Connie Evans

Connie Evans is president and CEO of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, the national trade association for microbusiness. A strategist and social entrepreneur, she founded the Women’s Self-Employment Project in 1986 and pioneered the creation of individual development accounts, one of the first matched-savings programs in the country. An international development consultant, Evans has worked with the World Bank, several presidential administrations, and multiple local government, private, and independent-sector organizations. The first African American woman elected to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s board, she has served on the CDFI Advisory Board and on several delegations to the United Nations. Her honors include the inaugural Twink Frey Social Activist Award and the Gloria Steinem Woman of Vision Award.