NC

Sisters Lakila Bowden and Kamille Richardson are reframing disability and disproving myths that providing accommodations for differently abled employees is expensive and burdensome to businesses through their consulting company, iSee Technologies. 

Children admire their parents’ careers, and often emulate the kinds of jobs they perform: they want to be firefighters, police officers, teachers, doctors, lawyers and so forth. This was also the case for Celia Rudder, who wanted to be like her father from an early age and become an entrepreneur in Greensboro, N.C. Although she wasn’t encouraged to follow in his footsteps, she eventually took over her father’s business after he passed away.

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur, right? 

John Martin, the CEO and founder of the North Carolina-based consultancy group Martin-Sloane International and Martin & Company, is on his second-time around as an entrepreneur. 

He originally started a small IT consulting firm in 1994, which he eventually sold in 1997. 

Benevolence Farm, located in Graham, N.C., is a transitional living and employment program for women leaving North Carolina prisons. The farm grows and sells produce, flowers and herbs and manufactures soaps, lotions and candles with the support of the women participating in its programs.

According to their mission statement, “Benevolence Farm seeks to cultivate leadership, promote sustainable livelihoods, and reap structural change with individuals impacted by the criminal justice system in North Carolina.”

After a trip to visit a friend’s son at a local pediatric ward left Kevin Gatlin disheartened, he became determined to make lengthy hospital stays more comfortable for kids and parents alike. He thought about how his kids utilize the limited space in their own bedrooms by playing games, doing homework and reading on their beds. From this point, Kevin let his imagination run wild and created Playtime Bed Sheets, interactive sheets to help keep kids entertained from the comfort of a bed.