Dorothy Askew and Arizone Brown smile wide when talking about Women in Defense Greater Hampton Roads. As vice president and president, respectively, their happy faces have become part of the Women in Defense (WID) brand.
“We did a walk through at the Chesapeake Conference Center, where we’re having an event,” Askew shares, “and the director of events later sent me an email. She wanted to join. I think it’s because of the way we go about our business, and because there’s an element of welcoming. We are eager as a group—through the culture we’ve created—to help others to advance and to encourage them.”
Askew, who serves as CEO of Askew Group, LLC, joined WID in 2015. Brown, CEO/president of ASJ Solutions, started the same year, hoping to network and grow her logistics and IT services business in the federal space. She learned the professional development organization, an affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association, offered more than she expected. Along with meeting a diverse group with a mix of women and men, she developed personally and professionally through tailored trainings.
Nine years later, Brown’s opening doors for others. This fall, she and Askew planned the 2024 Annual Professional Development Day for October 10. The event featured three options for participants—a government track, a commercial industry track and a skills development track.
In March, the women hosted a mentoring event in Portsmouth. That’s where Tuwana Jones’ life changed. Within months, she landed her first government contract.
Jones had been hustling—running a business as a non-emergency medical transportation driver, attending Old Dominion University’s Dream Builders: The Business Creator program and engaging with successful entrepreneurs at networking events and SCORE: For the life of your business workshops. She met Brown at SCORE.
“She encouraged me to attend her mentoring event,” Jones says.
There she connected with Jeri Prophet, owner of IntellecTechs, who connected her to Michael Harris, president of IntellecTechs, who connected her to success.
Not overnight, of course.
Harris meets with Jones every two weeks. They talk about medical transport possibilities and opportunities in other industries. Government bids and contracts have become Jones’ homework. She’s learned to read them like research papers, carefully reviewing details, asking questions about parts she wants to understand better.
Armed with new insight and confidence thanks to Harris’ help, Jones is placing bids for government contracts. A United States Space Force base in Schriever, Colorado recently said yes.
After Brown and Harris opened doors for her it seems appropriate that Jones’ awarded bid is for installing a door. Not your average door, but one costing thousands and designed to secure and soundproof an area of the base. She’s ordered the door and hired Colorado craftsmen to install it, all from her home in Hampton, where she runs J1s Mobile Solutions, LLC.
As Jones investigates new roads for the medical transport arm of her business, she’s mapping out a bigger, multi-faceted business nationwide. She’s also joined Women in Defense.
“I’m grateful that I got a mentor through them,” she says, “because Michael wins huge contracts with the government. He was able to take that information that seems so scary and break it down into sections and segments, giving me proper advice and bringing me into focus. Read every line, understand it. If you do not understand it, ask questions. Don’t assume. Don’t be afraid.”
