NAWBO Santa Barbara Proudly Presents: |
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Meet the 2023 BRAVO
Award Winners
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The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Santa Barbara Chapter is pleased to announce the 2023 winners of the 9th Annual BRAVO Awards. The awards will be presented at a luncheon on March 16th. Visit our website for more information.
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NAWBO-SB Member of the Year
Annika Jensen, Certified Public Accountant
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Annika Jensen entered the world of public accounting in 2007 while simultaneously attending UCSB to earn her BA in Economics and Accounting. In 2013 she joined the Palius, O’Kelley & Janzen team as an accountant and quickly moved through the ranks as she studied for and
achieved her CPA certification.
Serving in the role as Partner, Annika uses her extensive tax knowledge and love for numbers to pursue her true passion - working with local business owners and helping them achieve financial success! She enjoys building long-term relationships while providing expertise in the areas of strategic tax planning and financial reporting. With over a decade of industry experience, working with closely held businesses, Annika has served clients in the real estate, retail, restaurant, professional services, fishing, agriculture and manufacturing industries.
Growing up on the central coast, Annika has always lived within a few minutes of the nearest beach. When not enjoying the wonders of Santa Barbara, you will find her hiking in the mountains, adventuring around the world with her husband, or settling into the life of being a new mom.
Annika serves as Treasurer of the Santa Barbara chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and since 2018 has served on the Board of Directors for SABER (Santa Barbara Executive Roundtable). She recently became a volunteer of the Cal Coastal Loan Committee which secures financing for small businesses. In addition, she is a member of the California Society of CPAs and serves on the Financial Literacy Committee which is dedicated to educating our youth on the importance of financial competence.
Annika feels blessed to call Santa Barbara her home and is a part of what makes it so special!
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Lifetime Achievement Award
Marsha Bailey, Women's Economic Ventures
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Marsha Bailey is the founder and CEO Emerita of Women’s Economic Ventures, a non-profit organization launched in 1991 and dedicated to creating an equitable and just society through the economic empowerment of women. WEV provides a variety of training and consulting programs to help women start and expand small businesses and provides access to capital through both grant and loan programs.
“The idea that women’s economic status could be improved by helping them start their own businesses was both innovative and unproven,” Bailey says. WEV has shown not only that business ownership can provide a viable pathway out of poverty, but that it can build family wealth and stability and contribute to the economic well-being of our communities.”
As WEV’s CEO, Bailey served on many local, state and national boards and has been a consultant and mentor to emerging leaders and organizations both nationally and internationally.
She has served on many boards of directors and chaired the boards of the national Association of Women’s Business Centers, the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), Union Bank’s Community Advisory Board and the Fund for Santa Barbara. She is a former member of the National Women’s Business Council, which provides guidance on issues related to women’s business ownership to the White House, Congress and the Small Business Administration..
Bailey has a B.A. from Michigan State University in fine art and sociology and an M.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Speech Communication with an emphasis in rhetoric. Her master’s thesis, “Women Speak: Feminist Rhetoric and the Anti-Feminist Response,” is a history and comparison of the rhetoric of the suffrage and ERA movements.
Bailey has received many local honors in recognition of her work and in 2017, was inducted into the South Coast Business Times’ Business Hall of Fame. She retired from WEV in 2020 and is pursuing a new passion: ceramic art. She currently serves as President of the Board of Clay Studio Santa Barbara.
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Woman Business Owner of the Year
Pam Tanase, Work Zones
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Pam Tanase made her way to California from the mid-west to attend college and compete in swimming, diving and water polo. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in psychology and a graduate degree in education. Pam moved to Santa Barbara in 2000 to coach the women’s water polo team at UCSB.
After ten plus years of collegiate athletic coaching, Pam pivoted to being a business owner with a new franchise concept, Massage Envy. While managing the rights to develop the franchise along the Central Coast and other parts of Southern California, owned (and sold) three locations and oversaw the training and brand standards of eighteen other locations. While still part of the Massage Envy brand, opened the first coworking club in downtown Santa Barbara, Workzones. Workzones is celebrating ten years of providing a productive and focused work space, including private offices, conference rooms and coworking, for professionals to grow their businesses and achieve a greater work-life balance.
Pam and her husband, Kirk Peacock, are empty-nesters with their son at graduate school at Cal Lutheran and their daughter in her final year at UCSD. In her spare time, Pam is often swimming at Los Banos pool and enjoying wine and fine dining with Kirk.
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Rising Star of the Year
Awan Haj, Dos Pueblos High School
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Awan Haj is a senior at Dos Pueblos High School. She is the youngest of three siblings, and considers her kitten as a little baby sister. Awan enjoys taking walks on the beach, traveling, hiking, and playing sports with my siblings. Awan is a collector; She keeps unique rocks and snow globes every time she visits a new place!
Since childhood, she has been fascinated with astronomy, acting, videography, photography, and all kinds of art. As a young adult, her life ambition has been refined to a strong passion for architecture. Her ultimate goal is to graduate from university with a degree in Architecture and design. Awan plans to use the skills and knowledge she develops to give back to the world by creating a commission that designs houses for people who are socially and financially disadvantaged.
Growing up in an apartment all her life, she hopes to someday design the dream home that her parents have always wanted.
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Education Advocate of the Year
Ana Guerrero, FirstGen_Resilience
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Ana Y. Guerrero was born in Mexico City and raised on a California’s Central Coast ranch. As a first-generation immigrant and college student, her professional, academic, and personal experiences inform her commitment and passion to furthering equity and inclusion in higher education.
Ana holds a PhD and Master’s Degree from the UC Santa Barbara Department of Education, a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and an Associate's Degree from Santa Barbara City College. She is a higher education professional and student advocate.
Ana believes access to information, opportunities, and guidance is crucial for first-generation college students. Therefore, she founded FirstGen_Resilience, a platform that empowers students by providing information, guidance, and motivation with a holistic, culturally relevant, and caring approach.
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Philanthropic Champion
Kathryn Martin, Santa Barbara Symphony
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Kathryn R Martin is a catalyst for moments of transformational shift and breakthroughs. As an author, entrepreneur, Next Chapter Coach, and founder of The Career (Life!) Breakthrough AcademyTM Kathryn coaches successful leaders at pivotal crossroad moments; helping them break out of cycles of frustration and indecision and curate their dream scenarios.
With a 30-year career leading and consulting with non-profit arts & culture organizations during times of transition and change, Kathryn is one of this country’s top professional Interim CEO’s and transition strategists for nonprofit arts organizations; and has led the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Milwaukee, the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio, and University of California San Diego's Artpower. She served as Vice President of a national Arts Consulting firm for 12 years, has consulted with over 200 arts and culture organizations and has supervised, trained, and coached professional interim leaders placed in arts and culture organizations across the United States.
Named “Empowered Woman of the Year” in 2019 and “Top Leadership Coach of the Year” in 2018 by IAOTP, Kathryn uses her proven process to help clients unlock their purpose, align their professional brand with their true value, nurture momentum, and cultivate impact in their careers and in the lives of those they are meant to serve - with ease, joy and financial sustainability.
After their adult son successfully battled brain lymphoma, Kathryn and her husband Peter began actively curating their Next Chapter in Santa Barbara, California and has been leading the Santa Barbara Symphony as President & CEO since May 2020.
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Public Policy Leader of the Year
Robin Elander, Downtown Organization
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Robin Elander was hired as the Executive Director of Downtown Organization of Santa Barbara in May of 2020. She and her staff team have been focused on supporting downtown businesses recover from the pandemic by providing educational and financial resources and business marketing and promotion and management of the business improvement district. She strives to work collaboratively with all community stakeholders to enhance conditions for a welcoming and thriving downtown business district for both locals and visitors to return to time and time again. She and her team host many community events, programs and promotions and facilitate conversations with partners year-round to enliven and support the district.
Robin is also the Founder of Global Good Impact, a consulting company started in 2015 dedicated to empowering individuals and building stronger communities world-wide. For the past 8 years, Robin has also served as the Executive Director of the Summer Solstice Celebration, one of the largest parades and festivals on the West Coast.
Robin has over 20 years of experience planning and facilitating hundreds of community initiatives and events. She has conducted numerous programs how to people how to overcome fears, mitigate obstacles, make a plan and turn ideas into realities. Robin specializes in working individuals and organizations to make positive impacts in their lives, and fostering connected, inspired communities.
Robin has a master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from California Lutheran University and a bachelor’s degree in Parks, Recreation, Tourism Management from North Carolina State University. She is an outdoor enthusiast and one of her favorite pastimes is backpacking around the high alpine Sierra lakes.
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Entrepreneur to Watch
Kate McHale Jensen, KMJ Designs
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Kate McHale Jensen was born in Hawaii and moved to Santa Barbara when she was 7 years old with her family! She attended local schools and graduated from Santa Barbara High School. Her real first experience with design came as one of the winners for the 1998 Young Designer of America Competition sponsored by the Ashton-Drake Galleries. She created a design for the 'Gene' Doll which was produced and presented at the Toy Fair in NYC. It was her ticket to Otis College of Art & Design. Which lead to the beginning of her career in several facets of the fashion industry.
It didn’t take long before she quit her retail job as a buyer to pursue her passion and spearhead her first brand to create what women wanted by designing pants that fit like jeans. Several years later, she continues to pursue her dream with every shirt KMJ repurposes. Creating clothing that will empower women to feel even better about themselves while taking part of a movement that the future is female.
The physical boundaries of the men’s shirts are what ignites her creativity and design process. To this day, she still get the biggest rush from 'pulling' the next batch of vintage shirts to offer them another life. Digging through and seeing what the potential of an otherwise forgotten shirt to repurpose in the hopes of making women feel empowered and alive!
Kate and her husband, Mark have been together for 24 years and are the parents of Alexa, age 11 and Angelina, age 9. She enjoys spending time with her family, close friends and her KMJ community.
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Thank you to our Corporate Partners |
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Thank you to our In-Kind Sponsors |
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