Harris is also putting her multiple-organization philosophy into practice.
#ANGEL LEARNING COLUMBUS TECH HOW TO#
“Now is helping me to learn how to apply for jobs and how to interview and feel comfortable.” In addition to its “suiting” service, Dress For Success offers women a career center, employment retention services and peer-support groups. “I was lost, I didn’t know what to do or where to go, and my English wasn’t so perfect,” Brown says. Lorena Brown was a journalist in Uruguay and came to Columbus in 2017. About 65 percent of the clients are women of color, and 85 percent to 90 percent have high school diplomas. Sixty-five percent of the women it serves are trapped in generational poverty, while 35 percent find themselves in situational poverty due to setbacks. “We empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support,” Harris says.
The clothes are the starting point (more about Dress for Success on page 18).
#ANGEL LEARNING COLUMBUS TECH PROFESSIONAL#
There’s a bit of a misconception that Dress for Success only provides business attire to women to help them look professional when they interview for a job. I came into an organization that was so well run and I said to the team, ‘What are some of the things you want to do, but haven’t done yet?’ ”
“They said they were looking for a leader to take them to the next level and, being the ambitious person that I am, I wanted to take this on. “I learned so much at the United Way, and I felt like this was an opportunity to make a huge difference with a smaller organization,” she says. Harris jumped at the opportunity to lead Dress for Success when founder Vicki Bowen Hewes decided to step down. “I learned the importance of multiple organizations coming together to achieve a goal, because no organization can do it all for a person in this community,” she says. This led to a tech-based job at the United Way of Central Ohio, where Harris eventually was named chief development officer and senior vice president. She landed a job at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus, where she designed a database for a fundraising campaign. While attending college-she holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems, an MBA and a doctorate from Franklin University-Harris became a single mother at the age of 20. “Even then, I guess I thought big.” Read about all of our CEO of the Year 2020 award winners. “I wanted to be the managing partner of a Big Six accounting firm,” she says. While attending East High School, Harris planned on becoming an accountant. “And now, I want to give our women what I had-people telling me I could do it. “I’d come home with straight A’s and she’d say, ‘Of course you did, we believe in you,’ ” Harris says. She has become a maternal figure to scores of women, following in the footsteps of her mother, Mary, who told her daughter she could accomplish anything and everything.
Skip ahead a couple of decades and Harris, 45, is devoting her professional life to helping and serving others, first at the United Way of Central Ohio, and since 2018 as the executive director of Dress for Success Columbus. “Our house was where people came to hang out, and that’s where the spirit of helping and serving others was born in me.” “My father had a catering business and was a great cook,” Harris says. The home where Angel Harris grew up on the east side of Columbus was where people gathered to talk, tell stories, laugh and chow down some tasty food.
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