In Hemingford, a town of about 800 people in Nebraska’s Panhandle, Jenilee Woltman wears many hats. On top of being a mom and a rancher, she felt driven to add speech-language pathologist, business owner and startup founder to the list. Her mission is to create the resources she knows could help families, like her own, empower their neurodivergent children — especially in rural areas with limited options. 

For her entrepreneurial and community-minded efforts, the Nebraska Business Development Center has named Woltman’s clinic, Sand Canyon Therapy, and app, Mission Accomplished, the winners of the Innovation Business of the Year award for the annual NBDC Business Awards. 

NBDC is a statewide economic and business development resource that provides confidential, one-on-one consultations and services to entrepreneurs. Offerings are predominantly free of charge. Topics open to discussion include small business planning and how to pursue government funding. 

NBDC Executive Director Dan Curran said the awards are a way to bring attention to the diverse range of businesses that are in Nebraska, while also giving NBDC a quick shoutout on what it can do for other entrepreneurs. Awardees are nominated by NBDC consultants and selected by leadership. 

“Especially in the small business world, there’s always something that surprises you with regards to, like, ‘I didn’t know that was in Nebraska,’ or ‘I didn’t know we had anything like that,’” Curran said. “For those of us who work in it every day — we work with a couple thousand businesses every year — we see these things.”

Mission Accomplished, which began in 2024, has evolved into a platform designed to give neurodivergent children a sense of independence by breaking down daily routines and giving them a tool to record and process their emotions. Parents and guardians are able to assign tasks while staying in the loop of their children’s progress and well-being.

A recent focus, Woltman said, has been integrating more support for guardians on the app. This includes the addition of artificial intelligence for tracking behavior patterns and generating applicable strategies. Teachers and therapists are also able to receive access to a child’s profile, adding their own observations. 

Woltman said she has turned to NBDC for focusing her ideas into actionable steps, navigating government grant applications and learning about additional opportunities and events. She said receiving this award proves that innovation can happen anywhere, even outside major cities like Lincoln and Omaha. 

“I’m literally (a) small-town mom of four and do not have time to do hardly any of this,” Woltman said, “but yet where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?” 

Driving innovation in western Nebraska

Woltman’s career and business journey is one of adapting to obstacles and finding ways to fill in missing pieces. From reaching out to business support organizations to using AI to address her lack of coding experience, Woltman said the spark of it all was being unable to find the help she desired for her daughter. 

Woltman lives with her family on a ranch in Hemingford. Originally graduating with a degree in animal science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she said she pursued a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Nebraska at Kearney — helping foster its online program for distant, nontraditional students like herself. 

As she started to work with kids and opened her speech-language clinic, Woltman said she saw a need for a tool that would become Mission Accomplished. To get her plans in motion, she pursued assistance from her local NBDC office in Chadron. There, she was connected into NBDC’s larger network across the state, such as NBDC Innovation and Business Consultant Kevin Thompson, who is based in Omaha. 

“Jenilee is doing more in a small town in the Panhandle of Nebraska than I see people here in Omaha that have all of the resources available to them but aren’t utilizing it properly,” Thompson said.

Thompson, who noted that Woltman is closer to Wyoming than to his office, nominated her for the 2025 Business Awards. He said she has demonstrated the will to keep moving forward and not remain idle with her ambitions despite potential roadblocks, such as pauses and uncertainties involving government-backed grants. 

“We’re not treated like outsiders, being seven hours away from Omaha,” Woltman said. “We’re in the Omaha and Lincoln area at least every other week, if not every week. But for us, it’s worth it.”

Beyond NBDC, Woltman said she has gotten help from entrepreneur-focused and university-affiliated organizations in the state and region, including 1 Million Cups, Open Range, NUtech Ventures and the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. 

Some recent moments of traction she mentioned include her receiving the state’s prototype grant, as well as her participation in Pipeline Entrepreneurs, Techstars and the upcoming Innosphere Life Science Incubator.  

“NUtech Ventures is proud to be Jenilee’s sponsor for the Innosphere Life Sciences Incubator,” said Joy Eakin in an email to SPN. Eakin serves as entrepreneurship program manager for NUtech Ventures. 

“Building a community of mentors and support is vital for founders, and Jenilee is doing a great job of just that,” she added. 

Ongoing ambitions

Woltman said she and her team are finishing the construction of their new office in Hemingford, offering more room for Sand Canyon Therapy’s services and Mission Accomplished’s development. She said she plans to make the site a health care hub for other independent providers and professionals, including students. 

The goal is to serve surrounding communities while also giving health care workers designated space and experience. Woltman added that she also sees an opportunity for fellow entrepreneurs to come together at the new location. 

“I have been talking to (community organizers) like Laurel Oetken (CEO of Open Range), about what if we maybe have something out here?” Woltman said. “What if, when we get going, that we do have different events out here once a month or something? Because there’s definitely really innovative people out here.”

The latest version of the Mission Accomplished app is expected to be released soon, Woltman said. Looking to the future, she said she has collaborations in the works out of UNL and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. 

You can read the full list of 2025 Business Award winners selected by NBDC here. The 2024 Innovation Business of the Year was Set Your Sites, a Lincoln-based startup enabling site bookings, mobile payments and WiFi access to campgrounds.