Posts in Inspirational Role Models
Forging Solid Connections: CEO, Founder, Author on The Art of Connecting

Her mother would most definitely be proud.

Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, and author of The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships, has spent more than 33 years since her mother’s death building a successful career built on authenticity, integrity and clear communication.

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Frida Kahlo and Her: Author Shares A High Profile Life of Invisible Disability

Being the poster child for a movement or a cause is usually a metaphor, meaning that you embody the mission of an organization. For award-winning author, educator and disabilities justice advocate Emily Rapp Black, it was literally who she was.

In 1980, at six years old Black was chosen as the poster child for the March of Dimes, because a congenital birth defect resulted in her left leg being amputated. Her latest book, the critically acclaimed, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, explores Black’s ideological connection with the iconic Mexican artist who suffered from polio as a child, and later a leg amputation, using a prosthetic limb.

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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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