Founders

Wintor McNeel

The Gathering Room is a women-centered leadership and wellness company creating transformative spaces where healing, leadership, and innovation meet. Through retreats, executive facilitation, strategic consulting, and community experiences, we help organizations build stronger teams and more human-centered workplaces. Powered by a portfolio of 30+ women experts, The Gathering Room turns lived experience into impact while creating meaningful economic opportunities for women.

Gisela Rocha

Gisela Rocha is a first generation immigrant, a mom of three, and the founder of Untamed Naturals. She grew up watching her grandmother solve everyday problems with simple remedies, resourcefulness, and a whole lot of love. Years later, after becoming a mother and walking alongside her husband through cancer, she found herself searching for that same sense of simplicity again. That journey reshaped the way she thinks about wellness, business, and what truly deserves a place in our homes. Over the last six years, Gisela has grown Untamed Naturals from her kitchen into a brand carried in nearly 100 retail locations across the country. Her mission isn't to create more products. It's to help families own fewer, better ones. She believes trust should always matter more than trends, and that the products we keep in our homes should earn their place by being used, loved, and passed from one generation to the next. Above all, Gisela believes meaningful businesses are built the same way meaningful relationships are, with honesty, consistency, and showing up when people need you. Whether she's talking with customers, fellow founders, or another parent trying to simplify life, her hope is always the same: to help people feel a little less overwhelmed, a little more connected, and reminded that sometimes the simplest things are the ones that last the longest. A vote for Gisela is a vote for embracing what really matters. It's a vote for choosing trust over trends, believing wellness doesn't have to be complicated, and supporting products that earn their place in our homes. With your vote, we can continue building the next generational wellness staple, one trusted home at a time.

Nesha Brown

Nesha knows what it means to rebuild from nothing. Before she turned 20, she'd lost both of her parents, and with them went the safety net most people assume will always be there. There was no family wealth to fall back on, no financial cushion, no roadmap. Just the question every young person in that position eventually has to answer: how do you build stability when you're starting from zero? That question became the foundation of everything she's built since. She learned, the hard way, that financial resilience isn't just about discipline or willpower. It's about systems. It's about having tools that meet people where they are, not where a traditional bank assumes they should be. That lesson is what drives her work today, as Executive Director of Mint To Prosper Foundation and the Tech Founder behind PurposeMint. Nesha Brown, founder of PurposeMint, is creating tools that help individuals build financial stability from the ground up. By integrating micro-savings technology into existing banking systems, PurposeMint aims to help more households create a foundation for long-term financial health. For her, this isn't an abstract market opportunity. It's personal. She built PurposeMint for the version of herself who needed it most, and for the millions of ALICE households (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) who are working hard but still one emergency away from falling behind. Her story is proof that with the right tools, rebuilding isn't just possible. It's repeatable. Your vote is what opens the next door. Cast it for Nesha.

Urina Harrell

Urina Harrell is a founder, operator, and civic leader working at the intersection of culture, capital, and community-driven economic growth. Her work has been recognized by the California Secretary of State and acknowledged at the ESPY Awards for contributions to high-impact, athlete-led philanthropic initiatives. She is the Founder and CEO of Vox Pop Branding, a strategic firm launched in 2013 that designs initiatives leveraging sports, entertainment, and tourism to drive measurable local impact. She also serves as President of the Long Beach Community Land Trust, where she advances affordable housing strategy, long-term community ownership, and place-based economic development in Southern California. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Urina led efforts to prevent local businesses from permanently closing through an initiative she and two colleagues launched called Project Business Lift. An independent study conducted by California State University, Long Beach, later found that her territory, Long Beach’s 9th District, was the only region in the city to experience net business growth during the pandemic, positioning the work as a model for community-centered economic resilience. The program has since been institutionalized by the City of Long Beach as the Business Navigator Program within the Economic Development Department. Her client portfolio includes 2x NBA Champion Jrue Holiday, Soccer Hall of Famer Lauren Holiday, and other current and retired professional athletes. Across these partnerships, she structures initiatives that translate cultural influence into durable economic opportunity for cities and underserved communities. Urina advises on strategies connecting athletes, brands, and institutions to build long-term community wealth.

Ty Givens

Ty Givens has spent 25 years fixing something we've all been on the wrong end of: bad customer support. She's run support teams for Fortune 500s and startups alike, and founded CX Collective to make that expertise affordable for growing businesses.

Marvina Robinson

Marvina S. Robinson is the Founder and CEO of B. Stuyvesant Champagne, an emerging luxury Champagne house rooted in Brooklyn and produced in Épernay, France. A Brooklyn native, Marvina spent 20 years building a career on Wall Street before taking a risk on herself and pursuing her passion for Champagne. What began with frequent trips to the Champagne region of France to learn firsthand about the vineyards, winemaking process and business eventually became B. Stuyvesant Champagne. Since launching in 2020, Marvina has grown B. Stuyvesant from an idea into a multifaceted Champagne house encompassing retail, hospitality, private and corporate experiences and a 2,000-square-foot tasting room at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Most recently, she expanded the B. Stuyvesant experience beyond the tasting room with the introduction of the Champagne Truck and Champagne Bike. Her journey has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, ESSENCE, Robb Report, EBONY and other national media. At the heart of Marvina's work is a simple belief: Champagne is more than a product. It is an experience, an emotion and a connection. Through B. Stuyvesant Champagne, she is creating new traditions around Champagne while building a house designed for the next generation of Champagne lovers.

Lisa Robertson

Lisa Robertson is the Founder & CEO of I Am Yogi Studios, the first Black-owned hot yoga studio in Queens, NY, and the creator of Breathe Queens, a community wellness movement dedicated to making preventive wellness more accessible, culturally relevant, and community-centered. Her yoga journey began after experiencing depression during pregnancy, when she was encouraged to explore yoga as part of her healing. That experience transformed her life and inspired a mission to ensure that others—particularly Black women and historically underserved communities—have access to spaces where they can breathe, heal, and thrive. With a background in psychology, finance, retail leadership, and entrepreneurship, Lisa has built I Am Yogi Studios into more than a yoga studio. It is a community wellness hub offering hot yoga, mindfulness, wellness leadership training, retreats, corporate wellness, and free community programming that addresses the physical, mental, and emotional health needs of Southeast Queens. Today, Lisa is leading the expansion of I Am Yogi Studios to build the infrastructure for culturally relevant preventive wellness—creating a larger home where more people can access healing, more wellness professionals can lead, and more communities can experience the life-changing power of movement, mindfulness, and connection.

Wubit Hailemichael

Happy Pads began with a story that was deeply personal to us. Growing up in Ethiopia, we saw firsthand what happens when girls and women don’t have reliable access to safe menstrual products. For too many, a period can mean missing school, missing opportunities, or using unsafe alternatives simply because there is no other choice. That experience became our reason for creating Happy Pads. Happy Pads is a female-founded menstrual care company working to make periods safer, healthier, and more dignified through chemical-free, sustainable menstrual products. But our mission goes beyond selling pads. We are building a company where every step of our growth can create impact. In just the last few months, we’ve sold over 500,000 pads and donated more than 30,000 pads through our nonprofit partnerships. Happy Pads is more than a period product, it’s about dignity, opportunity, and changing lives.