Inspired By Real Life: 2 Power Tool Champions Offer Needed Support To Global Communities
Dr. Winter Okoth (standing) leading a recent lesson as part of Pamaja Kenya Mentorship Alliance Organization, which she founded.
What does it take to transform challenge into change?
For two outstanding leaders and Take The Lead Power Tool Champions, their stories of advocacy and excellence changed not only their lives, but the lives of so many others as well as systems that now support them.
At the Power Up 2025 Conference on Women’s Equality Day August 26, Dr. Winter Okoth, PhD., ScM, infectious disease scientist, is honored with the Trailblazer Award; and Kathy Jefferson, children’s disability advocate, is honored with The Change Catalyst Award. Both embody the drive and selflessness of entrepreneurs directing effective change, reflecting the conference theme, Courage To Lead..
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“Incredible women are doing transformative work in communities, organizations, and movements without fanfare or spotlight,” says Felicia Davis, CEO and founder of the Black Women’s Collective, Take The Lead ambassador and creator of The Power Tool Champion Awards.
“Incredible women are doing transformative work in communities, organizations, and movements without fanfare or spotlight,” says Felicia Davis, CEO/founder Black Women’s Collective @takeleadwomen #powerup2025 #couragetolead”
Read more in Take The Lead on Power Tool Champions
“This is such an honor, and I am even more determined and motivated now to continue giving back,” says Dr. Okoth, founder of the non-profit, Pamoja Kenya Mentorship Alliance, that offers mentorship to children and youth in her native Kenya, and soon expanding globally.
Growing up in rural Kenya, with no electricity, Dr. Okoth was accepted for high school enrollment in an all-girls Catholic boarding school, but could not attend. “We did not have the finances and there was no way my dearest mom could support me so mom told me while in tears that she felt she failed me. I told her, ‘You did not fail me, you made me better.”
In one of the first biggest decisions of her life, Dr. Okoth knocked on the doors of St. Gabriel's Gagra Mixed Day Secondary Schools and enrolled to the only nearby day school for both boys and girls in the village where she lived with her maternal grandmother.
Dr. Okoth, who participated in the first Take The Lead 9 Leadership Power Tools class in 2013 at Arizona State University, says, “In my heart I knew I just needed to take that leap of faith. It was an AHA moment.”
“In my heart I knew I just needed to take that leap of faith. It was an AHA moment,” @WinterOkoth @takeleadwomen #mentorship #leadership ”
With the help of “amazing teachers,” Dr. Okoth says she became interested in mathematics and science courses, and also served in leadership as school prefect and science club leader. She says she asked herself, “Why am I the only female student in the top 5? This is not right.”
With no library, electricity and one textbook per subject to share among all the students, the experience at the school was challenging, but she helped introduce the 'collaborative learning' agenda. She assembled all the top performing students to mentor and tutor other students on various subjects before the final high school national examinations.
Read more in Take The Lead on youth mentorship
“This is where my passion for mentoring began,” says Dr. Okoth, who wins the award for Power Tool #2, “Define your own terms.”
Her love of sciences led her to be in the Aviation Club in high school, where 10 students built planes out of cardboard. She says she thought, “One day we could be in the plane flying somewhere. That was a manifestation in process. As a matter of fact, the majority of club members received college scholarships outside of Kenya, so they got on a plane and the rest is history.”
Read more in Take The Lead on global health
Dr. Okoth received competitive academic scholarships to Thomas More University in Kentucky as part of the 2008 Zawadi Africa women empowerment flagship program in Kenya. She majored in pre-med biology and chemistry. During her undergraduate years she was actively involved as a student leader, resident assistant, student ambassador, international student society president, and Habitat for Humanity volunteer among others.
Her debut to biomedical research was during her sophomore and junior years in college when she won competitive immunology summer undergraduate research fellowships; these internships focused on allergic diseases research at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
After graduating in 2012, Dr. Okoth earned her Masters of Science in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health with a focus on public health. This is where her journey on malaria research began. She continued on malaria research at the U.S. FDA as an ORISE research fellow.
Dr. Okoth recently earned her PhD in Microbiology at Griffith University in Australia; her research thesis focused on 'the development and preclinical evaluation of a whole blood-stage malaria vaccine using cationic liposomes. Her work was published in the mBio journal. She is now pursuing post-doctoral research fellowship at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Read more in Take The Lead on youth activists
Now aiming to continue mentoring students through her mentoring organization, Pamoja Kenya Mentorship Alliance, Dr. Okoth says the mentoring curriculum they created has positively impacted and served hundreds of students in nearly 20 schools. “It is evolving and we’re finding ways to make it feasible to expand mentoring virtually very soon through collaborative efforts. However, most schools cannot accommodate this as they have no electricity or internet.”
“It is evolving and we’re finding ways to make it feasible to expand mentoring virtually very soon through collaborative efforts,” says @WinterOkoth #leadership #mentorship @takeleadwomen ”
The passion she has for learning was re-enforced by her experience more than a decade ago with Take The Lead. “It was about professional development and how I can grow and continue to learn,” Dr. Okoth says. “I was really grateful to learn different perspectives on how to lead.”
Dr. Okoth continues to engage in various leadership roles. She serves on the board of directors at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) as an elected board member representing trainees. She is also actively involved in global health policy and advocacy as an ardent malaria champion with United to Beat Malaria, United Nations Foundation and more.
Read more in Take The Lead on women healthcare entrepreneurs
Kathy Jefferson, Power Tool Champion and founder of several nonprofit support organizations at a recent speech.
Leading the way for others with disabilities as an advocate strengthening support systems, Kathy Jefferson, Chair of Tempe Commission on Disability Concerns, and founder of Raising Britt and Blazing Curves, uses her own life experience as motivation.
Growing up in Phoenix with three brothers, she earned her college degree from University of Phoenix and began working in healthcare. “I always had wanted to be a nurse, but something changed. While I loved helping others, I also loved the business side.”
In 1992, Jefferson’s daughter Brittney was born with cerebral palsy. “Having a child with special needs, I felt alone,” Jefferson says. “I didn’t want anyone else to feel alone, so I advocate to help them through this time.”
“Having a child with special needs, I felt alone. I didn’t want anyone else to feel alone, so I advocate to help them through this time,” says Kathy Jefferson, #PowerTools #champion @takeleadwomen #PowerUp #WomensEqualityDay”
Read more in Take The Lead on power to change disability community
She adds, “Mothers kept their children in the background. I feel like there is more acceptance when you’re visible because it gives you a platform for people to talk about it. It’s changing the narrative.”
Read more in Take The Lead on championing for disability rights
The same is true for her work with size acceptance. An artist, plus-size model and advocate, in 2012, Jefferson created Blazing Curves, that produces “fashion events for women to feel beautiful,” and to “support women who endure size discrimination.”
The recognition from Take The Lead as a champion of Power Tool #5, “Carpe the chaos,” means a great deal to Jefferson. “I was that shy person who would not toot my own horn,” she says. “But if you don’t toot your horn, who will?”
“I was that shy person who would not toot my own horn.But if you don’t toot your horn, who will?” Kathy Jeffferson, disabilities advocate, #PowerTools champion @takeleadwomen #leadership #inspiration ”
Read more in Take The Lead on Power Tool champions
As the first person in her family to achieve a college degree, Jackson says the award reinforces her commitment to inclusive leadership and action. “Being a true leader isn’t stepping over people, it’s guiding them.”
“Being a true leader isn’t stepping over people, it’s guiding them,” Kathy Jefferson, founder Raising Britt #leadership @takeleadwomen #PowerUp #couragetolead”
Dr. Okoth agrees that achieving the Take The Lead Champion award is satisfying and inspiring. “Coming from humble beginnings, I dared to dream. I grew up in a remote rural area and the slums of Nairobi, Kenya." Today, Dr. Okoth is a first college and PhD generation in her family and clan, empowering her community and beyond.
She adds, “Our dreams are valid. You have to take the lead on your destiny. Never give up on chasing and leading your dreams, making a difference and championing humanity.”
“Never give up on chasing and leading your dreams, making a difference and championing humanity,” @WinterOkoth @takeleadwomen #WomensEqualityDay #entrepreneur #globalhealth ”
