Enterprising Women Names Lois Elrich, Dana Hetrick and Mariyah Saifuddin to its Advisory Board

RALEIGH, N.C., September 11 – Monica Smiley, CEO and publisher of Enterprising Women magazine, has appointed Lois Elrich, Dana Hetrick and Mariyah Saifuddin to the Enterprising Women Advisory Board. 

“Lois, Dana and Mariyah are powerful business builders who share a defining passion to benefit their clients, employees and the communities they serve.  We are enormously proud to name them as part of the Enterprising Women Advisory Board,” said Smiley.

Enterprising Women, the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners, chronicles the growing political, economic, and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women in 185 countries.

Lois Elrich is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and President at Real Change Business Coaching, LLC in Dayton, Ohio, which she owns and operates. In her first three years as a coach, Lois has helped hundreds of people overcome obstacles that get in the way of growth so they can make real change at work and in life.  A thoughtful listener who asks the right questions to get to the heart of an issue, she approaches every client with energy and kindness.

Elrich holds several leadership positions. She is a facilitator and leadership coach for Aileron’s “Becoming a More Conscious Leader” program. Aileron, based in Tipp City, Ohio, helps take privately held businesses, teams, cultures and individuals to the next level of growth.

She serves as President and Co-owner of Solid Blend Technologies, Inc., based in Dayton, that provides water management solutions for healthcare and other facilities with a focus on Legionella detection, remediation, control and outbreak response. She also created and now manages Solid Blend’s Ideal Culture Program for building a healthier culture at work. For her role at Solid Blend, she was a winner of the 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Award.

Before becoming a coach, Elrich served as a vice president at Solid Blend Technologies for 18 years and in business development for Miami County Dairy Stores for eight years.

Her credentials include Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF); an Emotional Intelligence Certified Coach (EICC), Goleman EI; Energy Leadership Index™ Master Practitioner (ELI-MP), Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC); Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC); TTI Success Insights DISC-Certified, Target Training International; MSCEIT, Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test Certified and Licensed Notary Public, State of Ohio.  She is a member of the Rotary Club of Dayton. https://realchange.life/

Dana Hetrick is President of Lucas Commercial Flooring Group. Opened in 2008, Lucas Commercial Flooring is a customer service company that provides solutions to customers’ flooring needs with the goal of creating long-lasting partnerships.

Hetrick started in the flooring industry in 2002 and received her BA in Interior Design from Park University in 2004. She believes that the flooring industry can make a real difference in the world by creating safer, healthier, and more comfortable work environments. She is passionate about finding the right solutions for customers to meet their project goals. 

Hetrick is President-Elect with the local National Association of Women Business Owners- Kansas City, and participated as a Woman of Impact nominee with the American Heart Association in 2023.  She was named a winner of the 2023 Enterprising Women of the Year Award. 

Lucas Commercial Flooring Group is a small, local, woman owned business that is a certified WBE by City of Kansas City, MO, State of Missouri, and State of Kansas; DBE by MRCC; and SLBE by City of Kansas City, MO.  The company is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and encourages employees to bring their authentic and original selves to work, so they can perform at their best. It was named a 2022 Best Places to Work by the Kansas City Business Journal.

https://www.lucasflooringkc.com

Mariyah Saifuddin is the CEO and co-founder of Innovative Solution Partners, a Michigan-based IT consulting firm which creates analytics solutions that provide data insights for informed decision making.

Saifuddin has a passion for helping businesses solve problems and reach their goals, and knows businesses are tired of dealing with the noise and chaos that comes with a lot of data and fast-moving technology. Her purpose is Business Success: Yours and Hers. She started her business because she loves (1) the intersection of business and technology and (2) seeing the positive effect technology can have on and in a business. How does she do it? Managing a department or running a business involve risk. Saifuddin believes in reducing that risk by putting her 20+ years of industry and technology experience to work for you as a trusted extension of your team.

Saifuddin was a winner of the 2022 Enterprising Women of the Year Award.

Innovative Solution Partners is a certified SAP Services Partner, MBE, WBE, and a graduate of the SBA 8(a) program. For more than 20 years the Innovative Solution Partners team have engineered that figurative bridge that closes the gap between a business's needs and its IT demands. Using the company’s F.O.C.U.S. methodology, Innovative Solution Partners achieves its mission of connecting the dots between people, operations and technology, achieving clarity across organizations.

Saifuddin grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, and now uses her years of IT and entrepreneurship experience to create powerful teams and organizations to drive business growth. As a child of immigrants, she understands the importance of mentorship and sponsorship in all aspects of life. She started her career at a time when there were few women in STEM, let alone women of color. Her passion lies in supporting others as they grow and expand in their careers as well as being active in the entrepreneur ecosystem.

Prior to starting her firm, Saifuddin’s work experience included positions at Ernst & Young, Levy Home Entertainment, and EDS. She serves as President for the Greater Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and is a Board of Director for CARES in Farmington Hills. She is an alumna of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and the WBENC-IBM Executive Education Program at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business. https://isolutionpartners.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EnterprisingWomen 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ewmagazine 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enterprisingwomen/ 

LinkedIn company page for anyone that supports and identifies as a woman entrepreneur: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enterprising-women-magazine/

LinkedIn group (for women entrepreneurs and their supporters to join and engage with one another): https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4470189/

LinkedIn group for award winners (for winners only so they can connect and engage with each other): https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4944775/

ABOUT ENTERPRISING WOMEN MAGAZINE:

Enterprising Women, with headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, is the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners that chronicles the growing political, economic and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women. The magazine provides a friendly meeting place, a public forum and a national stage for the critical issues confronting women’s businesses and daily lives from the unique perspectives and experiences of entrepreneurial women. Published in both print and digital editions, the online edition of the magazine reaches one million readers in 185 countries. For more information, please visit https://enterprisingwomen.com or call (919) 362-1551.