Director of Employee Relations
Sophia Negash was born and raised in Shashemane, Ethiopia. When she was about 18 years, she moved to Boston, MA, where she met her husband. Then, she moved to Florida for about a year and eventually moved out to Virginia to finally settle down.
Her work experience is very versatile. She has worked in many industries that gave her vast experience. She has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, four years with the human resources department, management field, and traveled extensively to open new businesses in airports throughout the US. She enrolled in Northern Virginia Community College while working, and then later transferred to Strayer University. She received a real estate license and practiced from 2005-2015.
She also volunteered with multiple organizations for charity purposes. She gave 20 years of services at the Wegene Ethiopian Foundation. Some of her volunteering accomplishments include a one month successful $30,000 fundraising campaign for her community church and creating training materials for restaurant teams.
She has a persistent personality. For example, she relentlessly advocated for and succeeded in persuading all catholic schools to allow students of other faiths to be able to attend classes without having to practice Catholicism. Outside of work-life, she enjoys several hobbies that include swimming and dancing as they have been her passion since she was a child.
She always wanted to help others in her community but unsure of how until now. Joining Black Economy excellence answered her long-awaited urge to help others. The honor of being offered the position of director of employee relations has motivated her to continue doing and working for a better cause.
This experience reminded her Maya Angelou’s quote, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” This truly exemplifies, why we do what we do. Life is too short. So as long as we are here, we must make the best out of it.