The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Iowa District Office has announced the winners of its 2022 Iowa Small Business Champion of the Year awards. Nominations for the three annual awards were judged by an independent panel of judges. The three awardees, each from Central Iowa, are:

Iowa SBA Women in Business Champion of the Year: Nancy Mwirotsi, executive director, Pursuit of Innovation (Pi515), Des Moines

Mwirotsi is a leading advocate for underserved markets, including refugees, young women, and people of color, in central Iowa. An immigrant herself, Mwirotsi started the Pursuit of Innovation 515 (Pi515) in 2014 as a small afterschool program in the basement of a local church. The nonprofit empowers students from different social and socioeconomic backgrounds to develop technology skills as a way out of poverty. More than 100 Pi515 students have graduated from high school and pursued higher education opportunities since its founding. The program opens the door for the students to pursue a wide variety of career and entrepreneurial options, including futures in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

Iowa SBA Veterans Small Business Champion of the Year: Tom Harbison, Adel

Throughout his 20-year career with the SBA, Harbison opened the door for many Iowa veterans and military families to start, grow and expand their businesses.  As a Vietnam-era veteran, he served as the agency’s veterans representative working closely with veterans’ organizations and other key stakeholders to connect veterans to training, counseling, financing, and government contracting resources. After retiring as SBA’s Deputy District Director in 2010, Harbison joined SCORE, an SBA resource partner that offers training and counseling services through a network of volunteer small business mentors. He continued his advocacy by volunteering his time to present training modules for the SBA’s Boots to Business: Reboot entrepreneurship program for veterans, their spouses, and other members of the military community.   

Iowa SBA Minority Small Business Champion of the Year: Curtis Baugh, director of the Small Business Solutions Center at the DMACC Evelyn K. Davis Center, Des Moines

During his four-year tenure at the Center, Baugh has worked with over 1,000 individual small businesses, representing primarily immigrant and diverse populations. He provides free, professional one-on-one coaching to small businesses and non-profit organizations, and coordinates training programs on a wide variety of topics. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Baugh advised small businesses on identifying new revenue streams and staying afloat despite the shutdowns and economic disruptions. He also assisted clients in applying for federal, state, and local economic recovery grants and loans to make sure they had access to available funding sources. He also established and expanded key economic development partnerships to better support the Small Business Solutions Center’s clients.