Johnetta Boseman Hardy
Executive Director

Johnetta Boseman Hardy has over 20 years of experience and expertise in business development; marketing/public relations and fundraising.  She is currently the Executive Director for Howard University’s Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation (ELI) which focuses on stimulating entrepreneurial behavior on campus and throughout the extended community.   She is also the Founder and President of the Hardy Management Group, a business consulting firm that provides strategic planning, business development, management, coordination and fundraising for special events to corporations, small businesses, organizations, associations, and academic institutions; President of Satin Dreams which produces satin hair products such as satin pillowcases, hair bonnets and more. “Our products make women feel like they are floating on a cloud, and make them look good when they go to bed at night,” stated Ms. Hardy. She is currently writing two books - one that will focus on African American women in entrepreneurship and the other will provide a forum for mothers to learn from other mothers. 

Stephanie Nance-Plater
Executive Programs Assistant

Stephanie Nance-Plater is the Executive Program Assistant for the Howard University Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation (ELI). She received her education in the Washington, DC metropolitan at the University of the District of Columbia. Her professional career includes, Physical Security Specialist/Administrator for FBI in DC, Administrative Assistant, DocVersion in DC, and Advertising Coordinator for Long and Foster Realtors in McLean, Virginia.

Anestine Theophile-Lafond, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Programs

Anestine Theophile-LaFond, Ph.D., is a thinker, a doer who is passionate about being fair, firm and consistent. She is a teacher’s teacher always seeking new ways to add value to a project or to maximize an opportunity. As a part time employee at the Howard University Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation, Dr. LaFond coordinates faculty entrepreneurship education programs including the Symposium on Entrepreneurship in Health and Wellness, the Annual HBCU Faculty Entrepreneurship Conference and workshops on -infusing entrepreneurship themes into courses regardless of discipline.

Lawrence Elliott Ball
Undergraduate Fellow

Lawrence Elliott Ball, now a senior candidate for a degree in Supply Chain Management at the historic Howard University in May 2010, is one of the best representations of ambitious and talented young adults focused on changing their self and their community for the better. As an entrepreneur and child of business, at 22 he has over of a decade of entrepreneurial training and education under his belt. Ball has achieved national recognition on numerous occasions for his ability to “deliver comprehensive solutions and services more reminiscent of a 40 year old executive,” Kim Wills, Director, Howard University MBA Program. During his time at Howard, he has been dubbed a “business prodigy” and the “personification of entrepreneurship,” states mentor Eldridge Allen, Associate Director, Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation (ELI) at Howard University.