Dori Hallberg is truly an entrepreneur at heart. As a child growing up in Seattle, she helped her brother run a neighborhood lemonade stand, operated a lending library out of her bedroom, and as a teen made and sold hand puppets at street fairs to earn spending money for college. After graduating from college with a B.A. Degree in Home Economics, Dori began a 15 year stint in the stock brokerage industry, where she honed her skills in finance and money management.

In spring of 1994, inspired by Victoria Magazine, Dori launched her first 'Business of Bliss', My Remembrance. For nearly five years she designed and created lovely vintage inspired women's clothing and small accessories, selling her work at upscale Arts & Crafts Fairs throughout the Pacific Northwest. The shopkeeping bug bit in 1998 and Dori opened her shop, Island Tea Company, now in it's tenth year of operation.

While launching and growing a successful business has been been a most satisfying experience, what has been even more rewarding to Dori is the time she has spent mentoring other women as they launch their own entrepreneurial ventures.  Like Debi Ward Kennedy, Dori acted as moderator and director for an online women's business forum, 'The Bliss Guild' whose roots date back to Victoria Magazine's 'Business of Bliss' online forum.  She has enjoyed building friendships, being encouraged and encouraging others in a core group which has been together since 1998.  She looks forward to working with Debi and Stephanie to build 'Women Take Wing!' into a company that will facilitate and celebrate the successes of women in business for many years to come.

Dori Hallberg
Co-Founder

Ten years ago if someone had said to Stephanie Zea that she would be running her own bookkeeping business, she would have been the first to laugh. But it’s true that today she is incredibly comfortable and inspired by her accounting work with non-profit organizations, small retail and professional service businesses on Whidbey Island. She will tell you that all of her experiences have brought her to this place, on this path and she embraces the journey.

Trained in her mother’s office since 13, office and administrative work are second nature to Stephanie. She worked in civil service for more than 10 years but after several years of commuting, she, along with two partners, opened a retail ceramics business in 2001. Stephanie ran both her retail space and a bookkeeping service and for three years the two businesses happily consumed occupied her time. In 2006, knowing that balance is the key to a happy life, Stephanie sold The Paint Escape and now is a full time bookkeeper. As self-taught bookkeeper, Stephanie has a way of making accounting and numbers accessible to her clients. She knows first hand that every business owner needs to have a good grasp of the financials in order to make educated decisions. She likes to say that she is helping her clients grow their own businesses one reconciliation at a time. 

Stephanie Zea
Co-Founder

Debi Ward Kennedy comes from generations of entrepreneurs, among them shopkeepers, farmers, artisans and merchants, and many of them women whose example taught her the value of hard work combined with imagination. Deb will be the first to tell you that there are no fancy degrees hanging on her wall, but since her first job, as a 13-year-old display creator in her mother's gift shop located across the street from Disneyland, she has been pursuing her burgeoning passion for retail marketing.  Her education & work experience has focused on art, marketing, merchandising, and business.  As both an employee and a consultant for theme parks, national retailers, world-renowned wineries, and independent small businesses, Deb has been active in the retail industry for over 30 years.

As a former boutique owner and artist/designer of her own line of home furnishings & accessories, Deb has walked in the shoes of manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers.  Her work with businesses of many types & sizes as a retail space & merchandise display designer has given her a wealth of insight into the needs, challenges, and concerns of various industries.  Conversations with attendees at her trade show seminars across the West have enabled her to hear first-hand about the issues on the minds of independent business owners.  Through her involvement for nearly ten years with the Bliss Guild, an online women-in-business community that began as Victoria Magazine's 'Business of Bliss' forum, she has encouraged, educated, inspired, and led many women through the stages of starting, growing, and promoting businesses of their own.  As a moderator and director of that community for three years, Deb helped them to garner national attention in Country Living magazine's 'Women Entrepreneurs' issue in 2007.

Helping women succeed has been at the root of every business endeavor Deb has ever undertaken.  Women Take Wing! is truly the next step in her journey.

Debi Ward Kennedy
Co-Founder