Connect Who or what is your inspiration in business?

My inspiration in business comes from people rebuilding their lives after incarceration who still choose to show up for others. Through work with Interaction Transition, Underground Ministries, and One Parish One Prisoner, I’ve seen how mentorship and community create real change. Business, to me, means building systems that serve people, where lived experience becomes leadership and second chances turn into pathways for belonging and impact.

How do you stay motivated?

I’m motivated by my own suffering. I lived through addiction, abuse, and deep loss. Those traumas shattered my foundation and I lost my way, eventually landing in incarceration. Those turning points drive my work today. I’m committed to building networks of interrupters. People who step in before someone falls as far as I did. What keeps me going is simple: if my story can stop the next one from starting, every scar was worth it.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would invest the $25,000 into my business, ED4 Empowerment, to grow an increased network of educators and interrupters, people who each hold a piece of the puzzle in helping others avoid addiction, abuse, loss, and incarceration. I never knew I could help change the world until I started doing it. This investment would expand that work, strengthen communities, and create real pathways for healing so fewer people fall through the cracks I once fell through. Change happens when someone cares.