Sanctuary jacket, $135, shorts, $95, and black cami, $35, all at Mamili.
Latasha Brown: Founder, Global Lofts
Written by Dawn Anderson, Rocko Jerome and Taylor Riley | Photographed on location at the Frazier History Museum by Kylene White | Styled by Christine Fellingham and Melissa Gagliardi | Hair and makeup by Sarah Allen, Kassandra Cazares Aldana, Kayla Greenwell, Breanna Peters and Michaela Reeves
The field narrowed from over 400 nominations to 89 nominees and finally to the 16 award winners you will meet on the following pages. Representing each of their categories with distinction, your 2023 Most Admired Women bring humility, grace and a great capacity for change to their roles as leaders in our community. We asked each of them to reflect on how they got to this moment, what your votes and this award means to them and where their journeys might take them from here.
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A self-described ordinary girl with an extraordinary vision, Latasha Brown is persistent and driven because she feels she has to be. “When others look at me, I want them to say that if I can do it, they can do it too,” she says.
The dream that she’s making real is called Global Lofts. It’s a startup hospitality brand created to help the average traveler experience the world through curated boutique accommodations coming soon to Louisville. Its success will make her one of the less than 1% of Black women who own hotels in America, something she feels will be just the first step in the overdue process of changing the narrative.
“Louisville has allowed me the ability to connect. I’ve found so many beautiful people here who are the heartbeat of the city. I want every Global Lofts location to embody that spirit of connecting and exploring.”
“I went to a networking event where I heard about a Black hotel owners group called NABHOOD, which is the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators, and Developers,” she said. It’s one of the leading organizations advocating for minority ownership and development in the hotel and hospitality industry, advocating on behalf of Black hoteliers domestically and internationally, with the goal of increasing the number of African-Americans developing, managing, operating, and owning hotels as well as creating vendor opportunities and executive level jobs for minorities, ultimately building wealth within the Black community. Latasha was already a successful realtor, but learning about NABHOOD gave her a fresh new drive. “It made me want to really pursue this with a passion,” she says. “I became obsessed with hospitality and hotels and all the potential they contain to bring new ideas to life.”
Putting everything together from scratch has been a labor of love, but it’s something Latasha firmly believes in. “It’s a lot of work and demands a lot of creativity, but being independent means that I get to shape every facet,” she says. “After all, It’s one thing to buy into an existing brand, but it’s quite another to create your own from the ground up!”
Culturally immersive, curated spaces that are evocative of the cities and towns you find them in will be the conceptual mission statement for Global Lofts. The inspiration for that vibe came from our own river city. “Louisville has allowed me the ability to connect,” says Latasha. “I’ve found so many beautiful people here who are the heartbeat of the city. I want every Global Lofts location to embody that spirit of connecting and exploring. You will find an inclusive vibe that is representative of the true nature of the place you’re staying – warm, engaging, and dialed in. This will be a place where you cannot just feel at home, but like you’re tasting the true, natural, local flavor of the place you’ve found yourself. And we’re thinking not just nationally, but globally.”
Latasha’s journey of the last seven years in pursuing this vision has connected her with some great minds and an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is constantly rewarding and giving back to her. “I know these things take time to develop and work as they should,” she says. “That’s why winning this reward feels like such a fairytale. To have received this from so many people voting and seeing the potential in this concept, I’m just so truly grateful. Investment opportunities exist for Global Lofts, and this just illustrates the real possibilities. Global Lofts will have its first crowdfunding campaign in June, so please visit global-lofts.com for more information!” — Rocko Jerome
