When was the last time—if ever—you were part of a venture when a leader pronounced that joy was an integral part of the mission?
“We built into our mission that joy underlines our ethos,” says Deborah Douglas, co-editor-in-chief of The Emancipator, the new journalistic venture from Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and the Boston Globe’s opinion team resurrecting the 200-year old abolitionist newspaper. “Journalists should not have to create from tension.”
Read MoreIssue 182 — October 25, 2021
The buzz is everywhere now. Are you in the office yet? As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with the Shecession and the Great Resignation, now comes the Great Returnship.
And since women have lost or left more jobs than men and have been slower to return, special emphasis must be placed on Take The Lead’s goal to #putwomenatthecenter of the recovery. There are so many questions.
Is your workplace ready? Does your boss want you to come back to work in person but you aren’t so sure you are ready? Are you anxious about getting back among larger groups of people?
Read MoreCall someone a genius and it’s a lofty compliment. But Sarah Ruhl, prolific playwright, poet and author, is officially a genius, as a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award, as well as two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
The author of Smile: The Story of A Face, was on stage at the Chicago Humanities Festival recently, speaking with her friend and colleague, Jessica Thebus, artist and Director of the Northwestern University MFA Program.
They discussed the gendered agency and ownership of your own body as a woman, as a human, and as someone who loses control of its ability to move and to respond as intended in the workplace and in the world.
Read MoreIssue 181 — October 18, 2021
Dear Reader,
It made me as happy as a pumpkin spice cupcake to see this sign on the carousel in Central Park when I walked by it this week…
Read MoreAs millions of women exit their jobs—by choice or by default—and leadership doesn’t seem to get it, where does this leave women in the workforce?
They want flexibility, transparency, accountability in their jobs and from their leadership.
Read MoreNow vice president and head of strategic partnerships at Amex Digital Lab, Stephanie Schultz recalls it was not all that long ago starting her career at American Express, when she thought maybe it was time to get an American Express card herself.
And now she spearheads the innovation hub at this Fortune 100 company, creating new ways for customers to interact with Amex digitally across all platforms and apps.
Read MoreIssue 180 — October 4, 2021
Humming Alicia Keys’ song “A Woman’s Worth,” I entered the room, only my second in-person event since February, 2020, to join the Women & Worth Summit 2021: Reset. Refresh. Rebuild.
The Summit description says what I believe about the opportunity of disruption, “While the pandemic threw the state of the world into chaos, the globe is finally beginning to reopen, allowing us the chance to reset and rebuild. We can use this momentum to create scalable change and impact.”
Read MoreYou may not have heard of the artichoke capital of the world—Castroville, California—but you definitely need to hear and know more about Denise Padín Collazo, a leader, advocate, director and author who coincidentally was born in Castroville.
Senior advisor for external affairs and director of institutional advancement at Faith In Action, (formerly PICO National Network), the nation’s largest faith-based, progressive organizing network, Collazo is an inspiring leadership expert and social justice advocate with the mission to encourage women of color to lead with vision and to thrive.
Read MoreIssue 1789— September 27, 2021
[Special Note: Today 9/28/21, my new book Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good is formally birthed into the world. It is incumbent upon me as the author to ask you to buy it, review it, and share it on social media. And seriously, despite the cheesiness I feel making that ask, I do want this book to reach thousands or millions of women like you to help you embrace your power, elevate your intentions, and use the tips and tools in this book to get the lives and careers of your dreams. And what I know is that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. OK? OK! Thank you for your support.]
Read More“As soon as we can talk about power as a hammer—you can break something with it or you can build something with it— we turn power into a generative, innovative, creative positive idea as the power to,” says Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead at her live and virtual book launch for her latest book, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone's) Good.
Read MoreIssue 178 — September 20, 2021
On a spectacular Arizona day in late January, 2020, a day when you can be lulled into thinking all’s right with the world, I was hiking with a friend. Then boom! I tripped on an unseen pebble, put my hand out to catch myself and knew immediately from the snap and the pain that I had broken my wrist. The first broken bone I’d ever had.
It’s never the mountains that trip you up. It’s the pebbles on the path.
Read MorePerhaps the writing was on the wall from the time she was a teen.
At 16, Heather H. Wilson was a national officer for Future Business Leaders of America as a student at James Wood High School in Winchester, Virginia, where her mother was a teacher. Her father was an art teacher at an elementary school in town.
“I was raised by two educators who set very high bars and standards,” says Wilson, CEO of CLARA Analytics, the leading provider of artificial intelligence technology in the commercial insurance industry.
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