Hanah Ehrenreich joins the innovation team this spring as a volunteer business technical advisor, holding office hours each Wednesday starting February 12 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Blackstone LaunchPad in Bird Library.
Ehrenreich is a Business Program Navigator at Cooperative Federal. In that role she guides applicants through the business loan process, provides connections to business resources in the community, engages with business borrowers and members, works with microenterprise loan programs, and helps implement the credit union’s public communications and outreach strategies for business programs. Her skills include small business/microenterprise lending, small business technical assistance, community development finance, nonprofit development, entrepreneurship and business ownership.
Previously, she was a business advisor at the NYS Small Business Development Center, part of a national network that provides assistance to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs throughout the United States and its territories. SBDCs are hosted by universities, state and community colleges, and state economic development agencies, funded in part through a partnership with SBA.
She is the founder and President of Revolutionary Coworking, a collaborative workspace designed for vetrepreneurs, milspreneurs, and remote workers near Fort Bragg, NC. She was honored as one of the City of Fayetteville’s 40 Under 40. From 2014-2018, she served as Director of Sustainable Sandhills, a grassroots environmental organization. Under her leadership, Sustainable Sandhills established the region’s first Carbon Bank, launched an annual Clean Energy Summit and a Green Business Awards competition, and presented at the Green School National Conference (2016) and National Airports Conference (2017). Ehrenreich and her team started an underground locavore PopUp Dinner series and partnered with Dirtbag Ales microbrewery to develop a popular new Farmers Market.
As a consultant for the Greater Fayetteville Chamber, she administered the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) chapter for two years, and has a special place in her heart for youth entrepreneurs. She previously worked for CNY Works on green jobs through a $3.7M US Department of Labor workforce development grant.
Ehrenreich holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict, and Development Studies from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London; and a BA in Government with Honors from Smith College. She is a member of Milspo Project, InGear Career/Hire Our Heroes, NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign.