| Entrepreneur Stephanie M. Jones on Rising Above Discrimination and Leveling the Travel Industry Playing Field
The youngest of 13 children, Stephanie M. Jones spent her childhood in Detroit soaking up entrepreneurial skills as a shampoo girl for her single mother, who worked as a hairdresser and cosmetologist. In high school, she was voted “Best Dressed” and “Most Likely to Succeed” (thanks in part to her habit of wearing dresses and carrying a briefcase to school), and she vowed at an early age to be her own boss by the time she was 30 years old.
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| Now, Jones is perhaps best known for her roles as the founder and CEO of the Cultural Heritage Economic Alliance (CHAT); the creator of the National Blacks and Tourism Collaborative; and a member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board for the U.S. Department of Commerce. But she's also someone who — after many years of facing her own professional challenges — has made it her life's mission to serve others by creating a more equitable space for underserved groups, from single mothers to small business owners and everyone in between.
In this episode of Humans of Travel, Jones dives into some of her early pursuits, from working as a secretary in a discriminatory work environment to her time marketing small businesses and creating My Daughter’s Keeper, a nonprofit organization to help cultivate healthy relationships between mothers and their adolescent daughters.
Listeners will also hear about Jones’ latest mission: To create tangible opportunities for Black and Brown small businesses to market themselves and attract the attention of tourism industry stakeholders across the U.S. | |
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