All 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 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 MoreBlack History Month is just one month out of the year but it is necessary to honor and heed the work of Black women forever and always. Now you have a reading list that can take you through every month of the year.
In this collection of 12 recent books by Black women authors, Take The Lead salutes the energy, advice and brilliance of authors producing nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels and more.
Read MoreIssue 222 — February 20, 2023
I love this phrase from Susan Wojcicki’s letter, announcing she is stepping down as CEO of YouTube: “It’s an incredibly important time for Google — it reminds me of the early days — incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.” (Emphasis mine).
Read MoreTalent is ubiquitous. Opportunity is not. Getting in the door is key.”
Montreece Smith, executive vice president of people for Per Scholas, a national tech training initiative with 20 campuses and a staff of 500, placing 20,000 alumni at more than 850 employer partners, says she is helping to drive the company mission of opening doors to tech careers for persons of color.
“We are changing the face of tech,” says Smith.
Read MoreIt seems everyone starts the new year with a sterling list of goals aimed at making this a shiny year of professional successes. Some are reachable, some are aspirational, all seem plausible in theory.
To make this year 2023 truly monumental and to zero in on actively achieving the goals you assign yourself, it is important to be realistic about where you are in your career, who you are and what skills and resources you have at your disposable—and can acquire.
Take The Lead has a bounty of instructive and inspiring content, resources and courses available for you and your team to make these goals a reality and to see that 2023 is your best year ever in terms of reaching your heights as an entrepreneur, leader, innovator, manager and colleague.
Read MoreIf you’re like me, and have a pile of books you are aiming to complete before the end of the year yet are still craving to know what is new and not to be missed, this list is for you. This is also a list for amazing gifts for the friends and colleagues in your life hungry for the best and brightest in nonfiction written by women who tackle workplace issues, personal struggles, strategies and insights to being your best self.
Read MoreIssue 214— December 12, 2022
“Say what you want out loud.”
That was the most quoted takeaway from the fireside chat interview between Morning Joe co-anchor and founder/partner with Forbes in the “Know Your Value” initiative, Mika Brzezinski and NBC’s Today Show cohost Hoda Kotb at the gathering of women chosen for Forbes 50 Over 50 2022 on December 8 at Forbes’ New York headquarters.
Read MoreWhat you see is what you get. And what you don’t see is what you don’t get.
Nina Menkes, award-winning filmmaker, director and creator of the new documentary, “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” anchored a recent panel following a screening in Chicago at Facets on the historic visualization of characters identifying as women and how that mandates how systems treat half the world.
Read MoreIssue 213— December 5, 2022
You really must watch this video to get your hackles up at the hapless reporter who asked New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern if she was meeting Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin because they are “similar in age.”
Read MoreBorn and raised in the Bronx, not far from New York’s Yankee Stadium, Soyini Chan Shue always knew she wanted to be in a profession to give back to her community.
Read More“There is not anything that empowers girls and women the way sports do,” says Donna Lopiano, President and Founder of Sports Management Resources, at the recent conference, “Title IX at 50: Past, Present, Future,” spanning three days of events at Northwestern University.
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