Aviatra Accelerators has crowned its inaugural Woman Entrepreneur of the Year – a nod reserved for a longtime local business owner, podcast host and motivational speaker.
The awards program, first announced by the Covington-based startup and entrepreneurship support group in July, also included categories spanning tech, health and more. Aviatra unveiled the winners during its annual Flight Night celebration Sept. 5 at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley. Two of the five honorees are previous Business Courier or Cincy Inno award winners.
Lisa Woodruff, founder and CEO of Organize 365, a home organization firm, was named Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. For the award, judges considered overall revenue, overall impact, the nominee's community involvement and previous awards.
Woodruff founded West Chester Township-based Organize 365 in 2012 – starting with the Organize 365 podcast – to teach and motivate women to organize their home and paper with functional systems that work. The podcast now has 23 million downloads and counting, and Woodruff has authored four books.
The company ranks as one of the region’s largest woman-owned businesses, according to Courier data, with 2023 revenue of $2.5 million.
Additional Woman Entrepreneur of the Year finalists included Rachel DesRochers, founder of the Gratitude Collective, a nonprofit whose brands include the Incubator Kitchen Collective and Power to Pursue, a women’s empowerment and entrepreneur summit; and Christy Pretzinger, president and CEO of WG Content, a local health care content consultancy.
In the other categories:
- Helen Todd, co-founder and CEO of Creativity Squared, was named Woman Tech Entrepreneur of the Year. Creativity Squared is a podcast, YouTube channel and weekly newsletter that explores how creatives are collaborating with artificial intelligence.
- Alison Connor, co-founder and general manager of Greenway Innovations, a Florence-based company that specializes in a green solutions to medical waste, was named Woman Health Entrepreneur of the Year.
- The Young Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award went to VaLanDria Smith-Lash, founder of Coarse Culture, a line of moisturizing whipped shea butter products that can be used by all “from hair to toe.” Nominees in this category were 23 years old or younger. In 2023, Smith-Lash, then 22, was named a Cincy Inno Under 25 honoree.
- And the Paying It Forward Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award went to Abbey Cummins, CEO of Everything Cincy, a local website that highlights local events, deals and jobs. For this award, the winning business must have given back significantly to the community or to a specific population. Cummins is also a 2023 Courier Forty Under 40 winner.
Aviatra Accelerators, a Northern Kentucky-based nonprofit, opted to launch the new program to honor women business owners in the community. It’s the latest offering from the 14-year-old organization as it enters its next phase of growth.
Aviatra’s mission is to help women start and grow businesses through online and in-person programming, coaching, mentoring, networking and access to capital. To date, the organization has helped nearly 4,000 women entrepreneurs create 15,000 jobs and receive millions in funding, and its alumni have generated more than $1 billion in earned revenues.
The Business Courier served as a media partner for the Entrepreneur of the Year program.
