A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION CHAMPIONING OUR LOCAL WOMEN IN BUSINESS. PHOTOGRAPY BY JESSICA WHITLEY.

Ansley Booker Educational Services, LLC.
CEO

478-227-2231
dransleyalicia@gmail.com or ansleybkr@gmail.com
https://www.dransleyalicia.com/

What is the mission of your business?
My mission is to help individuals, businesses, institutions and communities cultivate inclusive learning and/or work environments. As a catalyst for change and cultural shifts, I engage persons from diverse backgrounds, moral beliefs and identities to discover and strategically plan how to work, learn and grow together toward a collective, inclusive, just, accessible and equitable future for all.

What lessons did you learn because of the COVID-19 pandemic?
By experience, I have learned if there is a will there is a way. We must continue to move forward and continue to lift as we climb. Out of times of difficulty and uncertainty, my passion thrived!

Your advice for women wanting to start their own business?
Go for It! It is never too late to start your own business. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?” – Ayn Rand

How do you define success?
When I reach my zenith and flow in my zone of genius while making a difference in the lives of others along the journey, I have achieved success.

What are you most excited about right now in our community?
All of the work the nonprofits and community groups are doing to address the ills in our society by spurring healing conversations through education, art, storytelling and charitable giving. Initiatives such as the McEachern Art Center, Storytellers Macon, the Lane Center for Social and Racial Equity, the Central Georgia Empowerment Endowment Fund, and the Tubman Museum’s Richard Keil Center for Social Justice are just a few among many.

Why is Central Georgia a good place to do business?
Central Georgia is a great place to do business because of its diversity, rich history, central location and sprawling new developments. Central Georgia is home to hundreds of large and small business opportunities. More importantly, Macon is a wonderful place to grow and network as a young female entrepreneur.

You might be surprised that: I started my business from my living room at the height of the pandemic.

What is the most gratifying part of your job?
The most gratifying part of my job is working with a team of individuals/a person/department/ or a community to achieve civility and/or develop a strategic and intentional plan for implementing equity, diversity, inclusivity, justice and accessibility.

What has been the most challenging part of being a female business owner?
As a double minority, it is often difficult to develop opportunities to reach larger markets. Oftentimes, we are overlooked and underfunded. Despite that fact, in the US, an astounding 17 percent of Black women are in the process of starting or running new businesses.

I admire women who are: leaders, outspoken, driven, humble, charismatic, encouraging, dangerous and risk-takers.

What was the best business advice you ever received?
The best advice I ever received was to establish business credit.

I hope more women will: become elected officials and/or seek entrepreneurship.

How can women better support each other?
Women can better support each other through networking and by throwing business showers. Often, we have the resources in our networking group but we may lack the courage to ask for help. I encourage all women to share their resources to help the next woman achieve her dreams.

How can men better support women business leaders?
Men can help better support women business leaders by supporting, advocating and implementing inclusive leadership and decreasing the gender-based pay gap. We should all be feminists. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Looking back, I wish I had known: My worth and my power. Everyone has a sphere of influence as well as a God-given gift that holds the ability to change the world. We must realize what our gifts are, how to utilize them and ways to guide our level of influence to enact change in our home, community, nation and world surrounding us.

In five years: I hope to become a Chief Diversity/Equity Officer for a major city. These persons are charged with leading diversity, inclusion, access and equity efforts on several fronts, internally and externally for communities. My hope for my business is continued growth and expansion into newer markets.