Atlanta Magazine. May 2023 print.

Aarti Sahgal

Her mission is to enable entrepreneurs with disabilities to build sustainable businesses.

When Aarti Sahgal—a mother of two, the youngest of whom has Down syndrome—first moved to the U.S., she and her husband were disappointed by the lack of inclusivity and support available to kids with disabilities. She claims the programs her family had access to tended to be discriminative because they curtailed access to the same education and career opportunities that other kids received.

“When my youngest son was born, we were told that we should get ready to have him institutionalized, but we made a promise to give him the same opportunities as our older son,” Sahgal says. That moment proved to be a pivotal point in her life, and she decided to quit her corporate job to work in the disability sector.

In 2016, Sahgal founded Synergies Work, a business incubator and accelerator for entrepreneurs with disabilities. She believes that all individuals have their own unique skills and talents and a thirst for success. Today, at 22 years old, her son continues to thrive despite having Down syndrome; he attends Georgia State University, runs two businesses, and is an ambassador for Georgia Advocacy Office’s (GAO) Supported Decision-Making Project.

Sahgal says she is most passionate about leveling the field for people with disabilities so they can live up to their true potential. “I feel it is important to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations,” she says. “The moment you raise the bar, you see the broad capacity and not the limitations.”

Synergies Work is the largest organization in the country to serve innovative entrepreneurs with disabilities at every stage of their journey. Since its inception, Synergies Work has helped more than 200 entrepreneurs, the majority of whom are women and people of color. It is committed to supporting 1 million new entrepreneurs with disabilities by 2027 through partnerships with disability organizations and businesses that believe in building an equitable ecosystem.

Rashida Winfrey

She is bridging the financial gap for underserved communities in Atlanta.

As vice president and senior business consultant focused on underserved entrepreneurs at JPMorgan Chase, Rashida Winfrey is charged with supporting the company’s commitment to advancing racial equity through small business resiliency and growth. Previously, Winfrey served as chief service officer and director of partnerships at the Atlanta mayor’s office, where she led work to deepen constituent engagement, implement innovative solutions for community challenges, and establish the first City of Atlanta Corporate Partnership Office. She directly supported the city’s economic development agency, Invest Atlanta, in the distribution of $22 million of Covid-19 small business grants and launched the innovative Technical Assistance program providing business support beyond funding.

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But for Winfrey, bridging the financial gap for communities in Atlanta has a personal meaning. “I had the benefit of growing up in an upper-middle-class family in the Cascade Heights neighborhood, but I was bused to high school in Buckhead every day,” she says. “I saw the poverty and struggles of my friends, who did not have the same support to ‘make it’ in their careers.”

Winfrey knew she was fortunate to have her upbringing and felt compelled to leverage her advantages to assist the communities around her. She strives to create programs and initiatives that offer hands-on financial literacy and coaching to small businesses and youth so they have more entrepreneurship opportunities and exposure to broader career paths in the banking space. Winfrey has served on numerous boards and initiatives geared toward economic empowerment and education, including WorkSource Atlanta and Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive (PAACT).

She’s passionate about how her legacy will help shape the city. “I grew up in a tight-knit African American community in Southwest Atlanta where we were taught that your neighbors are an extension of your family, and that we needed to fight for positive change to rise together,” she says. “That is why I unapologetically support underserved and minority communities in my city.”

Penny Collins

She is empowering more single mothers to enter the STEAM workforce.

As president and CEO of Women in Technology (WIT), Penny Collins is passionate about seeing women and girls of all ages excel in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math)—from the classroom to the boardroom. In 2019, Collins developed the WIT Single Mothers Education Program, which provides supportive services, such as childcare, transportation, equipment, meals, coaching, and job placement in cybersecurity, for 40 disadvantaged single mothers (earning $30,000 or less) each year. The participants take a 12-week-long cybersecurity certificate course
through Emory University.

The idea was sparked by Collins’s own personal journey of entering the workforce as a single mother. “When I first came to Atlanta, I did not have a college education and didn’t even know how to use a computer,” she says. “I was a single mother of two living in poverty and about to get evicted. I got a job as a part-time admin, and it was the women around me who taught me everything about technology. That’s when I decided that once I got on my feet, I would give back.”

Collins initially connected with WIT while working at First Data, a financial services company, and she quickly saw firsthand that there weren’t enough women in the STEAM workforce. She started working toward giving diverse communities more exposure and a voice at the table, in turn promoting creativity and innovation in products and solutions.

She launched the WIT YoPros (young professionals) program and the WIT Career ConneXions program, which aims to train and place women in rewarding and well-paid technology careers. Collins attributes the successes of the programs to Atlanta’s community leaders who lead by example, offering partnerships and sponsorships.

Collins feels strongly about her mission to help both mothers and young women. “Moms are the teachers of the next generation of leaders who will be running our country and organizations. We want to make a conscious eff ort to not leave them behind,” she says.

~ Written for and published by Atlanta Magazine. All rights reserved.