Women Entrepreneurs: Leading women share their journeys to success

Rhonda L. Brown is a Memphis native with over 28 years of business and economic development experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Her experience includes being Vice President of AmSouth Bank, Senior Vice President of Operations for Sita Enterprises, and Senior Business Analyst for the City of Memphis government. Rhonda is now leading the real estate, economic development, and procurements (Buy Local program) efforts as Director for Real Estate and Economic Development with the Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC), where she is responsible for business recruitment, business support, and tracking local, minority, and women-owned spending with the MMDC Anchor Programs. Her expertise includes economic and business development, residential and commercial real estate, small business and commercial lending, local and state Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) programs, and federal government contracting. Rhonda is also co-leading the Market Solutions Workstream team for Convergence Memphis.

Rhonda Brown holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Public Administration from Walden University. Rhonda's professional affiliations include the National Economic Association, International City/County Management Association (ICMA), National Forum of Black Public Administrators, and National Black MBA Association. 

BJ Chester-Tamayo grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, in a home filled with love and a lot of family bonding over meals. After high school, she moved to Memphis with her military husband. Later, as a divorced single mother of one son, she went back to school and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1996 from LeMoyne-Owen College.  

In August 1996, her only child, Will A. Tamayo III, was killed in a motorcycle accident. It changed her life. BJ’s world as she once knew it, changed forever and so did she. BJ took the memories from her childhood, of happiness and families being brought together around good food and started to form a new world: Alcenia’s.  

In 1997, she opened Alcenia’s Desserts & Preserves (named after her mother and granddaughter). As a child, BJ did not cook, but she learned from her mother as an adult. She had a desire to make desserts and preserves, but quickly found out that people wanted more: Alcenia's now also provides soul food. BJ’s hope is for her food to heal and connect with many people, regardless of their race or income.   

B.J. has self-published two cookbooks and has been featured in countless television and print works. In her downtime, you can find BJ spending time with her family and friends. 

Deputy Commissioner Robin Evans provides executive leadership to quality related offices in charge of training, statistics, process improvement, and stakeholder outreach. She also provides executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of biotechnology, organic chemistry, transportation, construction, agriculture, electronic commerce, and national security.

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Mia's journey began at 15 in the event planning industry. Through various ventures including Ivory & Oak, LLC and OIO Group Inc., she became one of the youngest minority women in the bridal and hotel industry. She is committed to diversity and philanthropic endeavors, including women's empowerment. Balancing education with entrepreneurship, she has expanded her family of brands into other industries including adult beverages and television broadcasting. 

Sean Wilkerson works in the Office of Public Engagement, Innovation Outreach Division at the USPTO creating intellectual property (IP) awareness programs and managing outreach services to independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, makers, and universities. Wilkerson previously worked as an outreach coordinator for the programs leading up to the opening of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley and Texas Regional Offices. He also spent a year as part of the New York engagement team that developed the 2015 Future of Urban Innovation Startups Summit in coordination with Columbia University and the USPTO.

From 2011–2013, he served as the program manager of the inaugural Select USA Summit, developing the program, structure, and outreach efforts of a U.S. government-wide program housed in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. As an education program analyst in the Global Intellectual Property Academy from 2008–2011, he managed international programs focused on providing IP training related to enforcement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights and the U.S. patent and trademark system. Prior to working for the federal government, he served as the Director of Events for the National Association of Homebuilders in Washington, D.C., and as the Ideas Exchange Manager for Accenture in Reston, Virginia.