Join us for a conversation that explores the unique position of Minority Entrepreneurs in a pre- and post-COVID NYC.
• How has this global City changed for MBEs as a result of the global pandemic?
• What holds steady?
• How does identity inform resilience and adaptability in this moment?
• What roles and responsibilities do other stakeholders have in rebuilding NYC post-COVID?
Merriam Webster defines an entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise”. In our talk, we’ll probe the interplay of structural barriers, changing markets, and the pivot as MBEs and advocates navigate the transformation of risk to resource.
Speakers:
• Jomaree Pinkard, CEO & Co-Founder, Hella Cocktail Co. (Certified Minority-Owned Business)
• Esmeralda Herrera, Director of Programs and Community Relations, Communitas America
• Rachel Marie Brooks Atkins, PhD, Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow, Stern School of Business NYU
• Noel McKenzie, Executive Director and Founder, Represented Foundation
Moderated by Raymond Daniel Medina, PMP, Assistant Director of Programs, New York City Mayor’s Office of Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises
Introduction by Latha Poonamallee, Associate Professor of Management and Social Innovation & Chair of Management Programs.
We hope you can join us!
Presented by Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment at the Schools of Public Engagement.
Please contact: Latha Poonamallee, PhD at poonamal@newschool.edu
By joining this online event, you will be prompted to accept Zoom Terms of Service. If the session is recorded, you acknowledge that by participating, your name, phone number, and profile picture might be visible to the public. You can customize your personal information when creating your Zoom account. The New School may use any recorded material from the event.
The virtual Management and Social Justice Conversation Series is for those interested in critical and generative approaches to management scholarship, teaching, and practice based on relevant, topical, and invigorating social theories. The series presenters will present work that is focused on inclusion in workplaces as well as questions of racial, ecological, economic, and gender injustice, and that goes beyond the historical agendas of business schools and for-profit corporations, including profit maximization, and managerialist agendas. Visit our website for more information on our past and upcoming events in this webinar series.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders.
To receive updates about public programs and events at The New School, subscribe to our mailing list. Visit our Livestream and YouTube channels to watch select events live and recorded.
Jomaree Pinkard’s career journey has taken him from helping to develop and implement The Salvation Army's September 11 World Trade Center Recovery Program to consulting for the NFL. In 2012, he became the Co-Founder and CEO of a minority-led craft cocktail company, Hella Cocktail Co. In eight years, he and his partners have grown a hobby into a nationally distributed premium-quality food manufacturer producing a line of nonalcoholic cocktail mixers, bitters, and newest innovation Bitters & Sodas that make it easier and more accessible to craft delicious drinks at home or behind the bar.
As a BIPOC, Pinkard uses his background to advise best practices in grassroots entrepreneurship and advises companies pro-bono on responding to Black Lives Matter movement in the food, beverage, hospitality, and VC communities. Jomaree is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and also earned his MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Every day, his goal is to remain curious and work to design that space at the intersection of equity, creativity, and good taste.
Esmeralda Herrera is driven by innovative approaches to creating impact and is passionate about the intersection of business, social impact, and the Bronx. Director of Programs and Community Relations at Communitas America, Esmeralda manages an accelerator in the South Bronx for local social entrepreneurs. The BIPOC entrepreneurial community is transforming into a 6-story social innovation hub called Heyground. She currently works with founders to expand their social impact visions and business plans. She is passionate about equity and social justice to ensure vulnerable communities have opportunities to flourish. Previously she worked with international organizations in India and China that empowers local changemakers to revitalize their local economy.
Rachel Marie Brooks Atkins is an Assistant Professor and Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Management and Organizations Department of the NYU Stern School of Business. She is also a research affiliate with The Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies at NYU. A proud New School Graduate, Rachel earned her Ph.D. in Public and Urban Policy from Milano. Her dissertation, “Black Entrepreneurship and the Business Cycle: Firm Entry and Outcomes During Economic Downturn,” examines how black-white disparities in entrepreneurship changed during the housing bubble and Great Recession. It also evaluates the role of labor and housing markets in explaining those racial disparities. Rachel's current work investigates to access capital among black entrepreneurs and how public policies may alleviate or exacerbate barriers to that access. She was recently awarded a grant from the Kauffman Foundation to conduct research and create a workshop on the topic of Racial Equity in Technology Entrepreneurship. Though she is a Philly native Rachel resides in Brooklyn with her husband Jason and their two children James and John.
Noel McKenzie is a Black, Queer, Jamerican social entrepreneur based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the Executive Director of nonprofit Represented Foundation, the company he founded in 2017 to close the diversity gap in social impact leadership, where people of color comprise only 25% of CEOs yet 40% of the US population. Drawing from his own experiences with racial biases in nonprofit leadership, Noel created the Vision. Execution. Results. (V.E.R.) incubator, a social impact training program, where he’s led over 75 volunteers to train three cohorts of Black and Latinx leaders who have launched 15 different social enterprises in New York City since 2018.
As a social entrepreneur, Noel designs leadership development opportunities that blend culture and service to promote access and intentional community-building. Former and current workshops of his include: First Generations, a podcast-creation program helping migrant youth find ownership of the immigration narrative while amplifying their voices in educational podcasts and “The Art of Accepting Help Workshop,” a lunch & learn program helping corporate teams create equity for BIPOC, women, Queer or disabled-bodied employees by normalizing vulnerability in the workplace. Noel has spent his last 10 years working in Human Resources and People Operations, organizing, motivating and training dedicated teams behind large-scale international nonprofits like Girls Who Code and Library For All. He also has a background in school administration, working as both a founding Office Manager and Recruitment specialist for two Blue Ribbon schools in the Uncommon Schools network in New York.
Noel is an American Express Emerging Leaders fellow of 2019, and a 2020 honoree from the BET network’s Black Excellence Campaign. Noel is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and earned his Masters Degree in Nonprofit Management from The Milano Graduate School at the New School in New York, where he served as President and Lead Organizer of the Students for Social Justice (SSJ).
Drawing from early life experiences in the slowly-desegregating South and the urban disinvestment of the South Bronx, Ray advances NYC’s diversity and inclusion of M/WBEs with the understanding that economic justice is a critical element of social justice. His career in public service began with his work building the diversity-in-contracting program at the Hudson River Park Trust. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Ray is acutely aware of the value minority businesses can bring to their communities the pervasive challenges they face. He moved to the NYC Mayor’s Office motivated by the opportunity to address those structural barriers and promote M/WBE growth. Ray is currently completing a M.S. in Organizational Change Management at the New School as a recipient of a Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship. Focused always on people, he applies a transformational and systems approach to the policy, program, and process change needed to shift organizational culture and inspire awareness in action.