CINDY DAYANA RODRIGUEZ, ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES SPECIALIST

Outside of Collab, Cindy is an undergraduate student at Quinnipiac University, studying Business Administration and Finance. Cindy actively volunteers for the New Haven Hispanic Firefighter Association. She has over 5 years of experience working in corporate, government, and non-profit sectors — with specialized skills in administrative management, finance, and relationship building.

DAWN LEAKS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Before Collab, Dawn was the CEO of Lioness For The Female Entrepreneur, an online digital media company geared toward women entrepreneurs. While at Lioness, she achieved profitability by increasing revenue by 200%, expanded their global audience to over 100,000, and led the startup’s exit in 2020. Before Lioness, she was the Director of Communications at the American Red Cross of Massachusetts, where she led statewide disaster communications, public relations, and fundraising efforts. She received an MBA from Bay Path University, and has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the UMass/Valley Venture Mentor Collegiate Summer Venture Program and Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Hampshire College. She has also served as a Facilitator of entrepreneurship programming at reSET, an accelerator in Hartford.

NDUBISI OKEKE, VENTURE MANAGER

Before Collab, Ndubisi earned his master’s degree in business administration and public health at Yale University; working in global health policy, and business ecosystem analysis during his time of study. Before that, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda working on country-wide projects focused on public health education and practice, strengthening health systems, and local small business/non-profit development. He is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and is looking forward to learning and supporting the New Haven Community.

Collab is an organization that aims to provide entrepreneurs with impactful, rigorous business support using a compassionate, fundamentally heart-centered approach so that they can build good businesses, create economic power, and shape their communities for themselves and their families. We prioritize serving people of color and women — particularly Black and Latinx entrepreneurs — who face persistent and significant barriers because of structural racism and sexism.