Entrepreneurial Achievement Recipients

Entrepreneurial Achievement Recipients

Dr. Michelle Braun | Kia Buckner | Christine Miranne

Dr. Michelle Braun
Nominated by Indiana University

Dr. Michelle Braun is a board-certified, Harvard- and Yale- trained, award-winning neuropsychologist who is passionate about empowering individuals to boost brain health and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by scaling the science of brain health through social entrepreneurship. She has been featured on PBS, NPR, Fox Morning News, CBS, iHeart Radio, and in other media outlets. 

Dr. Braun served as an Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Director of Inpatient Mental Health at the Boston VA prior to moving back to her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has served nearly 10,000 individuals and families in the Racine, Wisconsin community since 2006. She was honored to be recognized with a 2022 Woman of Influence Award from Success Magazine, a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award from Carroll University, a Practitioner of the Year Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, and to be named to the “40 Under 40” class of 2013 by the Milwaukee Business Journal.



Her bestselling book, High-Octane Brain: 5 Science-Based Steps to Sharpen Your Memory and Reduce Your Risk of Alzheimer’s, empowers readers to optimize brain health and well-being with an inspiring personalized action plan and tracking system, and is the basis for High-Octane Brain Fitness, her science-backed cognitive fitness and brain health coaching program that won the “Outstanding Business Plan” award in Silicon Valley in the fall of 2024.

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Kia Buckner
Nominated by Kia D. Buckner, CPA, CGMA

Kia Buckner is the Managing Partner of Horsey, Buckner & Heffler, LLP (HBH), a minority-controlled accounting firm, and has over 30 years of audit experience. Kia continues to serve a diversified client base, including closely held entities, public sector entities, various not-for-profit organizations, and employee benefit plans. Her responsibilities include planning and developing audit strategies, directing the performance of financial, compliance and performance audits, overseeing accounting service engagements and providing advisory services in connection with quality assurance and internal control process assessments. She is also responsible for the firm’s overall quality control, continuing education and adherence to the firm’s related policies and procedures in these areas.

Kia graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina A&T State University with a B.S. in Accounting. She holds a Certificate in Women’s Entrepreneurship from Cornell University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Kia is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), and the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA).

She currently serves on the board of directors of the Philadelphia Theater Company, is a member of the Rho Theta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Montgomery County, PA chapter of Jack & Jill of America, Inc.

In 2018, Kia was named by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a “Minority Business Leader”. In 2024, Kia was honored as a “Woman of the Year” by Janes Memorial United Methodist Church.

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Christine Miranne
Nominated by Providence College

Christie Miranne is a powerhouse female entrepreneur, industry-leading brand builder, direct sales and marketing expert, and strategic business development leader. As the daughter and protégé to iconic inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, Christie’s affinity and understanding of entrepreneurship started at an early age and has helped shape her career through today. Christie is a Providence College graduate, Class of 2004, and began her career in Public Relations with a specialty focus on licensing and endorsements collaborating with Elizabeth Arden, Unilever, Givaudan, Estée Lauder, and Coty, as well as celebrity clients such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Roselyn Sánchez, among others.

Christie continued her career as an executive at HSNi in the home shopping arena and worked her way up the corporate ladder to become an Executive Vice President of Product Development & Strategy. She led a cross functional team that developed, designed, sourced, planned and marketed record shattering products across all categories and amounted to over $2 billion in retail sales throughout her tenure.



Over her career, Christie has created, curated, designed, sourced & marketed hundreds of products that are rooted in innovation and provide consumers a value-driven solution to their everyday needs. She knows what it takes to converge merchandising, marketing and strategic planning to create success with a blockbuster track record to prove it. She has deep sourcing relationships across throughout the world and her expertise spans multiple brands in multiple categories that she built from the ground up. These include soft home, hard home, apparel, accessories, culinary, fitness, publishing, and entertainment, with celebrity partners including Iman, Serena Williams, Keith Urban, Randy Jackson, Chef Ming Tsai, Chef Todd English, Paula Abdul, Madonna and more.

In 2019, Christie co-founded The Joy Company, a multi-million dollar, omnichannel enterprise, alongside her mother, brother and husband. Then in 2020, they co-founded their latest game changing cleaning company & brand, CleanBoss, with co-founder Pitbull, aka Mr. Worldwide & Mr. 305, and are taking the cleaning industry by storm waking up the world to a new and cleaner way of clean. Eat Cleaner is a key product line under this umbrella as well, the all-natural fruit & veggie wash and life extender that is helping people across America eat better and save money. CleanBoss is a culture and once you’re in it, you will never clean the same way again. Her CleanBoss enterprise has experience skyrocket growth spanning from your television screen to industry leading retailer partners like Lowes, Kroger, Wegmans, Walmart and more. CleanBoss even has a full line of Professional products that are being used in institutions, hospitals, corporate buildings, stadiums, universities, airports, and beyond through its newly launched commercial division.

Family is everything to Christie as she not only works alongside her mother, Joy Mangano, but as well her brother and husband as well. As a tight knit team, they have made their mark in the media space with game winning commercials, launched the world’s first shoppable live competition series with NBCU, America’s Big Deal, and even have a new network TV project on the way. Their family story is so incredible that the life journey of her mother served as the subject of the 2015 Oscar-nominated movie JOY, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. As well, they are set to debut the new musical JOY in New York City this summer, that chronicles this incredible life path, but this time set to all original music. Today, Christie lives on Long Island, is a loving mother of three wonderful children. She is dedicated to giving back to the future generation of entrepreneurs and dreamers everywhere.

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