Join us for an afternoon of elegance and purpose at the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel! June 28th at 3:00 PM.
This tea is one of it’s kind representing all nationalities – International. Come enjoy exquisite treats and fine teas as we come together to support our impactful mentorship program. This event will directly benefit our upcoming scholarship initiative for our CBWNI mentees participating in the The “Grace & Elegance International Debutante Ball” while fueling our Entrepreneur Empowerment Sustainability Program, designed to uplift aspiring and current professional women entrepreneurs that make less than $1 Million.
Nehemiah Project Community Development Corporation
Ingrid Thompson is a visionary nonprofit leader and the Co-Founder & CEO of Nehemiah Project Community Development Corporation. With over 24 years of experience, she has championed affordable housing, senior home repair, and economic empowerment programs across Metro Atlanta. Under her leadership, Nehemiah Project has secured over $9 million in grants, completing more than 800 critical home repairs for low-income seniors. A passionate advocate for equity and sustainability, Ingrid partners with government agencies, foundations, and grassroots organizations to uplift underserved communities. Her mission-driven approach blends strategic planning, faith-based values, and deep community engagement to build stronger, more resilient neighborhoods.
Transdev / Simmons Global Solutions LLC
With over 20+ years in transportation, I serve as a General Manager at Transdev where I administer a $12 million annual budget, manage 110 employees, and operate a 50 bus fleet for Emory University and Hospital. I am also the co-business owner of Simmons Global Solutions LLC, a fleet transportation business that services the southern region of the US, and our upcoming business, the Simmons Global Solutions CDL Academy LLC, a CDL school offering Class A licensing. Grounded in Christian principles, I’ve overcame adversity to lead with strength, compassion, and integrity. My leadership is rooted in service, with a commitment to developing others, promoting wellness, and creating growth opportunities. With a passion to succeed and help others do the same, my mission is to embody resilience and progress, empowering others to rise and pursue the goals set before them. I lead not just for success, but to leave a lasting, transformative impact.
Enterprise Community Partners
As vice president and Southeast Market leader for Enterprise Community Partners, Dr. Christie Cade leads Enterprise’s solutions work across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. She focuses on delivering critically needed capital and resources to expand affordable housing and community development capacity in the region. This includes coordinating investment to support housing production, providing training and technical assistance to support preservation and faith-based development, and advocating for housing policies at the state and local levels.
Prior to joining Enterprise, Dr. Cade served as regional vice president for the Southern Region at NeighborWorks America, directing the deployment of financial and technical services across 13 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to advancing affordable housing and community development, homeownership promotion and preservation, and lending in both urban and rural communities, she also led the regional community trauma and disaster recovery initiatives at NeighborWorks.
Dr. Cade has also served as senior manager of housing development for the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, as well as the assistant director of housing for the State of Georgia’s Housing Finance Agency, administering the state and federal low-income housing tax credits and other housing financing programs.
She is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Business and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from Avila University and a PhD. in organizational development and leadership.
Invest Atlanta
As President and CEO of Invest Atlanta, Dr. Eloisa Klementich is transforming economic development in the city of Atlanta through strategic initiatives to increase equity and prosperity for all Atlantans. She leads a nationally recognized economic development agency accredited by the International Economic Development Council and has shaped the Invest Atlanta organization around equity to ensure all Invest Atlanta programs focus on this fundamental outcome.
Since being named CEO of Invest Atlanta in 2016, the agency has had many notable accomplishments under Eloisa’s leadership. She commissioned Atlanta’s first economic development strategy driven by economic mobility, fostered an internal culture at Invest Atlanta focused on equity, and led the integration of Atlanta’s workforce development agency and Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative programs into Invest Atlanta to create a more comprehensive economic development solution for the city.
During her time as President and CEO, Eloisa and the Invest Atlanta team have produced significant economic development results, including facilitating the creation of 12,766 affordable housing units, 60,331 new full-time jobs, supported $36.6 million of small business funding and $9.6 billion dollars of new capital investment in the city. These and other Invest Atlanta economic development results have made a $21.9 billion economic impact on the city.
Eloisa is a certified economic developer and notable economic development expert. She has spent the last two decades solving complex challenges at the city, state, and national levels. Before coming to Invest Atlanta, Eloisa served as special assistant for economic development at the U.S. Economic Development Administration in the Office of the Secretary. She served as California’s assistant deputy secretary for economic development and commerce and has held various roles with city governments, including a consultant for Mexico’s President Vicente Fox, working on best practices for addressing constituent issues and requests.
Eloisa holds a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College, as well as master’s degrees in urban planning and Latin American affairs from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA from el Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey. She received a doctorate degree in public administration from the University of LaVerne and is currently an adjunct professor of business administration at the University of Maryland.
Eloisa is also active in various business, civic, and community organizations. She serves as a board member for the International Economic Development Council, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, Atlanta Technical College, the Westside Future Fund, and Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc.
She was named one of Georgia’s 100 Most Influential by Georgia Trend in 2024, one of the 2024 Titan 100, one of North America’s Top 50 Economic Developers of 2024 by Consultant Connect, one of the 50 Most influential Latinos in Georgia by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2022, is the recipient of a 2020 Diamond Award, a 2019 Women Who Mean Business award, the 2018 Henry Hill Robinson Award ACBR, the 2017 Walker’s Legacy Women in Economic Development Award, and the 2017 National Association of Minority Contractors Georgia Chapter’s Public-Sector Award. Eloisa is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta Class of 2017 and was a participant in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Initiative in 2015. She has also been featured in Delta Sky magazine’s “Faces of Atlanta Business” in 2017 and the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “People to Watch in 2017.”
Quest CDC
Melanie Faison is a seasoned nonprofit executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in lending, community development, and operational management. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Quest CDC, where she leads day-to-day operations, financial performance, and program delivery—driving organizational impact through data-driven improvements, strategic fundraising, and a client-centered approach.
Throughout her career, Melanie has facilitated more than $271 million in community lending, successfully leveraging public, private, and philanthropic capital to support real estate development, affordable housing, and economic growth across multiple markets. With a strong background as a VP / Director of Lending, she is recognized for her ability to scale lending operations, develop high-impact partnerships, and optimize business strategies to foster sustainable growth and community revitalization.
A dynamic leader and collaborative partner, Melanie brings a deep passion for creating affordable housing units to house Atlanta’s most vulnerable and building partnerships that strengthen communities.
Creekside Christian Academy
Janna Szeto is a mission-driven nonprofit executive with over 20 years of experience advancing organizational growth, strategic development, and community impact. She currently serves as Director of Development for Creekside Christian Academy, a respected Henry County institution educating students for over 50 years.
Throughout her career, Janna has doubled nonprofit budgets, built high-performing boards, and led multimillion-dollar fundraising campaigns for both statewide organizations like the Georgia Transplant Foundation and national leaders such as the Women’s Sports Foundation. Through her long-standing consulting practice, she has guided numerous organizations in strategic planning, grant acquisition, and program innovation.
Career highlights include crafting testimony on fatherhood programming for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, launching a mentoring initiative with Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball, and co-creating nationally award-winning programming that helped the Henry County Chamber of Commerce earn 2023 Chamber of the Year honors.
Janna’s leadership combines business acumen with a deep commitment to equity, collaboration, and sustainable, community-centered change.
South DeKalb Pediatrics, PC Owner/Physician
I was educated in the public schools of Ocala, Florida graduating Valedictorian from Howard High School. After which, Dillard University awarded me a 4 year academic scholarship to pursue a higher education. In 1967, I graduated from Dillard with a degree in Biology Pre-Medicine. I then entered Tuskegee University where I received a Master’s Degree in Protozoology. This degree enabled me to meet people in medicine and locate scholarship funding for medical school. My master’s thesis entitled “A Cytochemical Evaluation of a ciliate Euplotes Plimipes” resides in the Tuskegee University library.
My medical education was funded by numerous scholarships and loans to Meharry Medical College where I graduated in 1973.I furthered my training at Emory University affiliated hospitals where I became the first African American to do a Pediatric residency at Emory. Upon completion of my residency, I was asked to become a faculty member in the Department of Preventive Medicine from 1976-1980. My proudest accomplishment during this time was starting the Pediatric section at DeKalb Grady Health Center in one of the local housing projects. We started off with 500 patients and at the time of my departure, the census had reached 6,999 patients. We were awarded a 2 million dollar grant to build a permanent structure to give our underserved population caring, exemplary health care in a state of the art environment.
After achieving my goals at DeKalb Grady, I moved on to private practice in 1980 by founding South DeKalb Pediatrics. At this time, the practice see patients ages newborn to 19 years of age. Of my civic associations, I am most proud to be a chapter member of the Buckhead Cascade Chapter of Links, Inc. We have given over $150,000 to various groups and organizations—namely the Jerusalem House in Atlanta—to furnish house for HIV infected women and children. Another organization that we support is Child Kind—a nursery for African American HIV infected children.
I was appointed to the Composite State Board of Medical Examiners by Governor Joe Frank Harris and served 2 terms. Later, I was appointed to serve 2 additional terms by Governor Zel Miller. At this time I served, I was the youngest board member ever appointed, as well as 1 of 2 African American ever appointed. I served as President for 2 terms. I am proud to say that 5 of the current 13 members now serving are African Americans.
After rotating off the State Medical Board, I was asked to serve as physician member to our Physicians’ Assistant Committee of the State Medical Board. We license and monitor all PA’s in the state of Georgia and work to promote the physician PA team in underserved areas.
As President of our Georgia Board, I was very active in the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States of America by serving on numerous committees. I was subsequently appointed to the USMLE committee under the auspices of the National Board of Medical Examiners. This committee supervises the licensing of all physicians throughout the country. Another accomplishment of which I am very proud is my involvement, along with 5 other local physicians, in the founding of the Metro Alliance of Minority Physicians. This organization was started to allow minority Kaiser patients’ access to community based private physicians as an alternative to the Kaiser facility.
At this time, I serve as Medical Director for a regional detention center in Atlanta where between 160 and 250 youth are housed. We are proud to provide excellent medical care to these disadvantaged and often troubled youth. I was deeply honored to be recommended by Children’s Health Care of Atlanta to be the resident Pediatrician for Fox 5 Atlanta’s/WAGA Good Day Atlanta. This segment has aired every week for the past 16 years.
I also served as Medallion Chair for the W.B. Mitchell Education Project which is a program for the education and enrichment of underserved youth. It has been my sincere desire to champion the underserved and to make a difference through medical contributions to my community, as well as by actively participating in the entities they set policies that govern healthcare both locally and nationally.
Memberships and Associations
American Medical Association
Greater Atlanta Pediatric Association
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
Atlanta Medical Association
Federation of State Medical Boards
Who’s Who in America
Outstanding Young Women of America
GA Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics
Who’s Who Among Outstanding Business Women 1997
Chapter member-Buckhead Cascade City Chapter of the Links, Inc.
Past President of Buckhead Cascade City Chapter-2 terms.
Appointments
Advisory Board-Northwoods Montessori School
Advisory Board-Better DeKalb
Composite State Board of Medical Examiners (1983-2013; President 1988)
Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States (1992-Present)
Resident Television Pediatrician for WAGA/Channel 5; Good Day Atlanta (1994-2013)
Advisory Board Atlanta Children’s Network
Advisory Board Health Source HMO, Metro Alliance, ACHN
Advisory Committee on Managed Care
Federation of State Medical Boards of Unites States of America 1997
Advisory Board Independent IPA of Atlanta
Kid’s First Pediatric Alliance
Medallion Chair of W.B. Mitchell Educational Project which is a program for the education and enrichment of underserved youth.
Community Advisory for Hughes Spaulding Children’s Hospital
Board for Healthy and Wise
Community Advisory Board for Alzheimer Disease-Department of Neurology-Emory University
School of Medicine
