Whatcom Women in Business is excited to again celebrate the professional women in our community making a positive impact. The 2024 professional women of the year are Jamie Smeall, Sarah Chan, and Nadine Van Niekerk. The 2024 Community Legacy Award winner is Trudy Shuravloff. The awards will be presented on September 13th at Evergreen Gardens; tickets are available for purchase through their website.
Jamie Smeall
Jamie Smeall has the superpower of being everywhere at the same time. From operating businesses and serving on local boards to being a personal chauffeur and cheerleader for her kids, Jamie is that person who amazes be doing it all. Yet with all that, when talking to her, she gives you her undivided attention and the perception she has all the time in the world for you.
This combination of energy and poise has made Jamie a powerhouse in and for the Whatcom County community. As co-owner of Avenue Bread, she offers a quintessentially Pacific Northwest place for people to gather. Her more than 75 employees serve customers in Fairhaven, downtown Bellingham, Sunnyland, and Lynden locations. Jamie also operates behind the scenes to help the Filling Station’s two locations run smoothly.
Jamie has a passion for helping others, often jumping into leadership roles where she can have the most significant impact. She is the current board president for Blue Skies for Children, which supports foster children in our community. She also serves as an auxiliary member of the Navy Sea Cadets program and, of course, is on the PTO at her children’s school.
Most of all, Jamie is there for her people. She is the boss everyone wishes they had for her Avenue team, the rock for her mother and three siblings, and a loving mother and wife who does all the things that need to be done but often go unnoticed.
Sarah Chan
Sarah Chan has an entrepreneurial spirit that has taken form in food. Chan, to put it plainly, feeds people. She does this through her catering business, Calypso Kitchen, where she and her team fill rooms with the sights, smells, and tastes of Caribbean cuisine. Through every step of the process, Chan respects the value of food and what it takes to create and share healthy meals. She sources locally grown Pacific Northwest products whenever possible and strives to have no food go to waste.
This impetus inspired her to create Plateful, a nonprofit that has served over 70,000 local meals. Chan takes pride in using food that would otherwise go to waste to create healthy meals for those dealing with food scarcity. By partnering with other local organizations, Chan distributes her food throughout Whatcom County to those who need it the most. Chan grew up in an environment where she saw people daily that were in need of food. In that setting, she watched her grandparents share the produce they grew with neighbors in need.
Chan’s success in business means she can’t do it all herself. She employs five Ukrainian women who help ensure Whatcom County residents enjoy delicious food. She also gets help from her daughters, whom she is so proud of. In addition to school and work, they always take the time to help Chan in her entrepreneurial endeavors.
Because entrepreneurs are wired differently, Chan also has a laundry vending business, Klean Suds, and is in the early stages of a beverage company, Hibiscus Sips. Undoubtedly, Chan will continue to be a staple in our community, being a business leader and ensuring no one goes hungry.
Nadine Van Niekerk
Nadine Van Niekerk, originally from South Africa, has an innate ability to welcome you with charm, and then blow you away with her business acumen. Since arriving in Whatcom County, Van Niekerk has shown off these skills. As co-owner of Stones Throw Brewery in Fairhaven, she quietly ensures the community has a place to gather and share a pint.
While running one business is enough for most people, Van Niekerk hasn’t stopped there. She’s a natural community builder with fierce determination, attention to detail, and charisma for days. She’s used these skills to help start the local nonprofit Shifting Gears, which strives to help women reach their outdoor aspirations. Having been a PE teacher in multiple countries, promoting an active lifestyle is one of Van Niekerk’s passions. Through Shifting Gears, where she served as the executive director for four years, she helped create the Bellingham Bike Swap, which furthers this cause.
Van Niekerk has become a cornerstone of the Fairhaven Community, both with Stones Throw and beyond. In 2022 and 2023, she brought a boost of energy to the Memorial Day weekend Fairhaven Festival when she took on the task of leading the event, which attracted over 15,000 people with an army of 100 volunteers she found and organized.
Van Niekerk is a crucial part of any organization she chooses to join. She will undoubtedly continue to support the community she loves with grit and a smile, making our community a better place in the process.
Trudy Shuravloff
Trudy Shuravloff sees it as her personal mission to break the pattern of systemic poverty in Whatcom County through the Whatcom Dream, where she serves as the executive director. By educating the community in financial literacy, she knows firsthand how impactful that knowledge can be.
Shuravloff didn’t seek out a job at the Whatcom Dream; she became a part of the organization first by taking a class. It was only when the organization was on the verge of closing that she stepped into the role of executive director. This, again, was a move of the heart as she took on the position in exchange for a freezer and a monthly trip to Costco, where she could spend $400 so she could feed her family while she finished school at Western Washington University.
Since 2004, when she took over the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Shuravloff has given new life to the organization, which was struggling financially. Two decades later, the Whatcom Dream has multiple paid positions and a dedicated board. With the support of her team, Shuravloff can help the community that helped her break her family’s history of systemic poverty. She is proud to say that she and her two adult children are out of the cycle.
The growth of the Whatcom Dream under Shuravloff’s leadership means more people in the community are getting the hand-up education that can change their lives. Through one-on-one coaching and group classes, teens through seniors in Whatcom County have access to free financial classes because of Shuravloff’s dedication to the cause.
Join Whatcom Women in Business on Friday, September 13, 2024, at Evergreen Gardens Tickets can be purchased here. Learn more about this organization and this year’s winners at www.wwib.org/pwoty.
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