CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Flossie is an active duty Navy spouse and accomplished serial entrepreneur who has generated multiple 7-figure businesses, and is using this experience to dial-up others’ success. She has built and scaled many successful entrepreneurial education programs, accelerators, and military programs, including her most recent venture as the COO and Co-Founder of AMSE – The Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs. Since 2019, AMSE has helped more than 2,000 military spouses globally to start, scale and sustain their own businesses. An advocate, leader, and mentor to many, her greatest strength is being a strategic executive consultant helping businesses grow, bringing tremendous value to Stella’s diverse community of entrepreneurs.

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Kara is a seasoned organizational strategist who is intimately familiar with the needs and demands of female entrepreneurs. Her experience ranges from solopreneurship to scaling startups into multi-million dollar companies, earning her the nickname of “The Optrepreneur.” She brings calm to the chaos by building operations and programs supporting founders to ignite their innovation and execute to scale. A native of Virginia, Kara and her family currently call Kentucky home where she’s raising her 3 kiddos and 2 furbabies. She has an affinity for personality assessments, writing, photography, hiking, and the outdoors.

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Jaci is a passionate and accomplished Executive Leader with 15+ years of experience starting and growing businesses and organizations. She is an enthusiastic self-starter with a passion for developing organizational systems, demystifying business finances, corporate social responsibility, and working alongside visionaries to execute their vision. As a Fractional CFO, she takes a fresh and transformative approach to part-time leadership, adding a unique edge with her engineering expertise and problem-solving acumen. Jaci’s mission-driven nature fosters strong client relationships and drives impactful change across the diverse businesses she collaborates with.

Jaci loves the mountains and takes any opportunity to hike, camp, explore or even relax in nature. While she lives in San Diego with her husband, Matt, you’ll often find them traveling the globe, especially Bali, to visit their two nephews.

TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

Angie Schultz is the Creative Director and Owner of Opposable Thumbs Marketing, a marketing and design studio based in San Diego. She is an award-winning designer with more than 25 years of experience in brand building, website development, project management, and marketing consultation. Her portfolio includes projects for major manufacturers, national retailers, startups, and nonprofits.

Angie believes in service first and giving back and has been a city councilor, a library board member, and served on the board of Military In Transition-Firefighter For A Day in addition to various other committee and organizations.

EVENTS DIRECTOR

Rylie is the lead thought curator and founder of, Baddies Mean Business, a media company focused on humanizing media valuing free-thinking, creativity, and innovation. The best story-tellers win and she is focused on helping founders translate their true purpose to a broader audience.

Her podcast, Baddies Mean Business, fulfills this mission by sharing the stories of ambitious female leaders working at the intersection of social entrepreneurship, creativity, and joy.

Previously, she founded her first company, Sem-plus, through the SDSU incubator, the Zip Launchpad, which aimed to create a community resource platform for Traumatic Brain Injury survivors and their caregivers. Later, she worked as a Chief of Staff for an early-stage venture firm based in San Diego working on events, LP relations, and executive podcast production.

Otherwise, she loves to cook, travel, and play beach volleyball.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Amy Tilson-Lumetta is a trained performer turned multidimensional creative. She is a graphic designer, award-nominated composer, and writer. As a graphic designer, she helps businesses transform their visual identity, specializing in logos & branding, pitch decks, one-pagers, social media graphics, website design, and video editing.

Currently, she is also writing her debut sci-fi book series expanding on her original musical, CREATED, which witnessed a sold-out premiere at UC Irvine. Additionally, her latest music release was on the first round GRAMMY® ballot for Best Arrangement. She loves science, space exploration, coffee shops, and stories that inspire.

MARKETING MANAGER

Liberty is a junior at SUNY Brockport studying Political Science with a minor in Business. For the last five years, she has worked with national companies strategizing, implementing, and managing campaigns across marketing, public relations, sponsorships, and partnerships. Liberty loves contributing to startups, small businesses, and non-profits that are building great companies, products, and services.

Liberty’s plans after college include working for a social impact organization, non-profit, or government agency to help implement and change for causes she believes in. Liberty loves all things coffee, Taylor Swift, and her cats, Peter and Oliver.

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Sadie is a motivated and experienced community outreach professional who enjoys serving the public and fostering relationships with various community stakeholders, especially through event programming. She is interested in the corporate social responsibility/impact space. This has led to a variety of professional roles including political consulting in Washington DC, Corporate Social Responsibility for a large gold mining company in Nevada, and research work for a consulting firm in Austin, TX. Most recently she has thrived working in the nonprofit and government worlds facilitating community outreach. She is passionate about serving others and excited to be working with Stella’s founders and funders. Sadie is an Active Duty Army spouse and currently resides in central Texas with her husband and two young sons.

MARKETING ASSOCIATE

Allie is a seasoned professional with a decade of operational experience working for companies in various industries. She loves working with companies to help them find their voice and amplify their work through marketing and PR. With extreme attention to detail, Allie leads our team as lead editor and ensures all projects run smoothly and put their best foot forward. Allie loves all things cats, books, movies, and travel. She lives in Chicago with her long-time partner Eric.

Board Director
CEO, Hydrostasis

Debbie is the Founder, CEO of Hydrostasis, Inc. She has 20 years of experience developing optical diagnostic tools. She has a B.S. in Bioengineering from UCSD and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University. Past projects include early diagnostic tool for detection of peripheral neuropathy, corneal confocal microscopy for Type-1 Diabetes screening, 3D in-vivo plankton microscope, and high-content screening for drug discovery. In 2018, Debbie founded Hydrostasis, developing real-time wearable hydration monitoring technologies. Debbie is an advocate for women entrepreneurs and actively mentors and speaks about entrepreneurship mindset for underrepresented founders.

Board Director
Author

Marcia is an early-stage investor who serves on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, a venture partner with Mindshift Capital, a member of Golden Seeds, and the Chair Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), a global professional society for angel investors.

Her upcoming book, Do Good While Doing Well – Invest for Change, Reap Financial Rewards and Increase Your Happiness, the first of its kind why-to book about how anyone can invest in the change they want to see in the world, is due out in 2024.

She is also an Associate Producer on the award-winning documentary film Show Her The Money, which debuted at the Women’s Film Festival in Philadelphia in September of 2023.
She is a founding member and chair of the ACA’s Growing Women’s Capital Group, which is building syndication and collaboration among US investment groups focused on women-led companies.

A TEDx speaker and the host of The Angel Next Door Podcast, Marcia walks the talk and holds investments in over 50 early-stage companies and funds. She is committed to expanding support for diverse companies that overcome the world’s biggest problems and accelerate positive change.

Board Director
Principal, Dowling & Yahnke

Anna is a Partner, Wealth Advisor in our San Diego office. Passionate about helping her clients both understand and navigate the financial questions they face throughout their lives, she especially loves partnering with people to accomplish true success on their terms. Anna has over 20 years of experience in the wealth advisory field and holds elevated designations such as the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification, Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA) and Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designations. She also holds an executive certificate in Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management from Wharton and is currently studying for the Accredited Estate Planner designation (AEP). Anna enjoys simplifying the complex financial world so her clients maximize their outcomes, feel empowered in their financial decisions and feel they have a partner who has a close eye on their financial wellness. Anna is passionate about giving back and serves on the board of Stella Foundation, an organization that helps female founders. She is most proud of her role as a mom to her two children and has been married to her husband for 15 years. Anna loves being outdoors in her city, family time, reading, music (of all types!) and salsa dancing when she gets the chance.

Board Director
Executive Vice President Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Vessel Health

Board Director
Fractional CFO

Jaci is a mission-driven professional who loves to learn, lead, and make an impact. As a Fractional executive, she takes a fresh and transformative approach to part-time leadership, adding a unique edge with her engineering background, servant leadership, and problem-solving acumen. Current and past roles include: KINN Collective Chief of Staff, Social Venture Partner, Founder of HandsOn San Diego, Co-Owner and VP of Right Hand Events, Packaging Engineer at P&G, and a proud AmeriCorps Alumni.

Board Director
General Founder & Co-Partner, Emmeline Ventures

Naseem is Co-Founder and General Partner at Emmeline Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in Los Angeles investing across women’s health, financial services, and climate with a laser focus on tech & innovation that is helping women live & thrive. The portfolio has 23 companies in its portfolio including Alloy Women’s Health, LunaJoy, WealthMore, and The Beans.

Naseem’s investing and business-building experience comes from 20+ years in executive leadership roles across management consulting, agency services, venture incubators, a corporate venture capital firm, and as an active angel investor. She and her partners launched Emmeline Ventures in 2022 with a deliberate focus on unlocking new capital for female founders and bringing more women to the table as VC check writers.

Naseem has an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, where she was awarded the Dean’s Leadership Award two years running, and a BA from UCLA in Business Economics where she graduated cum laude.

Board Director
CEO & Founder, Alternative Wealth Partners

Kelly Ann is an accomplished alternative investments expert and the founder of Alternative Wealth Partners (AWP), the first private equity firm founded and led by a millennial, openly LGBTQ+ woman. Kelly Ann has raised close to $1 billion in capital for startups, energy companies, manufacturing ventures, real estate, and other key emerging markets, including initiatives in Opportunity Zone Funds (OZF), aligning social impact investing through creative tax strategies. She is also the author of Pitch the Bitch: Grab Your Financial Future by the Bags (May 2023) and a sought-after keynote speaker and panelist who has shared her expertise in finance, entrepreneurship, and diversity topics at events like New York Tech Week’s InvestHer Roundtables: Women Writing Checks hosted by LiveNation Women, Alts Expo, Women’s Venture Summit, and Wealthy Women Summits. When not working, Kelly Ann enjoys traveling with her partner, spending time with family, and cuddling with her two big dogs.