Jasmine LeFlore and Dr. Brittany Wheeler grew up in different regions of the country with different circumstances, but a similar outsized curiosity and love of learning in math and science.
When they did meet when both were pursuing graduate degrees and working in engineering and aerospace, they collaborated to co-found Greater Than Tech, so Black girls would always have a space to seed their dreams.
Read MoreGrowing 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.”
Read MoreSeeing 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.”
Read MoreIssue 133 — June 29, 2020
One thing COVID-19 has done is make life easier for introverts.
If you break out in a cold sweat at the thought of networking, in the sense of walking into a large room full of people you don’t know and trying to make connections that will be useful to you in your professional life, while balancing a beverage — it might seem in first blush that at least that worry is over.
But the reality is your network is your net worth.
Read More“This shows what happens when you tell the most difficult stories without fear,” says Nikole Hannah-Jones, accepting The Ripple Effect Award at the 25th annual Studs Terkel Community Media Awards from Public Narrative in Chicago. The New York Times columnist who created the 1619 Project of “print, audio podcasts, school curriculum, essays, stories, poetry and historic reframing” defining the context of 400 years of slavery in America, has received accolades and awards across the country for the effort.
Read MoreIn addition to our own professional setbacks, we have all had close friends and colleagues who have failed to get the job, promotion, plum assignment or key client they were counting on getting. Other than a superficial, “Gee, that’s too bad,” how can we best be allies and “success partners” for other women leaders who need the support and encouragement to try again?
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