Women of Black Excellence III: The Keepers Behind Pat McGrath, Terrica Lynn Smith and Karla M. Cole Green

Ashley Thomas

Founder, Supreme Drivers Recruiting — Dallas, TX

Official links: Website · Instagram

Ashley Thomas will tell you plainly where she started, because that is the point of her story. Left by her mother on her great-grandmother's doorstep, she was raised by that sharecropper's daughter, who kept her in the Word and, in Ashley's words, invested in her.

She dropped out of school in ninth grade and, at 13, fell into the hands of a pimp and into street life — stripping, exploitation and survival. Believing God had another purpose for her, she walked away and rechannelled that same hustle into legitimate work.

After a friend backed out of a trucking deal and the truck she and her grandmother bought was stolen, she quit her job, recovered it, learned recruiting and discerned drivers.

In 2017 she started the business that became Supreme Drivers Recruiting, described as the nation's first Black woman-owned transportation call centre for truck-driver recruiting — a million-dollar business built without owning trucks.

"My goal is to show them that God used transportation to save my life and that He can do it for them too."

Today Thomas uses that past as a bridge for other people. Her nonprofit, Divorcing The Game, helps current and former exotic dancers, drug dealers and others trapped in street life transition into professional work in trucking, and her book of the same name is offered as a blueprint for getting out.

Her call centre gives agents an entry-level platform reported to gross $5,000 to $12,000 a month while placing drivers in top-paying jobs, with call centres listed in Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, Midland and Arlington. She also speaks out about breaking the stigma around human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

NNPA — “Black Woman Entrepreneur, From the Stripper Pole to Owning a Million Dollar Trucking Business”
Entrepreneur — “Black Woman Entrepreneur, From the Stripper Pole to Owning a Million Dollar Trucking Business”
Black Authors Matter / Medium — “Ashley Thomas Reigns Supreme as the Leading Truck Driver Recruiting Business in The South”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Sophia Strother  ·  Jameela Allen

Jameela Allen

CEO and Founder, Themba Creative Learning Center — Lanham, MD

Jameela Allen spent a decade as a public-school teacher before she owned a single classroom of her own. Alongside teaching, she founded a nonprofit that provided free enrichment activities to low-income youth — the children she most wanted to reach.

A job as a childcare assistant during her freshman year at West Virginia State University had already lit the fire, so she prepared deliberately: while teaching and running the nonprofit she earned a Master's in Public Administration and added early-childhood courses. In 2007 she opened Themba Creative Learning Center in Lanham, Maryland.

The early years nearly broke her — 12- to 16-hour days, a 'Mom & Pop shop' mentality, poor hiring, and stress and anxiety severe enough to send her repeatedly to the emergency room, fearing a panic attack and a heart attack at once. People told her there was no money in childcare.

A mentor pointed her to industry data showing a $60 billion industry, and she rebuilt on leadership, systems and investment in herself and her team.

"From a young age, I had a profound vision of making a transformative impact in the childcare industry, and owning my own childcare center was the ultimate aspiration."

Themba — an East African word meaning 'trusted' — now operates from an 8,200-square-foot building on two acres in Lanham, with a staff of 30 whom Allen calls her Dream Team, and was honoured by the Prince George's County Chamber of Commerce as a best small business.

Allen, described by Black Enterprise as a seven-figure income earner, now coaches other childcare owners: after a licensing inspector praised Themba's low staff turnover and 90-day onboarding process and urged her to document it, she began preparing coaching modules in 2018 and enrolled her first ten clients just before the pandemic.

Black Enterprise — “Jameela Allen Breaks Down Running A Multimillion-Dollar Childcare Enterprise”
SHEEN Magazine — “Jameela Allen, Multi-Million Dollar Childcare Center Owner Shares On Her Successful Coaching Practice”
Themba Creative Learning Center — Official site (Lanham, MD)

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Ashley Thomas  ·  Karla M. Cole Green

Karla M. Cole Green

President, James H. Cole Home for Funerals — Detroit, MI

Official links: Website

Karla M. Cole Green grew up inside Detroit history.

Her grandfather, James H. Cole Sr., founded the James H. Cole Home for Funerals in 1919 in Black Bottom, offering affordable, dignified service to Black families who were frequently turned away by white undertakers — the firm still holds 1930s letters from families mailing in $3 payments toward a funeral, promising to keep paying it off.

The funeral home stood next door to Motown, and Karla grew up watching acts rehearse on the front lawn and, in 1967, tanks roll down West Grand Boulevard. She entered the family business in 1975, completed her mortuary studies at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science in 1979 and earned her mortician's licence the following year.

When her father, James H. Cole Jr., died in 1991, she assumed the presidency — a role she still holds more than three decades later, overseeing day-to-day operations across two Detroit locations.

"We're honored that the NAACP is recognizing our work in the community by serving as the host of the family festival."

Today Cole Green leads the firm alongside her sons Antonio and Brice Green, licensed funeral directors who represent the fourth generation. The centennial release reported 50 employees, about 1,800 families served a year and 12 licensed funeral directors — the most of any funeral home in the area.

In 2019 the family marked 100 years with a year of giving back, and at the Centennial Grande Gala she and her sons announced the James H. Cole Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit encouraging growth and development among Detroit citizens; during the pandemic it provided meals to healthcare workers, firefighters and police, and later school supplies and Christmas giveaways.

James H. Cole Home for Funerals — “A Day In the Life of a Funeral Director”
FuneralVision — “Antonio Green Is Keeping Service Alive at the James H. Cole Home for Funeral Homes in Detroit”
PRWeb — “Detroit-based James H. Cole Home for Funerals Celebrates 100 years”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Jameela Allen  ·  Janice Bryant Howroyd

Janice Bryant Howroyd

Founder & CEO, The ActOne Group — Los Angeles, CA

Official links: Website · LinkedIn · Facebook · Instagram · X

We're inspired because Janice Bryant Howroyd built an empire on a radical premise for a staffing company — that the applicant, not the client, is the center of the universe — and proved that putting the overlooked person first is a billion-dollar strategy. In her own words, it started with a brain, a phone, a phone book and faith.

"If you visit any of our offices, you'll see that we live by the mantra that 'the applicant is the center of our universe.' It's always been our belief that if you get that applicant in the right job, then they will be the best representation of who we are as a company."

One of eleven children from Tarboro, North Carolina, Howroyd was among the first Black students to integrate her high school, graduated from North Carolina A&T, and moved to Los Angeles with $900 to her name.

She talked her way into the staffing business and founded her own agency with that stake in a one-room Beverly Hills office with a phone and a phone book.

The ActOne Group is now the largest minority woman-owned employment agency in the United States — brands including AppleOne, AgileOne and A-Check Global serving some 17,000 clients in 19 countries with more than 2,800 employees — and Black Enterprise credits her as the first African American woman to operate a company generating over $1 billion in annual revenue.

She serves on the North Carolina A&T board of trustees and the Harvard Women's Leadership board, and was appointed to the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

AfroTech — “The Howroyd Family Legacy”
AfroTech — “Janice Bryant Howroyd’s Net Worth”
Working Woman Report — “Meet Janice Bryant Howroyd, First African American Woman to Run a $1 Billion Business”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Karla M. Cole Green  ·  Keanna Sanders

Keanna Sanders

Founder and CEO, Sanbridge Early Learning Centers — Baltimore, MD

Official links: Website

Keanna Sanders learned childcare at her grandmother's side. Raised in Baltimore, she was babysitting from childhood — neighbourhood kids, family members, nieces and nephews — and helping her grandmother, a family childcare provider, as a teenager. That love became a profession: by her early twenties she had earned her childcare certifications and graduated with her bachelor's degree.

She launched her first Sanbridge Early Learning Center in Windsor Mill with just eight children and three staff, and the word spread fast. About three years later she bought the real estate under the business, then won a competitive bid to expand onto a college campus at CCBC Catonsville, and kept expanding from there.

The idea underneath it all was personal and practical: parents who work nights, weekends and multiple jobs need care that does not stop at six o'clock — so she built centres that do not stop either.

"My vision is to be the world’s leading childcare provider and provide quality services."

Today Sanbridge serves families across the DMV with a 24-hour facility and other locations open until midnight. Sanders is now building a franchise model to turn Sanbridge into a household name and, in her words, the world's leading childcare provider.

Beyond her centres, she leads Baltimore Dynamic Women, offering mentorship on life skills, business plans and entrepreneurship, and she passes on what she learned about state grants and small-business funding. Her two sons, now 16 and 19, grew up in Sanbridge and work alongside her — the legacy she says she is building for them.

MadameNoire — “Keanna Sanders Is Transforming Childcare To Work For Families”
Black Girls Bond — “Keanna Sanders Builds 24-Hour Childcare Centers to Support Real Families and Lead Black Women in Business”
Sanbridge Early Learning Center — “About Us” (official site)

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Janice Bryant Howroyd  ·  Sharon Ross

Sharon Ross

President, Ross-Clayton Funeral Home — Montgomery, AL

Official links: Website

Dr. Sharon A. Ross has spent her entire life in and around Ross-Clayton Funeral Home — Montgomery's oldest Black-owned business, founded in 1918 by Robert Ambers Ross and William Clayton.

This was never just a funeral home: during the Montgomery bus boycott the family gave rides to boycotters, used its hearses to carry Black voters to the polls and the sick to the doctor, and hosted movement meetings, earning recognition as a 'jewel in the black community.' Sharon learned the basics of the trade firsthand from her father, David Calloway Ross Jr., who led the company from 1978 until his death on October 14, 2020.

In December 2021 the board named her president — the fourth generation of her family to lead Ross-Clayton, and the first woman ever to head the company in its century of service.

"Funeral business is a calling — not a career; it is a lifestyle — not a livelihood."

Ross now works alongside her mother and younger brother at the firm's 18,000-square-foot Adams Avenue home, with its chapel and limousine fleet, providing leadership, setting policy and serving as the face of the business in the community.

She says she aspires to bring new energy while holding to the standards her late father set — his belief, as she puts it, was to care for those they serve and serve them well.

The company, honoured with a state historic marker in 2011, continues broadening its efforts to give back to Montgomery, the city it has served since 1918.

Montgomery Regional Chamber of Commerce — “Member Profile: Sharon Ross”
Wikipedia — “Ross-Clayton Funeral Home”
ALMetro360 — “Ross-Clayton Funeral Home Turns 100”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Keanna Sanders  ·  Terrica Lynn Smith

Terrica Lynn Smith

Managing Partner, SALT Capital Equity Group; Owner, Cachet Real Estate — New Orleans, LA

Official links: Website · LinkedIn · Facebook · Instagram · X

Terrica Lynn Smith's story begins with a memory she does not soften: at five years old, she says, her drug-addicted mother sold her to her drug dealer to pay a debt.

She survived neglect, hunger — left home alone with her siblings for days with no food or lights — and foster care where she endured further violence, and was told she would end up a statistic.

Emancipated at 16 and pregnant, by 17 she was homeless under a bridge in New Orleans with her baby son, Tyreek, promising him he would never end up in the system like she did and that, as long as she had air in her lungs, she would fight to get them out from under that bridge.

After Hurricane Katrina displaced her to Lafayette, she enrolled in real estate school. Her breakthrough, reported by EURWeb, came from a $5,000 tax refund used to buy her first property, which she and her husband renovated themselves and rolled into the next deal.

"Power, to me, means owning who I am without apology."

Smith is now a nationally recognised real estate investor and developer based in New Orleans, leading Cachet Real Estate and SALT Capital Equity Group, with a portfolio reported by HelloBeautiful as exceeding $60 million, specialising in mixed-use, multifamily and Opportunity Zone projects.

She is the developer behind Madeline Cove in Lafayette — a $14 million project planned for 30 affordable homes, 60 townhomes, a 50-unit senior complex and retail — and was invited to the White House in January 2020 to discuss Opportunity Zone progress. She also created 'Developers,' a generational-wealth board game, and mentors women to build, lead and break cycles.

HelloBeautiful — “Terrica Lynn Smith: Empowering Women Through Resilience”
Black Business — “Black Woman Went from Being Homeless to Now a Multi-Million Real Estate Mogul”
OpportunityZones.com — “From Homeless to Opportunity Zone Developer, with Terrica Lynn Smith”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Sharon Ross  ·  Adeline Thomas

Adeline Thomas

Founder and Owner, Elderly Savior Homecare — Orange, NJ

Official links: Website

Adeline Thomas was the aide before she was the owner. She worked her way through retail, grocery, banking and library jobs while pursuing her education in healthcare administration, and when she became a home health aide she found her passion — and a firsthand understanding of what patients, families and caregivers actually need.

In 2016 she founded Elderly Savior Homecare in Orange, New Jersey, with limited resources, personally funding the business herself. She started in one room of her home as a one-person team, handling everything from door-to-door marketing and physician outreach to community relationship-building.

The sacrifice at the centre of her story is payroll: in the early years she paid herself nothing, choosing every pay run to reinvest what would have been her own compensation back into the company while making sure her nurses and home health aides were paid — building, as she puts it, from the ground up without major contracts or outside funding.

"When you lead with love, you create an effect that goes far beyond business."

Elderly Savior Homecare has grown from that one room into an established agency serving communities throughout New Jersey, holding government contracts including Medicaid, veterans programs and the Division of Developmental Disabilities, with plans for a larger corporate office in Verona.

Thomas has since founded Elderly Savior Academy, coaching aspiring entrepreneurs to build their own home-care businesses, and the Elderly Savior Workforce & Care Foundation, supporting underserved seniors, caregiver training and workforce development. Recognised by Influential Women and featured on Women in Power TV, she has also returned to school for a second bachelor's degree, in nursing.

EIN Presswire / Influential Women — “Adeline Thomas, Recognized By Influential Women, Builds Elderly Savior Homecare Through Compassionate Care”
EIN Presswire — “Adeline Thomas Joins Women in Power TV to Share Her Vision for Heart-Led Leadership”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Terrica Lynn Smith  ·  Shiketa Morgan

Shiketa Morgan

Founder, Learning Days; Founder, Child Care Business Owner Institute — Atlanta, GA (Kennesaw) and St. Louis, MO

Official links: Website · Facebook · X

Shiketa Morgan was doing laundry in her basement in 1998 when, she says, she heard the voice of God say: start a daycare. She rejected it at first.

Six months later she left the medical-assistant job she loved, and in December 1998 she opened a childcare business in her St. Louis home with only $600 — what she calls a divine assignment.

The growth was slow and hard: in 2003 the business moved into a 1,600-square-foot commercial location, and she struggled as a leader for years while the centre struggled with her. In 2014, with her husband — her 'faith partner' — she opened her dream location, 6,600 square feet, and in 2016 Learning Days grew to two locations.

Then, in January 2018, her sister went into cardiac arrest and died seven days later. The loss devastated her, she says, and at the same time forced her to finally live out the desire on her heart: to move to Atlanta.

"My business was a divine assignment from God."

Morgan and her husband moved to Atlanta in 2018 and opened the Kennesaw, Georgia Learning Days centre in August 2021, keeping the St. Louis centre running — two centres with a team she has reported at 23.

Through the Child Care Business Owner Institute she coaches other owners, drawing on 27 years in the business, and she has published several books, including Build Your Business by Faith, Seven Keys to Operating Multiple Locations and Pivoting from a Poverty Mindset to a Millionaire Mindset, alongside her Doing Business by Faith podcast.

Her stated vision is simple: to inspire others through her books, coaching and centres.

VoyageATL — “Community Highlights: Meet Shiketa Morgan of Learning Days LLC”
Shoutout Atlanta — “Meet Shiketa Morgan | Child Care Center Owner, Author and Coach”
Child Care Business Owner Institute — Official blog (Shiketa Morgan)

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Adeline Thomas  ·  Pat McGrath

Pat McGrath

Founder, Pat McGrath Labs; Creative Director of Cosmetics, La Beauté Louis Vuitton — Northampton / London, England

Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X

This is the right Pat McGrath: Dame Patricia Ann McGrath, the British makeup artist Vogue calls the most influential in the world. She was raised in a working-class household in Northampton, England, by her single mother Jean, a Jamaican immigrant and dressmaker raising her children largely alone.

Because there was no makeup made for Black skin, Jean mixed her own colours — and trained her daughter at home, quizzing her on eyeshadow shades as they watched classic films together.

McGrath has recalled that her mother 'was always mixing up colours because there wasn't anything out there for black skin.' She has no formal makeup training — only an art foundation course — and was still working as a receptionist in the early 1990s while breaking into fashion through i-D magazine and Edward Enninful, before designers including Alexander McQueen and John Galliano made her the defining artist of the runway era.

"I really love being a makeup artist. It never gets mundane or predictable and every shoot and show is different."

In 2015 McGrath launched Pat McGrath Labs, which by 2019 had become a $1 billion company and Selfridges' biggest-selling beauty line, built on the inclusivity her mother had to improvise at home.

She was named to TIME100 in 2019 and in 2021 became the first makeup artist ever made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to fashion and beauty and to diversity. In March 2025 Louis Vuitton named her Creative Director of Cosmetics for La Beauté Louis Vuitton, launched that August.

Her current chapter also carries a hard turn the profile must not omit: in January 2026 Pat McGrath Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, halting a planned asset auction while it restructures.

Wikipedia — “Pat McGrath (make-up artist)”
BlackPast — “Patricia Ann McGrath (1970- )”
USA TODAY — “Beauty brand Pat McGrath Labs files Chapter 11 bankruptcy”
Tatler Asia — “What is beauty in the eyes of makeup artist Pat McGrath?”

More from Bourgeois Society: Women of Black Excellence  ·  Shiketa Morgan  ·  Cathy Hughes