Women’s History Month Feature
PaSH Magazine is celebrating Women’s History Month with a Q&A style mini-series highlighting women from many different industries making an impact in the world, their communities and for themselves. In this Q&A we will spend time with Elizabeth Frame Ellison.
Meet Elizabeth Frame Ellison
In June 2022, Elizabeth Frame Ellison transitioned from President and CEO to Chair of the Board of Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation (LTFF) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In her years leading LTFF, Ellison has founded Oklahoma’s FIRST food hall, Mother Road Market (2018) as well as Tulsa’s kickstart kitchen incubator, Kitchen 66 (2016). Ellison is also a founding partner of 36 Degrees North (2016), a co-workspace and basecamp for entrepreneurs in Tulsa’s Arts District and a founding board member of Vest (2020).
Ellison received recognition as one of Oklahoma’s 40 under 40 and several awards for small business and entrepreneurial support. She has given several keynote addresses and served as a panelist at a Google conference on the future of food in 2017.
Ellison received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Classical Culture in 2004 and worked for Boren for Congress as the deputy finance director before joining Congressman Boren (OK Dist. 2) as a Legislative Assistant. In 2006, Ellison served as Political Director when her mother, Kathy Taylor, decided to run for Mayor and asked for campaign help. After a successful campaign, Ellison entered Law School at The University of Oklahoma. As the class President, Ellison was honored to give the commencement address at her Law School graduation. In 2012, Ellison was elected to serve as a school board representative for Tulsa Technology Center.
When she isn’t working, Ellison enjoys travel, culinary exploration, true crime novels and athletic activity alongside her husband Chris and their boys Taylor and Wyatt. Ellison lives in Tulsa and San Francisco.
What inspired you to start or lead a nonprofit, and how has your perspective as a woman shaped your approach to service?
I began my career in public service as a Legislative Assistant for Congressman Dan Boren, where I worked closely with constituents, researched legislation, and advised the Congressman on pending votes. While Congressman Boren valued input from the people he represented, the intentional pace and bureaucracy of government often made it difficult to see the immediate impact of our work at the local level.
That experience ultimately led me to the nonprofit sector, where I could pursue the same kind of systemic change but with the ability to test ideas and act more quickly. Through programs I founded, including Kitchen 66 and Mother Road Market, I’ve been able to support entrepreneurs and strengthen our local economy. Building these initiatives has given me a front-row seat to the real and lasting impact that thoughtful community investment can have on people’s lives.
In what ways do you see women uniquely impacting social change through giving back?
Women are powerful catalysts for social change—not only through financial giving, but by applying their experience, networks, and problem-solving skills to remove barriers for others. Early in my own entrepreneurial journey, I saw how difficult it could be to start and sustain a business, even for someone with resources and support. That realization pushed me to ask how we could make the process more accessible for others.
Through the programs I founded—Kitchen 66, a food business incubator, and Mother Road Market, a nonprofit food hall designed to launch and scale local concepts—we applied lean startup principles to food entrepreneurship. By systematizing business classes, shared kitchen space, and real-world testing environments, we’ve been able to significantly increase the likelihood of success for emerging food businesses.
The results speak for themselves: over 250 entrepreneurs have launched through these programs, many of them women and first-time founders, creating new jobs, growing local brands, and contributing to a more vibrant and inclusive food economy. For me, that’s what giving back looks like—using what you’ve learned to open doors so others can succeed.
In your experience, what are some creative ways nonprofits can address systemic challenges?
One creative way nonprofits can address systemic challenges is by using the flexibility of philanthropy to accelerate ideas that government often supports but can’t move quickly enough to implement.
In Tulsa, I worked with city leaders to help develop the Tulsa Market District along historic Route 66 as a way to connect The University of Tulsa with downtown and create new opportunities for small businesses. The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation built Mother Road Market—the crown jewel of the district—using philanthropic funding to create a launchpad for food entrepreneurs. We also advance-funded key public infrastructure through a program-related investment, allowing the city to move forward years earlier than tax funding alone would have allowed.
Today, the district supports a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurs, including many women launching their first businesses.
Can you share a moment when your work directly transformed someone’s life or strengthened your community?
One story that always stays with me is the Figueira family — Gi, Alex and their two daughters. Originally from southern Brazil, the family came to Tulsa to for Alex to work as a chef at Texas de Brazil. When Alex lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the family pivoted quickly, launching a food truck serving pastel, a beloved Brazilian street food.
Through the Kitchen 66 program we created to help food entrepreneurs test and grow their concepts, the family began popping up at the Kitchen 66 Takeover Café inside Mother Road Market with their concept, Doctor Kustom. Guests lined up as soon as the doors opened at 11 a.m., hoping to grab one of their signature picanha sandwiches before they are sold out.
When a permanent space opened at Mother Road Market, Gi and Alex seized the opportunity. Within a few years, he was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Southwest in 2024. Today, Doctor Kustom has expanded into its own standalone location near Mother Road Market. They serve lunch and hosts intimate chef’s table dinners that feature the rising talents of their daughter Duda, an inspiring pastry chef in her own right.
Their story is a powerful reminder that when you lower the barriers to entrepreneurship, incredible talent rises—and entire communities benefit.
On Women’s History Month, what legacy do you hope to leave as a woman giving back and building community through your nonprofit work?
I’m the mother of two teenage boys, so I think often about the “behind-the-scenes” view of leadership they’re getting as the next generation of male leaders. I hope they see a woman who works relentlessly for her dreams, who clears obstacles so others can succeed, and who believes people should always come before profit. And I hope they know that if they ever need me, I’ll drop everything—because they will always come first.
How does being a woman in nonprofit leadership influence the way you build relationships and mobilize your community?
Women in nonprofit leadership often build community in ways that intentionally include the whole family. We think about meeting times that work for parents, we create spaces where people can bring their full lives with them, and we build relationships along the way—not just programs. In the work we’ve done through Kitchen 66 and Mother Road Market, that community-first approach has been essential.
Because women are so often the primary caregivers, their kids frequently end up witnessing the “sausage making” of entrepreneurship—the long hours, the problem-solving, the resilience it takes to build something from scratch. Mothers often bring sisters, nieces, and even their own parents into the work as their businesses grow. In fact, we’ve even had a mother and son go through the Kitchen 66 program together. Experiences like that show how entrepreneurship can become a shared family path. When young people see that process up close, it expands their sense of what’s possible and plants the seed that they might build something of their own one day.
What role does mentorship play in your nonprofit, and how do you cultivate the next generation of women leaders?
When I launched Mother Road Market, mentorship was intentionally built into the model. I structured the cohort so that roughly 33% were brand-new startups, 33% had some entrepreneurial experience, and 33% were seasoned entrepreneurs. The idea was to create a natural mentorship ladder where each person could support someone one stage behind them and then pay that mentorship forward as they grew.
In practice, the mentorship became much more organic—and ultimately more effective. Instead of a rigid, formal structure, entrepreneurs were able to seek guidance when they actually needed it and from the people best positioned to help. This is especially impactful considering nearly 70% of Kitchen 66 Launch Program graduates are women.
That flexibility also helped us develop the Launch 2.0 curriculum through Kitchen 66, which supports graduates as they move from launching a concept to scaling a sustainable food business. We’ve learned that mentorship works best when it’s embedded in a community of peers who are building and learning together in real time.
Thank you for reading this installment of the Women’s History Month Features. Come back each day to read a new inspiring story, centering women.
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