Recognizing Carmen Tapio

Floor Speech

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Mr. BACON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a leader from our district who has created jobs and changed lives, all while growing the largest African-American-owned business in the State of Nebraska and the largest private mixed-use development investment in North Omaha.

Carmen Tapio is currently the CEO of North End Teleservices, which has soared to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies for the last 4 years, injecting over $306 million into Nebraska's economy.

She established Forever North Real Estate to help reimagine North Omaha and set it on a promising path where a community can work, live, and play. Her leadership is helping to reduce poverty, unemployment, and is changing the trajectory of families for generations to come.

Through developing the only Department of Labor registered apprenticeship in her industry, micro credentialing, and bringing people up through the organization, she is growing her own workforce and leadership.

Wanting to empower Black women across the State, Carmen ignited the formation of Nebraska Black Women United with a few phone calls, her own humble take on its formation. Today, over 800 women belong to the purpose-driven organization and continue to fan the flames of growth and support for Black women.

In addition, she founded the NET Work Spot, a premier coworking space nestled in the heart of the North Omaha community. The NET Work Spot exists for collaboration and to nurture the ingenuity of brilliant entrepreneurial minds.

Tapio lends her expertise by serving on various for-profit and nonprofit boards. She serves as the chair of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Omaha Zoological Society Board of Directors, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Omaha Branch Board of Directors, and the Werner Enterprises Board of Directors as chair of the ESG Committee. She is a Peter Kiewit Foundation trustee and serves on the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Board of Trustees, the University of Nebraska Trustee Foundation, and the Nebraska Medicine Board's Finance Committee, just to name a few.

This Women's History Month, she was recognized by the Governor of Nebraska and the Nebraskaland Foundation as the 2024 Distinguished Nebraskalander. She is the 2023 Inspire Awards Woman of the Year, 2022 Inspire Woman of the Year for Large Business, and the 2022 USA Today Nebraska Woman of the Year. She is a 2022 Omaha Business Hall of Fame Inductee, received the 2022 Black Women Legacy Award, and a 2022 Better Business Bureau Torch Award. She was recognized in the Forbes 2021 Next 1000 and the 2021 Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Leadership Awards.

She is incredible.

Carmen's parents instilled in her and each of her five sisters that they could do anything they set their minds to. She says that foundation cultivated her strong belief in the human spirit and that anything is possible. This is what she endeavors to teach people as she and her organization work to help people create a vision for their lives to advance their economic independence and career path.

Carmen and her husband, Bob, live with their dog, Bella, and enjoy traveling and gardening together.

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