October was National Women’s Small Business Month, recognizing women-owned businesses everywhere, and there is no better time to announce that UNITE-LA is now a formal member of the National Association of Women Business Owners Los Angeles (NAWBO-LA)! The mission of NAWBO-LA is to "propel women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power by strengthening the wealth creating capacity of our members and promoting economic development within the entrepreneurial community and transforming public policy and influencing opinion makers." Los Angeles boasts the No. 1 slot for the state with the highest number of women-owned firms and California is the only state in which there are more than 1.1 million women-owned firms contributing to the economy. UNITE-LA looks forward to working with NAWBO-LA in their goal to support legislation that encourages and increases opportunities to fill and accelerate the pipelines between the workforce and employers with a specific interest in legislation impacting STEM.