Abbey Donnell

Born: Unknown

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: White

University of Colorado-Boulder BS, BA Advertising, Spanish 2007; Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business MBA 2017

""I started to witness this problem around the return to work after childbirth, and particularly with regard to breastfeeding. It didn’t seem to matter what kind of company it was or what their office was like, no one had a good solution to support employees returning to work who needed to pump during the workday. Since I hadn’t been through it myself, and didn’t have anything to add to the conversation, I just listened. And listened. And asked a lot of questions. I looked around my own office — open floor plan, glass walls, and realized that even though my company had an extremely supportive culture, there wasn’t the physical infrastructure to support me if I were to have kids and return to work, trying to breastfeed. So, I set out to create the solution I would want, and that I wished had existed for my friends and so many working mothers who had come before me." (medium.com); "I’m hoping that Work & Mother will continue disrupting the commercial real estate industry by making lactation suites as considered and necessary as bathrooms." (medium.com); "Men can raise millions in capital from an idea on a napkin while women must have traction, revenue, and results; they must prove things first. Don’t take my word on it, just look at the data in how venture capital is allocated among early-stage startups. Women get a mere 2%. And it’s not because there aren’t plenty of women with quality ideas — in fact, women-run startups have performed better over time, generating 10% more in cumulative revenue as compared to male-run startups." (medium.com); "So our spaces have private rooms with locking doors. Every room has every single thing they need to pump. The hospital great pump, the sanitising wipes, and supplies, storage bags, lanolin, breast pads, you name it. It's their right there waiting for them. They just bring in their attachment kit." (wndyr.com); "

— Abbey Donnell

Field of Study: Entrepreneur

Institution/Corporation: Jones Graduate School of Business; Work & Mother

Degrees & Memberships: Member: Dreamers/Doers (2018); Junior League of Houston Inc

Awards: None found

Achievements: 2018 founder of Work & Mother a company that provides peaceful, private, and fully-equipped lactation suites to office buildings to help breastfeeding moms feel supported and secure; 2018 Founding Member Dreamers // Doers a highly curated, female-focused, collaboration and co-mentorship community, consisting of an ever-growing powerful network of entrepreneurs, investors and advisors;