Date: Saturday, October 10, 2026

Time: 9:00AM-12:00PM CT

Modality: Online Only

Instructors: Darnell Fennell and Ashley Mayham

This engaging workshop introduces participants to social enterprise as a powerful strategy for economic justice, community wealth-building, and sustainable change, the session explores how mission-driven businesses can generate revenue while advancing social good.

Participants will examine the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, including identifying community needs, aligning values with business models, and measuring impact beyond profit. Drawing from real-world experience, the facilitators will share practical insights on leadership, innovation, and resilience in building enterprises that serve both people and purpose.

The workshop emphasizes ethical leadership, creativity, and community accountability, encouraging participants to imagine new economic possibilities that uplift marginalized communities and support long-term transformation.

Participants will:

• Learn core principles of social enterprise and mission-driven business
• Explore models that balance profit, purpose, and community impact
• Understand the role of entrepreneurship in economic and social justice
• Gain practical tools for developing and sustaining social ventures

Rev. Ashley Mayham

Rev. Ashley Mayham serves as the Social Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator for NBA. In this role, she works to support young, innovative health and social service enterprises. Ashley is a longtime Houstonian, a musician-artist, coffee enthusiast, and lover of people. She has a distinctly personal and vocational interest in the intersection of spirituality and the arts, and the ways these fields cultivate healing. Ashley is passionate and ever curious about what it means to have an embodied, relevant, holistic faith. She brings this curiosity and passion to the NBA as she supports social enterprises in their forward-leaning, faith-rooted work.

Ashley received her undergraduate degree in music performance from the University of Southern California. Her graduate studies at Fuller Theological Seminary focused on Theology and Ministry, specifically within areas of trauma, addiction, and abuse. Prior to joining NBA, Ashley served in ministry, both in the local and wider church. In her spare time, you will find her writing, spending time in nature, doing yoga, and connecting with family and friends. She lives with her wife, her son, and their three fur babies.

Rev. Darnell Fennell

Rev. Darnell Fennell serves as the Director of Social Entrepreneurship for NBA. He has extensive nonprofit management experience and a track record of planning and leading initiatives that have consistently flourished. He is the founding and executive pastor of Just Love, a new Disciples church where members are advancing intersectional justice in Houston, Texas. While pastoring, he served as a faith community organizer for Faith in Texas (a PICO affiliate) and the Texas Freedom Network. As an organizer regional director, Fennell built relationships with clergy and congregations across many faiths, provided training, managed teams, and led congregations to action around racial, LGBTQ+, economic, and immigrant justice. He received his Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Houston.

In his role, Fennell supports NBA’s efforts to equip and support Disciples who are starting innovative, forward-leaning ministries of compassion and care in their own communities. This includes encouraging social entrepreneurship and equipping entrepreneurs as they grow their ministries into nonprofits. Darnell is based in Houston, Texas.