TrailBlazers Impact

Carmella Davis Watkins became a research scientist and meteorologist after completing her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Maryland College Park accomplishing advanced studies in meteorology at Penn State.  She became a trailblazer dedicating her 35 year career to researching the science behind climate change and weather.   If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE...

Emily grew up in Texas in a latina family. At the age of 5 she still wasn’t able to speak fluent English even thou she was born in America. She started out in the STEM field as an Engineering. But later decided she wanted to do something else.  She develop her passion for journalism from spending time with her father as he would watch the news. She went on to become an executive of a large company...

After feeling unfilled in several jobs, a friend asked Rae what she would really like to do and she answered, out of the blue, “Be a writer.” That statement turned out to be utterly life changing. She talks about how she crafts her women character-driven books and how she utilizes her life experiences as a fiction writer. She also gives important advice to young women. Rae Meadows is the author of...

Susan takes you through the journey, from the discovery of her husband's pancreatic cancer diagnosis to his death. As a phoenix rising from the ashes, an artistic inspiration came to her, creating art for leggings, pictures, phone covers, and a variety of other mediums. Her proceeds go toward research for pancreatic cancer. Go to www.trailblazersimpact.com  to purchase and to What's Happening tab...

Growing up in a privileged family, her world fell apart when her Father's businesses went bankrupt. She was19 at the time. Her life changed forever. She was raised in the fast food business in Kansas City. Her family owned two restaurant chains: Allens and Smaks. They did 32 million hamburgers in 15 years. When she was in college, her father told her she could not continue as they had lost everyth...

In the continuation of Episode 20, Cath McBreen shares her first-hand knowledge of the emotional and physical challenges associated with In Vitro Fertilization.   If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www. TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all our latest p...

In the continuing bonus episode of Season 1, George Dapra provides a riveting account of the US Marshall Services’ Witness Security Division during the tumultuous final decades of the 20th Century in New York City—at the height of the government’s war against organized crime. Dapra also describes other protective details including the much-publicized Elian Gonzalez case and al Qaeda. Non-Disclosur...

Take a wild ride with former Witness Security Inspector George Dapra for a rare, insider’s look into the Witness Security Program. In this compelling human event story, Dapra takes us on a fascinating life journey, beginning with his childhood growing up in a large Italian-American family with immigrant parents who met in the “old country” of Sicily, Italy. From the military, college, and employme...

Working around the challenges of dyslexia and avoid the rampant instances of sexual harassment so often encountered by working women then and now, Cath McBreen, R.N. (retired), achieved her dream of becoming a Reproductive Nurse, helping couples achieve their dream of becoming parents.   If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please...

With 30 years of franchise ownership Frances now looks in her rearview mirror to reflect on how much she didn't know when she took on the purchase of a franchise business with its deep trove of do's & dont's. She credits her father, who owned and  operated a half dozen businesses having achieved only an 8th grade education in the Mississippi of the 1930s, but determined to provide his family the b...

Defining and executing “My” business development model has been key to Desiree’s journey as an serial entrepreneur following in the footsteps of an entrepreneurial mother at the age of 12, and sharing how to know when you have reached the burnout phase and need to take the time to reassess and regroup. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your...

Cathy Gibson left east Texas at age 18 to enter a Virginia girls college in the early 1960s as an “outspoken bigot” and graduated a Big 10 University four years later with a degree in Urban Education committed to increasing the literacy rates of inner city youth, and subsequently becoming a champion for adult literacy as the Executive Director of the Marion County (Indianapolis) Central Library, c...

Lyn Burton shares her journey from professionally accomplished to spiritually fulfilled .  With 25+ years of working to address the housing needs of families with low and moderate incomes, Lyn takes Her leap of faith to become a Unitarian Universalist Chaplain working with women who have struggled with drugs and need help defining that  pathway “back to finding themselves”. If you liked what you h...

Monica recounts the struggle for acceptance as a female attorney,,,and, then as a pregnant female attorney during an era that never fathomed this could really happen in “our” place of work. Fast-forwarding, she recalls the later struggle to work-while-fighting-breast-cancer; two things her male counterparts could never relate to! The upside was a pregnancy that required her law firm to adopt a mat...

We All Stand on the Shoulders of Fay H. Williams (and her “comrades-in-arms”)! Attorney Williams paved the way for women to enter political office as the chair, National League of Women Voters Women’s Education Fund, traveling the country, starting in the late 1960s, to organize political campaigns, teach women how to friend- raise, comply with federal campaign finance laws and raise money from pe...

Be it Capitol Hill, the state capital or the chamber of your local city council, Denise provides sage advice on the importance of speaking-truth-to-power: to demand a moral response to a problem, rather than an expedient, easy or selfish response.   If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring s...

Carolyn Hayden shares her entrepreneurial history as a regional contractor for American Express before Visa was VISA; on becoming one of the nation’s first black female owned and managed Ford dealerships; and launching an international management consulting firm promoting affordable homeownership at home and the development of village water wells as a source of clean water working abroad. If you l...

Beverly shares her journey to marry-up humanitarian interests with business motivation. She provides a “how to” on government contracting and surviving in business and life. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiring stories: www. TrailBlazersImpact.com Subscribe to our email list to get all o...

Mindy Bortness powered through her own fears when fighting breast cancer to come out on the otherside as an advocate for others facing-down serious illnesses and sharing her vision on how to own your life “post-recovery” with renewed vigor to achieve her dream of business ownership. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network!  Please vis...

As a child of the segregated south, and daughter of the first black state’s attorney in Maryland, Singleton shares the varied influences of parents, mentors and elected officials on her career trajectory and commitment to domestic and global social change. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more insp...

Being the “first and only” created childhood isolation and periods of self-doubt, but in the end, worked to underscore the old adage: “what don’t kill you only makes you strong”. Iris went on to achieve multiple successes as a serial entrepreneur and gaining national recognition as the founder of Glory Foodsn with an array of shelf-ready and frozen ethnic food products found on the shelves of Walm...

Shaune describes her emotional escape from an abusive household into the foster care system. From parental abandonment to foster care with sheer determination and grit, Attorney Shaune Arnold shares her journey from the darkest valley to the sun-filled mountain top where she emerged prepared to help navigate the legal labyrinth on behalf of other abandoned or battered children, and earning a multi...

Dee shares the benefits of life as a military dependent during the times when her counterparts were disadvantaged by segregated housing, segregated schools and denied opportunity for equal access to public amenities such as libraries and swimming pools. If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button above and share this episode with your network! Please visit our website for more inspiri...

Co-host and TBI founder, Nan McKay, shares her-story: where it all started in a little town in Illinois when her father was killed in a car accident and the town blamed Nan's family for the death of an 11 year old boy. This life-defining event forged her determination to hold her head high and power through adversity throughout her life.   If you liked what you heard, please hit the SHARE button a...

How far have women come to close the gender gap? The introduction provides facts about how much progress women really have made. Were the “olden days” really that good? Is history relevant today? If not, why do we sometimes feel like we are going backwards? And why tell the stories? So young women can learn through listening to the stories that you sometimes have to fight through the bad times to...