2026 Women Who Win: Entrepreneur finalists

Melissa Glossup

Melissa Glossup is the founder and CEO of Safety Biometrics, a Tampa-based company developing wearable biometric technology for industrial safety and defense use cases. She has led the business for 13 years and now sits at a pivotal point in its commercialization path. Safety Biometrics is pre-revenue, with a $5 million Series A round set to close and a $500,000 government research and development contract supporting its operations.

Glossup built the company in a sector that rewards technical fluency and operational credibility. She describes herself as a former English professor who entered a male-dominated technology and industrial safety space, then learned the regulatory, procurement and end-user realities that shape adoption. That approach, she says, has helped her brief senior government officials and engage national security stakeholders who see wearable biometrics as a practical tool for safer decision-making in high-risk environments.

Safety Biometrics positions its platform as a workforce safety layer that can pair biometric signals with analytics. The goal is to deliver information that supervisors and operators can use in real time, whether in industrial settings or military operations. Glossup says the company is preparing for its first round of volume manufacturing as the funding closes.

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Her proudest professional moment came during a discussion tied to national security applications. Glossup recalls the director of The National Forensic and Justice Center telling the director of the Pinellas County Economic Development Center that she “understands wearable biometrics and national security better than anyone [he] has ever met.” She expects the upcoming Series A close and initial manufacturing run to become the next inflection points for the company.

Outside the startup, Glossup co-founded Operation Warrior Hope, a Tampa-based nonprofit focused on wraparound services for veterans and efforts to reduce suicide risk. She helped launch the organization with Dave Marsh, a former commander of American Legion Post 7 and the 75th Ranger Regiment. The organization reports that since April 2023, it has intervened in 19 suicide crises and reached more than 600 additional veterans and community members through its work.

Glossup also mentors women navigating career transitions. She describes assisting a longtime Florida educator who sought a new path after more than 20 years in the classroom. Glossup provided support and a recommendation, and the educator now serves as director of operations for Operation Warrior Hope.

Glossup frames her leadership as execution-focused. She has built Safety Biometrics through long development cycles, government-facing conversations and early contract work. She now aims to close financing, move into manufacturing and build jobs in business, sales and production in the Tampa Bay region.

Tamara Galla

Tamara Galla is president and CEO of PDI Connection, a St. Petersburg-based recruiting firm she launched in February 2022. The company operates with a three-person team and is growing, with annual revenue exceeding $300,000.

Galla built her career through a nontraditional path that shaped how she approaches talent work. She spent more than a decade as a makeup artist before moving into human resources in 1999 as an HR assistant. Within six months, she stepped into a lead recruiter role, when the industry still relied on newspaper ads and walk-in applications. She learned recruiting by doing it, then spent years moving through corporate leadership roles before deciding she wanted to build a firm that reflected how she thinks about hiring.

At PDI Connection, Galla focuses on matching candidates to companies across executive management, human resources, legal, administrative, sales, business development, accounting, finance, insurance, automotive, IT, hospitality management, PEO and C-suite roles. She positions the firm around three principles that form its name: passion, drive and integrity. She says she hires the person first, then evaluates fit for the role, a model built on relationship work rather than transaction volume.

Galla launched the business from her dining room table, using a laptop and a notepad. She describes the early weeks as a test of faith and execution, with constant adjustments as she refined her niche, client expectations and processes. She says that shift changed her leadership style. Earlier in her career, she sought validation and tried to be heard. Building her own firm forced her to listen more closely, seek feedback and set clearer priorities.

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That emphasis on leadership shows up in how she supports other professionals. Galla describes mentoring a former colleague who felt dismissed in an executive role. Galla encouraged her to advocate for her work, stay grounded in her experience and regroup when pressure distorted perspective.

Community involvement remains a consistent part of Galla’s work. She supports local organizations through volunteer time, fundraising and participation in community events, including food drives and hurricane relief efforts. She also remains active with chambers in the Tampa Bay area. Galla says she measures impact partly by presence, showing up for organizations, donors, leaders and families who need sustained attention more than a one-time contribution.

She also advocates publicly on behalf of The Menopause Society, using speaking engagements and community conversations to elevate a topic that affects workforce health and longevity.

Galla’s goals for PDI Connection stay direct. She wants to grow the firm, deepen client partnerships and keep candidate experience central. She built the business around trust and she intends to scale without losing the personal standard that made clients return in the first place.

Kelly Boyd-Rivera

Kelly Boyd-Rivera is founder and CEO of Cadmus Dental Lab, a Tampa-based full-service dental laboratory that delivers clinical restoratives to dentists across the globe. Four years after launching the company, she leads a team of 59 and reports $55 million in annual revenue.

Boyd-Rivera built Cadmus to operate at scale in a manufacturing-driven industry that increasingly depends on digital precision. With more than 15 years in dentistry, including a decade as chief revenue officer at DDS Lab, she understood how rapidly digital workflows were reshaping restorative dentistry. At Cadmus, she invested early in advanced scanning, milling and production systems to improve turnaround time and consistency for dental practices.

The company now supports dentists nationwide with crowns, bridges and implant restorations produced through integrated digital processes. Boyd-Rivera oversees vendor strategy, technology adoption, production standards and client partnerships. She says operational discipline determines whether innovation delivers results. Her team built systems that allow the lab to scale while maintaining quality control across high-volume output.

Her leadership has earned industry recognition, including the Apogee Award in 2025, which honors executive leadership and business impact. She remains one of the few women globally to own and operate a dental laboratory at this size. Boyd-Rivera says credibility in the space comes from execution. She built her reputation by delivering consistent results to practices that depend on precision.

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Her career has included adversity. A legal dispute with her former employer tested both her resolve and reputation. The case concluded in her favor. She describes the experience as clarifying. It reinforced her commitment to transparency, documentation and disciplined leadership.

Outside of operations, Boyd-Rivera invests in workforce development and mentorship. She supports women entering dental technology and speaks about leadership in manufacturing-based industries. She credits mentors Dr. Chris Villanueva of MB2 Dental and Dr. Sulman Ahmed of DECA Dental for shaping her approach to partnership, operational rigor and long-term growth strategy.

Community service remains central to her work. Each year she participates in dental mission trips to Jamaica, where she and her team provide free care to nearly 500 patients who otherwise lack access. The trips include cleanings, extractions and restorative treatment. Boyd-Rivera says the work keeps her grounded in the purpose behind production metrics.

She frames leadership around resilience and accountability. Boyd-Rivera manages growth, supply chain pressure and material cost fluctuations through vendor negotiation and production efficiencies. She believes reputation compounds through consistency.

At Cadmus Dental Lab, that discipline supports dentists who rely on precise restorations delivered on schedule. Boyd-Rivera built the company with scale in mind. She intends to keep expanding its digital capacity while maintaining the performance standards that fueled its growth.