She/Her

Ana Jose is the Director of Business Development at Michigan Women Forward. In this capacity, she leads the organization’s development efforts across West Michigan, encompassing the Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Kalamazoo metropolitan areas. Ana’s primary objective is to foster collaboration with various entities while spearheading strategies to identify, nurture, and establish business relationships. Her focus centers on offering lending opportunities to small businesses within the communities of interest.

Additionally, Ana Jose serves as the Co-chair of Community Collaboration on Climate Change (C4), a pivotal organization concentrating on the intersection of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities with historically white environmental groups. Under her leadership, C4 aims to dismantle extractive systems and construct new frameworks that address climate change by emphasizing human well-being, the interconnectedness of life, and the facilitation of shared leadership.

Prior to her current role, Ana was as the Program Manager for the Transformando West Michigan initiative at the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce from August 2018 to November 5, 2021. During her tenure, she played an instrumental role in forging partnerships with various community stakeholders to design a comprehensive curriculum. This curriculum was tailored to empower Hispanic business proprietors by equipping them with the knowledge and resources needed to secure funding and propel their enterprises forward. Her oversight was pivotal in ensuring their ongoing success.

With an entrepreneurial background as the former owner and operator of a mortgage and finance business, Ana possesses a firsthand appreciation for demonstrating the value of investing in stability and acquiring the skills to navigate formal avenues for accessing crucial government programs.