By Randy Capps
On her way to graduating from high school at South Johnston in 1990, Katina Blue discovered the computer lab. Those machines opened up a world of possibilities for her, and 35 years later, her education and entrepreneurial spirit are still blazing trails in and around Johnston County.
These days, she’s Dr. Katina Blue, Chief Information Officer and Associate Vince Chancellor at UNC Pembroke, and she has enough credentials on her business card — EdD, MSIT, MBA, MPA and CGCIO — to make a good eye chart.
Her drive to complete her education, and her ability to put that into practice in business makes her an ideal selection for the 2025 Johnston Now Honors Dynamic Entrepreneur Award.
“I just wasn’t that student,” she said. “You’ve got to be so careful not to minimize students. Because your gem or your diamond might be in the class that didn’t go to D.C. on a trip or didn’t take algebra or calculus or any of those advanced courses. But they have that entrepreneur’s heart or that fire in their belly. And that’s what I had.”
She went to Wake Tech, where she earned an associate’s degree in business computer programming. Since then, she’s added five more degrees to her wall from North Carolina Wesleyan, North Carolina A&T, N.C. State, Fayetteville State and UNC Pembroke.
“I always say Wake Tech is my proudest degree,” she said. “Well, South Johnson, of course, too. But after high school, I knew I wasn’t really ready for a campus experience. I was ready to work. I was just natured that way. My mom really wanted me to go experience college. I said, ‘nah, I’m good.’ I just really wanted to go and get my degree and start working at the same time.”
She went to work for a bank in Raleigh, and that’s when her career goals started coming into focus.
“It introduced me to the professional environment,” she said. “I went to school in the mornings and I went to work at night. So it was at Wake Tech where I really learned a lot about coding, and I learned about coding in high school. But I knew that that was going to be a career that I really wanted to be in. So I earned my degree … and I was already working as a database administrator in RTP.
From there, in 1995, I started working with the state. In January this year, I celebrated 30 years with the state of North Carolina, the whole time in information technology and various jobs.
She quickly discovered that she didn’t want to be in a room coding all day, so she gravitated toward being an IT business analyst, which relays the vision of consumers to programmers.
A skill set naturally suited for starting up her own business.
“So I guess it was the year 2004,” she said. “I was at N.C. State, and I was over what’s called business continuity and disaster recovery. And I started doing that for the university, helping them with their emergency plans in case the IT systems go down. I had just done that with the Y2K project with DOT.
“I first incorporated a company called Tailormade Continuity Planning, and (through that) I started working with Embry-Riddle University, Georgetown University, the UNC System, Peace College — and the list just goes on, just trying to help them with their plan. … I said, ‘working for yourself is pretty cool.’”
She incorporated another business, BHW LLC, in 2008 with her sister to start a trucking business. A downturn in the economy halted those plans, but Blue wouldn’t be denied.
“Many years later, I met up with one of my high school friends from South Johnston, and she had her home care service, and she started telling me about that,” she said. “So I took some classes with the state of North Carolina, and that’s when I formed We Care Home Care, which is a DBA under BHW.
“That’s when I got into the home care agency. Now, I love the elderly. I was blessed to have three grandmothers — two grandmothers, and one great, and caring for them and watching them with the caregivers is something I was very connected to, especially when one of them had to go to the nursing home.”
When COVID happened, that agency expanded to provide testing as well.
The success of that venture, as happens in business, spawned more opportunities. And much like with her educational pursuits, Blue wasn’t ready to slow down.
The search for space to conduct the testing led Blue and her husband, Adrian, to buy a building in Benson on Market Street. That space now houses BHW Diagnostics, We Care Home Care, Studio Restore (a wellness spa), Market and Church Commercial Real Estate and Bleu Events.
So, what advice would she offer to aspiring entrepreneurs?
“The first thing I would say is, ‘why not me,’” she said. “If someone says no, it’s not a no permanently. Just take the information they give you and sharpen your next pitch for whoever is the next. … You know, when I opened up the business in downtown Benson, there were a lot of naysayers, because of them just looking at the appearance of what they saw, but they didn’t know the vision that I had inside renting the spaces, bringing a wellness spa and the other things that are coming. Also, be careful who you tell your visions to, because not everyone is going to promote you. Not everyone is looking for your success.
“Other people will count you out, but you’ve got to know within yourself — one of my favorite scriptures is ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ I never doubted me. As a matter of fact, it became fire to me when you said I couldn’t do something. I was going to prove you wrong.”
