As the SBA’s assistant administrator for women’s business ownership, Wilma Goldstein advocates for women business owners in both the public and private sectors, as well as within the agency. She coordinates efforts on behalf of the millions of women entrepreneurs in this country and speaks on behalf of women business owners everywhere.

Goldstein manages the $12.5 million Women’s Business Center Program and also oversees the nationwide Women’s Network for Entrepreneurial Training, a roundtable mentoring program that brings together successful women CEOs with women business owners ready to expand their businesses. She is also vice chair of the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business Enterprise, which was established in 1994 to ensure that the entire federal government supports the growth of women entrepreneurs.

A nationally recognized expert in consumer, social and political research for more than two decades, Wilma Goldstein also has extensive experience in analyzing the complex issues affecting women. An experienced manager and teacher, she has specialized in designing and teaching curricula for institutions of higher learning and for private corporations, associations and the political arena.

An expert on focus-group research and social trends, Goldstein established the first in-house survey research division for a national political party and has designed and implemented political research for more than a hundred congressional races. Communications research programs she developed generated the first generic national political television advertisements. Goldstein also created a political action committee designed to involve women in the political process at the federal level.

During the first Bush Administration, Goldstein served as director of the National Women’s Business Council, an independent advisor to the U.S. Small Business Administration. During her tenure, she gathered the first quantitative data on women in senior management positions and instituted a series of problem-solving hearings on issues of interest to women in business.

At NWBC, she began her affiliation with the Office of Women’s Business Ownership, and it was her commitment to women’s issues and her knowledge of the SBA that brought her back to begin her current assignment.

Goldstein began a career in politics in her home state of Michigan. Later, she was part of a management team that built a small, local company into one of the top-ten market-research companies in the nation. She has since held a number of management positions in private corporations, government and political organizations.

Goldstein developed the curriculum for the American University’s Campaign Management Institute, then served as its first director; she continues to teach at CMI and be a member of the advisory board for the Center for Presidential and Congressional Studies at AU, a position she has held since 1981. She has also been a featured speaker, teacher and guest lecturer for many organizations, associations and Fortune 100 companies.

Goldstein is especially proud of her volunteer work as a residence manager for the Whitman Walker Clinic, and as an organizer for the American Cancer Society’s ReLay for Life. She serves on the board of the Arts Club of Washington. She has also been a judge for the First Authors Mystery Book Contest, sponsored by St. Martin’s Press and twice her selections – now well-established women writers – won.