Jessie Tientcheu has spent her career empowering people.
As CEO of Opening Doors, Tientcheu is responsible for a complex organization that provides economic and social services to refugees, immigrants, human trafficking survivors and underserved Sacramento area residents.
Before becoming CEO in 2019, she volunteered for the organization’s refugee resettlement program, helping newcomers connect to their new community.
Onit Coffee’s motto is “Impacting lives one cup at a time.”
Founder and owner Shadi Khattab chose the phrase for his business—Sacramento’s first mobile gourmet coffee truck—as a homage to his partnerships with nonprofits and coffee’s integral role in his Middle Eastern upbringing.
“In my culture, we’re very big on quality tea and coffee,” says Khattab, who emigrated from Syria at age 5 with his family so his father could pursue medical studies. “Family and friends sit down together and bond over a cup of coffee. It’s a very big cultural thing for me, so I thought, why not bring aspects of my culture into the business I want to create?”
Megan Van Voorhis loves how she can sit outside on her balcony in the middle of winter. The city’s new cultural services and creative economy manager moved to Downtown from Cleveland last September. The Northern California climate made a positive impression.
“I’m so used to the cold and the snow, I love that I now get this beautiful weather,” says Van Voorhis, who has spent more than a decade examining the role of arts and culture across multiple sectors. She served as president and CEO of Arts Cleveland, a nonprofit community partnership created to advance arts and culture in Cuyahoga County.
Winter break this year was atypical for many students due to the pandemic. But Jesuit High School junior Kaden Bishop’s break was even more unusual. He spent it developing a stock investment training platform.
The 17-year-old Rocklin resident has always had a “business-oriented mind.” He once created a snack cart for office workers. He sold shoes and clothes. Now, he’s teaching fellow teens how to invest in the stock market.
I was pulling out of a parking lot when I spotted her—a reddish ball of fluffy fur sprinting southbound on Fulton Avenue. Dodging car after car, she crossed the freeway overpass and then Auburn Boulevard.
I followed the wayward pooch to Edison Avenue, where she took a hard left. Twice when she stopped, I jumped out of my car and called to the misplaced mutt—only to have her ignore my pleas and keep moving.
“A quarter of a century. Makes a girl think.” –Marilyn Monroe as Sugar in “Some Like It Hot.”
Beth Hassett has been thinking a lot lately. The chief executive of WEAVE is celebrating her 25th year at the nonprofit that provides crisis intervention for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking in Sacramento County.
