Dr. Carla Antoine Named 2026 AWBC Business Advisor of the Year

DENVER, Colo. — Business advisors are at the heart of the Women’s Business Center network. They are the people entrepreneurs turn to when they need to make sense of the numbers, find the next opportunity, work through a challenge, or simply have someone in their corner who believes in what they are building.

This year, the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) is proud to recognize Dr. Carla M. Antoine, Director of the Women’s Business Resource Center (WBRC) at the Urban League of Louisiana, as the 2026 Business Advisor of the Year. Antoine was selected from a competitive pool of 11 nominees and recognized during the 2026 AWBC Leadership Conference in Denver, Colorado.

The award honors a business advisor who goes above and beyond to serve clients and whose work has a positive impact on both the WBC and the clients they serve. Dr. Carla exemplifies that commitment every day.

With more than 20 years of military and entrepreneurial leadership, Dr. Carla brings discipline, determination, and a deep commitment to service to her work. As director of the WBRC, she helps lead a center that served 986 unique clients in 2025, supported 927 jobs, and facilitated more than $22.1 million in capital infusion for small businesses across Louisiana.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

In 2025–26, the WBRC partnered with the National Urban League and Intuit to bring the Intuit IDEAS program to New Orleans. Dr. Carla personally provides one-on-one advising to all 20 participants each month, in addition to leading the WBRC and managing programs including Start Up! LA and Scale Up! LA.

As her nominator shared, “This is above and beyond, and a heavy lift. However, Dr. Carla meets this challenge with enthusiasm and determination demonstrating her commitment to service and ensuring that our clients get best-in-class support.”

And her impact can be seen in the businesses she advises.

When Ashley Webb of Barcelo Gardens & Market LLC sat down with Dr. Carla in April, the business was already gaining momentum, with revenue growing from roughly $9,000 in February to approximately $24,000 in March. Together, they identified immediate grant opportunities while also beginning to map out a much larger vision for an indoor farmers market with a potential project cost approaching $1 million.

For Renee Celestin, Dr. Carla helped turn an ambitious goal into measurable progress. After launching Cedor Realty, Renee entered the Intuit IDEAS program with a goal of reaching 15 closings, listings, or new clients by March 31, 2026. By January 9, she had already reached 14 of 15, or 93% of her quarterly goal.

That is the work of a business advisor: helping entrepreneurs see what is possible, then helping them figure out what comes next.

Dr. Carla’s own record reflects that same commitment to helping others succeed. A 14-year U.S. Navy veteran who served in Iraq and Kuwait, she later co-founded a residential construction firm and established Life Towne Center, a nonprofit supporting veteran entrepreneurs. From 2019 to 2021, she trained and assisted more than 3,200 veteran and small business owners and helped secure $3.1 million in contracts and federal awards for small businesses in 2021 alone.

Her leadership has also helped the WBRC earn recognition as a Women’s Business Center of Excellence from the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2019, 2020, and 2025, as well as the 2025 National Women’s Business Center of Excellence designation from AWBC.

For Dr. Carla, though, the work always comes back to the entrepreneurs sitting across the table from her.

Congratulations to Dr. Carla M. Antoine on being named the 2026 AWBC Business Advisor of the Year. Her dedication, expertise, and commitment to helping entrepreneurs move forward are exactly what this award celebrates.