Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) Fellowship

Want to invest in a high-growth market? Invest in women entrepreneurs.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor — the world's most extensive entrepreneurship study — shows us that countries investing in women entrepreneurs experience an increase in GDP. Multiple research studies demonstrate the correlation between female executive leaders and profit increases anywhere from 15 to 69 percent. Women leaders are an economic engine of growth, and the GW School of Business is proud to offer award-winning coursework and research on women entrepreneurs. To further leverage these assets, the Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (CFEE) launched the Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) fellows program. Through a competitive process, two founding fellows were selected and a WEL Council was formed.

Upcoming Events

• March 29, 2022 - CFEE Executive Director Kathy Korman Frey speaks at the U.S. Small Business Administration Women’s Business Summit
• April 4, 2022 - WEL fellows present at the GW Women in Business Spring Conference
• April 7, 2022 - Hoffman Lecture Series with Pamela J. Bell, founding partner of the global brands Kate Spade and Jack Spade, founder of Prinkshop, and co-founder, creative partner and board member in Kenneth Cole’s Mental Health Coalition
• Ongoing - CFEE Peer Mentoring Sessions (open to the community)

Our Director

Kathy Korman Frey is a professorial lecturer of management and the director of the Center For Entrepreneurial Excellence at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). She helped develop and currently teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) at GWSB. WEL is the winner of a USASBE Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award. Frey is the founder of the edtech social venture The Hot Mommas Project, the world’s largest women’s case study library providing access to diverse, teachable, scalable role models and mentors from around the world. The venture’s Women’s Leadership Academies and group coaching workshops have directly reached women from 138 countries, increasing self-efficacy of participants 21 percent in a half-hour workshop and up to 300 percent in a 10-module session. The Hot Mommas Project is the winner of a Coleman Foundation Case Award and is included in the mission of the GWSB Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Hot Mommas Project have been featured in the media including the Washington Post Magazine, NPR, Working Mother, Forbes, BBC and TIME.

Our Founding Fellows

Mackenzie “Kenzie” Walters

Mackenzie “Kenzie” Walters is a fourth-year international affairs student at the George Washington University. Kenzie is from Pittsburgh, PA and concentrates in international politics with a minor in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Kenzie has held multiple governmental and nonprofit internship positions, most notably at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and with U.S. Congressman Conor Lamb. She has experience with projects directly related to the criminal justice system, veteran assistance, and the opioid crisis. These experiences have allowed her to expand her network and deploy such knowledge towards the fellowship.

Barikisu “Barry” Muntari-Sumara

Barikisu “Barry” Muntari-Sumara is a first-year Global MBA student at the George Washington University, School of Business. She is originally from Ghana, with a B.A. in Business Administration from Ashesi University. Barry’s professional background includes working as an investment analyst, business development strategist, marketing professional and extending her skills and knowledge from private equity management to female traders to help them strategize and scale their businesses. She also enjoys mentoring/supporting young girls and budding female entrepreneurs. Barry worked with her mother from the age of nine, for 11years, learning about entrepreneurship/trade, managing bookkeeping, advising on growth strategies, and extending her experience from working on her mother’s business to other traders. At the age of nineteen, Barry would apply her entrepreneurship experience and education to starting and managing two bakeries with her younger sister, serving diabetic patients, offering skills training to girls in her community, providing pastries on credit to single mothers to trade and pay back later, while nurturing her sister’s interest in entrepreneurship.

The WEL Council

Student Leaders

• Amna Ahmad
• Alem Tsehay Bekele
• Meron Daniel
• Ruth Dwyer
• Isabel Meizoso
• Gabriela Tamara Pajuelo
• Jess Vodilka
• Mariam Zara

Professional Members

• Kayla Brochu
  GWU faculty member. Former federal prosecutor. Expert in human rights and trafficking.
• Theresa Alfaro Daytner
  GWSB senior mentor and guest lecturer. Trained coach. Entrepreneur, angel investor. One of Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women.
• Tenley Carp
  Experienced business and contracts attorney. Former Springboard entrepreneur. GWSB senior mentor and guest lecturer.
• Carla Morelli
  Merger and acquisition expert. Trained coach. GWSB senior mentor and guest lecturer.
• Tinu Abayomi Paul
  Disabled justice advocate, writer, Black equity activist.
• Sameera Bazaz
  President of HBS Angel Network, DC. Angel investor. CSO, Hot Mommas Project. Former venture funded startup senior executive.
• Sophia Amara Obagio
  Entrepreneurial scale expert. Certified scrum master. GW alum. GWSB senior mentor and guest lecturer.

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