Joselyn Martinez - 

It's your life, and you have a right to design it, as you please. 

Joselyn Martinez is a Certified Neuroscience Coach, leadership facilitator, and business strategist who works with founders and institutional leaders building sustainable, values-aligned enterprises. Through The Modern Woman Mastermind and her coaching practice, she specializes in premium offer architecture and neuroscience-backed leadership development, helping entrepreneurs move from scattered execution to strategic clarity and organizations facilitate transformation grounded in how people actually think, decide, and change.

Her family's story became a global testament to the power of coaching, featured in the New York Times, CNN, Good Morning America, and Marie Claire. Joselyn brings both rigor and real-world resonance to the work of building legacy, not just revenue.

For more info: www.themodernwomanmastermind.com

David De Vaugh - 

David DeVaughn is a leadership development coach and equity strategist who works with mid-career Black, Brown, and professionals of color navigating complex institutional leadership. Through StrivEquity Consulting, David specializes in Equity-Responsive Leadership—supporting leaders who are doing equity work, often without the institutional infrastructure to sustain it.

His practice centers clarity, strategy, and restoration for professionals carrying both leadership responsibility and the unspoken weight of change-making. Known for work that's clarifying, grounding, and transformational, David brings rigor and care to leaders doing courageous work in under-resourced conditions.

Why we are doing this

As fellows of NYC's premier business development programs—Joselyn through both ContractHER and Expand-U, and David through Expand-U, we've experienced firsthand the value of structured training, procurement strategy, and capacity building designed specifically for MWBE-certified businesses.

One of the most important lessons we've learned through these programs is that collaboration and subcontracting are essential to scaling. But we've also realized that putting those strategies into practice requires intentional space, time to connect face-to-face, explore partnership opportunities, and build the peer relationships that turn strategy into action.

This meetup creates that space.

We're bringing together MWBE-certified colleagues to do what we're being equipped for: collaborate, strategize together, identify real subcontracting opportunities, and strengthen the networks that sustain us beyond any single cohort or contract.

Because certification opens doors. Training sharpens the tools. But it's connection, collaboration, and follow-through that turn opportunity into outcome.