2022 finalists

Denise is an agile worker who builds relationships and has helped build brands over the last 10 years. She consistently gives 100% of herself to her work. Denise has a passion for team-building and skill-sharing that extends into everything she does. She openly shares her time and bridges connections between teams that might not regularly collaborate otherwise. Her tremendous knowledge of the media landscape provides a strong foundation for tactical and strategic decisions. Above all, Denise has been named an amazing teammate and a positive influence on everyone she comes in contact with.

The last year for Erica has been a test of patience, resilience and self-confidence. She is attracted to potential and gives (nearly) her all to going above and beyond. She is ambitious and highly motivated, and that has been both an opportunity and a challenge for her. She comes in with determination and drive, and her persistence becomes a tool to get $#!T done. Her aforementioned “attraction to potential” led her to a notoriously challenging company; she decided it was best to “date before getting married” to another company for fear of another burn. And so she updated her website, created some capabilities materials, and relied on one of her greatest strengths — relationship-building and networking.  Since then she’s been able to dust off some old skills, has learned some new ones, tried her hand at launching a new business, joined networking organizations, and was featured in a couple of industry media outlets as an “entrepreneur.” While all of this was happening, she was also able to take a step back and really hone in on where she wanted her career to go.

Germaine is a global networking event pioneer and recognized 3x by BizBash Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards amongst the top event producers worldwide. He has hosted business networking events in over 40 major cities in 4 countries, and used the events to market positivity and people coming together worldwide. He is the author of “The 40 Laws of Networking”, which is the largest global collaboration on any book in publishing history, with entrepreneurs, multimillionaires, serial networkers, government leaders and business professionals in 130 countries as contributors. He also authored “50 Seeds of Greatness”, where contributors in 106 countries joined him. He continues to use his global platform as an entrepreneur, event producer, and author to unite humanity to create a better world for all. He has been able to assist thousands of professionals with visibility, marketing materials and advice, and opportunities to create their personal brands and advance their professional careers.

Tasha is a (mostly) recovered workaholic. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Tasha learned there is more to life than work. Although, she sometimes still forgot this lesson. There was the stress-induced insomnia when she worked at the Embassy of Afghanistan that landed her in the psych ward. And the regular 10-12 hour days when she worked at a top-three global ad agency. Freelancing was Tasha’s path to liberation. Dreaming of being a digital nomad, Tasha quit her job in 2019 to travel the world while starting her own branding and marketing strategy consulting business, Duraca Strategic. After some literal and figurative bumps in the road, Tasha replaced her corporate salary within four months (you can read about it in Insider). She now makes six figures working less than half the hours of a traditional 9-to-5 job. Tasha did all this while traveling through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Switzerland, France, Austria, and Germany – oh, and a US cross-country road trip. Three years and one pandemic later, Tasha has her motorcycle and scuba licenses, has learned to surf, and has had so many firsts: deep-water soloing in Vietnam, swimming with sharks in Hawaii, and hiking a volcano in Indonesia. She even launched a side project, Duraca Travels, to help others gain the confidence to pack up their laptop and see the world. This year she had her first press trip and got her first byline in Travel + Leisure!

Amelia is a strategist-innovator, a writer-photographer-linguist, and a career-and-life-chameleon. She is many talents in one human. Amelia has been an “independent” even while serving in more traditional roles during her career. Her Italian roots make her what some call a “Renaissance woman”: equally well-versed in ancient Greek and Eastern philosophy, as in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She has delivered as a consultant at corporations and more recently in academia at Emory, where she co-founded the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Within the Atlanta (and Southeast!) ecosystem, Amelia is well-known for being a “node” of connections among multiple sectors and silos, creating an invisible network and opening doors for corporate intrapreneurs and under-represented founders alike. Through this, she facilitates cross-pollination of ideas and collaboration across multi-disciplinary projects. Her dedication expands to a wider network than her immediate sphere of work as she loves helping people in different places cross bridges! From building an innovation practice ground-up at Accenture to launching a center for entrepreneurship at Emory University, starting something-from-nothing is her mode: and that is where her “multi-hyphenate” skills are tantamount: from visioning-strategizing-creatorizg-connecting to operating-designing-executing. Only recently has she gone officially independent, but she has always been a “free”-lancer: She is generous with her time and mentors younger people by tapping into her multi-hyphenate experiences and careers. She is also writer-photographer-cook-triathlete-yogi, on the side, as well as a mom of two boys: each of them a multi-hyphenate too! The first neuroscience-philosophy-journalism. The second psychology-art-sociology-cooking.

Rodney has finally found his liberation, so to speak. In a career that has spanned over 30 years, Rod has been a founder, journalist, publisher, author, TV writer/researcher, professor, and even a personal trainer. But after hustling and reinventing himself half a dozen times, Rod had found frustration in the on-going cycle of feast or famine. Even though his last 10 years were primarily focused in the healthcare sector, the industry’s pandemic-induced pivot dried up many of his long-term clients. He was ready for a change. We Are Rosie was that change. Now writing for Big Tech, Rod is thriving as a contractor. In just a few months, he has already had one of his headlines featured on a premier product homepage. His multi-hyphenate days likely aren’t over though. Since moving to the mountains of North Carolina in late 2021, he has been dreaming of owning a letterpress and setting up shop in his basement. And there’s a half-written children’s book in his desk drawer that he’s determined to finish.

Kasia has spent this year navigating how to replace her full-time income. She’s pivoted many times and finally landed on a freelance business model that works for her. She runs a company named Narrative where she helps SaaS startups create content that helps them rank in Google and increase their customers (without spending a ton of money). She finds this work extremely rewarding. Pivoting has gotten her to where she is today and she’s finally making the impact she wanted to. 

Cathy is a first-generation American on both sides. Her dad was a Polish refugee and her mom was a Swiss immigrant, both uneducated going back generations and part of the migration after World War II. They met on a blind date in Hollywood, at the Moulin Rouge club on Sunset Blvd. For decades, Cathy was scared of her own shadow and ashamed of her own story. She spent the early 90’s working as a Casting Director in the upper echelons of network TV. Some of her credits include Frasier, Arrested Development, According to Jim, and many other shows and pilots on NBC, CBS, ABC, The CW, and Fox. She also served as NBC’s Manager of Casting, overseeing many pilots including “The Office,” and holds a degree in theatre arts from UCLA, where she graduated magna cum laude (in 4 years!). What a pivot from that bashful little one at the beginning of her story!

Olivia is a role model of resilience who’s used grit, strength, and self-belief to emerge from hardship and thrive as an independent marketer. In August 2022, when Olive accepted the freelance position through We Are Rosie, they had $5 in their bank account and didn’t know how they were going to pay rent on September 1st. Olive had just experienced a grueling divorce and had taken time off from their marketing career to focus on their mental health which caused financial strain. Thanks to Olive’s resilience, strength, and self-belief, they went from not knowing where their next meal would come from to having all bills on autopay and a nest egg in the bank by October 2022. Because Olive earned their master’s degree in Business Administration in 2019, they knew that it was only a matter of time before their hard work would pay off. Their hard work truly paid off, and Olivia is now thriving as an independent marketer.

Altimese is dedicated and hardworking. She is extremely organized and focused on continuously learning and developing best practices to manage routine activities both efficiently and effectively. She went through a divorce last year, and those around her saw her literally come out as a strong and beautiful woman. She is a mother and an advocate for women to thrive in the best version of themselves as they operate businesses. She is also a strong believer in creating a community free of race, religion, caste, or creed.