Feel The Heat: Co-Founder, CEO Develops Tech Solution to Reopening

Seeing nurses and other frontline healthcare workers wearing trash bags to protect themselves during shifts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic because of a shortage of PPE equipment made Amy Lu upset. It also made the engineer CEO and co-founder of Antlia Systems get to work on a solution for protection.

“It broke my heart,” says Lu, co-founder of Chicago-based Antlia Systems (named after the constellation). “So I used my connections to get more PPE and donate them. Then I was working hard to figure things out with engineering teams to find the best solutions to make safe places.”

100 Years Of Progress? 19th Amendment Summit Reminds How Far To Go

A vibrant, virtual, free five-day summit is addressing where women are now and how women can move forward toward gender and racial equity begins August 10, thanks to The 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization launched earlier this year.

“The centennial of The 19th Amendment — which gave white women in this country the right to vote — falls at a really pivotal moment in American history, where we're grappling with a global pandemic and navigating a modern-day civil rights movement. There's never been a more important time to spur critical conversations about the role of women in this work,” says Emily Ramshaw, co-founder and CEO of The 19th.

Powerful women, you are a movement unto yourself.

Issue 137 — August 3, 2020

What do you think of when you think of a movement?

Picket signs? Pink hats? People marching and yelling? #BlackLivesMatter? Social justice perhaps?

It’s certainly true that we tend to think of movements as being about causes, because they often are causes that people feel strongly about.

Well what if the cause you feel strongly about is YOU?

Resilience of Black Women’s Businesses: 6 Entrepreneurs Offer Timeless Advice

August is Black Business Month in this country and it is prime time to check in on the effects of the last four months on Black women entrepreneurs. They have been hardest hit by the economic downturn nationally. It is also time to heed the advice of Black women who have started, maintained and succeeded with their businesses in good and bad tines.

According to the Chicago Tribune, “The number of active Black-owned businesses in the U.S. plummeted 41 percent during the early months of the pandemic from February to April, more than twice the 17 percent level of white owned businesses, research by Robert Fairlie from the University of California Santa Cruz shows.”

The Great Reset: CEO Says New Ventures Serve Greater Good

“As painful as it is now, the focus is now on meaning. This is a permanent innovative change.”

Jocelyn Kung, CEO of The Kung Group, says her executive coaching and organizational consulting firm’s recent survey of more than 400 startup founders revealed that the ongoing global pandemic has deleteriously affected the growth of companies, but also shifted priorities to a new era of sustainability,

Corresponding to the release of the Q2 Venture Report by Crunchbase this week, that shows the volume of less than $100 million m fundings is down 63% from the same time last year. The number of companies in the second quarter of 2020 is also down form 2,660 in 2019 to 1,254 companies this year.

Zoom Blah: 7 Strategies For Getting The Most Out Of Video Conference Calls

The whole concept wasn’t so bad at first; you only had to look nice from the waist up. No shoes required. Commuting time was zero. You could speak with all of your team across the globe at one time. Occasionally your family wanted to check in together, and then there were those dance parties.

But occasional Zoom time turned into who isn’t Zooming whom.

Four months into the COVID-19 crisis, with millions working remotely, the Zoom conference call has morphed into a huge physical, emotional and psychic drain. If you have Zoom Blah, you’re not alone.

Michele WeldonJuly 27, 2020Comment

Show Us All: Why Media Visuals Need To Reflect BIPOC Women

Simone Biles is on the new August cover of Vogue. Viola Davis is on the August cover of Vanity Fair. It’s a good month for visual representation of strong BIPOC women leaders in mainstream media. But it’s been a long time coming. And it’s not nearly enough.

Even as the Biles’ photo shoot was criticized for how the lighting reflected the athlete’s skin tone as photographed by Annie Liebowitz, the trend of celebrating a wider range of women leaders is positive. Davis’ cover story was the first ever by a Black photographer, Dario Calmese.

In tribute to female mayors, taking the lead

Issue 136 — July 20, 2020

The passing of Civil Rights leader and legend Congressman John Lewis made me deeply sad. A wave of great lions and lionesses of the movement for racial equality is moving on just as the country is at the crossroads. Either we’ll make the systemic change that they visualized, that they risked their very lives for, or we’ll let the elements of xenophobia take us back to pre-Rosa Parks days. As tributes to Lewis fill the media, I became aware that his career in elective office started on the Atlanta City Council.

Do More: 5 Ways to Ensure DEI Efforts Are Working in Your Organization

Two months into a cultural reckoning that reached a tipping point with the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers and the global protests that followed, companies, organizations, non-profits, institutions, universities and celebrities have made public mission statements of intention to address racial inequities.

An intensifying renewal and resetting of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is in the works across the country—and the world. And rightly so. But are these DEI efforts working?

Remote Possibility: 4 Tips For Preparing To WFH Forever

Millions across the country who kept their jobs or were not frontline essential workers at high risk have been working remotely since March. The transition to WFH for many has hit rough spots complicated with childcare and homeschooling and cramped spaces not set up for a 9 to 5 workday.

But it always felt as if it was temporary. That may not be the case.

While many offices are safely reopening in the coming weeks and months, with many workers and leaders facing fear and loathing about going back to the office, what if you face the forever fact of never returning to a workplace outside your home?

Is your career disrupted? How you can regroup, refresh, and rewire for success

Issue 135 — July 13, 2020

What had you planned to do in 2020?

I could hardly wait for 2020. It was going to be an epic year. The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. So many events were already being planned that my calendar was filled with places I wanted to go to join the celebration. It was to be the year that Take The Lead was finally poised to scale up with our strategy to achieve gender parity in leadership by 2025.

I had so many plans. Just the sound of those round numbers 2020 were enough to signal a special year.

We were about to find out just how special.

How To Support Black Businesses With Strategies, Funding, Grants

In academics, economics, business, finance, law, and practically all other spheres, Black people are under-represented. It has started a revolution of sorts as protests take place across the U.S. for equality.

Black Lives Matter is affecting the world in a profound way, bringing the plight of African Americans into the limelight. Its effects are far-reaching, and it is occurring in tandem with the COVID-19 pandemic to make it even more difficult to run a successful business, but there are strategies to fill these gaps.

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