Helen

Anne-Marie Slaughter expresses hope for workers and managers to decide, separately, and together, to create an environment that allows everyone to fit care and career together in ways that benefit both. In this discussion issues are raised such as gender wage gap, general problems with hearing women’s voices in the work force, policies on maternity leave/raising children and working, and the expanding social structure of work-family tension in the household. In my opinion, it is important to not only address these issues but to solve them quickly. There are numerous platforms that advocate for women’s rights in the work force, however, going directly to the source is tough. How do you convince a boss, coworker, or spouse that they should give women less time off during maternity leave, to fully listen to a female’s perspective during office hours, and to advocate for female’s being the breadwinner in the family. It is tough to change fixed opinions, but the more platforms (such as organizations, books, movies, etc.) that display these belief systems will hopefully increase this open discussion for cross-cultural intersection of women’s rights. Wake Forest WGS professor Wanda Balzano writes, “…change comes when you work towards it.” Slaughter writes, “it’s the workplace, not women, that has to change.” I found this to be interesting. I personally think that it takes both a women’s internal voice and the workforces voice in order to change, not just one. Women need to be more vocal and confident with their voices in their movement—although it is important to get a field of work to change. I think they are equally important in this movement.

Unfinished Business- Matthew Fernandez

In Unfinished Business, Anne-Marie Slaughter argues that it is necessary that we have social change. I enjoyed reading Unfinished Business because we have already discussed and learned many issues dealing with gender inequality, but this book gave me a greater understanding that it is necessary for men and women to share equally. This is achieved by caring for others, which allows for men and women to live the life that they want. Slaughter gives us an outline on how “caregiving” could help to shift out culture norms. This idea is about investing in others rather than investing in ourselves and goes hand in hand with breadwinning. We have been taught that men are the ones that need to be the breadwinners. Slaughter explains that there are many women at the bottom of the economic ladder that are both the caregiver and the breadwinner. On the first page of chapter 6, Slaughter says “real equality for men and women needs a men’s movement to sweep away the gender roles that we continue to impose on men even as we struggle to remove them from women”. In order to fix this inequality, men need to feel that they have the same range of choices to combine caregiving and breadwinning. We have looked at some examples that women are the ones that need to change, but Slaughter believes that a men’s movement is very important. The assumption that men are masculine and the only way to show that is to provide for a family through money, needs to be challenged. Once we acknowledge that providing for a family through time invested is masculine, we can alleviate the social pressures for both men and women. I think that this movement could truly make head way on this issue.