Jessica manages Small Business Majority's outreach efforts in Southern California, leveraging her six years of experience as a business consultant for small business owners. As the Minority Entrepreneurship Programs Manager, she develops educational programming and collaborates across states to identify best practices and programming opportunities for small business owners of color.

Renaldo Sanders has been the proud owner of Sanders Family Day Care for over 30 years. Along with her team, she has provided quality daily learning experiences that are age and developmentally appropriate, along with nutritious meal and snacks. Her passion is to ignite the joys of discovery and knowledge, which are tools for success as they become California's future leaders.

Mariette Martinez is the founder of MasterYourBooks, a learning center and collaborative community that serves value-driven service professionals that are ready to build their financial confidence, knowledge, and impact from the Inside Out. MasterYourBooks take intentional entrepreneurs from theory to practice through action-based learning, real-time implementation and peer mentorship.

Shanae Smith is a solutions-oriented woman and minority business owner who maintains a strong balance between business savvy, technical capabilities and love for others. She brings a wealth of experience and business acumen as a former project manager in engineering and construction management for local government agencies. She enhanced her business and management capabilities with the management of a cutting-edge bioremediation water treatment plant, which is the first of its kind in the nation designed to treat groundwater sources contaminated with nitrates and perchlorate.

Hannah Gbeh is owner of Resolution Environmental, an environmental consulting firm that focuses on CEQA and NEPA compliance for green energy, agriculture and residential development projects. Ms. Gbeh has 24 years of experience teaching and researching environmental science, 15 of which have focused on the preparation of documents for compliance with federal, state and local environmental regulations. She is a graduate from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Environmental Science, a minor in Global Climate Change and a focus on environmental justice. Ms.

James O’Donnell is the co-owner of Kocky’s Bar and Grill in Fresno. Formerly club promoters in college, James and his business partner Mike Smith decided to put their marketing degrees to good use when they lanched Kocky’s Bar and Grill.

Hope Suhr started her journey in an entrepreneurial family. Her parents helped pave her way to independence and instilled in her a great work ethic. In her early years, she spent raising her two children and helping her husband run a very successful recycling company.

Jonathan Burgess and his twin brother Matthew are the proud founders of Burgess Brothers, a brand established in 1849 when his great-grandfather was brought to Coloma, Calif., where gold was discovered. His business provides food products for hospitality, food service companies and retailers, in addition to menu development and concession concepts for food service management groups. The Burgess Brothers’ food products include sauces, baking mixes, meats, beverages, and PPE.