JumpStart Employee Spotlight: Gloria Ware

JumpStart Principal, Inclusion Gloria Ware spends her time leading the development and implementation of JumpStart’s inclusive entrepreneurship strategy. She brings a wealth of finance and business development expertise to the organization, along with a true passion for community engagement.

Recently, we sat down with Gloria to ask her five questions about her life and work at JumpStart:

What have you gained from working at JumpStart?
I’ve developed wonderful new friendships between my fellow colleagues, entrepreneurs and community leaders. I have also gained a greater appreciation and understanding of the unique challenges that entrepreneurs face, as well as the tools and resources that are available to help improve their odds of success.

What is a career lesson you have learned this far?
As Maya Angelou said, “at the end of the day, people don’t remember what you said or did, but will remember how you made them feel.”

Strong relationships are the key to professional, personal and business success. Relationships are driven by authentic conversations and the realization that you are working with another human being with their own struggles, goals and dreams. It is important to keep that in mind in your daily interactions.

Which JumpStart value resonates most with you and why?
Actively Inclusive, of course! We have a wonderful array of amazing talent on board at JumpStart. We seek to work with people from various backgrounds that have unique experiences and points of view. I love referencing a Scientific American article that examines how being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working.

Being actively inclusive means that you always thinking of and implementing new ways to unlock and leverage those differences in order to develop groundbreaking, best-in-class solutions that will help us to positively transform entire communities.

If you could be anyone from any time period who would it be and why?
Ida B. Wells-Barnett from the late 19th century. I’ve always admired her courage, independence, entrepreneurial spirit and advocacy of democracy for all.

What have you always wanted to try but have never done before?
Mountain climbing.


This post is part of JumpStart’s “Employee Spotlight” series, a monthly feature introducing you to a member of our passionate, talented team.