Women’s Impact on the Workplace

Claire Hunsaker | Founder and CEO of AskFlossie

Sporting a red "Believe Women" T-shirt and a grin, Claire Hunsaker hardly looks like the stereotype of a businesswoman.

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"Like me, many of the women from my MBA cohort are now doing 'double-bottom-line' stuff: building businesses that return profits and also have a secondary impact."

Hunsaker works out of a small, brightly wallpapered storage room in the back of a cabin that she shares with her partner, her baby, and her pandemic puppy. It's a far cry from her corporate, Fortune 50 past.

A self-proclaimed achievement junkie, Hunsaker says she originally applied to Stanford's business school to prove to herself she had what it took. "I'm not sure that was a good reason. That's an expensive road to self-fulfillment."

It took a decade to decide what professional success really meant to her. "Like me, many of the women from my MBA cohort are now doing 'double-bottom-line' stuff: building businesses that return profits and also have a secondary impact."

Your Financial Wingwoman

Hunsaker is making an impact by empowering women financially. Her newest venture was inspired by her grandmother, Flossie. "Flossie was a firecracker of a woman who could do anything and make do with nothing."

But Hunsaker doesn't want women to just make do. She wants to help them get their due.

So she built AskFlossie, where women can access a community of mentors and expert advisors to navigate life's biggest financial decisions.

"There is a lot of shitty financial advice out there. And the space is dominated by men, so women feel they don't belong. But women aren't stupid. The data shows women are better savers, more conservative investors. They just need a wingwoman."

Hunsaker isn't worried about stepping into this passion project, even though starting a new business is risky.

Thanks to her MBA, she has awesome people she can lean on along the way. "The people in my network have substantially accelerated my career at every stage."

Vanessa Motley Coleman | VP of Digital at Kinló

One of the women Hunsaker has kept in touch with is her classmate, Vanessa Motley Coleman.

Coleman went back for an MBA to transition from the entertainment industry into a role with a major media company or large corporate retailer. But when she graduated in 2009, the market had crashed.

"There were no jobs. Most large corporations had a hiring freeze. My plans were completely shaken up," says Coleman. So she partnered with some classmates to launch a new company, which kicked off her 15-year career as an operator in startups.

A Product with Purpose

Coleman's latest role at Kinló marries two things she cares about deeply: building a successful business and making life better for people of color. Kinló is a startup launched by tennis super star Naomi Osaka, who wanted to create a protective skincare line for people with melanated skin tones.

Coleman pointed out that many people with more melanated skin don't realize they should wear sunscreen. As a result, the skin cancer mortality rate of Black Americans is wildly higher than that of white Americans.

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"The numbers are staggering. Changing that is really, really important to me, especially on the heels of a year that has been so challenging for the Black community. I want what I'm doing to have impact beyond profit.

"This is about more than just selling sunscreen. It's about more than disrupting retail with a new product category. It's about creating education and conversation around a major public health need."

Coleman says her part in creating that conversation is only possible because of the training she got in business school. "Getting an MBA changed my life, one thousand percent."

Jamie Wright | Author, Speaker, and Founder of Jamie R. Wright, LLC

Perhaps it's no surprise that two women who graduated from Stanford Business School are finding professional success. But Jamie Wright would tell anyone to get an MBA from any school they have access to.

Without her MBA, Wright says she would still be living in a women's shelter in downtown Houston. Instead, she is making six figures and starting her own company to help other women.

"Statistically, I'm not supposed to have a master's degree. I had a traumatic childhood. I was pregnant at 13. I dropped out of junior high. By 19, I'd had five pregnancies and was raising my two surviving children in the projects. I struggle with depression. And, I'm a survivor of domestic violence."

For years, Wright's life felt like one resounding "no" after another.

After going back to vocational school, she landed a job at a bank, where she slowly worked her way up. But when she applied for a promotion, she was told: "Oh Jamie, no. You're cut out for backroom work."

"That's when I realized that I needed to find a way to make it harder for people to tell me 'no'."

A Way Out

Wright went back for her MBA at the University of Phoenix and then moved to Dallas to work for the Department of Defense. In 2020, she moved again, to Houston, where she married a wonderful man: a firefighter, retired soldier, and ordained minister.

"That was supposed to be my happy ending."

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"The only thing that separated me from them was my ability to make money. My MBA. It gave me a way out."

But just a few months later, Wright found herself at the door of the Houston Women's Center, hurt and homeless, in the middle of a pandemic. "He had hit me in the face."

In that "sacred, humble space" where she ate the food she was given, got therapy, and saved money, Wright says she met "the most wonderful women, the most tenacious, kindhearted survivors." A lot of them are still there today.

"The only thing that separated me from them was my ability to make money. My MBA. It gave me a way out."

Today, Wright works as an auditor for the Department of Veterans Affairs, has published two books, and sits as a director on the board of that very same women's shelter. She also makes enough money to fund her latest passion project — her very own LLC.

A Career in Advocacy

At the end of 2020, Wright started Jamie R. Wright, LLC to provide "survivor-led, community-based awareness and education to communities of color impacted by domestic and intimate partner violence."

For now, Wright is focused on getting the word out: "I want to advocate for a different kind of conversation about domestic violence. I want to give people practical tips to heal. I want to eradicate violence from my community."

She expects her LLC to start making money by the third quarter of this year. "I believe this will become a viable business."