Small Business Profiles

In early 2020, co-founders Kim Coplen and Kelli Johnson found themselves, like many others, navigating full-time office jobs while struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance. “We knew we wanted to create a company that not only supported people at work but also made work a little more enjoyable,” says Kelli. This shared vision led to the founding of K&K Solutions.

Focusing on strategic planning and team-building events, Kelli and Kim worked with AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia’s (DC) 2021 Small Business Program to lay the foundation of their dream organization. As Kelli puts it, the program “gave us the confidence to work with customers and do all of those things you need to start a business.”

Now, K&K Solutions partners with organizations and individuals nationwide to deliver unique, engaging experiences. Assisting with the development of DEI initiatives and tailored engagement plans are also part of their repertoire. One standout example is a virtual holiday event where attendees learned sustainable gift-wrapping techniques from a Japanese American designer and artist.

Founded in 2002 by Evelyn Rodriguez, M.A., The Aquiline Group provides communications services that transcend cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic barriers. This small business aims to make a difference in the world by helping government agencies and D.C.-based organizations reach low-income, low-information, and hard-to-reach populations. As Managing Director of The Aquiline Group, Rodriguez is the Corporate Monitor for its portfolio of business, specializing in marketing communications, partnership development, and recruitment.

Rodriguez values the many years she has worked with AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC), helping with a range of services and outreach efforts including event planning and translation services. At present, her team assists with provider recruitment efforts, aiming to bridge any gaps that may exist in the provider network. One example focuses on the ongoing maternal health crisis by recruiting doulas to assist in maternal caregiving.

After years of experience as a practicing doctor, academic researcher, and the Medical Director of DC Medicaid, Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick is as medically savvy as they come. While speaking on a panel in Atlanta, a man asked Dr. Fitzpatrick, “How does someone like me access someone like you on a regular basis?”

Galvanized by the question, she started "Dr. Lisa on the Street" — a web series featuring her in her community helping her neighbors understand health information. “[Their questions] were all very basic. People are dying and being hospitalized for simple diseases because they don’t understand the small things they can do to stay healthy,” she said in an interview.

With a breadth of business experience and an entrepreneurial drive, Brandy R. Butler chose to focus on human resources and administrative management solutions when she founded ADC Management Solutions (ADC-MS) in 2003. Her creative and operational strengths enable ADC-MS to deliver innovative and strategic solutions that help clients improve the quality of their workforces, streamline operations, and meet compliance mandates.

Butler develops strong and meaningful relationships with clients and employees alike by facilitating successful matches that satisfy clients and provide rewarding employment for associates. The Washington Business Journal, among others, has taken notice of her company’s success, listing ADC-MS as one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses in 2013.

When Malik Edwards decided to reenter private practice, he knew joining Tiber Hudson LLC, a full-service law firm, would be an exciting opportunity and a great fit. The firm’s attorneys and their clients were already familiar with Edwards and his work through his prior role as General Counsel to D.C.’s Department of Small and Local Business Development.

Throughout her experience in managing training programs, Alexandra J. Herndon had a gift for making her trainers and participants feel empowered, confident, and capable. Those who took part in the trainings she oversaw consistently responded to her positive energy and commitment to serving others. Herndon realized her approach to training was unique to the consulting world, leading her to found MMI Consulting Group LLC (MMI) in 2016.

Geraldine Barrientos set out to solve a specific problem: On many occasions, she saw campaigns directed at Hispanic communities that were not only culturally inappropriate but also ineffective, taking a one-size-fits-all approach to outreach strategies and communication materials. This led to a disconnect between the message and the audience, as well as to facts getting lost in translation — sometimes literally.

Desire to create a scalable solution and support her community led Barrientos and her sister, Mariana Barrientos Roig, to establish ROIG Communications LLC (RC), a full-service, cross-cultural advertising and marketing agency based in Washington, D.C. Barrientos serves as cofounder and President alongside Roig, who is also a cofounder and RC’s Vice President of Strategy.

Founded in 2014, RC’s mission is to provide counsel and strategic communications services that enable their clients to build both strong relationships with their stakeholders and long-term value-added partnerships with like-minded organizations.

AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) is among the entities with which RC has built a strong relationship.

 
"Our collaboration with the team at AmeriHealth Caritas DC has enhanced our impact on the community, among many other stakeholders. The challenges we work together to solve, coupled with creating messaging around innovative ideas, has helped build stronger relationships with our partners", says Barrientos.
 
Barrientos credits past mentors with helping her thrive as an entrepreneur and small business owner. She also believes that giving back to RC’s community partners is key to the company’s success.

“Former bosses, colleagues, and family have all played a role in our growth as professionals at a personal level, but they also helped RC grow organically with the right set of values that drive an inclusive company culture based on building mutually beneficial relationships in our community,” she says.

Looking ahead, the sky is truly the limit, and campaigns must be targeted for younger audiences, especially millennials and Generation Z, whom Barrientos sees as the new creative content drivers in the market.

Marni Barron, president and CEO of Soul Tree LLC, knew early on that she wanted to give back to her community in a meaningful way.

As a foster youth and ultimately an adoptee, she felt intrinsically responsible to impact some of our country’s most at-risk individuals on a macro level. To accomplish her mission, she founded Soul Tree in 2011 to serve a diverse customer base through engaging and empowering core human needs.

The Washington, D.C.- based education, training, and consulting company focuses on helping government agencies, corporate customers, and schools solve complex challenges and capitalize on new market opportunities. Soul Tree provides strategic advising and communications, workforce and professional development, training and curriculum development, information technology services, and staffing and social services.

“We pride ourselves in our commitment to living up to our name’s meaning. Soul — the place in each of us where truth cannot be denied, and Tree — the tree of knowledge", said Barron.
 
Barron describes the advice she receives from entrepreneurs in her family and her small network of business partners as an integral part of expanding her knowledge base concerning best practices for her organization.

“My holistic approach to reaching individuals academically, socially, and emotionally has been adopted by three state departments of education, dozens of schools, three Fortune 500 companies, and 10 D.C. government agencies,” said Barron.

Recently, Soul Tree’s relationship with AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia has allowed the founding elements of the business related to social services to be applied to the corporate structure of larger businesses. Tasked with training and focusing on cultural and linguistic diversity, Soul Tree is given the opportunity to give back to the community on a larger scale.

Looking to the future, Barron believes family-owned small businesses are going to continue to multiply in the coming years. Having seen Soul Tree grow from a social services-based company to a full-bodied consulting firm in just seven years, she expects that they will soon expand to serve other regions, including international areas.

Soon after starting her career in the mid-1980s, Maria Rodriguez recognized a key void in the public relations field: there were no firms that specialized in communicating about social issues, especially those she cared about such as health, education, energy conservation, and the environment. That's why, at the age of 27, she made the decision to start a firm that would do just that.

In 1987, Rodriguez co-founded Vanguard Communications (Vanguard), a D.C.-based communications and public relations firm supporting nonprofit organizations, foundations, and government agencies to realize a more inclusive and equitable world. More than three decades later, with Rodriguez as sole owner and president, Vanguard is an award-winning firm and an industry leader in communicating for social change on the national, regional, and local levels.

 
The District serves as a special place for me, and, as a D.C. native, I am especially grateful to have the opportunity to support my hometown", said Rodriguez.
 
In 2017, Vanguard began working with AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) to provide communications, marketing, and health promotion support for member- and provider-facing teams. Having supported a number of health- and wellness-focused organizations in the District, supporting AmeriHealth Caritas DC in its work to encourage enrollees in their journey toward healthy living was a natural fit for Vanguard.

“At Vanguard, one of our guiding principles is to be ‘people-first,’ which means thinking about the person on the other side of every decision, taking care to treat our clients and community enrollees as partners,” said Rodriguez. “This goes hand in hand with AmeriHealth Caritas DC’s unwavering commitment to improving health outcomes for their enrollees throughout the District.” 

Using the power of communication to advance social causes for over 30 years, Vanguard has partnered with organizations ranging from mental health awareness programs to community health clinics serving the District’s diverse resident population. Vanguard understands the issues affecting District residents and, through its work with AmeriHealth Caritas DC, continues to serve as an ally to the D.C. community.

Upon immigrating to the United States, countless people encounter challenges when communicating in their native languages. Andrés Echeverri was one of these people.

Through challenges with navigating immigration services to language barriers in his career with the Latino advisory marketing team at Wells Fargo Bank, Echeverri became determined to find a better way for those struggling with language challenges.

In 2011, Echeverri created ACSI Translations (ACSI), a D.C.-based consulting firm and certified small business that provides foreign language translation, interpretation, and multicultural marketing services to support the language access and outreach needs of corporate and government entities.

Since opening its doors, ACSI's translation business has grown to become a strong presence in the District of Columbia offering technical translation and interpreting services at the local and federal levels.

Since 2015, ACSI has been working with AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) to provide document translation, localization, and multicultural consulting services in over 60 languages, reflecting the cultural nuances and diverse makeup of the D.C. immigrant community.

Like ACSI, AmeriHealth Caritas DC recognizes the need for and importance of delivering high-quality language services to the district’s non-English-speaking populations. Working with AmeriHealth Caritas DC has been rewarding for ACSI.

From the CEO to all of the organizational staff, working with the team at AmeriHealth Caritas has provided a valuable opportunity for us," said Echeverri. “The relationship we have with them allows us to serve our D.C. non-English-proficient community, while working alongside an organization that genuinely cares about fostering relationships in the local D.C. business community.
 
Over the past six years, ACSI has fostered strong ties to the D.C. community. The company donates 15 percent of its profits to local nonprofits, including The Latino Student Fund, The Spanish Catholic Center, and the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.