Mercer University alumna Alicia Hernandez is looking to connect women homeowners with women-owned home service providers. The idea for her forthcoming directory, called TrustHer Home, stemmed from experiences she and her sisters had with various home service providers.
“One thing I always struggled with was just feeling a little bit uncomfortable being a woman home alone and having a male service technician come out,” said Hernandez, TIFT ’20, BUS ’25. “I had some instances where I would get hit on, and it was during some vulnerable times in my life, like going through divorce.”
The goal is to build not only a directory of providers women can trust but also to create more opportunities for women in the skilled trades
“We’re trying to build a platform so they can gain visibility but then also, on the flip side, is having women homeowners feel safe by having a woman technician come and do work in their home,” she said.
TrustHer Home initially will focus on the Southeast, but Hernandez hopes to expand it in the future. The directory is free for homeowners, and a limited number of service providers will receive free founding memberships.
Homeowners and service providers can sign up at trustherhome.com. Hernandez also is actively reaching out to service providers about joining. She’s recruited her sisters and daughters to help.
“I’ve had to forge my own way through life,” she said. “Sometimes I’ve had to make a path where there wasn’t a path for me, and with this, starting TrustHer Home is really another way for me to kind of pave the way for not only myself but other women out there as well.”
As a teen mom and high school dropout, Hernandez’s educational path was unconventional. She earned her GED diploma, attended technical college, and ultimately earned her bachelor’s degree from DeVry University.
Then, Hernandez found Mercer. She earned her Master of Education in higher education leadership from the Tift College of Education in 2020 and Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting from the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business in 2025.
She currently serves as finance manager for national nonprofit Catalyst Exchange and works on TrustHer Home in her spare time. Her Mercer education has been essential to the launch of her business — from competitor research to creating a pitch deck to taking care of legal matters.
“The MBA has helped me greatly in trying to start up and build a business from scratch,” Hernandez said. “Being able to go back and pull from previous work and examples that I did, assignments that I was doing for the MBA has helped me along the way.”
