Her Career Story - Founder & Investor Event in NYC on Black Women Shaping Entrepreneurship & Investment

​Join us for a Her Career Story Founder and Investor Event in NYC Black Women Shaping Entrepreneurship and Investment featuring the following founders and investors:

​Founders: Lauren Wilson - Founder & CEO of Dora Maar, Alyse Dunn - Founder & CEO of CareCopilot, Ashlee Wisdom - Founder & CEO of Health in Her HUE, and Melissa Mitchner - Founder & CEO of The Bark Shoppe.

​Investors: Chi Achebe - Founder & Managing Partner of Achebe Capital, Tracey Thompson - Vice President at SoGal Ventures, and Layla Alexander - Investor at Female Founders Fund.

​In this two-part speaker series, you'll not only hear from trailblazing entrepreneurs as they share their journeys and insights into building successful businesses but also esteemed investors who are reshaping the investment landscape with their diverse investments and perspectives.

​This event is not just a tribute to Black History Month but a celebration of resilience, innovation, and the influential contributions of Black women founders and investors.

​Also, this event is in partnership with Dora Maar, a luxury fashion platform. Following the event, Dora Maar welcomes you to shop a selection of luxury fashion, with an exclusive curation on Black designers. Shoppers will receive 15% off their purchase.

​We look forward to meeting you! ✨

​About the panelists...

​Lauren Wilson is the CEO & Founder of Dora Maar. She has worked in luxury fashion for over 10 years. Before founding Dora Maar, Lauren managed the Business Development & Client Experience team at Moda Operandi, a New York-based luxury e-commerce site. 

​Previously, she was on the marketing team at Christie’s for their luxury groups, and served on the PR teams at Gucci and Ralph Lauren. In addition, she received an MA in Costume Studies from New York University in 2016. She attended the University of Southern California where she received a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Business. 

​Alyse Dunn is the Founder and CEO of CareCopilot. CareCopilot connects people who are taking care of aging loved ones with local caregiving experts who make caregiving easy. Before starting CareCopilot, Alyse was a senior software engineer at Venmo. When Alyse isn't working on CareCopilot, she can be found at her local dojo, improving her jiu jitsu skills.

​Ashlee Wisdom is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Health In Her HUE, the premier digital health platform aimed at reducing racial health disparities by leveraging the power of technology, media and community to improve health outcomes for Black women.

​Wisdom holds over a decade of experience working across the healthcare industry at companies such as Weill Cornell Medicine, NYC Health + Hospitals, and Junto Health in leadership roles supporting a range of programmatic and functional areas. Her previous roles span grants management, clinical research and consulting strategic healthcare investors.

​Ashlee is a passionate public health innovator and a champion for equitable access to quality care for all. Through her efforts, she has raised over $4Million dollars in venture capital funding in order to advance Health In Her HUE’s mission. She is currently a Board Member for Peer Health Exchange and in 2022, she was named an Aspen Institute Healthy Communities Fellow and was honored by FemTech Focus with the First in FemTech Award. In 2021, she was named a Top 50 in Digital Health by Rock Health for her health equity advocacy and also presented a TEDx talk in 2020.

​She holds a Master of Public Health with a focus in Healthcare Policy and Management from New York University’s School of Global Public Health and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

​Ashlee lives in New York City and enjoys traveling, going to brunch, and riding her Peloton.

​Melissa Mitchner is Founder and CEO of The Bark Shoppe, a premier pet care company based in New York. The Bark Shoppe's flagship location and mobile grooming services build a strong sense of community with groomers, pet owners, and their pets. As an advocate for alternative education, Melissa created The New York Institute of Pet Grooming. Her mission is to provide high quality in-person and digital education and certification programs for those who aspire to join and thrive in the pet grooming industry.  

Melissa has over a decade of leadership experience in supply chain management, making her a relatable and knowledgeable leader and educator in any setting. She loves what she does and is committed to bringing much needed diversity and inclusion to the pet care industry. She believes that technology, better working practices, and innovative business models make the world a great place, and she is excited about the future of the pet grooming industry. She has been featured on Good Morning America, Fox Business, Forbes and a host of other media outlets. When she is not exploring the world, she enjoys cooking and hosting her family & friends. 

​Chi Achebe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Achebe Capital, a seed stage VC fund that invests in healthcare, climate action, fintech, supply chain & logistics, and creative economy startups across Africa, the African Diaspora, and the US. She has invested in multiple unicorn companies and seeks to democratize access to high growth venture capital deals. Portfolio companies include: Flutterwave, Republic, Brex, and Bamboo.

​Prior to Achebe Capital, Chi led global GTM strategy at YouTube, enhanced VC fund performance tracking at Citi Bank, founded an award-winning health tech startup in South Africa, and built The Anzisha Prize, a pan-African entrepreneurship award & accelerator program that was anchored by a multi-million dollar commitment from The MasterCard Foundation and African Leadership Group (named one of Africa’s most innovative companies in 2016 by Fast Company). She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania (with honors) and an MBA from Columbia Business School (Feldberg Scholar).

​Tracey Thompson is a Vice President at SoGal Ventures. Prior to becoming the first full-time hire at SoGal Ventures, Tracey was the first full-time hire for Will Packer Media, a digital media company with first-look deals at networks including the Oprah Winfrey Network. During her time at Will Packer Media, she worked on fundraising, acquisition, and portfolio management strategy. Prior to that, she pitched and launched the first digital marketing division at Will Packer Productions, where she managed internal strategy for projects such as Girls Trip – the first movie by a black cast and crew to cross $100 Million.Outside of her career in Entertainment and Venture Capital, Tracey worked in Financial Services Advisory at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. She started her Venture Capital career as an intern at SoGal Ventures and later worked in the Venture Capital arm at a family office in the entertainment industry. Tracey graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University School of Management and is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School, where she was a Rock Venture Partner and Co-President of the Black Investment Club.

​Layla Alexander is an Investor at Female Founders Fund, where she works across investing, fund ops, and investor relations. Layla previously worked at Goldman Sachs on the Real Estate Investing Team, where she conducted underwriting and due diligence on deals across office, data warehousing, life science, and other asset classes. Prior to joining GS, Layla interned with Harlem Capital, Google, and Cleo Capital, where she gained investing and operating experience.

​Layla graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Economics. Her passion for supporting underrepresented communities inspired her to work with the Columbia Organization for Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE) and Almaworks, CORE’s startup accelerator focused on mentoring undergraduate and graduate student founders. While at Columbia she also led the Columbia University Black Pre-Professional Society as CEO.

​Layla is Eritrean-American and grew up in the DC-metro area. In her free time she enjoys reading, running, playing chess, and visiting museums and architectural landmarks.