WCEC Women’s Business Center Graduates With National WBC of Excellence

The WCEC Women’s Business Center is honored to be recognized for graduating in the inaugural cohort with the National WBC of Excellence program offered by the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) and sponsored by Dutch Bros.

The primary objective of the National Women’s Business Center of Excellence designation is to recognize organizations that demonstrate commitment and efficacy of the mission, vision, and values of their Women’s Business Center thereby achieving the greatest outcomes for women-owned businesses.

"The Excellence Program is inspiring and empowering for all women in business and entrepreneurship," said Milly Pineda, Director of DEI & Learning and Development. "Dutch Bros is honored to help support WBC and proud of the massive difference it makes in the lives of women. Congratulations to all the 2023 graduates!”

Over the series of Five Milestone Assignments, WBCs partnered with a peer in their cohort to identify gaps and opportunities for the WBC to improve in a variety of areas; including strategic goal-setting, service delivery, continuous improvement and/or peer relationships. In order to fulfill these objectives, AWBC recognizes the value of the organization’s volunteers, leadership team and funders which is reflected in the involvement of these stakeholders in the final stages of the designation attainment.

“The WBC of Excellence program allowed me to move beyond the day-to-day management of the WCEC Women’s Business Center and focus on a strategy for improving the quality of our operations and client services, with support from peers from across the country. It’s something we always tell our clients to do – find time to work ON their business and not just IN their business. I am grateful to the AWBC and Dutch Bros for the opportunity to take my own advice.,” said Steve Maiorano, WCEC Women’s Business Center Director.

The National WBC of Excellence graduation and closing ceremony took place on December 15, 2023. For more information about our WBC resources, please visit www.wcecnj.org.

About Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship Corp.

The Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship Corp. (WCEC) is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. As a resource partner for the U.S. Small Business Administration, the WCEC’s mission is to empower women to invest in themselves via entrepreneurship by providing necessary resources for women to successfully start, own, operate, & grow their businesses. The WCEC works with women and BIPOC-owned businesses at the start up stage and existing small businesses looking to scale up by providing educational resources, business counseling, and technical assistance. For more information, visit www.wcecnj.org

About The Association of Women’s Business Centers

The Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1998 to support the national network of Women’s Business Centers (WBC) with programming and advocacy. The AWBC works to secure economic justice and entrepreneurial opportunities for women by supporting and sustaining a national network of nearly 150 Women’s Business Centers (WBC) in every State in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. WBCs have more than 30-years of success in providing educational training, mentoring, free business counseling, business development, and financing opportunities to over 150,000 women entrepreneurs and small businesses each year. The WBC program is a public-private partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration. To learn more about AWBC visit www.awbc.org.