Meet Executives, Changemakers, and Leaders Shaping Culture & Communities Across NYC
May is Small Business Month, and here at Spring Bank, it’s a natural moment to reflect on the entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders who have built something extraordinary in the neighborhoods we serve. This month and all year long, we’re excited to shine the spotlight on a diverse group of woman-owned businesses and nonprofits who have trusted us as their banking partner.
Whether it’s a small business cooking up nostalgic meals in the Bronx or a nonprofit empowering local youth in Brooklyn, the leaders we’ve had the privilege of working with are running businesses and shaping culture and communities. As a community bank in NYC, supporting women entrepreneurs with the financial tools they need to grow is at the heart of what we do. Read on to learn about and show your support for the amazing leaders behind these organizations:
The Bronx
Small Businesses
Natalia M. Mendez — La Morada | Rooted in the Mott Haven neighborhood in the South Bronx, La Morada is a family-run Oaxacan restaurant preserving Indigenous Mexican cuisine and culture, one mole at a time. Natalia and her family have built not just a critically acclaimed kitchen, but a community institution committed to immigrant rights and local advocacy.
Nneka Bell — Celebrities Quality Painting Inc. | Dr. Nneka Bell is a Navy veteran, construction trailblazer, and advocate for women of color in the trades. After recognizing that her experience as a military aircraft painter made her a natural fit for commercial work, she launched her MWBE-certified firm and hasn’t looked back.
Yenny Castillo — Vineyard Avenue Corp | A Dominican-owned, real estate holding company based in West Nyack, New York, Yenny and her husband opened the business in 2017.
Erica Garcia — Little Exploradores | Little Exploradores is a bilingual, play-based home daycare serving children from infancy through age 12 in the Bronx. Founded by Erica Garcia, the program offers a warm, culturally rich environment where children develop social, emotional, and academic skills through hands-on exploration in both English and Spanish.
Robin Lewis — RL Hair Studio | Robin Lewis has spent over 30 years creating customized wigs for clients nationwide, but her work doesn’t stop at haircare. A licensed cosmetologist, Reiki practitioner, life coach, and podcaster, Robin built RL Hair Studio out of her own experience overcoming depression and self-doubt as a young female entrepreneur. Today, she uses that journey to guide others, offering community coaching sessions alongside her salon services and product line.
Chanel Agyei Oppong — Malina’s Kitchen | Malina’s Kitchen brings authentic West African cuisine to Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, serving traditional dishes like fufu, banku, and groundnut soup seven days a week.
Nonprofits
Isabel Pradas—College Bridge Cafe | Co-founded with the late Kevin Anthony, Isabel Pradas and her team support Bronx residents through career-oriented educational counseling, mentoring, and referral services to access college and other post-secondary education options. Their mission is to motivate and prepare Bronx residents to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals for a better life.
Aisha Norris — DREAM! | Co-founded by South Bronx native Aisha Norris, DREAM! uses restorative justice and arts-based programming to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. Aisha and her team knew that corrective discipline was not the answer to student conflicts, so they brought their own solution to NYC schools: restorative justice through the arts.
Sulma Arzu Brown — Storyland | Located at the Bronx Terminal Market, Storyland is the borough’s first book lounge designed for children and is a space built to cultivate a lifelong love of reading and learning. Founder Sulma Arzu-Brown has been a champion for literacy and youth development for over 15 years and has been recognized nationally for her work.
Brooklyn
Small Businesses
Sandra Snyder — Lundy’s | Sandra Snyder brought Brooklyn’s iconic Lundy Bros back to life after a 17-year absence, reopening the beloved seafood institution in Red Hook — just blocks from where she and her husband had one of their first dates at the original.
Nonprofits
Carolina Salguero — PortSide New York | PortSide New York advocates for New York City’s working waterfront and connects underserved communities to the harbor’s economic, cultural, and educational resources. Founder Carolina Salguero operates from the historic tanker Mary A. Whalen in Red Hook and was honored by Congress and the White House for her advocacy and Hurricane Sandy relief work.
Tiffiney Davis — Red Hook Art Project | Co-founded in 2009, the Red Hook Art Project provides free visual art, music, and wellness programming to youth ages 8 to 21 in one of Brooklyn’s most resilient neighborhoods. Executive Director Tiffiney Davis, a lifelong Red Hook resident, has secured $1 million in federal funding, expanded programming during the pandemic, and has been recognized with the 2023 Woman of Distinction Award for her work.
Kristina Nagy — Swamp In The City | Founded by Kristina Nagy, Swamp in the City is NYC’s premier Cajun and Creole music festival, bringing the vibrant musical, culinary, and cultural traditions of Southwest Louisiana to the Red Hook waterfront every spring.
Manhattan
Small Businesses
Sarina Prabasi — Buunni Coffee | Sarina Prabasi and her husband Elias Gurmu have built one of northern Manhattan’s most beloved independent coffee companies, with locations in Washington Heights and Inwood. Their ethically sourced Ethiopian beans, micro-roasted weekly, are now also produced out of The Roasting Room, a community co-roasting facility they opened in 2024 in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood.
Evelyn’s Kitchen—Ayala Donchin | Launched in 2009, Evelyn’s Kitchen started with wholesale baked goods and private chef services. Sixteen years later, EK has grown into a beloved New York City brand, known for its signature Pudgies (delicious, soft, doughy cookies), top-tier catering services, and unwavering commitment to the community.
Jennifer Pawlitschek — Jennifer Pawlitschek Consulting | Jennifer Pawlitschek offers neuroscience-based executive coaching and leadership development for American and global professionals, with a focus on women and diverse populations, helping clients at organizations like Citibank, Bloomberg, and the United Nations move from expertise to impact.
Kelsey Reeder — Kelsey G Reeder LCSW PLLC | Kelsey Reeder is a New York City-based licensed clinical social worker offering psychotherapy, clinical supervision, and specialized support for queer and trans family-building. Her practice is rooted in intersectional, anti-colonialist, and trans-liberatory care.
Rukshinda Rizvi — MaxWell Medical | MaxWell Medical is a state-of-the-art physiotherapy practice founded by the three Rizvi sisters with the vision that Relief is Within Reach. All patients receive specialized care, with services like physical therapy, sports medicine, acupuncture, trigger point therapy, and much more. Rukshinda currently serves as the managing director alongside her sisters.
Nicole A. Mackinlay — Reap What You Sew | Nicole Mackinlay Hahn is a transdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and advocate whose Reap What You Sew project connects consumers to the human stories behind food, shelter, and clothing, with a particular focus on African artisans and garment workers.
Beyond NYC
Small Businesses
Daysi Briones — IQ Contracting Inc & Associates | Based in Ossining, New York, IQ Contracting is a DBE, WBE, and MWBE-certified general contractor with decades of experience delivering residential, commercial, and public construction projects on time and within budget. Founded by Daysi Briones, the firm handles everything from interior renovations to large-scale exterior restorations.
Nonprofits
Alexandra Barrett — ATB Impact LLC | Based in Brooklyn, ATB Impact LLC provides B2B strategy consulting, supporting leaders with the resources, training, support, and systems that allow them to focus on expanding opportunity for the people they serve. They offer and design leadership development programs, facilitate strategic planning, build operational infrastructure, and create spaces for learning in community.
Janna Marie Hockenjos — Earth Friends Incorporated | Based in New Jersey, Earth Friends is a nonprofit dedicated to early childhood environmental education, offering a nature-based curriculum that teaches young children about ecological relationships, food systems, and their place in the web of life.
Crystal Cron — Presente! Maine | Based in Portland, Maine, Presente! Maine is a grassroots mutual aid organization by and for displaced and dispossessed Afro/Indigenous-Latine immigrants, running survival programs around food sovereignty, community health, and shared leadership.
Bethany Yarrow — The Waterfall Center | Based in the Schoharie Valley of upstate New York, the Waterfall Center for Bioregional Learning is dedicated to land stewardship, Indigenous partnerships, and building community-rooted solutions to the environmental challenges of our time.
Banking Built for What You’re Building
Finding the best small business checking account in New York City means finding a bank that actually understands your community, and that’s exactly what we set out to be. At Spring Bank, our small business checking account options are built for the realities of running a business in this city, alongside small business loans and lines of credit built for businesses at various stages of growth.
We even have tailored solutions for our nonprofit customers, who are often overlooked by traditional banks. As your bank in Bronx, NY, and Red Hook, Brooklyn, we offer personal checking accounts, high-yield savings accounts, and the full range of personal, business, and nonprofit banking solutions to help you and your organization thrive.
If you’re a woman or minority business owner navigating New York’s contracting landscape, a MWBE certification through NYC’s Small Business Services could open meaningful doors, including access to government contracts and resources designed to level the playing field. We’re proud to partner with many of New York City’s certified MWBE businesses, and we’d love to support yours, too.