Another win for the DENOR team!
Once again, our Agency Director Ashley Northington is killing it!
Ashley was recently announced as the Chair of the Minority Business Council by Nashville Mayor David Briley, along with Ashford Hughes Sr.’s promotion to Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer. The council is comprised of 16 members and at least one member of each ethnic minority can be identified based on the Minority/ Women Business Enterprise.
“Nashville is experiencing incredible economic growth, but not everyone is enjoying the benefits of our success. I am committed to listening, building trust, and implementing meaningful measures to create opportunities for all business owners to prosper without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, or zip code,” said Mayor Briley.
The purpose of the Minority Business Advisory Council is to develop strategies that will spur wealth creation for minority business owners. The 16 member council is supposed to meet quarterly and submit an annual report detailing a situational analysis of the challenges and opportunities for minority business growth. The council will also suggest proposals to improve contracting opportunities with Metro, entrepreneurship, access to workforce training and talent, technological support, and access to capital.
Ashley says, “I see this role as an extension of the work I’ve been doing on behalf of the Nashville Minority Business Center and the Contracting for Equity campaign we introduced this year. For the past three years, we’ve been reviewing national best practices, speaking with experts on public contracting across the country, and looking for the best contracting solutions to present to the State of Tennessee. It is my hope that many of the policies we recently recommended to the state legislature earlier this year will be considered by the city’s Minority Business Advisory Council.”
Ashley has really been doing amazing work for these past three years through the Nashville Minority Business Center. She also has been a change agent in the city of Nashville policy with her role as the small business team lead for the taskforce on transit and affordability. Ashley has also shown her dedication to small business with her leadership of Contracting For Equity this year. We at DENOR are so proud of Ashley and expect to see a lot more from her in the future.
