February Speaker
LORINDA FORREST MEYER
TCWN is proud to host Lorinda Forrest Meyer at our February General Meeting. For information about this meeting, click here. Read on for Lorinda’s full professional bio.
Lorinda Forrest Meyer
Specializing in small business and entrepreneurship for 25+ years, Lorinda has served the Central Valley and Mother Lode Region as the Small Business Deputy Sector Navigator for the Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and the Economy framework out of the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development department.
Lorinda worked with fourteen community colleges in the Central Valley and Mother Lode Region of California for four years to facilitate the expansion or improvement of small business and entrepreneurial studies in an effort to help students be more job ready or explore entrepreneurship. In her work, she represented community colleges in partnership with high schools, universities, local business, economic development and workforce programs in an effort to help prepare students as 21st Century Workers. Lorinda was also awarded a grant to develop a website called EshipEducator in which faculty across the country upload and share best practice methods in teaching entrepreneurship. Lorinda has presented at multiple conferences, on multiple topics in this role including: CCCAOE, the National NACCE Conference, The Central Valley Counselor Conference, Educators Cultivating Entrepreneurship Symposium, Contextualizing Entrepreneur Curriculum Collaborative, and Educating for Careers Conference. As a result of her work, Lorinda was conferred the Impact Award from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship.
In January 2017, Lorinda joined her husband in northern California and accepted a position at College of the Siskiyous as the Basic Skills Student Outcomes Transformation grant manager. In this role, much like in a start-up, Lorinda was tasked with managing a $1.3M grant to remodel and transform the Academic Success Center on both the Weed and Yreka campuses as well as revamp a variety of student success programs. Lorinda was awarded a grant called Self-Employment Pathways in the Gig Economy to build an entrepreneur program at COS, including a business start-up incubator space called The Hatchery at College of the Siskiyous.
Following her retirement, Lorinda was elected as President of the McCloud Chamber of Commerce, a position she served in for two years.
Previously, Lorinda has owned or co-owned five start-ups in Southern California. She worked with a variety of businesses ranging from one-person operations to venture-funded Silicon Valley start-ups as a business start-up consultant and business success coach Her experience spans many industries including tourism, health care, investment banking, retail, service-oriented businesses, and restaurants. Lorinda has helped many clients through the business plan and loan funding process as well as other aspects of business start-up, growth and expansion.
As a trainer, she has presented on such topics as, Lean Canvas Start-up Method, “Owning Your Own Business”, “Business Start-up Boot Camp”, “Social Media Marketing” “Website Design for Small Business” and “Marketing Your Small Business”. She is a certified training facilitator for Kaufman Fast Trac Growth Venture and Tech Venture, New World of Work 21st Century Skills, the Ice House (entrepreneurial mindset) programs and the Profit Mastery program.
Lorinda earned a B.S. in Business Management and her MBA from Western Governors University. She is certified as an online instructor in the Canvas Learning Management platform.
Lorinda is a beekeeper, founder and past-president of the Sierra Foothill Beekeepers Association. She also enjoys gardening, fly fishing, downhill and cross-country skiing, hiking, cycling, golf, exploring healthy eating alternatives, and loves spending time with family.
As part of her volunteer work, Lorinda has presented/taught “Introduction to Beekeeping” and “Beginning Beekeeping” in Tuolumne County. She was on the organizing team for several conferences and has been a guest speaker at the 2015 Central Valley & Mother Lode Innovation Summit, the 2012 Motherlode Innovation Summit on Technology and other guest speaking appearances. Lorinda was part of a vocational training team of experts representing Rotary International. She presented at two universities and in six villages in Romania on the topic of “Exploring the Benefits of Beekeeping in Growing Independent Businesses in Small Scale Agriculture”.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.lindekin.com/in/lorinda-forrest-meyer-9598741/
Volunteer Experience:
Club Secretary, Mt. Shasta Rotary, 2020-2021
President, McCloud Chamber of Commerce, 2018-2020
Board of Directors, McCloud Chamber of Commerce, 2017-2018
Marketing Coordinator, Great Shasta Rail Trail Association, 2018
Sierra Foothill Beekeepers Association, Founder and Past President, 2010-2014
2015 Central Valley & Mother Lode Innovation Summit
Rotary Vocational Training Team – Romania, 2014
Motherlode Innovation Summit on Technology (MIST), 2012