Chloe Moore received an email on Dec. 3 informing her she was one of the Top Young Entrepreneurs of the Forbes 30 Under 30 2020 list  just 30 minutes before the list was released.

“Honestly, I was nervous; I knew an email was coming,” Moore said. “I called my parents, my best friend, my significant other about the news right after.”

Born and raised in Memphis, Moore, 25, is the founder of NEXT Memphis, Porter-Leath’s new initiative that’s helping funnel $32 million of services to child care centers in Shelby County to better prepare children for kindergarten.

And now, she is one of Forbes’ 30 recognized young educators, selected out of 15,000 applicants for the latest class.

Individuals are nominated by colleagues, family, friends or apply themselves. Forbes reporters, editors and expert judges assess various factors of an applicant’s work. In Moore’s case, they looked at the organization’s social impact, inventiveness, funding and financial information among other factors. 

Moore was nominated for the Education list by Haley Simmons, an employee of Seeding Success, and several other colleagues. She also applied herself to provide any information that her nominators may have missed.

A Rhodes College graduate, she worked for Seeding Success until November, when she was hired as the director of NEXT Memphis by Porter-Leath. At her former job, she worked with Porter-Leath to design the new initiative. 

Rachel Knox, program officer of thriving arts and culture at Hyde Family Foundation, had planned to nominate Moore but missed the deadline. She said Moore is an outstanding person who is helping the city. 

“You don’t see enough ambitious women of color noted by business authorities like Forbes,” Knox said. “And in Memphis, we often forget our problems are the same as those in other cities, but people who are tackling them are different – and Chloe is one of them.”

A month after being nominated and submitting her application, Moore received an email from Randell Lane, the chief content officer of Forbes Media, for round two. She was asked to send more information about her work and a photograph.

She didn’t hear anything until Tuesday, Dec. 3, when she got her congratulatory email.

“They waited till the day of to tell us, so we had to wait like everyone else,” Moore said, laughing.

Days later, Moore reflected on being a part of the 2020 class.

“It validates doing meaningful work that is for the Memphis community and the country,” Moore said. “It’s an act of honoring the work done by people before me.”

Porter-Leath president Sean Lee said Moore’s work in designing the “innovative” NEXT Memphis initiative has helped further Porter-Leath’s mission to get as many Shelby County children as possible ready for kindergarten. 

Porter-Leath serves 6,000 children daily, partnering with child care centers in Shelby County. The agency provides back-office, educational and family social services support.

“We believe the strongest way to reducing poverty is through education,” Lee said. “NEXT Memphis is the next step in that journey.”

NEXT Memphis has been funded for three years and is set to serve 1,000 kids in the first year, 2,000 in the second and 4,000 in third year working with 40 child care centers.

Lee said having Moore on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list is an “incredible honor” for NEXT Memphis and Porter-Leath.

“Having Chloe on Forbes 30 Under 30 gives us confidence that Porter-Leath has the right person for the job,” Lee said. “It’s increasing the chance for NEXT Memphis to work out.”