The Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) is celebrating women in the jewelry industry this month with its “March is Me” campaign. Garfield is a proud WJA member, and we’re participating in the campaign by highlighting the many contributions of women in the jewelry industry.
To kick off the month-long campaign, we’re showcasing Kendra Scott, an entrepreneur from Austin, TX, who started a jewelry company that’s now valued at more than $1 billion. Scott founded her company (Kendra Scott LLC) in 2002, just after her first child was born. Truly working her way from the bottom up, she founded the company with only $500 from her own savings.
The rest, they say, is history. Scott’s designs were featured at high-end runway shows in 2005 and 2006, but her business took a hit during the 2009 financial crisis. That didn’t stop her, though.
Scott opened her first retail store in Austin, TX, in 2010 and launched an e-commerce business that same year. By 2014, Scott began opening retail stores throughout the Midwest and South. Then in 2016, she sold a minority stake of her company to a private equity firm at a valuation of $1 billion!
Family, fashion, philanthropy
At the end of 2019, Scott’s company had more than 100 retail stores. Her e-commerce business is strong, and her company also sells its merchandise in stores like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and more than 1,000 specialty boutiques worldwide.
Scott has achieved all this as a working mom (she has three children) and staying true to her company’s core values of Family, Fashion, and Philanthropy. As a philanthropist, she launched the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at the University of Texas and has donated more than 75,000 pieces of jewelry.
Scott also believes strongly in creating workplaces that support women. Ninety-five percent of the more than 2,000 people who work for Kendra Scott LLC are women, and her company has a robust benefits package for working moms, including 100% paid parental leave.
Support women in jewelry
Help support amazing women in jewelry like Kendra Scott by sharing this article and checking out WJA’s March is Me campaign.
And if you’re looking to sell unwanted jewelry, look no further than Garfield Refining. Call us today at (888) 677-5275 to get the process started and get more for your precious metal scrap!
Written by
Allie BowmanAllie Bowman is the Content Lead at Garfield Refining, where she translates more than 130 years of precious metals expertise into clear, accurate, and practical content for individual sellers, dental professionals, jewelers, and collectors. A Dean's List graduate of the University of Delaware's Media Communication program, Allie has built her career around making complex subjects accessible to a broad audience. Her experience spans nutrition science, lifestyle magazine publishing, and precious metals refining, giving her a unique ability to transform technical information into engaging, trustworthy content. At Garfield, Allie brings editorial rigor and subject-matter expertise to every piece she produces. She works closely with Garfield's refining specialists and senior leadership to ensure that technical topics - from karat markings and assay methods to precious metals markets and spot price mechanics - are explained with both accuracy and clarity. Since joining Garfield's marketing team, Allie has written extensively on precious metals refining, dental scrap recovery, gold and silver bullion, estate and inherited jewelry, and industry-specific topics for dental and jewelry professionals. All content is reviewed by Garfield's leadership team prior to publication, ensuring it reflects the company's standards for accuracy, transparency, and industry expertise.
Reviewed by
Morgan KerrisseyMorgan Kerrissey is the President of Garfield Refining, one of North America's most longstanding and trusted precious metals refineries. For over two decades, Morgan has built his career at the intersection of commodities markets, metallurgy, and precious metals — earning a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable voices in the refining industry. Morgan joined Garfield in 2008, bringing rigorous operational discipline to a company built on exacting standards since 1892. Named President in 2014, he has guided Garfield through volatile gold, silver, and palladium markets, while modernizing its workforce and technologies and diversifying its metal supply chains. Under his leadership, Garfield has expanded its refining capabilities across the full lifecycle of precious metals recovery, entered new markets, and expanded services while maintaining the same customer forward approach that has made Garfield a mainstay for more than a century. From hedging strategy to daily refinery operations, Morgan commands high levels of technical depth and market fluency. Morgan grew up outside Boston, graduated from Harvard University, and has lived with his family in Philadelphia, PA for almost 20 years.