Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rhonda Aaron. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rhonda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Sister Friends United Inc was started and became incorporated in the State of Arkansas in October 2007. Founder, Rhonda Aaron was blessed with a God given vision to create opportunities for minority women to feel appreciated and noticed and simply embrace being a woman. Rhonda worked for over a decade for corporate America and realized that it was difficult to truly embrace who you are and climb the ladder. The question became where can you go to simply “be you” so she created this organization as way to create a space where minority women felt unapologetic in embracing their whole person without limitations. The mission of the organization is ”to empower women to better serve the community”. This mission has helped SFU to build an organization membership that now spans across the country. We all need to feel loved and supported in a space where we feel accepted and that concept has contributed to the growth of the organization. Rhonda had no clue on starting an organization and had to actually go to Barnes and Noble to find a book to get started. In 2007, the book contained a CD-rom and steps on how to start a
nonprofit and so the journey began. Rhonda created handmade invitations to pass out to women to join her mission. The organization started with organizing activities that focused on the well being and personal development of women and a year later SFU created the Faith Scholarship to support future women leaders desiring a college education. The organization continued to expand and in 2009 created a platform to celebrate the achievements of Black Women through the Women of Excellence Awards. To date the awards ceremony combined with the Faith Scholarship ceremony has celebrate over 70 women and donated over $35k in scholarship funds. The organization has honored some amazing women including former United State Surgeon General, Dr. Jocelyn Elders and Central High School Little Rock Nine student, Minnijean Brown Trickey. We want to celebrate the minority woman sisterhood and shine the light on their accomplishments.
Each year the organization host the annual Hat Luncheon, the purpose of this event is to bring awareness and support to another minority non profit organization. This event is the entire rave annually because guests get to wear their fabulous hats, enjoy good food, music and support a good cause.

Rhonda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Rhonda Aaron is the Founder of Sister Friends United Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization of minority women with a mission to support, uplift and empower its members to better serve the community. This organization was founded and incorporated in the State of Arkansas in October 2007. Rhonda is committed to making a difference in the community in which she lives and works. She has an amazing team of women involved in Sister Friends United Inc. living the motto of “United we stand, united we make a difference”.

Rhonda has been featured as the cover story of ML Community Magazine and Huami Magazine for her community service work as well as being recognized by the STAND foundation as an Outstanding Community Leader. She was featured in Arkansas Times magazine as one of the Top 40 Women Entrepreneurs presented by First Security Bank. She was honored in her hometown of Dumas, AR with the Humanitarian Award for giving back to her community and was honored to receive the Vanguard Leadership award from the honorees of Women of Excellence, a group of distinguished nationally recognized women. Rhonda served over a decade in management with Cardinal Health Inc. a multibillion dollar fortune 500 global health services company and the 15 th highest revenue generating company in the United States, where she managed teams across the country, including their largest client, Kaiser Permanente. Mrs. Aaron received the 2016 ERG Woman of the Year Award for her work within the Fortune 500 Company. May 2018 was a highlight month for Mrs. Aaron as she was the only female to be honored with the Humanitarian Award from Just Communities this same award was previously given to former President Bill Clinton and legendary civil rights activist Daisy Bates. She received the official proclamation of having May 12th named in her honor in her hometown of Dumas, AR and North Little Rock, AR where she currently resides. Her most recent award was the Omega Psi Phi Citizen of the Year Award in November 2021. Mrs. Aaron has a Bachelors of Arts in Mass Communication with an emphasis in Strategic communication from UA Little Rock, where she currently serves on the alumni board in the role of committee chair. She is the Co-owner and Chief Operations Officer for Mid State Counseling and Recovery Service, a mental health agency located in North Little Rock, AR since 2017.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Consistency! We were established in 2007 and each year for almost 16 years you can count on this organization to show up and do our part to give back and service the community. We’ve provided our annual scholarships, feed families and the homeless, honored women in the community and celebrated our sisterhood. When you define the word consistency….you think of producing the same standard of work throughout a long period of time. Our organization brand definitely represents consistency because we always show up to serve our community. I am thankful that Sister Friends United has been a staple in our community and we’ve been counted on for 15 years and counting.

Any advice for managing a team?

The best advice I could give for managing a team would be to lead by example. If you can’t do the minimum you certainly can’t expect your team to do or give their maximum. If you have to go alone, show up. If you don’t feel like it, show up no matter what. Sister Friends United Inc has been a pillar of consistency and commitment in the community and we can be counted on to show up to do our part to give back to the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sisterfriendsunited.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sisterfriendsunitedlr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sisterfriendsunited/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wt0ZymG5Vo&t=15s

Image Credits
Randall Lee “Contemporary Imaging”