WHO WE ARE
The Latina Wealth Circle Foundation empowers women through financial education, entrepreneurship, wellness, housing stability, and community development to build thriving, resilient communities.
OUR STORY
We Were Built for This Moment
Dallas–Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the country. Women-owned businesses are a major force in that growth 188,000+ firms, nearly 50% growth in one generation.
But women particularly Latina and minority women entrepreneurs remain disproportionately disconnected from the institutional capital networks that make scale possible.
Latina Wealth Circle Foundation was formed to close that gap intentionally. Not through a gala. Not through an event series. Through a structured economic infrastructure model that connects women-owned businesses to capital, systems, and sustained support.
THE PROBLEM WE SOLVE
The Gap is not ambition. It is structured access.
Revenue-generating women-owned businesses in DFW are growing — but remain undercapitalized, underbanked, and disconnected from institutional capital networks.
Many operate without formal financial systems, lender readiness, or strategic capital positioning. One disruption — tightening credit, rising costs, a cash flow dip — can stall growth or permanently destabilize operations.
The urgency is real. Inflation. Tighter lending standards. Rapid DFW growth that is not equitably accessible. Without intervention, promising businesses stall before reaching scale.
Without LWCF, the region grows but not equitably.
THE PROBLEM WE SOLVE
The Gap is not ambition. It is structured access.
Revenue-generating women-owned businesses in DFW are growing — but remain undercapitalized, underbanked, and disconnected from institutional capital networks.
Many operate without formal financial systems, lender readiness, or strategic capital positioning. One disruption — tightening credit, rising costs, a cash flow dip — can stall growth or permanently destabilize operations.
The urgency is real. Inflation. Tighter lending standards. Rapid DFW growth that is not equitably accessible. Without intervention, promising businesses stall before reaching scale.
Without LWCF, the region grows but not equitably.
THE PROBLEM WE SOLVE
Most programs offer education or capital.
We integrate both.
The organizations doing similar work in DFW typically fall into four categories: networking associations, educational workshops, pitch competitions, or traditional small business development centers.
What they do not provide:
Direct capital deployment tied to structured readiness
Long-term financial accountability post-award
Integration of capital access with institutional positioning
Ongoing ecosystem activation between founders and capital partners
LWCF integrates financial systems training, capital deployment, and founder-level performance stability inside one structured model.
We are not wellness. We are not theory.
We are performance stability.
OUR PILLARS
Four Pillars. One Circle.
Our programs address the whole woman — her business, her health, her family, her community.
Financial Literacy & Wealth Education
✔️ Credit building and money mastery
✔️ Tax strategy and financial planning
✔️ Investing fundamentals and homeownership readiness
✔️ Family wealth planning and generational wealth foundations
Also includes: Tiburones Youth Leadership & Opportunity Pathways — Youth entrepreneurship, leadership, financial literacy, trades exposure, mentorship, and cultural empowerment for the next generation.
Women's Health &
Wellness
✔️ Reproductive healthcare access and advocacy
✔️ Trauma-informed education and nervous system wellness
✔️ Mental health resources and empowerment
✔️ Brain-based learning and resilience frameworks
Community Development & Housing Stability
✔️ Transitional and emergency housing assistance
✔️ Immigrant crisis support and stabilization resources
✔️ Safety-net navigation for families and single mothers
✔️CDC-level capacity-building: housing access advocacy, technical assistance, local economic mobility strategies, and organizational capacity
Living Bloom: Community Garden & Food Security
✔️ Urban agriculture and community gardening
✔️ Food sovereignty and environmental education
✔️ Healing through nature
✔️Community Nourishment: food pantry, grocery support, and culturally rooted nourishment
OUR FOUNDERS
Monica Baesa
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Monica Baesa grew up in Pleasant Grove in Southeast Dallas, one of ten children in a household where survival, not opportunity, shaped daily life. She became a mother as a teenager and entered the workforce at fifteen. There was no blueprint. So she built one.
In 2016, she took the biggest risk of her life and launched Longhorn Developments, a construction company that would go on to complete more than $8 million in residential redevelopment across 30+ homes in communities like Pleasant Grove, Oak Cliff, and South Dallas. Project by project, she saw the same pattern everywhere she worked: talent in abundance, capital access nearly nonexistent.
That gap between ambition and institutional opportunity became the foundation of Latina Wealth Circle Foundation. Monica built LWCF to create the economic bridges she had to build for herself: financial systems, capital readiness, and the structured support that turns hard work into generational wealth.
Because wealth should not be reserved for those born into access.
Karolyn Diaz
CO-FOUNDER & BOARD TREASURER, CPA
Karolyn Diaz is a CPA, entrepreneur, and first-generation Latina professional who learned the language of institutional finance from the inside and has spent her career making sure others don't have to navigate it alone.
Born in Los Angeles with Peruvian and Mexican heritage and raised in Texas, Karolyn earned her BS and MS in Accounting from the University of North Texas before beginning her career at PwC, one of the world's leading accounting firms. Over eight years, she specialized in complex real estate structures, private funds, public homebuilders, joint ventures, and institutional investment vehicles. She later earned her MBA in Finance from UNT and moved into consulting at Embark, where she continued advising companies through complex financial environments.
What brought her to LWCF is straightforward: she knows exactly what it costs a woman to learn financial systems no one ever taught her. She brings that hard-won expertise to the Foundation so the women we serve don't have to figure it out alone.
Fae Esparza, MBA
CO-FOUNDER & SECRETARY
Fae Esparza is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, and business strategist who built her career leading operations at a Harvard-affiliated medical center and driving AI adoption at Microsoft before stepping fully into the world she was always drawn to: real estate and capital.
She founded Start Solutions REI to help people think about wealth differently educating investors on how to access passive investment opportunities. As an Account Manager at Investor Mortgage Solutions, she helps active investors secure financing through DSCR and non-QM loans. She is also a private money lender and completed a fund-of-funds under a sponsor with over $1 billion in real estate transactions. Capital is not just her profession, it is how she moves.
Building without the right capital or systems isn't theoretical for Fae, it's personal. That experience is why she leads LWCF's governance, partnerships, and operational infrastructure, ensuring every woman who walks through our doors gets the structure and capital strategy she deserves.
Latina Wealth Circle Foundation™ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. EIN: 41-3482258
© 2026 Latina Wealth Circle. All rights reserved.
Made with ♥ for our community