Alison Turner – graphic designer
Alison is a passionate designer and critical thinker from Seattle. She supports human rights and the local food movement. She enjoys researching interesting things, volunteering, being outside, dancing, cooking and running.
Amanda Buzard – lead designer
Amanda is a Seattle native inspired by clean patterns and vintage design. She chases many creative and active pursuits in her spare time, including photography, baking, attempting DIY projects and exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Kat Hall – project manager
Kat is a California transplant who is inspired by art, fashion and travel. After graduating from SPU, Kat decided to stick around and take in all that Seattle has to offer. While she still misses the California sunshine and her regular trips to Disneyland, Kat enjoys soaking up the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. When she’s not out exploring with her loved ones, Kat likes to cuddle up in her sweat pants to watch a movie or read a good book.
Nicole Shema – director of business development
A Seattle native, Nicole is happy to be back in her home town after graduating from the University of Oregon in 2009. While traveling the world with Semester at Sea, she found a passion for exploring new countries and cultures. Nicole loves discovering new places with friends, running, shopping, and reading in coffee shops.
Cristina Stoian
As the project manager for her team, Cristina makes sure that everything runs smoothly in the CRAVE Amsterdam division and is in close touch with the American team. With an eye for photography and art, and a love for life, she is trying something new every day. She has been with CRAVE since November 2009.
Ramela Schulien
Ramela is from Chicago and has lived on several continents. She moved to Amsterdam with her husband in 2011. A natural organizer and connector, she is a CRAVE Partner in Amsterdam allowing her to explore the city and meet interesting entrepreneurs. Previously, she managed the office of London based Modality Systems, an ICT Consulting Firm. She also lived in Shanghai where she helped expats relocate and connect with the local community. Simultaneously, she consulted for a foreign IT enterprise to establish operations in China. Prior to the big move to China, she worked at Starbucks Coffee in Seattle as part of the Investor Relations and Corporate Responsibility groups. She earned her MBA from Seattle University.
Ramela has a variety of interests: travel, arts/culture, sustainability and design, and health. Having moved around to different countries, she has become adept at being flexible and adapting to her surroundings. Yoga also helps with the flexibility. She dabbled in Chinese and is now learning Dutch.
Monique Eddleton
Monique Eddleton, CEO and Founder of Golden Parachutes, is a career and business strategist with more than 12 years of corporate, entrepreneurial, and career consulting experience. Monique provides professionals with career blueprints which allow them to rise above the ordinary and lead extraordinary lives. She coaches and guides professionals to identify and pursue career opportunities that best represent their passions, strengths, values, and goals. Assisting her clients to attract and build a professional and personal life consistent with their values is not just a goal of Monique’s, its her passion.
Pansy Flick
Pansy grew up loving leopard print and purple. As an adult, she has kept those loves alive as a personal shopper at Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, and as a district sales manager for Bill Blass New York. Pansy loves living in Austin where she enjoys to cooking, reading, working out, hanging out with friends, and finding more purple shoes.
She is excited to bring her networking skills and passion for creativity to CRAVE Austin. Her favorite quote is “Clothes aren’t going to change the world. The women who wear them will.” —Anne Klein
Jennifer Saphier Whitman
Jennifer graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in marketing and entrepreneurship and a lot of motivation. She started Saphier Events six months later and has been supremely happy as an entrepreneur every day since. Saphier Events produces events that run the gamut from elaborate weddings and social affairs to non-profit galas and store launches. Already a fierce supporter of female owned businesses as well as a proud New Englander, Jennifer is excited to list CRAVE Boston to her list of entrepreneurial projects.
Jennifer resides on the North Shore and spends her free time discovering and refurbishing flea market treasures to use as one of a kind props at her events and in her home. Most evenings she can be found out and about the city of Boston hunting for the greatest shopping, dining, and event spots.
Wendy Kennelly
Wendy Kennelly is an entrepreneurial, self-motivated dynamo who loves a challenge! She is a patient listener who can quickly assess business road blocks (present and future) and map out creative solutions to increase productivity and profitability.
Wendy’s background is diverse and colorful. Beyond creating a national field marketing and events agency in 1999, Wendy has had the privilege of playing a leading role in organizations such as The Calgary Flames Hockey Club, Child and Youth Friendly Calgary and WestView Builders.
Louise Truett
Louise majored in Apparel Merchandising at Indiana University with an additional degree in Costume Construction Technology and a minor in Marketing. She trained under German Master Tailor, Karla Kunoff and interned with designer Vivian Gray of Atlanta.
Louise followed a path of creativity and design and built a successful career as a product designer and developer of interior décor accessories at the wholesale level. Marrying for the first time at 38, Louise began writing about her wedding planning experience as The Thirty-Something Bride, an internationally recognized wedding blog. Louise fell in love with the indie-wedding community and opened TruLu Couture, a veil and bridal accessory company.
Freshly relocated to the Charlotte area, joining the CRAVE team is the natural next step.
Saya April Hillman
Saya is from Evanston, IL, graduated from Boston College, and currently resides in Chicago. In 2004, she took her creativity, passion for fostering community, and love of challenging herself, and launched a digital media company, Mac ‘n Cheese Productions. The business accidentally yet very welcomingly grew a connecting strangers-to-strangers branch, and now she’s just as likely to be a nametag-crafter or discussion-facilitator as she is to be an editor or videographer. Saya was one of Chicago Magazine’s Top 20 Singles, a finalist in MIT’s Whiteboard Challenge, and thinks self-employment is the best thing ever.
Jenn Sprinkle
Jenn was a serial entrepreneur at birth. She lays awake at night sorting through ideas that run through her mind. Jenn spent most of her career in the corporate world working with major retailers as a designer and product developer, but she could never escape the passion she had to work for herself. She took that leap of faith last year leaving an incredible international job and fulfilling her dream everyday at her design studio, Waxpaper Design House (specializing in marketing/branding, product development, and custom invitations). Patterns, paper and palettes of color are her passion! She loves inspiring women to take the leap!
Mia Voss
Mia has worked in the inspection/design/construction industry for more than 12 years. After working with several architecture firms in Denver, she branched out on her own in 2001 to start Blue Heron Consulting LLC, a unique niche business that provides punch list management services for high-end condominiums, hotels, and mixed-use development projects throughout the country.
When she heard about the CRAVE company, Mia jumped at the chance to bring CRAVEguides to Denver.
Mia is a passionate advocate for animal rights and the environment, and is also an active member of the Northglenn Community Foundation as well as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver.
Jan McCarthy
Jan’s heritage includes a long line of entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators. Inspired by the courage, determination and independence of her ancestors, Jan started on an entrepreneurial path at an early age.
She earned her BS in marketing and gained experience in sales, marketing, and business through upper management positions in the corporate environment and by launching several startups from real estate to interior design. Jan partnered with her sister to launch Back 2 Our Roots, incorporating business fundamentals with ongoing innovations in marketing, sales and business practices.
An innovative leader and savvy businesswoman, Jan maximizes her strengths as a strategist, connector and motivator. She is a sought-after speaker, budding author, TV guest host, featured writer, and teaches Entrepreneurship at FIDM.
Aprille Franks-Hunt
Aprille Franks-Hunt, Founder & CEO at Women Recharged, left the corporate real estate world to pursue her passion of empowering women as a “real talk” inspiring speaker, author, writer and coach. Aprille is also deeply embedded in the small business community through chamber activities and is also a leader in bringing CRAVE to her local Oklahoma City market. Her first book, Confessions of an Independent Woman: Truth, Lies & Relationships, is a memoir which reveals the life lessons she’s learned that make her who she is today (launches October 2011).
Sharron Jackson
Sharron is a Certified Executive Coach and motivational speaker. She provides coaching for startups and existing small businesses. Sharron created and host “The Bis Coach” radio show on AM 1140. The show airs weekly and is podcast on iTunes with over 13,000 subscribers. She is a strong supporter of community outreach programs and the continued growth of the economy in her community.
She is a Certified Trainer and Facilitator, Certified Program Planner and PREP Trainer. Sharron is the recipient of the 2011 Oklahoma Minority Small Business Champion of the Year Award from the SBA, Oklahoma District and one of Perry Publishing & Broadcasting 2011′s “Woman of the Year”.
Shawna Blankenhorn
Originally from Montana, Shawna worked in the legal field in Seattle for more than 10 years. With a love of fashion, shopping, and everything CRAVE embodies, “girl time” with friends was spent going to CRAVE events, and the guide was their roadmap!
After moving to Arizona more than two years ago, Shawna missed being involved with CRAVE so she contacted headquarters and was honored and excited to bring CRAVE to Phoenix—a dream come true!
Shawna is now starting some businesses of her own and doing social media, marketing, and event planning. Shawna is proud to be on the boards of the Tonya Allen Foundation and Jeremy Bridges Foundation.
Christy Schutz
With more than 16 years in the advertising, marketing, corporate/employment communications and special events industries, Christy has a passion for creating and leveraging communications strategies that equip people to build richer, more effective relationships with those they hope to serve.
Christy is also an avid writer, focused on topics like career management, women/moms in the workplace, job search/career transition and office culture. She serves as a regular contributor and blogger on Tampa Bay’s Jobing.com, the online faith-based ministry YourCareerCalling.org, TheWorkAtHomeWoman.com and on her own site, HigherCallingCommunications.com.
As co-leader of the CRAVE Tampa Bay project, Christy is thrilled to help showcase Tampa Bay’s most successful and inspiring female business owners.
Nancy Vaughn
Nancy is an entrepreness and principal of White Book Agency, a public relations, marketing and special events firm. Nancy leads the development of publicity and communication campaigns that improve the visibility of businesses and entrepreneurs across the country. She actively maintains her freelance writing portfolio and is the Innovation News Editor for the new economy publication, 83 Degrees Media.
Nancy is active in the Tampa Bay community, serving on several boards and is particularly interested in issues surrounding diversity, culture, global sustainability, fashion and beauty. She is excited to be a co-city leader of CRAVE Tampa Bay and provide exposure to some of the Bay region’s savviest, entrepreneurial women.
Suzy Ogé
Suzy Ogé is the founder and director of the Women’s Business Initiative International (WBII) based in The Hague. The WBII is an incubator and coworking business center for entreprenesses. Through her own company, Etcetera Consulting, Suzy advises small business owners and start ups.
Originally from St. Louis, MO, Suzy initially came to Europe in 1998 for the start up of Ben Nederland B.V. (now T-Mobile) and then became Director of European Operations for SBC Communications (now AT&T) based in Brussels. She is an adjunct professor at Webster Universityin Leiden, and teaches business development and mentors student run startups at New Business School Amsterdam. Suzy is a frequent speaker at other universities, organizations and corporations on the topics of entrepreneurship, success, women in business, communication, cross-cultural issues, and more.
Suzy is active in the local community, stimulating both business and social initiatives. Suzy’s husband is French and they have two young, energetic, multicultural children.
Lisa Rouissi
Lisa joined the The Women’s Business Initiative International team in 2007 and is now the community manager. Working in a business incubator inspired her to launch Orange Buzz in 2009, focusing on web solutions for small businesses and professionals. With a blogging background of more than five years and a passion for staying up-to-date on new media, Lisa enjoys sharing her knowledge to help others.
Andrea Rocca
Raised by a family of entrepreneurs, it was never a surprise that Andrea would eventually catch the entrepreneurial bug herself. After receiving her BBA with an honours in Marketing, Andrea gained experience working in the marketing departments of two global companies before deciding that the life of an entrepreness was truly for her.
With an experienced background in marketing and a passion for all things fashion and food related, she has recently begun the journey of creating her own business. It was fate that the opportunity to lead CRAVE Toronto was presented to her at the same time, and she jumped at the chance to help grow a community of talented and motivated entreprenesses.
Christa Meister
Christa has more than ten years of experience in sales, marketing, business development, strategic planning and personal development coaching. She has worked for some of North America’s leading companies such as Steve Nash Fitness World, Paul Mitchell, Graham Webb and Sebastian, and, most recently, producing Jason Matlo’s Runway Show held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver.
Christa deliberately works from the inside-out. Consciously employing both traditional and innovative techniques. She says, “my unconscious is the undisputed project manager.”
Christa’s passion is assisting women in all areas of development. From branding to style consulting, Christa draws daily inspiration from all her clients. She learns just as much from them as they learn from her: “we are life long students that evolve and grow from our experiences gained along the journey of life.”
Christa believes in building solid long-term partnerships that effectively enrich the lives of those involved. She is looking forward to working with the amazing women in Vancouver, and continuing to serve their entrepreneurial needs.
Wendy McAllister
Wendy has more than 15 years of expertise in strategic marketing, business development, account management, online services, and broadcast production. As Founder of Evolution Consulting Group, Inc., Wendy leverages her experience extensively to help her clients successfully evolve their business.
Prior to launching Evolution Consulting Group, Inc., Wendy was director of business development for National Geographic, and worked as an account manager at America Online (AOL). In her spare time, Wendy has also worked on numerous television productions taped in Washington, DC, including the Kennedy Center Honors and the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lincoln Memorial Concert.
A Washington DC native, Wendy has a passion for helping female entrepreneurs grow and succeed. She loves experiencing spas, shopping, gourmet dining, traveling, and hosting events.
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