This year, we’re celebrating the Starbucks Women's Impact Network (WIN), a network of partners (employees) from around the country who are leaders and changemakers raising up our communities.

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Partner Networks like WIN create connections over shared experiences and values, encourage professional growth, raise awareness of important issues and serve as a bridge between our stores and the communities we serve.

Join us this month as we <a href="#serve">serve</a>, <a href="#learn">learn</a> and <a href="#inspired">get inspired</a>.

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During Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting two organizations that are important to Women’s Impact Network members around the country. These organizations uplift women and girls through services that provide job support, financial stability and essential skills for healthy and balanced lives.

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Be an advocate for women, girls and their families.

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YWCA USA has received a grant from The Starbucks Foundation to launch a pilot project across 10 locations that will help young women of color gain and maintain meaningful employment and achieve financial stability through a trauma-informed workplace development curriculum.

Give the equivalent of one hour of your wage to "<a href="https://www.yourhourherpower.org/">Your Hour Her Power</a>®" to help women achieve economic advancement.

Starbucks partners across the U.S. have nominated local Dress for Success locations for <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2021/strengthening-communities-through-neighborhood-grants/">Neighborhood Grants</a> from The Starbucks Foundation.

Shifts around gender identity and social norms are rooted in women’s movements for social change. Women’s organizing has paved the way for innovations in research and social policy around gender and inequality, as well as shifts in cultural attitudes and social norms that impact our everyday lives.

Our partners at Arizona State University have curated a toolkit that covers key concepts exploring intersectional experiences of all women from the <a href="https://courses.starbucksglobalacademy.com/courses/course-v1:ASU+TBW600+2019/about">Welcoming Dialogue on Gender Bias</a> course, one of 15 offered through the To Be Welcoming anti-bias curriculum.

Engage in constructive conversations and become an ally.

We appreciate strong, resilient women who are using their voice and experiences to make the world a more inclusive, understanding place for girls to learn, lead and thrive.

Nobel Prize laureate and girls' education activist, Malala Yousafzai highlights artists who inspire her.

The Starbucks Foundation has been working with Malala Fund to <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-partners-with-malala-fund-to-invest-in-women/">uplift women and girls</a> in coffee, tea, and cocoa communities.

Illustrations for this Women’s History Month are inspired by our own Nina P., a Starbucks partner, senior designer and Women’s Impact Network member.

“I always gravitate towards art that celebrates the strength of women and the beauty of nature, so working on this was a dream project. I was so inspired by the Women’s Impact Network mission statement to "Ignite the power of women through partners, allies and community" and I wanted the strength and sense of belongingness to come through in the artwork.

My core words that I set to ground myself and come back to in this work are ‘Supportive, evolving, and empowering.’

There's a lot of passion and heart behind this work, and with that some vulnerability in sharing it. My hope is that you'll identify with the artwork and feel uplifted, seen, and celebrated.”

Colorful illustration of group of women representing variety of ethnicities, ages and abilities

Celebrating women as leaders and changemakers

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Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

Starbucks Stories

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During Women’s History Month, we asked women to tell us who inspires them – their friends and family, mentors and heroes. Starbucks store manager Charlene Galloway and her shift supervisor, Emily Matus, have learned from – and leaned on – each other in five years together at their Miami store. We’re sharing their story and hope it encourages you to think about the remarkable women who inspire you.

Miami store manager Charlene Galloway still has photos from the grand opening of her store five years ago, and the first time she met Emily Matus. She sees the crowded store full of friends and family, the balloons and the anticipation and excitement in the faces of the partners. 

“Here is Emily going around with a tray of little Frappuccino samples,” she said, looking at one of the photos. Matus was a part-time barista, a college student at the nearby Florida International University who Galloway observed was “very quiet, very shy.” 

Matus, 23, remembers that day too. “You’re nervous and stressed, starting somewhere new,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how the environment would be.”

But Galloway saw a potential in her new partner that even Matus herself didn’t yet recognize. 

“I never saw myself as being anything other than a barista at Starbucks when I first started,” Matus said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to handle that kind of responsibility in leading others. Charlene believed in me, and she knew I could do it.”

Mentoring partners been a passion for Galloway, 51, since she started in the assistant store manager program in 2001. She has helped 22 store partners become store managers in her more than 18 years at Starbucks, and offered career and life advice to encourage countless others discover their next chapter. She sprinkles life lessons in between lattes, reassuring partners that “not all bad things are all bad” and that obstacles can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Matus has experienced it firsthand. “Charlene’s always concerned about us, always makes an effort to sit down and talk with us,” she said. “Whenever she sees us struggling, she always tries to help us out. We think of her like our second mother.”

Galloway also relates to her partners in another way – as a fellow student. She is earning her final credits for her bachelor’s degree in organizational management with a minor in nutrition from Arizona State University through the <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/careers/working-at-starbucks/education">Starbucks College Achievement Plan</a>. “I try to get my partners to understand that school is important and work is important but so is life,” she said.

She’s a living example to partners of how to juggle work and school, said Matus, who is now earning her master’s degree in business administration management from Florida International University. “She relates with us because she understands all the schoolwork and the amount of time we need to dedicate to it,” Matus said, adding that Galloway can never study too close to the store. “She has too many friends who are customers, she would never get any work done!”

During the time they’ve worked together, Galloway said she’s seen Matus, who has been promoted to shift supervisor, grow to become a valued leader on the team.

“You have that sense of comfort, knowing everything is OK if Emily's on the floor,” Galloway said. “She will always find the answer to any problem and make any situation as right as possible.”

That kind of encouragement and belief in her helped Matus change how she saw herself and thought about her future, she said. 

“I didn’t see myself in the management field before,” Matus said. “But working with Charlene, she’s inspired me to become a manager. I feel like I have followed in her footsteps.”

And for Galloway, it’s part of what makes her work so worthwhile.

“I love to watch partners grow,” she said. “To see them make something out of their lives and go somewhere.” 

By the book: Fellow students, partners Charlene and Emily inspire each other - Starbucks Stories

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By the book: Fellow students, partners Charlene and Emily inspire each other

In the nearly two decades since Miami store manager Charlene Galloway joined Starbucks, she’s helped more than 20 partners become store managers, and inspired hundreds more in their career journeys, including Emily Matus.

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During Women’s History Month, we asked women to tell us who inspires them – their friends and family, mentors and heroes. Sisters Julie and Colleen Campbell chose each other. Their lives couldn’t have been more different – until they both became Starbucks store managers. We’re sharing their story and hope it encourages you to think about the remarkable women who inspire you.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, store manager Julie Campbell was serving the morning rush at her Starbucks store in Pacifica, Calif., when reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center began trickling in. She remembers turning on a radio and trying to snatch pieces of news when she could. Customers kept coming in, and the news kept getting worse. Another plane hit the second tower. Then the Pentagon. She feared the worst.

She tried to call her younger sister, Colleen Campbell, who was in the Air Force and assigned to the Pentagon. No answer. The two sisters were part of a large family who spent the day desperately searching for news.

To Julie, Colleen was not only her sister, but one of her best friends – someone who she was inseparable from as a child and who inspired her as an adult.&nbsp; 

As the older sister, Julie had acted as Colleen’s champion. She prided herself on being there for her, always ready to support her and giving her advice. 

But now, “We had no idea where she was,” Julie remembers. 

What she didn’t know was that, at that moment, Colleen was aboard a military plane that had been bound for a NATO summit in Europe, escorted by F-16 fighter jets as it slowly circled the Atlantic until allowed to return to U.S. airspace. It would be 24 hours after the attacks before Colleen could get a message to her family that she was safe.

“To hear that she was OK was just such a relief,” Julie said, choking up at the memory. “I felt like I got my sister back after I thought I had lost her.”

Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s, Julie and Colleen were as close as sisters could be. They were two kids in a family of seven rambunctious siblings. Julie, older than Colleen by a year and a half, was the guardian. “Julie wasn’t just the older sister – she was our protector,” she said. 

Colleen was the bookworm who kept everyone fed. “Whenever Mom and Dad would put us in the station wagon to go on a trip, she would always be in the back, making sandwiches for everybody,” Julie said. The family packed up and moved every few years or so for their dad’s job with Easter Seals. Wisconsin. Iowa. Texas. Indiana. 

After college, Julie went west to California and started working in the restaurant business. Colleen also worked in a restaurant for a time, but then decided she wanted to see more of the world and joined the Air Force. After she completed basic training in 1983, she would go on to be stationed all over the world. Japan. Finland. Bosnia. The Azores. 

They wrote letters but would sometimes go a year or two without seeing each other. Julie remembers one day when a woman in a sharp blue military uniform and cap came into her restaurant. 

“Our restaurant was in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood – you know – hippies. I don’t think I had ever seen anyone in uniform come into our restaurant before,” Julie said. It was Colleen. “It was a total surprise. I didn’t recognize who it was."

After getting over the initial shock, Julie remembers just how happy she felt to be sitting across the table from her little sister, hearing her voice, catching up with each other’s lives. “It felt like we had never been apart,” she said.

After being on divergent paths for years, the sisters’ lives started bending toward each other again around the late 1990s because of Starbucks. Julie, who had been feeling burned out, sold her restaurants and moved to the coastal town of Pacifica, becoming a manager of the new Starbucks store there in 1998. Back on the other coast, Colleen was discovering the Starbucks stores located in the Pentagon, where she was in a new assignment as head of security communications for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer.

“When I arrived at the Pentagon, I wondered how to meet people when everyone is so busy and so many important people and leaders,” she said. “Then I found out that there was a Starbucks on every floor. It didn't matter if you had four stars or one stripe, that cup of coffee brought us all to the same level.” 

After 20 years of service, Colleen retired from the Air Force in 2003 and began working on a master’s degree in business.

“I applied at Starbucks to take up my extra time,” Colleen said. “And that was pretty much it.”

Just like in the Air Force, she moved up the ranks at Starbucks, soon becoming a store manager. In 2006, she began managing a new store in Marquette, Mich., within a day’s drive of Julie, who was by now managing a store in Wisconsin, not far from their parents’ home in Madison. The sisters continued to lean on each other during their mother’s cancer diagnosis and the death of their oldest sister.

“Julie was the rock,” Colleen said. “She was able to pull the best out of all of us. She was the one that gave us all peace of mind that everything would be OK, as long as she was there.”

By now they have each managed their stores for well over a decade. Sisters not just to each other – but to the countless partners and customers they have served. 

Colleen reflects, “How has she shaped my life? By her kindness and the way she looks at people as all deserving.”

To Julie, her sister is her best friend. “She’s been part of my entire life – the memories we share, good and bad, span a lifetime. She has been there every step of the way, and for that I’m humbled and immensely grateful.”

Sisters and store managers Julie and Colleen Campbell inspire each other - Starbucks Stories

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Sisters and store managers Julie and Colleen Campbell  inspire each other

Their paths could not have been more different – until they both found their way to Starbucks. Now the two Starbucks store managers share their story.

Sisters and store managers Julie and Colleen Campbell inspire each other

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For Women’s History Month, we asked women to tell us who inspires them – their friends and family, mentors and heroes. We’re sharing their stories and hope it encourages you to think about the remarkable women in your life who inspire you.

Women Supporting Women: Starbucks celebrates Women's History Month - Starbucks Stories

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Women Supporting Women: Starbucks celebrates Women&#8217;s History Month

Throughout Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating the ways women support, nurture and encourage each other.

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Women Supporting Women: Starbucks celebrates Women’s History Month

Women Celebrating Women

During Women’s History Month, we asked women to tell us who inspires them – their friends and family, mentors and heroes. Shannon Haines, a shift supervisor in West Palm Beach, Fla., chose Patti Esbia, a longtime customer who is now like family. We’re sharing their story and hope it encourages you to think about the remarkable women in your life who inspire you.

It started with a venti whole milk bone-dry cappuccino. 

Shannon Haines was working as a barista in Palm Beach, Fla., Starbucks when one day, the door opened and customer Patti Esbia walked in, looking “so bougie and so fancy with her little dog,” Haines remembered with a laugh. 

But it was her order that really made her stand out. 

“I said ‘Oh my goodness, how do you make that?’,” said Haines. “I must have used three pitchers to make this cappuccino. I passed off the drink and she looked at it said ‘Oh my God, awesome! That’s just how I like it.’”

Eleven years later, both women still remember the details of that day. Haines remembers telling Esbia, who she lovingly calls “Ms. Patti,” that she liked the way she was dressed and she liked her dog, a French Bulldog named Speck. Esbia recalls there was something about Haines’ brilliant smile that sparked a connection – a warmth that made her really feel seen. 

“Shannon makes me feel like a special person,” she said. “She’s always asking how I’m doing and how I’m feeling and really takes an interest. … She is such a bright light.”

Neither woman knows when exactly it happened, but over the months and years to come, as Haines changed stores and Esbia followed, their relationship shifted from customer and barista, to friends and then to what it is today: family of the heart. 

“She’s like the daughter I never had,” said Esbia, 66. “I never wanted children, but if I’d known I could have a daughter like her, I probably would have.”

Haines, 35, whose own mother died last year, said that Esbia is a mother figure to her. “She inspires me – she makes me feel like I can change and be even better than I am.” 

After that first visit, as they got to know each other one Starbucks order at a time, they began to share their life stories. They realized they both had known struggle in their early years. Esbia had a challenging childhood and learned to make her own way from a young age. Haines grew up in the Dunbar Village public housing community in West Palm Beach. Her family had an abundance of love but money was tight. 

“As I got to know her better,” said Esbia. “I could relate more and more to her story and how she worked hard for everything.” 

Today, Esbia is the owner of Patti Esbia Antique &amp; Estate Jewelry, a successful Palm Beach store she describes as high-end and edgy, but when she was just starting out, she worked construction, dealt blackjack for years and sold vintage items at flea markets to make ends meet. Along the way, she found her own distinct style and developed an eye for exquisite vintage jewelry and clothes, an appreciation Haines, who sometimes visits the store, now shares. (“I love Ms. Patti’s style,” Haines said. “She has pizazz.”)

Esbia says she enjoys giving her special pieces of clothes that Haines has admired. “It helps me to be able to care for someone I care about,” she said.

Early in her career, Esbia didn’t always have the support from other women that she wished she did, so she’s especially motivated to support others now, particularly those who have struggled. “It’s the right thing to do,” she said. “Women should always mentor other women to help them gain independence and not have to rely on others.”

Haines said Esbia has helped her build her confidence by believing in her. “We have conversations and she’s very motivating. She encourages me to not give up and to continue to grow. She tells me to keep growing in life and at Starbucks too – there’s more at Starbucks that I can become.” 

A year ago Haines was promoted to shift supervisor. A few days after her photo shoot with Esbia she learned she was one of four people chosen in her district to be in Starbucks assistant manager program. 

Esbia said one of the things that she hopes that Haines has learned through their friendship is that, “You are not defined by the way you grew up, what counts is the positive things you do for others, big or small,” she said. 

It’s a message Haines has taken to heart.

“Every day at Starbucks, I think about how I can impact someone’s life and help them feel like it’s OK,” she said. “When I’m interacting with customers, I want them to feel love and know there’s someone out there who loves you. I think about how just a hug could change someone’s life.”

And, she thinks about how a customer walked into her store one day and changed hers.

The feeling is mutual. “I love Shannon,” said Esbia. “She is amazing.”

Shannon Haines and ‘Ms. Patti’ Esbia: From customer to family of the heart - Starbucks Stories

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Shannon Haines and ‘Ms. Patti’ Esbia: From customer to family of the heart

During Women’s History Month, we asked women to tell us who inspires them – their friends and family, mentors and heroes.

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During Women’s History Month, we asked women to tell us who inspires them – their friends and family, mentors and heroes. Arielle Gordon, retail operations lead at Starbucks Greenwich Lane Reserve Store in New York, didn’t hesitate a moment before picking her mother, Lori Gordon. We’re sharing their story and hope it encourages you to think about the remarkable women in your life who inspire you.

When Arielle Rebekah Gordon was growing up, her mother would read every night to her the children’s book “Love Your Forever,” about a parent’s undying, unconditional love for her child. The refrain throughout the book is “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”

It was a constant in a life that sometimes felt all wrong. From an early age, Arielle grappled with depression and a deep sense that she wasn’t who she should be. As she got older, she withdrew and there were times she didn’t want to be alive.

Desperate to help her, Arielle’s mother, Lori Gordon, sent her to a therapeutic boarding school for high school. Before she left, her mom made an audio recording of that book so she could play it whenever she needed to. “It gave me that feeling of home, of closeness and of comfort,” Arielle said. “When I listened to or even looked at that book, my mom was right there next to me.”

It was at boarding school that Arielle came out as transgender. At first, her mom struggled with learning that the child she’s known as a son identified as her daughter. She was afraid of how others would treat her child and that it would mean a hard life for her. “But then I saw her just blossom,” Lori said. “I could see that her mind was free and her emotions and she could really express and become the full person she is destined to be.”

And above all, she knew she loved her child. “Love doesn’t change,” Lori said. “What changed is her ability to receive love – and that doesn’t have anything to do with being a son or a daughter.”

Having her mom at her side meant she didn’t have to find her new path alone, Arielle said. “A lot of trans people I know don’t have parents to help navigate it. When I was beginning my transition, there where days where I felt beaten down. A lot of us come home to an environment of fear and pain. But for me, I came home to a mom who always just wanted me to be happy. She was a safe haven.”

Arielle, 24, said her mom inspires her every day – not just with her unwavering love but by her strength. “She’s resilient and powerful,” she said. “She is there for me and everyone.” 

For her part, Lori said her daughter inspires her right back – and has shown her what true strength looks like. 

“I love her ability to speak the truth and be who she really is, even when it’s uncomfortable,” said Lori. “She’s beautiful.”

After coming out to her parents, Arielle searched for an employer who would see her for who she is. After she graduated from high school, she said she googled “transgender friendly employers” and Starbucks kept coming up, so she applied. A week later, she started there as a barista.

Five years later, she’s a retail operations lead at the newly opened Starbucks Greenwich Lane (N.Y.) Reserve Store. In her free time, she and her mom get together regularly to cook and bake or go to Broadway shows. They talk daily by phone. Last year, Arielle started a blog called <a href="https://transandcaffeinated.com/">Trans and Caffeinated</a> where she writes about her experience. (“Her writing and ability to express herself is beyond – just beyond,” said Lori.)

A few months ago, Lori, 63, contributed a piece to it called <a href="https://transandcaffeinated.com/through-a-mothers-eyes-learning-to-celebrate-my-transgender-daughter/">“Through a mother’s eyes: Learning to celebrate my transgender daughter.”</a>

In the post, she recounted her journey to acceptance, along with resources and guidance, in the hope that she could help other parents of trans people. “Above all, continue to love your child as you have always loved them,” she wrote. “ … I declare loud and proud to everyone and anyone I can that I have a transgender daughter. If I can clear up just one misconception that somebody has, it is my honor to do so.”

Meet Arielle and Lori Gordon, a mother and daughter who know ‘love doesn’t change’ - Starbucks Stories

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Meet Arielle and Lori Gordon, a mother and daughter who know ‘love doesn’t change’

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Women History Month

Women History Month - Starbucks Stories

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