Rona Jobe, a 2013 graduate of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Master of Public Policy Program at George Mason University, has been presented the Deborah Farnell Rising Star Award by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), a nonprofit organization advocating for more than 10.6 million women entrepreneurs and business owners around the country.
“The award recognizes entrepreneurs who excel at strategy, operations, finances, problem solving, innovating, overcoming adversity, and giving back to her community,” NAWBO said in the announcement.
Jobe is the CEO of LVL-Up Strategies, a consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia, that works to help women-owned enterprises reach the next level of success. As a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines and the wife of a U.S. Foreign Service employee, her company employs U.S. military spouses and Foreign Service spouses while partnering with minority-owned businesses. It helps that she’s fluent in Tagalog, Kapampangan, and Brazilian Portuguese.
While at the Schar School, Jobe worked as a management consultant with a focus on policy implementation. Her work involved technology, data governance, and assisting health practitioners in transitioning to electronic records.
With such a varied client portfolio of widely varied goals and needs, LVL-Up Strategies needs to be tactical and calculated in how they achieve success for their clientele. That’s where the Master of Public Policy degree comes in, she said.
“The program helped me understand the intersection of policy and business practices,” she said. “It gave me a deep understanding of how policies impact business practices. Courses in tech-based policy, statistics, and survey methodologies were instrumental in developing goal-oriented metrics.”
The program also taught her how to “guide and manage projects effectively, even without being the expert in every detail,” which she said is a crucial skill as a consultant. “And the practical project management advice from professors was invaluable in shaping business strategies,” she said.
As for the Rising Star award, Rona said, “This award is a validation that we, foreign service and military spouses, have the support of fellow women leaders as we pursue our own career and business and personal development.”