Tamra Ryan is the CEO of Women’s Bean Project, a Colorado 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission to change women’s lives by providing stepping stones to self-sufficiency through social enterprise. They believe that all women have the power to transform their lives through employment. So they hire women who are chronically unemployed and they teach them to work by making nourishing products. They learn to stand tall, find their purpose and break the cycle of poverty. Because they believe when you change a woman’s life, you change her family’s life.

As Tamra shares in this week’s new episode, her perspective changed the moment she walked into the Women’s Bean Project and she met the women that the Bean employs. She didn’t recognize the human challenges in running a business whose employees are the neediest among us. She didn’t think about why her employees hadn’t held a job longer than a year, and she didn’t realize that even if a woman had tried to the best of her ability to find a job or turn her life around, there were still powerful forces working against her. The culture she walked into at the Bean Project couldn’t have been more different than her white middle-class upbringing, and the lessons, wisdom, and compassion she’s gained has changed the course of her life forever.

Throughout the episode Tamra shares the stories of some of the women she’s met in her tenure - and every story and experience will inspire you and touch you. Her reflections on the power of the resiliency of the human spirit, the women she’s met at the Bean Project who have faced and overcame insurmountable odds, and how it’s changed her - from being a “hard hearted business focused woman” to a woman who wants and needs to know each woman’s story, will remind you that what we have in common as people, is far stronger than anything that might divide us. Today, Tamra leads the Bean Project’s strategic direction and is instrumental in putting the organization on the national and international map, as a high-performing and impactful social enterprise. She is a former board member of Social Venture Partners-Denver, currently chairs the Board of Directors for the Social Enterprise Alliance and is on the advisory board for the Barton Institute for Philanthropy and Social Enterprise at the University of Denver.

“Through the Bean Project I learned that it’s society that holds certain women back, but I also learned something far more moving about the resiliency about the human spirit. I’ve met countless women at the Bean Project that faced and overcame insurmountable odds. They taught me that it is possible to confront and overcome fear, shame, and lack of self-worth. I have seen how difficult but necessary it is to stare adversity in the eye, and despite setbacks, a path to a new life can be created. I’ve seen the value and impact of a woman believing that she is worthy of a better life.”

— Tamra Ryan

To connect with Tamra and Women’s Bean Project you can visit their website www.womensbeanProject.com and you can find Tamra on Twitter @tamraryan and via email Tamra.ryan@womensbeanproject.com and you can find Women’s Bean Project on Instagram @womensbeanproject on Twitter @womensbean and Facebook @womensbeanproject

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.