Eshonda Blue of Innovative Senior Solutions to speak at SGTC African American History Program
Eshonda Blue, CEO and Co-Owner of Innovative Senior Solutions, will be the keynote speaker for this year’s African American History program at South Georgia Technical College. The program will be held on Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 11:00am in the John M. Pope Industrial Technology Center on SGTC’s Americus campus, and the public is invited to attend.
Blue founded Innovative Senior Solutions (ISS) with her sister, Jessica Wright, in 2007. The two sisters started their business in South Georgia Technical College’s Business Expansion Center (BEC), which provides assistance to entrepreneurs in SGTC’s six county service area of Sumter, Schley, Marion, Crisp, Macon, and Webster counties to help small businesses build a foundation on which to be successful. Innovative Senior Solutions, which provides adult day health, personal care/sitter services, respite care, and skilled nursing, became the first licensed home care provider in Sumter County, and over the past decade has expanded to provide services in 19 counties. ISS also offers CNA and PCA training.
“Innovative Senior Solutions is a premiere example of how a business should be run,” said SGTC Vice President of Economic Development Wally Summers, who assisted Blue and her sister in the early BEC Center days of Innovative Senior Solutions, helping to make sure their needs were met in order for their business to grow successfully. “Not only have they shown tremendous growth as a company, but Eshonda, Jessica, and their staff have rooted themselves in the community, branded themselves impeccably, and shown incredible leadership skills.”
Eshonda and Innovative Senior Solutions were recognized by the Americus-Sumter Chamber of Commerce as the Small Business of the Year in 2011, and received the Rock Star Award honorable mention from the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Economic Developers Association (GEDA) in 2014.
Blue graduated from Georgia Southwestern State University with a degree in nursing and has over 20 years of experience in long-term care and healthcare management. She is the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Caring 4 Seniors Foundation, and serves on several local boards of directors.
Sumter County Primary School and the South Georgia Technical College Gospel Choir will perform musical selections during the African American History program. SGTC President Dr. John Watford, SGTC’s 2017 GOAL winner Christopher McGee, a Marketing Management student from Cordele; SGTC’s 2017 Instructor of the Year Charles Christmas, and Marketing Management student Maria Rivera of Vienna will also be a part of the program.