FEATURED SPEAKER

Theia Washington

Executive Director, City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI)

Theia Washington serves as the Executive Director of the City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI). This newly launched initiative provides opportunities for entrepreneurial advancement and small business sustainability for women entrepreneurs in Atlanta. Theia oversees the totality of services offered by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, including the development and operational structure of its incubator – a best-in-class collaborative work space designed to curate young businesses, and empower them with resources needed to fortify their growth, longevity and success in Atlanta’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. She works collaboratively with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the WEI advisory board, a team of some of Atlanta’s most influential business leaders, to galvanize synergistic support from the public, private and education communities aimed at leveraging the initiative’s objectives. Theia’s leadership includes developing innovative strategies to position WEI as a vanguard of education, outreach and engagement to emerging business owners and future entrepreneurs, particularly minority women and women in underserved communities. Theia’s professional career includes nearly a decade at Johnson Controls, Inc. (Fortune 68) and spans senior leadership roles in developing and executing results-driven initiatives aimed at advancing opportunities for women and minority small businesses in the Fortune 100 landscape.

Theia is active on several boards and community initiatives, including the Grady Health Foundation Ambassador Force, Georgia Institute of Technology’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs’ Women Investing in Successful Entrepreneurship (WISE) and the Invest Atlanta Seed Equity Initiative. In addition to serving as a mentor with the “Her 2econd Chance” mentoring program, she has also volunteered her time as a Court Appointed Child Advocate (CASA) with the Fulton County Juvenile Court System and “My Sister’s House” division of the Atlanta Union Mission.

Theia is an alumna of Spelman College.