The mothers, the millennials, and the mavens. Changing our communities.
This is our seventh annual unveiling of 50 amazing women who are raising the bar in their communities, serving as beacons of light in their industries, and forcing change for the greater good. Meet this West Virginia Wonder Woman, Diana Barnette, and many more that are creating a better West Virginia with their can-do attitudes and Mountain State spirit.
Extreme Optimist
Diana Barnette was born with what family members call “extreme optimism.” She always finds a way to make things happen and, if she hits a wall in the process, she finds another route. It’s a model she’s applied to her business life with great success. “I’m human, so I get down sometimes and I feel defeated some days,” Barnette says. “On those days I call it a day, and then the next day I get up and try again.”
She’s a serial entrepreneur who fills a void wherever she sees a need. She is the owner of multiple businesses in the southern part of the state and just unveiled her newest venture: Appalachian Outpost and Rockfort Cabins, which turned an old strip mall in the heart of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system into productive space supporting the local ATV tourism industry.
Barnette attributes her success in life to the way she was raised by a hard-working single mother of three. “I always saw her working hard. She cleaned houses. She took in laundry. She did whatever it took. There weren’t a lot of men around, and I grew up thinking that the most important things were working hard and always doing the right thing no matter what.”
Click here to read about our other 2020 West Virginia Wonder Women
Click here for tickets to the 2020 West Virginia Wonder Women TALKS event
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