She Has a Deal 2026: Meet the Winners of $50,000 in Deal Equity and the Three Women Who Closed This Year

On May 5, She Has a Deal (SHaD) hosted the seventh season of SHaDPitch at Marriott International's global headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. Founded by Tracy Prigmore, SHaD is a hotel investment accelerator that creates new pathways to hotel ownership for women through education, mentorship, and its annual pitch competition, where participants source, evaluate, finance, and pitch real hotel deals.

This year's competition featured five teams of Early Careerists, for current students and recent graduates. After a full day of pitching, data presentations, and judge deliberation, Team Heir Development was named the winner of SHaDPitch 2026, taking home $50,000 in deal equity through the SHaD Prosperity Fund.

Heir Development is made up of Caroline Whitfield (Spelman College, Economics, Class of 2023), Jessica D'Amico (Penn State, Hospitality Management, Class of 2023), and Whitney Williams (Spelman College, Economics, Class of 2023). Their winning pitch: a 106-key adaptive reuse conversion of a historic building in Dallas, Texas, into a Tribute Portfolio by Marriott under the name Purse & Co. Tribute Portfolio is Marriott's upscale lifestyle soft brand, a collection of independent, design-forward hotels that celebrate local culture and community. For an adaptive reuse project, the brand is a natural fit: it allows the property to retain its historic character while benefiting from Marriott's global distribution and Bonvoy loyalty program.

The choice to pursue a historic conversion rather than a conventional acquisition or new build says something about how this team thinks. Adaptive reuse projects are complex. They require navigating zoning, historic preservation requirements, and construction challenges that do not exist in a standard hotel deal. But they also create something that a ground-up build cannot: a property with a story embedded in its walls before it ever opens.

Meet the Winners: Team Heir Development

What makes Heir Development particularly notable is the composition of the team: two Spelman graduates and one Penn State graduate, all from the Class of 2023, building a hotel deal together less than three years out of college. That trajectory speaks to exactly what SHaD is designed to produce.

I had the chance to speak with the team after their pitch, and their energy was palpable. Jessica D'Amico, the Penn State hospitality management graduate on the team, said the win has only sharpened their focus: "We are looking forward to finding our opportunity and closing on it."

Whitney Williams and Caroline Whitfield, both Spelman economics graduates, spoke about what drew them to the Purse & Co project specifically. Both shared that they were drawn to the adaptive reuse concept because of their interest in hotel development and creating a story through personalized experience curation. For them, the deal was not just about the financial model. It was about building something with character, something that connects to a place and gives guests a reason to come back.

That instinct for experience-driven hospitality is what made their pitch stand out. In a competition where many teams presented strong financial underwriting, Heir Development combined the numbers with a compelling narrative about what the property would feel like, who it would serve, and why Dallas needed it.

"Each year, it is remarkable to witness the growth these women achieve from the first SHaD MasterClass to the day they hit the stage at SHaDPitch," said Tracy Prigmore, founder of She Has a Deal. "We are so grateful for our sponsors."

Shaneka Thurman, Executive Director of She Has a Deal, echoed that sentiment during the awards ceremony: "We are so proud and inspired by every single one of you. The pipeline to ownership starts very early, and today we want to put that belief into action." In recognizing the Early Careerist track, Thurman highlighted Emma Claire Spring, winner of the 2021 SHaDPitch competition, who now serves as a Director of Midscale Development at Marriott International. Spring's trajectory from SHaDPitch winner to brand-side development leader is a powerful proof point for the program's long-term impact.

Three Deals Closed: From Pitchers to Owners

What set SHaDPitch 2026 apart from previous years was the Deal Milestone Spotlight, a segment of the awards ceremony dedicated to celebrating three SHaD alumnae who closed on hotel deals over the past year. These women previously stood on the SHaDPitch stage as pitchers. This year, they returned as owners.

Jenesis Laforcarde, The Jenesis House

Jenesis Laforcarde now runs The Jenesis House, a property that carries both her name and her vision. Her deal represents the deeply personal side of hotel ownership: building something from scratch that reflects who you are and what you believe hospitality should feel like.  The Jenesis House is a retreat built property in Sedona, AZ.

Jeni Jackman, Tru by Hilton, California

Jeni Jackman closed on a Tru by Hilton in California, a ground up development. Tru by Hilton is Hilton's midscale brand designed for a new generation of travelers who want a fresh, simplified hotel experience at an accessible price point. For Jackman, the deal represents a milestone in SHaD's growing track record of producing not just educated aspiring owners, but actual closings.

Venuss Gervin, The Peridot, Stockbridge, Georgia

Venuss Gervin closed on The Peridot, a boutique Hyatt property in Stockbridge, Georgia, just south of Atlanta.  This project will be a conversion from a senior living facility, highlighting finding unique assets for repositioning. The deal positions her in one of the Southeast's fastest-growing hospitality corridors, with access to Atlanta's demand generators while operating in a market with less saturation than the city center.

Three deals. Three women. Three new hotel owners who came through the SHaD pipeline. These closings are significant not just as individual achievements but as validation of the model itself. SHaD is not producing business plans. It is producing hotel owners.

Why This Matters: Women in Hotel Ownership

The broader industry context makes these milestones all the more meaningful. According to the 2025 Representation in Hotel Leadership report from Penn State's School of Hospitality Management, women represent 58.6% of the hospitality workforce and 69% of hospitality management graduates, yet they hold roughly one in four C-suite roles and remain significantly underrepresented in investment, development, and ownership. At the partner and principal level, men outnumber women nearly seven to one. For Black professionals, the representation of leaders in director-to-CEO positions has decreased from 2.2% in 2022 to 2.1% in 2025, despite representing 16.7% of the workforce.

Finalists for She Has a Deal 2026

The gap in hotel ownership is even wider. SHaD exists to close it, and every year, the evidence grows that the model works.

The Full SHaDPitch 2026 Experience

This year's event was more than a pitch competition. The day opened with an interactive data session featuring presentations from STR, Kalibri Labs, HotStats (a Duetto company), and CBRE, covering supply and demand dynamics, net revenue trends, profitability benchmarks, and deal feasibility. The session, which I had the privilege of hosting, was designed for a room that included industry leaders, aspiring owners, university students, and their families. Interactive audience polls between each presentation and a live Slido quiz at the end kept the entire room engaged and gave everyone a shared vocabulary for evaluating the pitches that followed.

The competition itself featured teams from Howard University, Spelman College, Penn State, Michigan State, San Diego State, and Virginia Tech, among others, pitching real deals with brands including Marriott, Hilton, and Wyndham with a few independent proposals.  Deals ranged from lifestyle conversions in to select-service projects in places like Chicago, Sante Fe, Dallas, Austin and Savannah.

What Makes SHaD Different

SHaD is not a conference panel discussion about diversity in hotel ownership. It is a structured accelerator with a nine-step hotel investment roadmap that takes participants from education through deal sourcing, underwriting, brand selection, financing, and pitch preparation. The deals are real. The capital requirements are real. And as Jenesis Laforcarde, Jeni Jackman, and Venus Gervin proved this year, the closings are real.

For anyone considering the program, the message from SHaDPitch 2026 is clear: the path to hotel ownership is not reserved for those who already have access. It is being built, one deal at a time, by the women in this room.

Congratulations to Team Heir Development, and to Jenesis, Jeni, and Venus. The industry is better for what each of you is building.

For more information or to sign up for next year's SHaD competition, visit shehasadeal.com.

Emily Johnson

Emily Johnson is the Founder of Elevate Hospitality Collective and a SHaD alum (2022) who hosted the data partner session at SHaDPitch 2026. She contributes to HOTELS Magazine, Hospitality Net, and HotelSpeak.