Deavra Daughtry

Houston, Texas

CEO & Founder
Texas Women’s Empowerment Foundation

Over the last two decades, Deavra Daughtry has paved a road to double success. In 1996, she launched Excellent Care Management (ECM), now one of the nation’s largest personal in-home care agencies for older adults and the disabled.

Six years later, the Houston native founded the Texas Women’s Empowerment Foundation (TWEF), a nonprofit geared to help underserved families and communities set their own path to reach their full potential in personal development, business and education.  

Daughtry worked as a social worker for many years prior to moving into building her own business. And she has said the road was not an easy one. “I was a single parent with two kids,” Daughtry said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. “We were definitely in survival mode. I had to believe that I could do it and that it would happen.”

After caring for her grandmother who also raised her, Daughtry felt led to help other older adults. With a few hundred dollars in hand and lots of encouraging words from her grandmother, she took that leap and ECM was born. Today, ECM has over 1,500 employees and has trained more than 20,000 nurses and caregivers.  

Under her leadership, TWEF has affected more than 300,000 lives since its inception, primarily focusing on providing culturally relevant opportunities for Black and brown communities. Her foundation offers a wide variety of seminars and workshops at her Empowerment Community Center, which she opened in 2006. The foundation’s programs have focused on expanding business networking opportunities, financial education, mentorship, senior outreach, entrepreneurship and STEM education and an urban community garden. — Monée Fie