IEEW Continues to Diversify Through Leadership

New additions to the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women’s Board of Directors and International Advisory Council offer more dynamic support for global women’s empowerment.

IEEW is proud to welcome two new members to the Board of Directors, Dao Jensen of San Francisco, California, and Cathy Cruzan of Edmond, Oklahoma.

Dao Jensen has been in the tech industry for over 20 years and founded Kaizen Technology Partners LLC in 2013 as the first 100% female minority-owned Born in the Cloud Focused VAR in the San Francisco Bay Area. They help Fortune 500 Enterprises and medium-sized clients optimize, strategize, and procure data centers and cloud environments. Dao has personally grown and bootstrapped the company to $12+ million in sales in 5 years’ time. Dao grew up in Minnesota with entrepreneurial parents who immigrated to the United States from Vietnam with seven kids. She is a community activist and a mother of four. She loves mentoring others to become entrepreneurs and achieve their dreams, and promotes living everyday as if it was our last.

Cathy Cruzan is the President of Funds For Learning LLC, an E-rate consultancy and software services firm supporting schools, libraries and state consortiums. Her work through Funds For Learning enables broadband connectivity at anchor institutions serving students and library patrons at over 12,000 sites across the United States. As president, Cathy is also responsible for overseeing the firm’s business activities, including sales, marketing, business development, finance and human resources. In managing the firm’s core consulting business, she monitors and directs the ongoing development of the proprietary, web-based tools that the firm and its software-license holders use for federal regulatory compliance purposes. Cathy is an E-rate subject matter expert who provides regulatory training to schools and libraries regarding high-speed broadband and other technology-related initiatives. Cathy mentored a PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® student in 2018 and fell in love:

“The opportunity to collaborate with a female entrepreneur in Rwanda has broadened my daily business awareness and expanded my knowledge.”

IEEW also welcomes Mozhgan Wafiq Alokozai to the International Advisory Council, whose mission is to provide expertise, strategic thinking and feedback for the Institute CEO and Board of Directors which includes, but is not limited to, fundraising leadership, program ideas, support for existing programs, and serving as public relations ambassadors on behalf of the Institute. Mozhgan is a graduate from IEEW’s 2008 PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® program in Afghanistan. She relocated to the United States in December of 2015 due to security issues and resides in the D.C. area. Mozhgan started her first business in 2004, a café shop in Kabul Women’s garden and in 2007, she established the first women’s business shopping center with 33 shops in Kabul city called World of Women Business Market. She now operates a consultancy company in Kabul and a digital marketing company, My Impressive LLC based in Virginia. Mozhgan has been paying it forward as a PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS® alumna by training and mentoring others over the past 10 years. She has mentored around 50 women business owners and trained 3,000 women in nine provinces of Afghanistan. Mozhgan has received multiple awards including the Best Afghan Female Leader Award, the Bibi Khadija Award, and has served on the Afghan Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) Board of Advisors since 2017.