Two women. One fire.
How a nurse leader and a clinical social worker built a family of companies together.
By Dr. Barbara J. Kinney and LaTeisha Howard-Williams · November 2026 · 7 min read
wYldfire began with two friends who kept showing up powerful through the hardest seasons of their lives. We built it for women like us.
Two paths to the same fire
Barbara spent her career in nursing and education, leading clinical learning teams, teaching graduate nursing students and earning a PhD in educational psychology along the way. She has spent decades helping people grow into leaders. LaTeisha is a licensed clinical social worker who has walked with women through healing, trauma and recovery. She knows what it takes for a woman to find her footing again.
Put those two paths together and you get the heart of wYldfire: methods grounded in learning science, held with a healer's care.
Everything we build is the world we wanted for ourselves.
Why a family of companies
We started with BLAZE Activate, and it quickly became clear that one app could not hold everything women were asking for. They wanted to gather. They wanted coaching. They wanted beautiful things to light and keep. They wanted to learn, and they wanted to give back. So we built a family: nine companies, each with its own fire, all standing on the same four pillars.
How we lead
Barbara leads as Founder and CEO, setting the vision, the brand and the methods. LaTeisha leads as Co-Founder and COO, guiding operations, community, events and the healing and coaching side of the family. We are in this together, and we will keep building it together.
We burn. We bloom. We rise.
Y
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Two women. One fire.
How a nurse leader and a clinical social worker built a family of companies together.
By Dr. Barbara J. Kinney and LaTeisha Howard-Williams · November 2026 · 7 min read
wYldfire began with two friends who kept showing up powerful through the hardest seasons of their lives. We built it for women like us.
Two paths to the same fire
Barbara spent her career in nursing and education, leading clinical learning teams, teaching graduate nursing students and earning a PhD in educational psychology along the way. She has spent decades helping people grow into leaders. LaTeisha is a licensed clinical social worker who has walked with women through healing, trauma and recovery. She knows what it takes for a woman to find her footing again.
Put those two paths together and you get the heart of wYldfire: methods grounded in learning science, held with a healer's care.
Everything we build is the world we wanted for ourselves.
Why a family of companies
We started with BLAZE Activate, and it quickly became clear that one app could not hold everything women were asking for. They wanted to gather. They wanted coaching. They wanted beautiful things to light and keep. They wanted to learn, and they wanted to give back. So we built a family: nine companies, each with its own fire, all standing on the same four pillars.
How we lead
Barbara leads as Founder and CEO, setting the vision, the brand and the methods. LaTeisha leads as Co-Founder and COO, guiding operations, community, events and the healing and coaching side of the family. We are in this together, and we will keep building it together.
We burn. We bloom. We rise.
Y
Keep reading
More from the fire.
The Journal, in your inbox.
New stories, launches and power words, delivered to you first through The wYldfire Letter.
Join The wYldfire Letter