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Karel Ford: PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® Leadership Summit and COVID-19

May 1, 2020 by

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Karel Ford is the Director of Operations and Mentorship Coordinator for the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW) and specifically with their PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® program. PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® is an annual business training and mentorship program for women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Rwanda. The program is in its 14th year and is implemented through three major components — In-Country Education, Leadership Development, and Pay It Forward — which combine to create a continuing program to educate women, promote their business and leadership skills, build a strong public policy agenda in the women’s business community, and to help build stable democracies.

Twenty businesswomen from each country are selected each year, after hundreds of hours of study in their own country, to participate in a Leadership Development Program in the United States. This requires a tremendous amount of coordination in travel, VISAs, housing, meals, speakers, program design, mentor matching, business shadowing and home visits across the U.S., and the final graduation ceremony.

How do you pull all this off with the COVID-19 restrictions, especially those that apply to travel?  That’s the dilemma that Karel Ford faces in 2020 – hear her dilemma brought on by the COVID-19 environment – and hear her thoughts on how to solve the problem.

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About nanmckay

Nan has been President of Nan McKay and Associates, Inc. since 1980. She started Nan McKay Connects LLC in 2019 and has started 4 other businesses over the last 50 years. She has received numerous awards including the Allan Anderson Award of Merit from Minnesota National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, the Section 8 Administrators Award, in 2018 the National Association of Women Business Owners' (NAWBO) Signature Award for Southern California, and in 2019 she was selected by NAWBO as the California Woman Business Owner of the Year. She was co-founder of Minnesota Women in Housing and has served on the Board of Directors for the National Leased Housing Association for many years. She has two buildings named after her in Minnesota, a 10-story elderly high-rise, the Nan McKay Building, and a family subsidized development, McKay Manor. Nan now hosts four podcast shows featuring stories of women empowerment, oral history makers of affordable housing and community development, and stories of ordinary people coping with COVID-19 pandemic.
www.trailblazersimpact.com; nan@nanmckayconnects.com