Meet Our Team
Claudia Viek
Founder and Catalyst
Claudia Viek founded the Invest in Women Entrepreneurship Initiative in 2018 after serving for ten years as CEO of CAMEO, the premier network of 120 organizations serving 50,000 micro and small businesses in California. She has been a pioneer in both the Micro Enterprise and business incubation fields in California. She is the former Executive Director (14 years) of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, an award-winning training, financing and business incubation program in San Francisco. Claudia was a longtime board member of the national Association for Economic Opportunity and a previous President of NAWBO Bay Area chapter.
Erin Musgrave
Erin Musgrave, principal and founder of EMC Strategies, is a seasoned communications professional with more than 15 years of public relations, advocacy and journalism experience. Erin uses her deep understanding of the media and years of experience in strategic communications to fashion winning narratives, develop powerful arguments and create smart strategies that carry a message to those that matter. And she puts in the time and effort needed to execute those strategies in ways that produce results. Before hanging out her own shingle, Erin had an award-winning career in journalism and spent a decade working in communications and advocacy.
Charlene Bautista
Communications Manager
Charlene is a recent college graduate from San Francisco State University. On top of her studies, she was involved in organizations as a Writer, Social Media Manager, and Website Manager. After college, she hopes to find a full-time job within a tech or media company. Besides school, Charlene enjoys creating content, journaling, reading, and traveling around the world. She also publishes a successful blog, creates beautiful websites and is a social media maven.
steering committee
Shannon Adkins
Shannon Adkins is the CEO at Future State, a human-centered management consulting firm focused on supporting operational transformation within global Fortune 500 companies. Future State is 100% employee owned (ESOP), a B-Corp and a certified Woman Owned Business (WBE). Shannon is deeply passionate about driving forward the Future State vision to “Enable Extraordinary Visions that Positively Impact the World,” and continuously hones her point of view on what it takes to build a purpose-led culture.
Jane Campbell
Former Mayor of Cleveland Jane Campbell serves as the Director of the Washington Office of the National Development Council (NDC), the oldest and most experienced community and economic development organization in the country. She is the immediate past president of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), a coalition of women business organizations advocating for federal policy to support women entrepreneurs. Prior to joining NDC, Campbell served Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) as the Staff Director for the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Marcia Griffin
Marcia Griffin, Founder & President of HomeFree-USA, is on a mission to strengthen people, elevate partners, and enhance communities across America. As founder and president of HomeFree-USA, she has helped thousands to achieve and retain the dream of homeownership and greater wealth. HomeFree-USA enjoys a remarkable 0% foreclosure rate among families that have participated in the organization’s pre- and post-purchase guidance programs. Serving as a bridge between financial institutions and the community, Marcia addresses the needs of homebuyers and homeowners with targeted education, distinctive marketing strategies and lender advocacy.
Pat Heffernan
Pat Heffernan is a change strategist, business thinker, writer, president and founder of Marketing Partners, a Vermont-based firm working with mission-driven organizations to change the status quo, sustain our natural world and improve lives. Pat is the founding president of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and Women Business Owners Network. Pat served on the S.B.A. Region I Advisory Council, on two delegations to the White House Conference on Small Business, and currently serves as board vice-chair of the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC).
Jenny Kassan
Jenny Kassan has over two decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over one million dollars for her own businesses. Jenny is certified as a coach by the International Association of Women in Coaching. She co-founded the Force for Good Fund, which invests in best for the world companies led by women and people of color. She is the author of the forthcoming Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).
Carolina Martinez
Carolina Martinez is the CEO of CAMEO (California Association of Microenterprise Opportunity), leading the organization in its mission to support and expand entrepreneurship. Her prior experiences as a nonprofit leader included work supporting small businesses in Colombia. In 2011 she joined Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, where she taught 18-week classes for pre-ventures and startups. In 2012, she became the director of the Kutztown University Small Business Development Center’s Latino Business Resource Center and later opened her own consulting firm, The Puentes Group.
Corinne Hodges
Corinne Hodges is the CEO of the Association of Women's Business Centers in Washington, D.C. She joined in January of 2019 after being in public relations for the previous 11 years, both as an entrepreneur with her own business and at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) where she covered government affairs, media relations, workforce development, and corporate responsibility.
