As told to Emily Kestel Mayada Alwan is a senior at Valley High School in West Des Moines, where she is a founding member of RISE, a student club that mentors refugees and immigrants. She and her family are Sudanese, and immigrated to the United States from Lebanon. She is Read more…
By Emily Kestel, Fearless editor The Business Record’s Fearless initiative is celebrating its second birthday this year. We remain steadfast in living up to our goal of empowering Iowa women to succeed in work and life through our articles, stories and community events. At its core, Fearless aims to amplify Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Courageous Fire is a social entrepreneur and owner of Courageous Fire LLC, a company that educates the community about domestic violence, and the founding executive director of Courageous Access, a nonprofit that provides direct services to survivors of domestic violence. The following story has been Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Upon summiting the Vinson Massif in Antarctica on Dec. 28, 2021, Jen Loeb became the first woman from Iowa to climb the “Seven Summits,” which are the highest peaks on the seven continents. She lives near Marengo. The following story has been formatted to be Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Denise O’Brien is an activist, organic farmer and co-founder of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. She lives on a 17-acre farm in Cass County with her husband, Larry Harris. The following story has been formatted to be entirely in her own words, and has Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Self-proclaimed ‘popcorneur’ Sydney Rieckhoff is the CEO of Almost Famous Popcorn, a small-batch gourmet popcorn company she started with her brother in 2012 at age 14. Now with 50 employees, the company has a factory and retail store in Cedar Rapids and a retail store Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Patty Sneddon-Kisting is the executive director of the Urbandale Food Pantry. She and her wife, Lisa, have two children: Addi and Cooper. Another child, Hudson, died shortly after birth. They are expecting their fourth child this December. The following story has been formatted to be Read more…
A main goal of our Fearless Focus events is connection and inspiration. We were so happy to hear multiple comments from attendees saying the event helped boost their confidence, and some even told us they wanted to share the event recording with their daughters to help boost their confidence. That Read more…
By Emily Kestel Last month the Business Record hosted its second virtual event within the Fearless Focus series. Throughout our conversation, we talked about what confidence means, what it looks like, and how to strengthen it in ourselves and others. We talked with: Cheltzie Miller-Bailey – former assistant director, Center Read more…
Thoughts ahead of Fearless Focus event on confidence By Emily Kestel From imposter syndrome to harmful effects of social media to social norms we learn as kids, women often find themselves on a constant journey to improving their confidence. Confidence can come in many forms – in our bodies, our Read more…