• BEN Community Champion Award Finalists

    The Community Champion Award recognizes an early growth-stage Founder/CEO who is leading a breakout company and making a positive difference in their community. The ideal profile is an entrepreneurial leader who is traditionally underserved and/or underrepresented. Finalists should be not only building a promising business, but actively giving back to the entrepreneurial community around them in measurable ways such as volunteerism, partnering, and mentorship. 

  • Please use the materials below to inform your vote for the BEN Community Champion Award.

     

    Public voting closes on October 9th

  • Tayaru Bayyana - SereniCare AI

  • Inspired by her personal experience of caring for her father, Tayaru Bayyana founded SereniCare AI to help patients and families navigate serious illness with more support and dignity. Her platform allows remote symptom reporting and earlier clinical intervention, which could especially benefit rural and underserved patients who live far from specialized palliative care. She built it by listening first, interviewing dozens of clinicians, and she holds that technology should give caregivers more time for human connection, not replace it.

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/tayaru-bayyana-3169b44/

    https://serenicare.ai/ 

     

  • Mike Hess - Blind Institute of Technology

  • Mike Hess is the Founder and Executive Director of Blind Institute of Technology (BIT), a nonprofit helping individuals with disabilities build meaningful careers. After two decades managing multimillion-dollar technology projects for Fortune 500 companies, Mike founded BIT to help remove barriers to employment. Today, BIT operates the BIT Academy®, the only Salesforce-approved training provider dedicated to professionals with disabilities, and a U.S. Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship program. Mike also led BIT in securing an $8 million Disability Innovation Fund grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand workforce development opportunities nationwide.

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hess-9a4a826/

    https://blindinstituteoftechnology.org/ 

     

  • Amanda Gordon - GoJo Auto

  • Amanda is the founder and CEO of GoJo Auto and became the first Black woman to own a car dealership in Colorado. GoJo Auto is built around representation, transparency, education, and access. She has become a visible advocate for women and people of color in the automotive industry, a mentor to other women, and a respected voice on greater representation and inclusion.

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-gordon-94199266/ 

    https://www.gojoauto.com/ 

     

  • Sheila Van de Graaph - YouthRoots

  • As Executive Director of YouthRoots, Sheila Van de Graaph brings over 20 years of global experience to a simple conviction: young people are leaders today, not just in the future. Under her leadership, more than 1,255 youth have distributed nearly $1 million to 222 nonprofits, and programs like YouthScan and Youth Insight Labs turn young people's perspectives into data that community leaders can act on. She also practices what she preaches by giving a young person a fully voting seat on the YouthRoots board.

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-van-de-graaph-ma-91603236/ 

    http://www.youthroots.org 

     

  • Paige Wiese - Asseto / Tree Ring Digital

  •  Paige Wiese grew Tree Ring Digital into a success, then launched Asseto in response to unmet needs her loyal clients brought to her. She gives back generously: 15 years of donated advisory work to Support a Soldier, $15,000 in pro bono work for Outdoor Mindset, and paid internships for five people with no prior experience, all of whom were placed in careers. She also funds prizes for a free public challenge and runs free workshops and a monthly M&A roundtable, making her a model of humility and generosity for the community.

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigewiese/ 

    http://www.treeringdigital.com 

     

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