Twins Jonathan and Matthew Burgess are no strangers to American history; they’ve been a part of it their whole lives. Their great-grandfather, Rufus Burgess, a freed enslaved person, became a landowner once California became a free state. There, in Sacramento, he owned the first African American-owned church — the Emmanuel. ... Read More

A look at what happened to established business owners and lessons for the next crisis by Howard Wial, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and Devon Yee, Senior Research Analyst, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City December 2021 During the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, ... Read More

Mona Ahmad decided to leave her job at a bank in Boston to take care of her daughter and newborn twins. But more time at home allowed her to cook her traditional family meals—that’s when her love for cooking really took off. Ahmad turned her passion into a business by ... Read More

“Let me start by saying it was never my intention to open a school,” says Barbara Chavous-Pennock, CEO of Somerset Academy Early Learning Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Opening with this statement, she’s about to tell an incredible journey of never giving up and of always persevering—not even for herself, but ... Read More

Liseth Velez wanted to be in the military from a very young age. “I came to this country when I was seven, and from the moment that I had any kind of conscious of career or anything like that, I just knew I wanted to join the military.” After completing ... Read More