MEET SANQUINETTA DOVER – PRESIDENT AND CEO OF DOVERSTAFFING
Working a 40-hour job while mentoring an up and coming business leader, volunteering for church activities at Cascade UMC, carving out time for self-care plus recreation, and conducting service for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. might be too much for a person. And when that 9-to-5 is more like a 24-7 because you’re the founder, owner, and CEO of a multi-million dollar business, one’s work-life balance can be in jeopardy. But not for Spelman College alumna Sanquinetta Dover.
In 1996, she started DoverStaffing from the ground up. Over the last 28 years, the Atlanta based staffing and workforce development firm has been featured in the Business Journals, “Beginners to Bigshots” edition, recognized as one of the Nation’s Top Business Leaders by DiversityBusiness.com, and bestowed with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Regional Director’s Award. Dover’s enterprise helps people upskill, prepare for new jobs or move up the career ladder. It also supports businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies with the right talent for team building, leadership training, compliance, secret shoppers, training, and data analysis, in addition to convention, event, and conference planning. Over the years, Dover’s business acumen and expertise allowed her to expand her brand to include DoverSolutions and the Dover Training Institute. As a result, her company is a leader in addressing workforce development challenges. Part of her mission includes creating an all-inclusive approach to job placement, a philosophy that stems from Dover’s upbringing, having been raised in segregated Greenwood, South Carolina.
“I know firsthand what it means to be excluded because of my color,” said Dover, President and CEO of DoverStaffing “As a child, I was denied access to the movie theater during the early years of integration, I remember my Dad coming to rescue me, speaking with the owner of the movie theater about not selling me a ticket. After speaking with my dad, my mom and I returned that evening to see that Walt Disney movie.” “Because I know rejection and exclusion, I wanted to create an environment of inclusion in my business with no judgments,” continued Dover. “I believe that you need resources to be supportive. I created DoverStaffing, DoverSolutions, and Dover Training Institute as organizations that are holistic. We don’t just provide the opportunity to send you on a job. We link people to a possible transformational life change. It’s more than just a job.”
She Got it From Her College
When Dover enrolled at Spelman in 1973, the campus did not have a business program, so she majored in economics and took classes in business at Morehouse. The courses were demanding, and outright challenging, to hear her college best friend tell it. “I was in San’s room so frequently, it was as if I lived there and I was her roommate,” said Bernadette Poitier who matriculated through Spelman in just three-and-a-half years. “I remember that economics was difficult for her, but she mastered it. She stayed up until 12:00, 1:00 in the morning. San was always a very determined person. She did not let a class or anything else stop her from reaching her dreams. She came to Spelman with certain virtues, philosophies, and disciplines that were passed down by her parents.” Dover and Poitier, friends for 51 years, have visited each other’s families in their respective cities–Dover’s smalltown of Greenwood, and Poitier’s big city of Miami–and have kept up with each other’s careers, and maintain regular phone calls to stay in touch. “I called her ‘one-bus Dover,’” recalled Poitier, the 21-year tenured, now retired, administrative assistant to Miami-Dade County Public School’s first Black school board member. “I went home with Sanquinetta for Thanksgiving, and would often go home with her on weekends, because her home was closer. I would make fun of her because she had one bus in her city, versus my city where it seemed there were thousands of buses.” “She always had that entrepreneurial spirit,” recalled Poitier. “Spelman, and her dad and mom equipped her with the skills she needed, and she had innate faith.”
Leaning on the HBCU Network
Introduced to the glass ceiling in her first professional position with the FDIC in New York City, Dover said she received early exposure to workplace challenges for Black people. After a job transfer to Chicago, she found a mentor in SB Fuller, founder and presdient of Fuller Products Company, president of the South Side Chicago NAACP, and the National Negro Business League. Known as the “dean of Black entrepreneurs,” he laid the foundation for Dover’s entrepreneurial journey, she said.
In DoverStaffing’s early years, Dover was able to find clients in her HBCU network, including Rep. Roger Bruce of the Georgia House of Representatives. The 1975 Morehouse College graduate formerly served as Spelman College’s vice president for human resources. In the early 2000s, he sought DoverStaffing to build out his team. “I was told about her recruiting agency, and I contacted her to help hire people we needed on campus. We’ve remained friends,” said Rep. Bruce. “The whole nature of her company is to help people find employment opportunities and take care of themselves. It’s not just her company making money. It’s about using that money and resources to help other people. I applaud her big time for that. I did everything I could to help her be successful. Sanquinetta is an absolutely beautiful person.”
While Dover runs her successful company around the clock, she is able to mix business with pleasure–and service. As an Atlanta resident, she maintains her connection to Spelman College, visiting for special events including her recent Golden Homecoming convocation. In 2014, the late Dr. Jane Smith, who served as Spelman’s vice president for college relations and graduated from the school in 1968, invited Dover to become a founding committee member of the school’s Spelpreneur entrepreneurship educational initiative dedicated to honing students into entrepreneurs. Ten years later, Spelpreneur now offers three programs for students curious about entrepreneurship, provides resources to develop their businesses, and hosts weekly opportunities to learn tenets to start a business, or grow their side hustles, and a ten-day startup pitch competition.
“I had the honor to go back and participate with some of the students,” said Dover. “It’s wonderful to engage with the students and pour into them, and they poured into me, too. It’s a wonderful experience to be on campus, sharing with the students and seeing how that program is growing and thriving. Being in Atlanta gives me an opportunity to touch base often with my alma mater.”
Taking the program a step further, Dover continues to mentor Spelman alumna Ve’lesa Dunlap. They met during a Spelpreneur networking event in 2017, during Dunlap’s junior year. Now an entrepreneur herself, the 2018 graduate said Dover’s mentorship has influenced her desire to grow her own business. “I remember meeting Ms. Dover during a speed dating type of mixer,” said Dunlap. “I just so happened to sit at the table where Ms. Dover was. I was shy, but we got acquainted with one another and we blossomed. We’re Spelman sisters, church sisters, and golf buddies.” Dunlap said the mentee mentor relationship turned into a friendship, and they now schedule time for brunches, church visits, and spa days to keep in touch. Dover offers business tips and tools, but Dunlap provides something in exchange.
“I’m trying to get her to do more of that self-care. We’re very busy individuals, so we have to make free time on our calendars,” said Dunlap, an Atlanta-based life insurance producer. “I also take a lot of business direction from Ms. Dover. I’m one of the only Black women at my firm. Dealing with the microcosm of racism, she helped guide me. She said you just need to start your own agency. I would be very lost business-wise if it wasn’t for Ms. Dover. I don’t know many Black women that own their own company at that level. That inspires me.”
Guiding Leaders for Today, Tomorrow
The work of inspiring and motivating is a big part of Dover’s work. As the owner of a multi-million dollar company, she sees how others, too, can create their own golden parachute, and passes on information to her team, those training in her programs, and during speaking engagements. Recently, Dover has been talking up the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, calling it a “game changer” for small businesses and people looking to earn higher incomes. The 2021 legislation offers an opportunity to invest in communities too often left behind and aims to add 1.5 million jobs each year through 2031.
“I want people to understand that this is one of the greatest things that has happened since the New Deal to our economy. I am passionate about sharing this information because when you’re taking care of your family and living life, people may not be aware of these opportunities to make current changes that will allow a person to leave a legacy for their family,” said Dover of the federal legislation. “I am using my platform as a workforce solutions expert to encourage people to take advantage of this economic transformation that is arising from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This is an opportunity to level set and level up by taking a look at how you are positioning yourself for success whether you’re a business owner or a person in the workplace. For us as Black people, we don’t want to be on the platform and see that the train has left the station and we’re not on the train. We can’t miss this transformational opportunity to redirect one’s life,” she added.
In line with the policy’s growing opportunities, the Dover Training Institute focuses on post-secondary education, providing opportunities to use one’s digital literacy to gain skills that provide a gateway to a career in artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge careers. While Dover is team HBCU as the daughter of two educators, and has a sister, Benita Dover-Brailsford who also graduated from Spelman College, she said people don’t have to go to a four-year university to be gainfully employed. Her institute provides post-secondary credentials and she pushes the benefits of attending community colleges and earning certificates as a way to keep up with the evolving workplace. While there are several secrets to Dover’s success, she speaks highly of her college’s impact on her success–past, present, and future. “I love my alma mater. Going to Spelman, a college for women, was very empowering,” said Dover who applied only to Spelman College. “As a Black business woman, I draw back on that experience often because women are so often silenced, not heard or seen. In Spelman’s environment, you’re always heard and seen. That’s an expectation that grew out of being a Spelman woman.”