Women-Owned Businesses & OBX Trailblazers to Honor Women’s History Month

By Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
Mar. 03, 2025

The Outer Banks are filled with local businesses, and many of them are owned and run by women. These women, along with the places they’ve built, help define the area’s distinctive culture and history. Whether you are marking Women’s History Month or choosing to support women-owned businesses while you’re here, add these memorable stops to your next Outer Banks trip.

Women-Owned Restaurants & Businesses

Ashley’s Espresso Parlour

This welcoming coffee shop serves everything from caffeine creations and baked treats to beer and wine. Ashley Linnekin owns and operates Ashley’s Espresso Parlour, a favorite local gathering place appreciated for its kind team, relaxed energy, and inviting feel. Guests can settle in indoors or head to the top deck for ocean views, making it clear why Ashley’s has become such a popular women-owned coffee shop in the area. Inside, visitors may also come across work from local women artists such as Reddawn Designs or Wiloware Studio.

OBX Airplanes

Jenny Hawk earned her commercial license in 2011 and then began training future pilots through OBX Airplanes. She is also well known for flying a biplane while seven months pregnant, a moment that helped cement her reputation as one tough mama.

Outer Surf

Before creating Outer Surf, Bri Young started Outer Babes, a free, all-girls surf club for local middle and high school girls. During the pandemic, Bri Young expanded her work into Outer Surf, offering surf lessons for all ages. The business continues to serve women and girls through girls’ surf camps and women’s retreats.

Moontide Botanicals

Katelin Kight founded Moon Tide Botanicals as a woman-owned business rooted in the natural beauty of the Outer Banks. The brand creates all-natural, plant-based skincare products made with organic, nutrient-rich botanicals and free of parabens, silicon, and synthetic perfumes, designed to calm and protect the skin.

Vicki Basnight at Basnight’s Lone Cedar Cafe

Vicki Basnight is, above all, a fisherwoman, and she is also co-owner of the seafood restaurant with her parents. As the daughter of NC Senator Marc Basnight, she stands among the Outer Banks’ few female anglers and uses that work to help bring fresh local seafood to the restaurant. She also shares the value of choosing local seafood with the public.

Kasey Powell Weddings

Kasey focuses on cinematic photography that preserves the sincere, emotional parts of a couple’s love story. Her wedding and couples photography takes her around the world, combining artistic vision with a strong respect for human connection. Kasey also supports social and environmental causes, giving 1% of all profits to Amazon Watch and planting over 600 trees in her couples' names through One Tree Planted.

Swell Ceramics

Melanie LaFountaine is the artist behind Swell Ceramics, where she makes handcrafted pottery shaped by the natural beauty of the Outer Banks. Working from Nags Head, Melanie draws on her Studio Art background from UNC Wilmington to create pieces that combine practical use with creative expression. From a go-to mug to a striking statement piece, her pottery reflects her dedication to craftsmanship and coastal living.

Outer Banks Salt Cave

Long-time Outer Banks residents Phyllis K. Miller and Selina N. Martin co-founded Outer Banks Salt Cave to introduce halotherapy benefits to the local community. After Phyllis had a meaningful salt cave experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the two created a peaceful space where guests can unwind and use natural salt therapy to help with respiratory and skin concerns.

Notable OBX Women in History

Louise Meekins (1907–1973)

Louise Meekins, a Manteo native, influenced the OBX national park system as the area’s first female national park ranger. Her deep understanding of events tied to the national historical site, paired with her knowledge of local stories, made Meekins an important figure in the community.

Carolista Baum (1940-1991)

In 1973, environmental activist Carolista Fletcher Baum placed herself in front of a bulldozer to stop the destruction of Jockey's Ridge, the tallest natural sand dune on the East Coast. That brave action helped spark People to Preserve Jockey's Ridge, a group that successfully advocated for the area to become a North Carolina State Park in 1975, protecting it for future generations.

Virginia Tillett (1941-2021)

Virginia Simmons Tillett devoted her career to education and community leadership in Dare County and served over 30 years in public office. She was the first African American elected to both the Dare County Board of Education and the Dare County Board of Commissioners, and she held leadership positions in both. Tillett was instrumental in creating the Dare County Center, a multigenerational resource offering programs and services for residents. To honor her service, the facility was renamed the Virginia S. Tillett Community Center in 2022.

Eleanor Dare (1568–1587)

Eleanor White (née Dare), the daughter of Roanoke Colony governor John White and wife of Ananias, is connected to America’s first English-born child. Like the others left in the “Lost Colony,” she vanished without a trace, securing her place as a significant figure in American history.

Cheryl Shelton-Roberts

Author and preservationist Cheryl Shelton-Roberts is recognized for helping move the country’s tallest brick lighthouse, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, to a safer location in 1999. She also co-founded the nonprofit Outer Banks Lighthouse Society and previously served as its president.