“Having trusted relationships is how I got here today,” says Kara Demirjian Huss, vice president of T/CCI Manufacturing and recently appointed to the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board, overseeing the United State Plan for Illinois workforce development system.
“There is a lot of talk about work/life balance, but it’s not balance, it’s harmony.”
Read MoreIssue 230 — May 28, 2023
Back in the day, a friend of mine used to say that she wanted to BE Tina Turner.
As the tributes flowed following Turner’s death on May 24 at 83, it was obvious that she had an equally significant impact on countless people around the world. (In Australia, the whole country stopped to dance to “Nutbush City Limits.”)
Read More“Accomplishment and happiness go together,” Hillary Rodham Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd during her recent talk for the Chicago Humanities Festival Joanne H. Alter Women in Government Lecture.
Read MoreIssue 229 — May 22, 2023
My grandmother was a Bolshevik.
Grandmother Rose was anything but revolutionary by the time she was my primary caregiver during my preschool years in Temple, Texas. She came to America in 1920 to marry her fiancée from their home town in Lithuania, had two children, and learned to play domestic arts like the other traditional housewives in the neighborhood.
Read MoreAll hail to the 2023 college graduates, the class that was sent home from their dorms and classrooms in March 2020 of their freshman year due to COVID concerns.
As commencement season peaks, wisdom rings from podiums around the country in speeches from illustrious icons offering what they may hope is affirmation at the start of careers.
Read MoreWhat could you do with an extra $267,760 over a lifetime? Buy a home, perhaps, repay student loans, start a business, leave a legacy, found a nonprofit, donate to a worthwhile cause.
The average Asian American, Native Hawaiian Pacific Island woman will likely never know, as that is what this group of women working full time will lose due to the wage gap over a lifetime, according to the National Women’s Law Center.
Read MoreIssue 228 — May 8, 2023
We got a cool tutorial in ChatGPT and Open AI from Marisa Hambleton, a participant in Take The Lead’s Intentioning Leadership Mastermind Series last week. I love learning about new technologies that are being employed to work better, faster, and more creatively.
The big question is, will the new applications of AI and in particular, ChatGPT, enable us to be faster, more creative problem solvers? And more specifically, how will it affect each of us individually and women’s advancement into and up through leadership roles?
Read MoreA bubble bath is not going to fix much. Nor is one “mental health day” on a calendar of hundreds of stress-filled workdays going to make it all better.
As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, it is critical to address the crisis of mental health for women in the workplace and also to acknowledge what Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University School of Medicine and founder of Gemma, calls “faux self-care.”
Read MoreIssue 227 — May 1, 2023
Tell me. What’s the biggest obstacle you have faced on your path to leadership?
Here’s a secret for you.
*There are no obstacles. Only opportunities.*
Read MoreIt’s about time. Consequences for those committing sexual harassment at work is having a moment—lots of moments. And those consequences run all the way to the top of large organizations. In media and entertainment, FOX News fired high profile host Tucker Carlson in wake of sexual harassment allegations. Actor F. Murray Abraham was fired from “Mythic Quest” for sexual jokes. Journalist Don Lemon was fired from CNN for sexist and ageist comments on air as well as misogynistic treatment of colleagues. NBC Universal announced CEO Jeff Shell was out of there for an inappropriate relationship.
Read MoreThe first Chicago Foundation For Women award went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2005, at the age of 72, when she was a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, 125 women leaders have been honored, and this year, 17-year-old Azariah Baker, Youth Leader of A Long Walk Home, won the Vanguard Award.
“I have been encouraged by so many women in my life and am so thankful,” says Baker, an artist and activist, senior at George Washington College Prep High School, who is attending Spelman College in the fall. “You see women here doing everything in their fullness. My work is an ode to my Black experience.”
Read MoreIssue 226— April 17, 2023
I’m having a blast leading the new mastermind series, “Intentioning: Transform Your Dreams to Reality with the Power of Intention” live online. I love the real-time interaction, yet busy women from all over the world can participate and have the flexibility to catch up asynchronously while being part of a supportive community of women.
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