Meet The Board

A Pompano Beach, Florida native and daughter to a United States Marine Veteran & entrepreneur that has dedicated his life to provide for his family and create a legacy for children. Since birth, Eriel has had first-hand experience of what being a business owner entails, this includes the good, and the bad. At 13, she earned a position at her mom & pop's business, and has been working there ever since. Directly after graduating high school, Eriel pursued a career in the Air Force Reserves while also attending Florida State University. 

Throughout her collegiate years at FSU, Eriel continued to pursue leadership opportunities and served on numerous executive boards such as the Black Student Union, National Council of Negro Women, and the founding cabinet of an honor society, so leadership positions and determination are nothing new for Eriel and comes natural. She has a passion for community service and over the course of her college years she has completed over 200 community service hours, while graduating magna cum laude in 2020.

While working under her father post-graduation, she was able to accumulate over $50k in grant funds and prizes for his business alone. She also helped fellow business owners score funds in the amount of $60,000. 

Eriel has witnessed first hand how much grants help businesses grow, changing not only the lives of the businesses, but the lives of owners and the communities they serve. Eriel is dedicated to using her essential business resources, experience, grant writing, and research skills, to help all South Florida businesses thrive, ultimately flourishing the community she resides in.

A Pompano Beach, FL native, Dr. Michelle Saunders holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Lynn University, Master of Science in business administration with a specialization in entrepreneurship from Nova Southeastern University, doctorate in business administration from the University of Phoenix, and a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. 

She has been an entrepreneur and strategic leader with over three decades of transformative experience spanning 10 industries, specializing in operations, logistics, transportation, analytics, information technology, and marketing. Her passion has always been in helping future leaders from our communities, nurturing a collective journey toward excellence.

Beyanka has always had a passion for serving others as a registered nurse care manager, she has to coordinate care, manage, and provide aide to patients during the most critical time of their recovery after leaving the hospital. She serves her hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 

Beyanka knows what small business owners go through because her husband owns his own business and it is not as easy as the "American Dream" makes it seem. With also being a minority, there is an additional barrier that  business owners from disadvantaged communities have to go through to not only start a business, but get funding to stay afloat and grow your business, not to mention the lack of resources and education to the community regarding entrepreneurship.

In 2020, after being notified by Eriel of the influx of small business grants especially for minority owners, she was able to spread the information to her husband. They researched, applied and got awarded! That's the reason she is passionate. She wants small business owners to know what resources are out there for them, and to help them achieve their "American Dream".

Dara, a Pompano Beach native, has always had a compassionate and serving heart from youth. Being the oldest out of 5 siblings and having to take care of them made her want to be the leader and role model that her younger siblings could look up to. 

As a Human Resource manager, coordinating, recruiting, training, and development is no new task for Dara. In her spare time, she often goes to construction sites throughout Miami Dade County and Broward County with her company to feed hundreds, sometimes a thousand of hungry workers who slave to build a habitable and safe economy for everyone.

She also is en route to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. This is a highly skilled profession that requires determination and a passion for not only what she does, but every patient she comes in contact with since their lives will ultimately be on the line. 

In addition to receiving her second bachelor's degree, she is currently obtaining her commercial real estate license. Dara is confident that with her passion for serving others and skilled work ethic, Grants 4 U will be the best organization possible to fulfill community and small business needs.