Joshalynn Green’s phenomenal quest to pay it forward

Joshalynn Green, 29

Founder and President, Phenomenal Women Inc.| Denver

Joshalynn Green founded the nonprofit Phenomenal Women Inc. in 2017 to fulfill a longtime desire to give back. In doing so, she’s also recognizing – paying forward, she says – the encouragement she received from others while growing up in a fatherless home, at one point in foster care, living in seven different states and attending more than a dozen schools before she was 18.

“I’ve had a great group of mentors who have definitely been pillars and pivotal in my life to encourage me to keep going. They definitely invested in me, and I want to just continue paying forward and helping out,” says Green, who earned a bachelor of science degree in management information systems from Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama, and in 2015 was named Miss Black Colorado USA.

Phenomenal Women, with chapters in Denver and Birmingham, consists of three components: community service, youth enrichment and women empowerment.

“We partner with various homeless shelters across Colorado,” explains Green, who also works as a corporate senior recruiter for Johnson Controls, a Fortune 500 company. “Every year we provide up to 500 homeless care kits to the homeless community.”

The youth enrichment component includes a 12-week life skills program on subjects ranging from financial literacy to etiquette in dining, for students age 10 to 16 across the state.

For the women-empowerment element, Phenomenal Women provides a free platform for women to come together through networking events, and workshops for participants to showcase their products, services or business opportunities through the organization’s annual Invest in Youth symposium.

Her No. 1 goal: “To expand Phenomenal Women to a national platform so we can continue our work on a broader scale, to help students get full-ride college scholarships and provide free year-long mentorships.”

This article is part of the ColoradoBiz’s 2021 Top 25 Young Professionals. Click here to read more about the latest class of up-and-coming movers and shakers.