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Janet Emerson Bashen
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Born	Janet Emerson (1957-02-12)February 12, 1957 Mansfield, OH, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Houston Rice University
Occupation(s)	Inventor, entrepreneur
Employer	Bashen Corporation
Known for	First African-American woman in the United States to hold a software patent
Spouse	Steven Bashen
Children	2

Janet Emerson Bashen (February 12, 1957 –) is an American inventor, business consultant, and entrepreneur in the insurance industry. She is the founder and CEO of the Bashen Corporation, a private consulting agency that focuses on Equal Employment Opportunity non-compliance claims. In January 2006, she patented a web-based application called LinkLinePlus®, a case management software streamlining the EEO claim process, becoming the first African-American woman to obtain a patent for software in the United States. In addition, she created a similar software to develop and implement Affirmative Action Plans (AAP) entitled AAPLink™ and she is the owner of 1-800Intake™, a 24/7 web-based hotline for reporting workplace complaints.

Early life

Janet Emerson was born in Mansfield, Ohio to a working class family, but in early childhood relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, which would quickly become her hometown. In Huntsville, her father took up work as a garbage collector and her mother, Ola Mae Emerson (August 30, 1937–June 27, 2014), as the first black female emergency room nurse in the city's history. Emerson attended J.O. Johnson High School and graduated with the class of 1975. She is a member of the high school's list of notable alumni.

Emerson Bashen attributes much of her success to her parents' support and encouragement, saying,

"My success and failures make me who I am and who I am is a black woman raised in the south by working class parents who tried to give me a better life by fostering a fervent commitment to succeed."

Education

Emerson started her undergraduate career at Alabama A&M University but left upon marriage to husband Steven Bashen and relocation to Houston, Texas. She would go on to obtain a bachelor's degree in legal studies and government from the University of Houston, followed by a master's degree from Rice University's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Administration. In addition, Emerson Bashen attended "Women and Power: Leadership in a New World" at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the near future, she will be pursuing her LLM from Northwestern California University School of Law.

Career and creation of the Bashen Corporation

Following her education, Emerson Bashen was employed by an insurance carrier and began looking into EEO matters. In 1994, with a simple business concept in her head, she pushed the CEO of the insurance firm to initiate the handling of EEO claims as an independent group. However, the CEO at the time brushed off her idea, so Emerson Bashen took matters elsewhere. She attended an Urban League convention at which she encountered a fellow employee at the insurance company who was in charge of the EEO complaints for Denny's, a restaurant chain experiencing rampant image issues with racism over almost a decade. Following this interaction, Emerson Bashen found her first big success as a businessperson by taking over the Denny's filings and turning it into an independent contract. With only one major client, she felt confident enough in her abilities to borrow $5,000 from her mother and begin her claims management business from her home office, otherwise used as a dining room table. The newly-formed Bashen Corporation specialized in EEO complaints, with Emerson Bashen personally handling claims from major corporations such as Compaq, Flagstar, Goodyear, and General Motors within the company's first five years.

While still employed by the insurance carrier but now running her own business, she started to formulate the idea for what would become her patented software, LinkLinePlus®. Of the concept, Emerson Bashen tells Black Enterprise,

"I came up with the idea in 2001. Not everyone had a cell phone in 2001. I saw that papers in process got lost. There had to be a way to take in complaints–something Web-based and accessible away from the office,"

With the vision in mind, she reached out to cousin Donny Moore, a Tufts University graduate with a degree in computer science. Together with Moore, her husband, a group of EEO attorneys and an engineer, Emerson Bashen was able to outline the entirety of the EEO claims process. Months of research and work later, the team had created a web-based software using ColdFusion, which at the time was the least expensive way to do so. The patent was filed on December 21, 2001 while software code was still being modified and finalized and was finally granted to the developers on January 10, 2006, making Emerson Bashen the first African-American woman in the U.S. to hold a software patent. LinkLinePlus® streamlined the EEO claims process by placing everything within a computerized network instead of stacks of handwritten papers, a huge advance

In following years, she would develop more software options to aid corporations in adhering to Title VII policies, including AAPLink™, 1-800Intake™, and EEOFedSoft. These software developments have supported the Bashen Corporation in being one of the leading EEO investigative businesses, and according to the corporation's website, they have looked into more than 53,000 claims with a 99% dismissal rate for their clients.

Congressional testimony

In May 2000, Janet Emerson Bashen was called to testify before the United States Congress about the effect of a Federal Trade Commission opinion piece on investigations into discriminatory procedures performed by third parties. Emerson Bashen's testimony, in addition to that of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, was key to making legislative strides.

Personal life

Emerson Bashen has been married to her husband, former United States Marine Steven Bashen, since her brief attendance at Alabama A&M University. The couple have two children together, Blair Bashen, who graduated from Purdue University in 2012 and is dating current shooting guard for the San Antonio Spurs, Danny Green, and Drew Bashen, an actor and graduate of St. John's University.

Emerson Bashen self-describes as a "girl of the segregated south," focusing through her work and community involvement on supporting diversity initiatives and tackling the rampant racial and gender issues in the United States. She will soon be venturing into screenwriting to develop the thought-provoking racial piece entitled "Embracing the Watermelon."

Within her community, she serves on the Board of Directors for the North Harris Montgomery College District Foundation, acts as a chairperson for the Corporate Advisory Board of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., sits on the Women's Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School, and finally works as a board member for the nonprofit organization PrepProgram, which provides adequate preparation to vulnerable students looking to enter college. Emerson Bashen frequently serves as a lecturer as well, speaking to equality of employment opportunities, for organizations such as the EEOC and the Professional Liability Underwriting Society, among others. Finally, she has written many papers, articles, and other publications on diversity, fair employment practices, and affirmative action. These publications include Solving the Affirmative Employment Maze, "The Color of Diversity, Race Codes - Its all in the Mix," and Diversity Training for Employees, to name a few.

Patents

• U.S. patent 6,985,922 "Method, apparatus and system for processing compliance actions over a wide area network", filed December 21, 2001, issued January 10, 2006.

This is the first software patent ever held by an African-American woman in the United States.

Honors and commemorations

• Recipient of Houston 100 Award in 1999, 2000, 2002
• Recipient of Pinnacle Award from the Houston Citizens Chamber of Commerce in 2003
• Recipient of Crystal Award from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs in 2004
• Inducted into the Black Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007
• Bashen Corporation named one of Diversity Business' Top 500 Minority Owned Businesses in 2008
• Recipient of Robert R. Taylor Network at MIT for LinkLinePlus®
• Named to Ebony magazine's "Power 100 List" in 2012, a list of the 100 most influential African Americans in entertainment, politics, sports, & business

Other

• Emerson Bashen has been featured on television programs, most notably CNN, which can be seen in the following YouTube video. [1]
• She also has been featured in many print publications, such as The Houston Chronicle, The Detroit News, and Eclipse Magazine.

See also

• Lori Greiner, another female American inventor/entrepreneur