In this inaugural "Ones to Watch" feature, Grit Daily partners with the Shine Collective to spotlight ten visionary women who are reshaping the new era of business. These transformational leaders, each embodying innovation and empowerment, were carefully selected through a thoughtful curation process.

Drawn from disciplines across business, health, science, finance, and personal development, each honoree demonstrates measurable impact, originality, momentum, and values-driven leadership.

Their expertise spans diverse lanes, yet clear threads emerge: evidence-based meets heart-led leadership, movement-building beyond personal brands, as well as global reach through media and community education.

Here is to celebrating ten catalysts whose messages and movements helped reshape the year -- and provide a glimpse at what's ahead in 2026.

Heather Burgett is an award-winning publicist, Visibility Business Coach, and founder of the Shine Collective -- a virtual community of women thought leaders shaping humanity's next era.

With nearly three decades in marketing and PR -- having forged her reputation as a Hollywood publicist for Oscar and Grammy winners and global brands -- she now leads the new paradigm by serving visionary women in business, providing equitable access to visibility through her signature Shine System and online programs.

Blending classic, relationship-driven publicity craft with modern digital strategy, she helps purpose-driven clients hone holistic personal brands, secure media coverage, and convert attention into inbound opportunities -- from press and stages to partnerships and ideal pre-sold clients.

Heather's transformational approach combines high-level strategy with soul-aligned energetics, enabling women to build magnetic profiles and grow a visibility ecosystem that compounds discoverability and searchability for maximum impact.

A recipient of the PRism Award from the Public Relations Society of America, she served on the Forbes Business Council and is a seasoned media expert who has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Variety, PR Week, and KCET-TV's "SoCal Connected," among others.

Through her curated global networking events, digital media services, and thought leadership, she continues to illuminate the path for women who are ready to be seen, heard, and celebrated as the changemakers of our time.

Tami Stackelhouse is an award-winning author, founder of the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute, and executive producer of the fibromyalgia documentary, INVISIBLE. Tami teaches fibromyalgia patients how to take back control of their lives and health using her signature Fibromyalgia Wellness Framework -- so they can break free from the prison their bodies have become and begin living lives they love.

Once disabled by fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that affects one in 16 people, Tami created her framework to manage her symptoms and ultimately, achieve remission. Not wanting to keep the gift of health to herself, she has utilized her approach over the past two decades to coach hundreds of thousands of patients in regaining control of their lives and health.

Tami shares her expertise and joy through her Fibromyalgia Podcast and award-winning books. Her latest innovation, the Fibromyalgia Wellness Style quiz, offers science-based advice to help patients manage their symptoms effectively, leveraging their natural strengths.

Graduates of her Certified Fibromyalgia Coach and Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor programs continue to pass on the gift of health by helping people all over the world. She continues to expand her reach through her Fibromyalgia Wellness Summit and FibroCompass.com, a new educational blog designed to help patients find their direction and reclaim their lives.

Kristen Moore is an award-winning former corporate leader turned transformational life coach, speaker, and founder of the Moore Life Method, a coaching framework that integrates cognitive behavioral tools, emotional regulation, and faith-based principles to help women realign their ambitions with what matters most.

With over 20 years of experience in leadership, culture transformation, and business, Kristen has guided thousands through personal and professional growth. Her career includes key roles at CLEAResult Consulting, Stacey Boehman Coaching, Journey Clinical, and PR Stars, where she has specialized in DEI leadership, business strategy, and coaching. She also served as CEO of MOORE DEI, helping coaches and nonprofits create cultures rooted in equity and belonging.

Kristen studied Business and Marketing at Westfield State University, holds a DEI Certificate from Cornell University, and is a Certified Equity-Centered Coach through the Institute for Equity-Centered Coaching, where she deepened her work in trauma-informed, faith-aligned transformation.

Her clients say, "Kristen creates a space where you can be fully yourself. Her coaching blends grace with accountability, offering both emotional connection and practical tools that bring real transformation -- lessons you wish you'd learned long ago."

Today, Kristen equips women to heal emotional wounds, strengthen spiritual alignment, and break generational cycles, creating families built on confidence, grace, and legacy.

Natalie Clark is an energy strategist, renowned speaker, and life and business coach with a gift for catalyzing soul-led, high-achieving women to crack open their untapped potential through her 6-Step Signature Method, Ignite.

Using quantum principles for the quantum age, her unique and explosive approach is grounded in universal truths and inspired by a blend of Eastern and Western modalities that slash through clients' eons of deep-rooted blocks and raise their electromagnetic field, creating infinite possibilities.

Having worked with thousands of individuals over her 22-year professional career, Natalie took the proverbial leap off the cliff in 2018 and walked away from a breadwinner career to follow her soul's mission into entrepreneurship -- a vision she had held since childhood. Slashing through her own personal blocks, overcoming limitations and perceptions, she uses and develops transformation tools that ignited her journey; she now passionately helps others ignite theirs.

She has offered thousands of masterclasses, transformational workshops, retreats, and energetic movement classes to an international audience since 2020, serving thousands of highly conscious women.

Althea A. Scurvin is the founder and visionary behind Vas Noble, a global empowerment brand redefining how women break toxic cycles, heal from adversity, and rise into purpose-driven entrepreneurship.

With over 25 years of leadership experience driving transformation within Fortune 500 companies, she bridges strategic insight with soul-centered empowerment to redefine how women build, lead, and thrive.

Through her proprietary RAAA Framework (Reclaim, Activate, Align, Ascend), Althea guides women in rebuilding confidence, reclaiming their identity, and creating lasting independence. As the author of Unshackled and creator of The Unchained Challenge and Reclaim & Rise Summit, she leads a global movement rooted in truth, healing, and self-determination.

Her work weaves storytelling, artistry, and purpose into powerful spaces where women transform pain into power and business into a source of freedom. Guided by authenticity and courage, Althea continues to expand Vas Noble's global impact, inspiring women to break the cycle and rise -- one truth at a time.

Rachel Hulstein-Lowe (she/her) is a leading gender diversity expert, parent coach, writer, and speaker who helps gender-expansive youth find their most authentic selves, while also assisting their parents in shifting from anxiety to empowerment.

With over 20 years of experience as a licensed therapist, she has helped hundreds of kids feel more inspired. Her two programs, the Positive Parenting Method and the A.F.F.I.R.M. Program, have similarly helped hundreds of parents move from feeling overwhelmed to secure in their family relationships.

As the proud parent of two kids, her eldest being nonbinary, she's personally and professionally committed to uplifting the needs of LGBTQIA+ youth while simultaneously building bridges between cisgender and transgender communities.

She shares her vast knowledge of child development and queer youth on international platforms, including The Queer Family Podcast and Mastering Change. Kansas City Star, Authority Magazine and US Business News have featured her writing and expert opinion, and she is a sought-after speaker for engagements like Smith School for Social Work's annual Deepening Clinical Practice Conference.

She's writing a forthcoming book based on interviews with parents of gender-expansive youth from all over the country, featuring practical and research-supported parenting advice, viewed through a gender lens.

Stefanie Faye is a world-renowned neuroscience expert, researcher, and consultant focused on improving life outcomes for diverse populations by giving actionable neuroscience education that transforms mindsets and behaviors. She is also a former intelligence analyst and language teacher for government agencies.

Her graduate research at New York University and fieldwork at the NYU Phelps lab for Neuroscience Research, the NYU Institute for Prevention Science, and Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine focused on the cross-section of self-directed neuroplasticity, emotion regulation, and family systems.

Stefanie's clients include MIT, Google, Stanford University, the FBI, Northwestern University, Alberta Children's Hospital, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, as well as therapists, coaches, consultants, CEOs, teachers, osteopaths, and many more. She combines scientific insights and her training in monasteries with meditation masters from India, Africa and Vietnam.

She has extensive experience working with physiological measurements of human performance and wellbeing, including brain mapping (qEEG), biofeedback, eye movement, skin conductance, and facial muscle patterns -- combined with self-report and behavioral measures.

Her programs help leaders, coaches and professionals understand and explain how their expertise, wisdom and intuition are supported by science, which helps them increase buy-in and engage new and existing clients and audiences.

Cynthia Blancaflor is an award-winning Filipino American musician, author, speaker, healer and wellness coach. She is dedicated to modeling holistic wellness through lifestyle medicine, including Vinyasa yoga, and holistic healing based on traditional Chinese/Tibetan medicine and Nichiren Buddhism.

After overcoming acute sciatica in just 2 weeks at the age of 30 under the guidance of renowned healer, Master Wang, she broke the generational cycle of a long history of family dying from food-related illnesses. With her powerful story, Cynthia was selected as one of the Top 5 in her group in the "Entrepreneur of Impact" contest featured in Forbes magazine.

Based on her life, Cynthia has developed a 4-Step Path to wellness called "Self-Care Blueprint: Become Your Own Healer," which has dramatically transformed the health of her clients, typically improving their health within two months or less.

Cynthia's mission is to share her wisdom, guiding others to heal illness at the root, based on holistic medicine, through her coaching, talks, workshops, books, and her podcast, which is based on her first book, "21st Century Handbook" -- a new edition will be released in 2026. Her webinar, "Food as Medicine," now reaches hundreds of people a month, globally.

Lisa Andria is the popular podcast host of "Ladies Who Leap," an Emotional Transformation Coach, and founder of the Ladies Who Leap Club community. Her message and work uplift women to a place of deep self-love and self-trust, enabling them to shine their unique light into the world.

Lisa's emotional transformation journey involves gaining a deeper awareness of yourself and the world around you, while shedding the baggage that keeps you stuck in negative emotional thoughts.

Her work includes The Being Profile, the world's leading ontological assessment tool, which highlights a health score "snapshot" of 31 aspects of being, including Awareness, Effectiveness, Fear, Anxiety, Authenticity, Higher Purpose, Love, Compassion, Confidence, Persistence, and much more.

Lisa is also a Master NLP Practitioner who uses the highly effective Mental and Emotional Release Breakthrough session to help release stress, anxiety, limiting beliefs, and negative emotions (like fear, hurt, shame, anger). It's also been proven to release PTSD, phobias, and depression. One of her clients released the limiting beliefs for the life-changing result of clearing daily migraine headaches.

Through her one-on-one private work, inspiring podcast highlighting courageous women who have taken the leap to a better life, and her upcoming book about achieving unconditional self-love, Lisa is spreading love, light, and confidence to all, raising the scale of love around the world. She says, "Leaping out of your comfort zone is where the growth happens!"

Linda Grizely, CFP, is a personal finance expert, financial wellness speaker, educator, and money coach. She is the creator of the MeMoney method, a financial strategy designed to create a mindset shift and help people feel confident and in control of their money, without judgment or lecture. Her core belief is simple: You deserve to feel confident with money and good about how you spend it.

A former financial advisor, Linda is now leading a movement to replace shame with self-trust in financial conversations -- from kitchen tables to corporate stages. Through her content, coaching, and podcast, Real Money, Real Life, she empowers people to make money decisions that feel aligned and true to who they are.

In her speaking, Linda works with organizations to humanize money conversations in the workplace -- connecting financial confidence to emotional well-being, performance, and retention. Her work bridges personal transformation with systemic change, reminding people everywhere that financial power isn't just about the numbers; it's about making choices that reflect you, fully and unapologetically.

Coming up next in this "Ones to Watch" series: Women Elevating Leadership in 2025 and Impactful Women Thought Leaders of 2025 -- two companion spotlights that deepen this conversation from the boardroom to the broader cultural stage.