Raquel Thomas is a serial entrepreneur turned community builder and servant. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Raquel took a broken childhood and used it to fuel her passion and purpose. A former high school athlete turned collegiate scholar, Raquel graduated from Virginia State University with a degree in Marketing and went on to earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.

After graduating, Raquel went to work for the automotive giant Toyota as a Regional Sales Manager. At Toyota, Raquel worked with the Baltimore Metro dealerships to increase profitably and to identify opportunities to increase market share. After 8 years at Toyota, Raquel decided to venture into entrepreneurship and opened her first daycare, Children of Tomorrow Learning Center & Child Care. A year later, she opened DMR Fashion, a retail store for children, women and men whose clothing provides messages to empower individuals to become their best. Simultaneously, Raquel opened The Museum Shop, an upscale urban clothing retail store in Washington, DC.

Raquel’s passion for children and her community continued to tug at her heart strings and she took her own difficult childhood memories and eventual triumph and created C&R Healthy Advancement Services. C&R is a behavioral health company that supports children and works to help them control their behavior and build coping skills to assist them in becoming healthy adults. Still feeling a need to do more, Raquel created Dream Catchers Foundation. Dream Catchers Foundation is a non-profit organization for children who dare to dream. The Foundation’s mission is to teach and demonstrate to children that dreamers can catch their dreams by living healthy, productive, goal driven lives.

After over a decade of working and living in the DMV area, in 2018, Raquel decided to move back to the south and enrich the very community she was raised in. Now a resident of Columbia, SC, Raquel continues to run several successful businesses and recently created WHOLE, Women Helping Other Ladies Excel. A mother of two, Raquel created WHOLE to help women heal, grow, and achieve. WHOLE works with women in the community to help them achieve their dreams and face their fears through life, business and entrepreneurship skills.

Raquel has dedicated her life to enriching, empowering and equipping women and children. She is the author of two books, What Becomes of A Broken Soul and Shifting into Purpose: The Journey to Entrepreneurship. As a community builder, Raquel has been recognized by the National Association of Professional Women as the VIP Woman of the Year, earned an Award of Excellence and Dedication from the National Association of Professional Women and recognized by SC Black Pages as a Top 20 Under 40 Professional.