Influential Women spotlights Brenda Tenison, founder of Bbright

Influential Women is recognizing Brenda Tenison for building Bbright, a faith-based nonprofit that serves children in Thailand, Kenya and the Dominican Republic. Her work centers on education, anti-trafficking support and practical help for families, with a focus on turning small acts of service into lasting change.

Why it matters: - Brenda Tenison's work shows how a small nonprofit can support education, food access and anti-trafficking efforts across multiple countries. - Bbright serves about 1,500 children worldwide and aims to create long-term change for families through access to opportunity. - The organization reports delivering about 650,000 meals and 2.4 million hours of educational support in the past year.

What happened: - Influential Women distinguished Brenda Tenison as the founder of Bbright. - Tenison lives in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and leads Bbright as a faith-based organization focused on children and families. - Tenison's career moved from industrial engineering into nonprofit leadership, communications and international humanitarian work. - She earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Western Michigan University. - She worked about five years in industrial products and aerospace. - After moving to Pittsburgh, Tenison spent another five to 10 years in marketing and communications roles across nonprofit and mission-centered organizations. - Tenison previously founded and led another nonprofit for six years before launching Bbright five years ago.

The details: - Tenison runs Bbright as the organization's sole employee. - Her responsibilities include communications, donor engagement, event planning, logistics and international trip coordination. - Bbright manages outreach through digital, print and email channels. - The organization organizes annual visits to program sites in three countries. - Tenison's inspiration deepened after a 2019 trip to Thailand, where she spent a week with girls supported by Faith House. - The girls supported by Bbright in Thailand are refugees from Myanmar and are being protected from trafficking. - The girls want to attend university, but the cost is about $3,500 a year. - Bbright can send them to college for less than $100,000 a year, and four girls are graduating this month with professional degrees. - Tenison said the girls also receive conversations centered on identity, worth and value through a faith lens. - Bbright works in Thailand, Kenya and the Dominican Republic. - Tenison and her husband have also spent 25 years involved with City Mission in Washington, Pennsylvania, helping people return to independent living.

Between the lines: - Tenison frames her leadership as a mix of ministry and business discipline, which suggests the organization relies on both compassion and operational management. - Her view is that meaningful impact does not require enormous funding, but can come from repeated, practical support. - The focus on education is central because school access appears to be the clearest path away from poverty and exploitation for the girls Bbright serves. - Tenison links individual opportunity to generational change, arguing that help given to one child can affect families for decades.

What's next: - Bbright is expected to keep sending annual teams to its program sites and supporting children through education, meals and local outreach. - Tenison said she plans to keep pushing forward through setbacks and continue building the organization's mission. - The immediate milestone highlighted in the release is the graduation of four girls in Thailand this month.

The bottom line: - Brenda Tenison's story is a case study in hands-on, faith-driven nonprofit work: small-scale support, repeated over time, can create measurable opportunity for children and families.