Posts in Inspirational Role Models
Post-COVID Turn Around: Fashion Entrepreneur Designs Win

This is the better life her parents imagined, and it is of her creation.

Ahyoung Kim Stobar, the daughter of an opera singer mother and a nationally renowned professor, TV and radio show host father in Korea, came to the United States from Korea in 1983 as a nine-year-old with her two brothers and parents.

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Respect: 10 Black Women Leaders Creating Change Now

Recognizing that there are infinitely more than 10 brilliant Black Women in 2021 to celebrate, acknowledge and learn from, we at Take The Lead looked at the latest contributions from only some of the multitudes of Black women leaders who are making a difference—in politics, economics, literature, business, science, academia, sports and retail.

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9 Keys To Inclusive Economic Recovery For All Women

Women were hit the hardest in the pandemic economically and women can reshape the recovery “to build back better,” says Cherita Ellens, president and CEO of Women Employed.

Ellen was one of six women leaders who set out to offer as many solutions as possible in one lunch hour zoom panel sponsored by the Chicago Foundation for Women in the recent, “Rising Above The Shecession: Concrete Steps To Ensure Women Emerge Stronger.”

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Moving Forward in Equity: Women in New Administration In Era of Economic Recovery

“Women have to be front and center in all of our discussions,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot declares in a virtual panel discussion hours before the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States, where a cascade of firsts for women and BIPOC were literally center stage.

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Bright Future: Steinem + Moore On Women Leading A Post-COVID World

“Laughter is the only emotion that cannot be compelled. Laughter is a proof of freedom.”

Gloria Steinem, iconic feminist leader, author and activist, waxed poetically philosophical during the recent live Take The Lead event, “Putting Women at the Heart of the Recovery: An Intimate Conversation.”

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Women Take The Lead: 2020 Sets Records in Representation in U.S.

“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before. And we will applaud you every step of the way.”

These were the stunning words from the next and first Madam Vice President, Kamala Harris, from a Delaware stage before introducing President Elect Joe Biden after the election results were announced.

“But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” Harris said.

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Within Reach: Ed Tech Co-founder and CEO On Unplanned Steps To Success

A lot of the Greek gods were already taken.

So Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of Nepris, an education technology company, settled on the Greek god Nepris as the name of her new company who is the “lord of sustenance.”

“We were looking for unique names to build a brand, so we turned to the Greek gods, and every Greek god was already an education company,” says Raja, whose platform connects 85,000 K-12 educators with experts for instruction to more than 550,000 students in this country.

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How To Fight Hate: CEO, Founder On The Positive Way Forward Now

Dr. Joynicole Martinez does not want to talk about her many advanced degrees. For the record, the founder and CEO of The Alchemist Agency has seven. Two bachelors degrees, three masters degrees and two doctorates.

Martinez wants to talk about cultural change, racial, gender and economic equity and her mission to disrupt white nationalism and supremacy, racism, sexism and social injustice.

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All They Can Save: Women Climate Leaders, Founders Collaborate To Save The World

An Adrienne Rich poem inspired the title for the nonprofit, All We Can Save Project.

“My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed/ I have to cast my lot with those/ who age after age, perversely,/ with no extraordinary power,/ reconstitute the world.”

“That is my drumbeat. To have truth, courage and solutions, the trifecta,” says Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, policy expert and founder of Urban Ocean Lab, who also co-founded All We Can Save with Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, author and editor-in-chief of Project Drawdown.

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1 Hour To Inspire 1 Billion Girls: CEO Rupa Dash on World Woman Hour

Growing up in rural eastern India, Rupa Dash would be the first girl in her family to get an education.

“The biggest dream girls would ever see and what she deserves is to find somebody or your parents find somebody who would own a truck and you would get married,” says Dash, co-founder and CEO of the World Woman Foundation, with the mission that “Equality for women is progress for all.”

That is an audacious success for someone who as a young girl explains, “I literally never get out of my home and played outside.”

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