Darciea Houston, Owner, Filthy Rich Nutrients

Darciea has a passion for holistic health and wellness, family empowerment, nutrition, farming, horticulture therapy, and permaculture with certifications in conversation coaching, horticulture, food handling, and international resilience training for permaculture. She notable progressive and innovative programs like the DukeImmerse at Duke University, Nicholas School of Environment and the Emmett J. Conrad Leadership Program. Additionally, she was nominated and won the 2014 National Black Caucus Regis Groff Award for leading social entrepreneurship.  Her vision is to holistically empower individuals, encourage neighborhoods as they transform into communities.

Carmen Menza, Owner, Menza Art Studio

Carmen Menza is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans video, light based work, music and immersive public art installations. She is especially interested in works that create a visual and musical dialogue to encourage artistic collaboration between herself and the community. Her light based work is part of the art collection at UTSW, Clements University Hospital, Dallas,TX and the McKinney Avenue Contemporary Museum in Dallas, TX. Her films have screened atthe Dallas International Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, Austin Film Festival, AlbuquerqueFilm Festival and KERA Public television-Frame of Mind. She has exhibited with the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Soluna Festival, Dallas AuroraLight & Sound Biennial and Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art, Dallas, TX.

Kari Meyercord-Westerman, Executive Director & Cofounder, Thistle Creative Reuse

Kari loves helping others engage their creativity in environmentally sustainable and resourceful ways, building community, and has a knack for efficiency and organization. She is the owner and cofounder of Thistle Creative Reuse, an online and brick and mortar shop that sells pre-loved art, craft, and creative materials with a mission to help others get creative, sustainably.

She comes from a lineage of crafty upcyclers and artists and began working in creative reuse in 2015 after dropping out of audiology school. Her dream is to help make 'creative reuse' a beloved practice of the masses.

Holly Michael, Founder, Secure and Known

Holly's career continued to develop as she worked for a consulting firm that serviced Fortune 25 companies. While she enjoyed all of the work she had been privileged to do in her corporate life, she believed there was a way to balance her professional and personal dreams. This led her into the world of entrepreneurship. Holly is the founder of Secure and Known LLC, which is a startup company that helps moms raise great kids. The company enables moms to instill life values into their children through play and then teaches parents how to develop and enforce the values throughout childhood.

Katie Novak, CEO, Coop Coaching

Katie Novak’s interest in local food stems from years living in Colorado where her sister and brother-in-law opened SAME (So All May Eat) Café, a non-profit restaurant providing customers a healthy, organic meal regardless of ability to pay. After moving from Colorado to Bloomington, IL Katie volunteered for Green Top Grocery Cooperative and was hired as the co-op’s first employee (Outreach Manager) in April 2013. She chaired Green Top’s record setting Owner Loan Campaign raising nearly $1.5 million in loans and donations to open the grocery’s first location. Katie grew co-op ownership (with help of an army) from just 100 owners in April 2013 to nearly 1700 owners when she left Green Top in 2017. During her tenure, she was approached by other start-up grocery co-ops seeking guidance and advice. Over time, as requests became more frequent, she launched Katie Novak Cooperative Coaching.Katie assists start up grocery co-ops with topics ranging from ownership growth to hiring the co-op’s first employee to capital campaign planning.

Radha Patel, Founder, The Auntie Network

Radha Patel is based out of Dallas, TX and has been married for 12 years with 2 kids and a dog. She founded a personalized matchmaking company for South Asian singles in the US solely on the idea that she wanted to keep parents out of the process but quickly realized they are often the driving force behind timing & choice. With smaller family and cultural networks in their new country, families are having to turn to online matrimonial sites to find potential matches, oftentimes masquerading as their children which leads to a frustrating user experience. The Auntie Network is a dating app that empowers parents to find the perfect partner for their kids by openly & proactively working with their children in the search for a spouse.