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Growing up in Evergreen Park, IL in the 70’s, Francine Poole’s daily life consisted of racial discrimition. She often found herself fighting boys at her school who tried to make it difficult for her to receive an education. 

Flash forward to today and Francine now owns and is the CEO of a business in the same town that discriminated against her during her youth. She has her company, Empire Property Management Solutions, and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker working on opening up her own brokerage this year.

When she’s not working on either of those things, she is the Private Receiver for the City of Chicago Department of Buildings, Vitality coach for Women Entrepreneurs on Social Media, and is the Chairperson and Founder of the Non Profit, The Giving Hands Organization Inc. The latter helps women with workforce readiness, resume preparation, and clothes for job interviews . That doesn’t include the laundry list of certifications she holds and her recent appointment as a West Pullman neighborhood representative of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®’ Diversity committee, “the 77.”  

After going through a lifetime of her own struggles and obstacles, through everything she does, Francine wants to help others with their plans in entrepreneurship.

Being raised by parents who gave back to their congregation and community, Joy Decker was destined for a life of service. In high school, she volunteered for a service project helping children with significant disabilities that Joy credits as having a significant impact into where she is in her career, working with people with disabilities. 

Early in her career, Joy worked on bringing awareness to the mission that individuals with disabilities are people, first and foremost. Finding early that most were unfamiliar with or maybe even scared of others with disabilities, Joy says it’s still one of her greatest obstacles to overcome today. Her goal is to change the hearts of those in our community towards opportunities working with the kids, or volunteering on service days, that truly change the lives of those they’re helping. 

After working with other agencies throughout her career Joy was looking for a new challenge. What drew her to Esperanza was the sense of family she got from everyone there. Esperanza has since added additional services and now serves adults in their adult day program. They continue their learning, independent living skills, and offer vocational training. In addition, they work with artists with disabilities to curate their art at different exhibitions. Whatever art is sold goes directly to the artists themselves. It’s also been a great way for Esperanza to connect with the community and introduce them to the services they provide.

"Esperanza Community Services began as a school in 1969, created in response to the lack of services available to students whose learning needs were not being met in traditional classrooms. Our founder, Guadalupe Reyes, was driven to help her son Bobby, whose developmental disabilities were caused by spinal meningitis. Guadalupe Reyes made Esperanza School a place where students with developmental disabilities found a solid foundation of education, support, and encouragement upon which they could grow."

Esperanza’s annual gala, scheduled for May 10, 2021 will once again be virtual, but extending to a week-long celebration that includes raffling off a new Peloton. Registration is now open. 

Shannon Sutton, a real estate broker at Baird & Warner, not only was a finalist for Chicago Agent Magazine’s Rookie of the Year 2019, she’s a current member of her company’s Chairman's Club. Impressive as her numbers are in only two short years, Shannon is the first to tell you that it took a lot of tough self-work to get here. 

Several years ago, she found herself stuck in a job that made her unhappy while simultaneously struggling through a difficult break up. After finally turning to a therapist and spending a few years working on herself, Shannon got to a place where she felt brave and whole enough to leave her job, travel for two months, and dive into the next chapter: real estate. 

Going through a rebirth into a new life, Shannon found a way to marry her passion for design with her newfound hunger for growing her real estate business. She consults with her clients as they search for and customize a home, designs her own marketing materials, and curates her social media presence. 

Shannon brings her love for helping others find the comfort and security of their own homes to her work with Habitat for Humanity. She volunteers at their West Pullman site. With this new life she’s building, the message she wants to encourage others to do is to challenge their own self-perceptions and let go of the things that aren’t feeding them anymore.

Orland Park native, Jennifer Hernandez is a self-made woman. Growing up in Chicago’s Southwest suburbs, Jennifer started hanging out with a rough crowd as a teenager and was kicked out of school.  By the time she was 20, she was a mom to a baby girl, Destiny, and knew that she wanted to create a better life for her and her daughter. With grit, determination, and a lot of hustle, Jennifer set off to make her way despite being faced with adversity.

Jennifer found herself trying to establish her career in various male-dominated industries from the car business to mortgage. At one point she worked in a community that was made up of people from a different ethnic background. She face discrimination from the neighborhood and the company she worked for at the time. No matter what life threw at her, though, she never gave up. 

Currently, Jennifer is a branch manager at her own Loan Depot location, committed to keeping her clients informed throughout the loan process, answering questions, and eliminating as much hassle as possible. In her free time, she sits on the board of The Love, Unity, & Values Institute and mentors the youth of the Chicago community.

A proud military brat, Carmen Urban lived in several places growing up before her family settled in Chicago. The baby of the family by at least 15 years, Carmen and her siblings came from humble beginnings and learned the value of hard work and determination. She finished her first year of college at Hampton University but could no longer afford to go. Even with student loans, it wasn’t enough to cover tuition. After doing her research, Temple University in Philadelphia seemed like the perfect fit. They had a much better financial assistance program and gave students the opportunity to study abroad. However, she still faced the issue of money; Carmen couldn’t even afford the cost of moving.

This did not come easy without financial struggles for Carmen. She had to take a semester off and work hard in order to afford the remainder of her college years. Not letting this stop her or bring her down, she quickly created a strategy. The thought of not graduating on time with the rest of her classmates barely crossed her mind, because for Carmen, there was no alternative. Putting her nose to the grind, she graduated on time and with honors. 

After college, she found her groove for the first 10 years of her career in the financial industry as a licensed investment consultant, compliance officer, and investigator at the Chicago Board of Trade. Once she and her husband started their family, Carmen stepped down from that role and started her own pageant company: Midwest Natural Pageants. She traveled around the Midwest providing a stage for children to gain confidence, naturally showcasing their talents in front of large groups. 

It wasn’t until she went through the process of buying her own home that she fell in love with Real Estate and knew that’s where she had to be. Carmen services the Chicagoland area and beyond. She’s a member of the Saint Charles Chamber of Commerce, and serves on the board as Secretary for Women’s Council of Realtors. More than anything, she wants her clients to know that she’s a woman of her word. She delivers on her promises and takes pride in the quality of service she provides. Once you’re her client, you are her family for life. 

Northwest Suburban native Nsenzi Salasini is passionate about helping small businesses succeed. It wasn’t always easy. After graduating from the University of Iowa, he ventured off on his own to start his own business. The first two failed but he didn’t give him. He knew there was a way. Through his hunger and research, he discovered online advertising and began to hone his craft as a digital marketing strategist. That drive and focus led to High Demand Marketing, his digital marketing company that he founded in his mom’s basement. 

Since its inception, he has taught over 20,000 entrepreneurs how to leverage online advertising to accelerate their growth. As a millennial and marketer, Nsenzi recognizes the power of social media when it comes to customer acquisition. He wants to empower his clients to garner that power to help them achieve their aspirations. Digital marketing aside, his primary goal is first and foremost to inspire the general public to aim higher and keep chasing the dream they desire. 

Many people go through life not truly realizing what makes them happy and how they can turn that into a profession. Heather Bennett knows how that feels and decided to write a book about it based on decades of her own experiences. “Fun and Fulfilling Careers One Question at a Time” (on Amazon) was born from a passion of Heather’s to help people find the work they love so they can in turn give back and make the world a better place. 

A marketing strategist and personal branding coach, Heather is dedicated to helping businesses and professionals use social media marketing to build strong brands for their personal brand and their company’s brands. Her foray into social media came from a long and arduous recovery from ACL knee reconstruction. She used that time to earn her Social Media Specialization from Northwestern University.

Always a person to take adversity and turn it into opportunity, she decided to leverage her capstone at Northwestern to work on a project that directly helped the nonprofit FHSR (the Foundation for Speech Rehabilitation). It’s an organization near and dear to her heart. They were there for her and her family when her youngest child was identified as DEAF and continue to support them today.

A positive energy wherever she goes, Heather spends her time helping others whether it be with marketing their personal brands or serving on the Board of various nonprofit organizations to help uplift an often overlooked community. 

Mike Wieczorek strives every day to over deliver value in every interaction he has so that he can leave people a little happier as a result. Putting his desire to see others happy into a profession, he found himself working in the mortgage industry.

Today, he is the Vice President of Stonehaven Mortgage providing custom-tailored mortgage solutions to his clients. When he’s not helping hundreds of families find the right mortgage solution, he is hosting for Chicago on CNBC’s Financing the American Dream.

Chantill Fisher Greer is the type of person who never takes ‘No’ as an answer. A high achiever, Chantill has had far from an easy life. Growing up in a domestic violence, drug and alcohol addicted household, she didn’t face great odds of making it out of the “hood.” However, she put her nose to the grind and hustled her way out of the hood and into a successful career with Keller Williams Elite. 

In her real estate career she was able to cap with Keller in less than a year. She has turned difficult real estate situations into positive experiences and has helped countless people find their dream home. After going through her own struggles as a youth, she recently began donating to the South Suburban Family Shelter for Domestic Violence to help others who are going through similar situations she knows too well.

Nick Van Gorp knows that persistence is the key to having it all. Growing up in Schererville, IN with a learning disability, Nick was bullied to the point that he was concerned for his physical well being. During his freshman year in high school, he goofed off quite a bit and was almost kicked out. 

After realizing his dream of going into business, he turned his attention and motivation to getting into one of the best business schools in the country. He was told by the head of admission that there was less than a 1% chance he’d be accepted and that he would have to take the most difficult pre-requisite classes. Without a second thought, Nick put his head down teaching himself economic theories and accounting strategies. After seven months of hard work, he received that infamous call welcoming him to the Kelley School of Business. 

Since graduating from college, he’s risen up the ranks in the world of Real Estate boasting accomplishments such as Top Producer and Rising Star. Nick spends as much time as he can mentoring up and coming realtors helping them expand their business. The rest of his time is dedicated to Ronald McDonald House. After living there himself for his sister when they were younger, the community is near and dear to his heart. However, you won’t hear him talking about it often. As he learned from a Real Estate tycoon some time ago, “do everything in silence” but in Nick’s case, with the utmost persistence and perseverance.