Kaycee Ataiyero, Chief External Affairs Officer at The Joyce Foundation, speaks at her recent TEDx Wilmette event.

As Black History Month celebrates 100 years of saluting the excellence and inspiration of history-making contributions by Black leaders, innovators and entreprenuers in this country, Take The Lead celebrates the leadership of 10 outstanding Black women making history today.

“For #BlackHistoryMonth #100thanniversary @TakeLeadwomen celebrates the leadership of 10 outstanding Black women making history today #leadership #rolemodels. #Blackwomen”

Some of these leaders you may already know and some may be new to you. All of these women contribute their noteworthy talents across the fields of sports, AI, music, media, philanthropy, communications, culinary excellence, retail and banking.

Yes, while the 2025 Fortune 500 list acknowledges 55 women serving as CEOS of these companies in the 71 years of the list’s existence, the numbers of Black women CEOs is stalled. At 11% this year, this is the largest representation of women in the country in top leadership, Afrotech reports, but only two Black women are on that list.

They are Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO of TIAA, and Toni Townes-Whitley, CEO of Science Applications International Corp., accounting for 0.4% of the total list. That is the same representation as last year.

In addition to well-documented factors of bias, discrimination, racism and sexism in the workplace and culture, other stresses contribute to a high burnout rate of Black women in an extremely difficult economy. The unemployment rate of Black women is 7.3%, higher than the rate for Black men at 6.9%.

At the same time, entrepreneurship is rising for Black women. It may be due to the steady exit from companies and larger organizations with 300,000 Black women losing their jobs in 2025.

According to Essence, as “Black women continue to turn away from corporate America — a trend that should worry corporate leaders: companies with more diverse leadership teams outperform those that are underrepresented. In losing Black women, not only do companies lose the critical thinking skills, resilience, and relationship-building skills that create organizational strength, but they also lose their future leadership pipeline.”

Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, wrote about Black History Month in 2020, “There is a tendency to use these designated months primarily as opportunities to learn and teach inspiring stories that have been left out of the history books. Not surprisingly, since the narrative of history has largely been written by the dominant group, there’s a need for the rest of us to fill in the blanks.”

Feldt adds, “Yet it’s so important to know all of it: the good, the bad, and the unanticipated twists of events that determine the course of our present and our future. Change can happen when people of like mind join together with a strategy and the persistence to make it happen.”

“Gloria Feldt, co-founder, pres @takeleadwomen: “Change can happen when people of like mind join together with a strategy and the persistence to make it happen.” #BlackHistoryMonth #leadership ”

These 10 talented and successful Black women leaders (listed alphabetically) all demonstrate tenacity, excellence and drive.

1. Kaycee Ataiyero, Chief External Affairs Officer at The Joyce Foundation, overseeing strategic communications, the Journalism Program, and community grants. A recent TEDx speaker, Ataiyero is a champion of local news and journalism as truth, not disinformation. At a recent TEDx event, Ataiyero shared her mission of rebuilding the public trust. “The local news renaissance today is a reckoning.” She added, “Communities atrophy when you don’t have that local coverage. The death of local news is the canary in the coal mine” of democracy.

2. Tracy Brown, Chief Partnerships Officer at Chicago Public Media, the non-profit organization which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, the NPR affiliate. Recently honored on the Chicago Defender Women of Excellence list, Brown “was nominated for being a positive role model in the community, leading with grace and uplifting others with her vision and achievements.”

3. Tarrah Cooper Wright, CEO & Founder, Rise Strategy Group. A former communications team member of the Barack Obama administration in 2008 for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, she later became press secretary for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. Cooper Wright told Better magazine, “If I felt something was wrong or unjust, I wanted to be an advocate instead of being objective.” She also serves on several local and national boards. In her company, “Cooper Wright helps clients refine and perfect their messaging for business development, reputation management and crisis communications,” according to Better.

4. Laila Edwards, Member of the U.S. Women’s Hockey Olympics team.”The 22-year-old University of Wisconsin defenseman is poised to make history as the first Black woman to play for the U.S. at the Winter Games,” according to the NHL. Edwards’ presence in Milano Cortina is a moment in hockey that many believe could trigger a movement -- an increase in the number of Black girls and women taking up the sport and becoming fans. "'I want to represent my country at the greatest level at one of the greatest sporting events,” she tells NHL. The organization, Ice Hockey in Harlem, “is so inspired by Edwards that the nonprofit Hockey Is For Everyone affiliate is hosting a fundraising watch party when the U.S. plays Canada on Feb. 10 in the preliminary round at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena .“Her being in the Winter Olympics is the best form of representation for our kids,” IHIH executive director Malik Garvin tells NHL.

“Laila Edwards: 1st Black woman to play #icehockey for the U.S. at the Olympics Winter Games. @NHL @MilanoCortina26 #womensports”

5. Kam Franklin, musical performer and Grammy winner for Best Regional Roots Music Album. A well-known lead singer in Houston for the band The Suffers, Franklin won for her contribution to the album, “A Tribute to the King of Zydeco, an album of songs by Clifton Chenier,” Houston Culture Map reports. It was her first Grammy nomination and win.

6. Dr. Timni Gebru, Founder and Executive Director, DAIR Institute. Before founding this AI company, “ she was fired by Google in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team,” according to the DAIR website. “She also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian and Jamaican high school students.” Named one of TIME 100’s most influential people.

“Dr. Timni Gebru, Founder/Exec Director, @DAIRInstitute is an advocate for ethical and inclusive AI. #BlackHistoryMonth ”

7. Rashida Holmes, Chef Owner of Bridgetown Roti, Los Angeles. A James Beard Awards Semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in 2024, she owns and runs this Caribbean-American food restaurant, that has received accolades from Esquire magazine, Eater , The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. “Taste, value and efficiency are the cornerstones of Chef Rashida Holmes’s food and approach to the restaurant business. If those are in place, the love will flow onto the plate,” according to the Bridegtown Roti site.

8. Chrissy M. Thornton, President and CEO of Associated Black Charities. In Afro.Com,Thornton writes, “ I lead an institution that convenes government leaders, corporate partners, philanthropies, grassroots organizations and community members. I steward complex budgets, oversee transformative programs and carry responsibility not only for outcomes, but for trust. And still, even in rooms where our work is respected, my authority is too often negotiated.” She talks about her need to speak up and claim the respect she deserves. Thornton continues, “I join the ranks of Black women who have carried this country – economically, politically, socially – while fighting for parity and equity at every turn. From enslavement to suffrage to civil rights to boardrooms, we have pushed, organized, endured and delivered. And when we have finally scraped and clawed our way into leadership, we still find ourselves forced to fight for what I believe is the bare minimum: basic respect.”

“Chrissy M. Thornton, Pres/CEO #AssociatedBlackCharities: “I join the ranks of Black women who have carried this country – economically, politically, socially – while fighting for parity and equity at every turn.” @Afronews ”

9. Latriece Watkins, President and CEO of Sam’s Club. Assigned that title this month, as the first Black woman to ever hold that position, “Watkins has spent over 20 years working at Walmart, starting out as a real estate intern fresh out of law school in 1997. She’s moved up through all kinds of leadership roles—including Chief Merchandising Officer for Walmart U.S., where she helped decide which products made it onto shelves. Now she’s taking on Sam’s Club, the members-only wholesale chain owned by Walmart,” iHeart reports. A member of the board of directors for Live Nation, “she was named to Fortune’s ‘Ones to Watch’ list, and honored with awards like the first Madam C.J. Walker Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” Jeanne Sparrow reports.

10. Teri Williams, Owner, President and COO of One United Bank. The Florida native and her partner acquired their first bank, in 1995, according to Black Enterprise. This started “her mission to enable people to control their economic future. She has helped finance nearly $1 billion for moderate—and low-income communities to close the racial wealth gap,” Black Enterprise reports. According to One United’s website, it is an “award-winning Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that has been been awarded the highest Bank Enterprise Award by the U.S. Department of Treasury for our community development lending more than 10 times. Our growth has been organic and focused on acquiring community banks across the country that are equally dedicated to our mission including – Founders National Bank of Los Angeles, Family Savings Bank in Los Angeles, California, Boston Bank of Commerce in Boston, Massachusetts and People’s National Bank of Commerce in Miami, Florida.”

For Black History Month, “The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.”

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com

Impacting History Today and Tomorrow: Celebrating Excellent Black Women Leaders

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