As we expand into new communities, we will continue to close the wealth gap across the country, growing tiny acorns into mighty oaks.
The Nashville Business Incubation Center is lead by Chief Executive Officer Angela Crane-Jones. Angela Crane-Jones has served NBIC since 2003, being appointed to this role, after progressive experience with the organization, in 2013. Previously, she served as Interim CEO, where she forged business relationships with the Small Business Development Center, U.S. Small Business Administration, IRS, Veterans Affairs, and Operation Stand Down among others to provide additional training and educational opportunities for the businesses at the Incubation Center and Entrepreneur community at-large. She began her tenure with NBIC as Assistant Director from 2003 – 2012, Mrs. Crane-Jones took an active leadership role in securing consulting services for the center’s clients, developing community resources and developing programs supporting the needs of NBIC clients. Prior to joining the center’s staff, Mrs. Crane-Jones was owner/operator of two Dairy Queen Restaurants where she gained valuable experience in retail and food operations, marketing and forecasting. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and Master of Arts degree from Tennessee State University.
Jessica Lyle joined NBIC in 2024 and serves as the Chief of Staff, working directly for the CEO and supporting the NBIC team to deliver on our promise to support small businesses so that they may thrive. She is a force-multiplier working across all business functions, ensuring teams and individuals have what they need to execute on our mission and strategic goals.
Jessica has been supporting small businesses and the small business ecosystem in Nashville since moving to the area in 2019. She served as the Director of Learning and Development for a peer-to-peer learning organization specifically designed for women business owners in the Greater Nashville area and serves as the Director of Education for a mental performance data analytics company. Because of these roles, she’s no stranger to the joys and challenges of small business ownership.
Prior to moving to Nashville, Jessica was an educator, working in public schools in New Jersey and private international schools in Tanzania, Italy, and Bulgaria. She holds a Master’s in Teaching and Master’s in Education. Jessica’s expertise is in understanding how people learn and is passionate about preparing and delivering quality content.
For fun, Jessica is an avid traveler and is committed to learning new skills with relative success. She struggles to rock climb, is incapable of hitting a golf ball straight, and is a terrible “follow” in Latin dance, but she’s trying. Her dog Romulus (Romi for short) is the light of her life, though the feeling is not mutual as the light of his life is most definitely a tennis ball. She’s always looking for restaurant and travel recommendations.
Kechelle Williams has over 15 years of financial planning and business management experience in the financial and hospitality industry. After graduating from MTSU with a Business Finance degree, she worked with businesses of all sizes to develop plans and structures that streamlined processes ultimately leading to a happier, healthier workplace. In 2017, Kechelle moved out of the corporate arena to start her own business, Early Eats food truck and events.
Being a business owner herself, Kechelle understands what starting and running a business entails. Which led her to join NBIC in 2024 to serve as the Program and Community Coordinator. In this role she will carry out her passion of educating, equipping, and empowering entrepreneurs to achieve their professional goals. Specifically, Kechelle’s role bridges small businesses and the community by providing small businesses the opportunity to showcase their products and services at NBIC community and partner events.
Kechelle does enjoy her leisure time. Some of her most favorite activities include going to the gym, playing all types of games – outdoor games, board games, trivia, etc. However, her most favorite thing is to gather with friends and family every chance she can get.
Elnora Moore-Larkin as a business professional has a strong leadership commitment that is strategically aligned with her personal values. Her life experiences are reflective of this commitment as she has developed a framework for professional tenacity. She was born in Nashville, TN and her educational achievements include an undergraduate degree in accounting from Tennessee State University and MBA from Belmont University, Jack C Massey (Executive Management Program).
Her career aspirations were first obtained in the financial banking industry where she held the position of Auditor. She then moved to accounting department and advances to Assistant Vice President in the Controller’s Division. Financial experience in this field included financial accounting, process improvement initiatives, quality assurance methodologies and strategic planning implementations. Through her diversified experiences she managed billions in assets for 250 bank branch business units. She worked directly with key Executives in bank management to develop and train branch personnel on customer service initiatives to improve bottom line performance. She was appointed President of the Bank Learning Institute by the CEO of First American Bank and was successful in turning around revenue earning by restructuring the classes.
Ms. Larkin choose to further expand her knowledge base and career opportunities through the United Methodist Publishing House where she instituted customer service initiatives and financial management policy standards. She was directly responsible for the strategic plan for direct sales of Christian publications. In addition, she managed training for the sales force and established an in-house automated customer service tracking system in collaboration with Institutional Technology.
Another key accomplishment was working over eight years as an adjunct professor for Nashville Community College teaching business management courses.
Ms. Larkin took a position with Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN which allowed her the opportunity to obtain grant writing experience for federal approval of a $35 million Title III grant. Her expertise includes business process analytics; project management for 15 federal grant related activities and financial management of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation private grant totaling $11 million. She organized and approved regulatory requirements over $46 million in grants.
Through her 30 plus years of broad diversified experience in Financial Management, Business Process Analytics, Project Management, Customer Service and Grants Management she has made a significant contribution to her business profession.
Ms. Larkin has always endeavored to serve the community and give back her skills and time to the disadvantaged. She has worked diligently in volunteering and making monetary contributions to several non-profit organizations. She served on the board as the financial officer for the Urban League of Middle TN Guild and the 100 Black Women of Middle TN organizations. She contributes regularly to supporting United Way programs and other non-profit organizations. Her contributions include having served on the 18th Avenue Community Center Board as treasurer.
Ms. Larkin currently continues her endeavors as a consultant in working with non-profits and small business in achieving their mission and goals to remain viable institutions in a competitive market environment.
Miriam Reed has 30+ years of experience working in nonprofit organizations. She previously served as the Director of Education at the Center for Nonprofit Management, and many of her past work experiences have been centered around education.
She excels at streamlining programs and processes to better meet the needs of the groups that they are designed to serve. She prides herself on finding ways to refine and enhance learning environments in ways that makes students feel supported and empowered to grow. By listening closely to participant needs and pain points, she works to remove barriers and amplify access.
Miriam also understands the value of experiential learning, and has found that some of her most profound life lessons were acquired during the periods when she was a stay-at-home mom to her two daughters and assisting her husband with his entrepreneurial pursuits.
Her participation in the nonprofit sector has been largely fueled by her desire to help others and improve her community, and she is always looking for opportunities to plug in to efforts to tackle persistent societal problems and build safety nets to protect those in vulnerable situations.
She is a life-long learner and enjoys the challenge of figuring things out. Her hobbies include reading, writing, traveling, listening to music, pondering unexplained phenomena, and spending time with her family. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Birmingham-Southern College.
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