How many female cultural icons does it take to make a once in a lifetime virtual event just for you?
The answer is two, plus two emerging leaders in journalism, media and entertainment. Plus you.
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Issue 152 — December 6, 2020
“There are plenty of top-notch people in every demographic group for even the most high-level jobs. You just have to see them and open the barricades that have blocked them from serving.”
— Jodi Enda re Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s diverse choices of top advisors.
Real change is in the air. And it’s happening fast.
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If COVID-19 has not directly affected your mental health, then you are likely a very rare case.
And if the collision of crises in economics, health, injustice, family, work and career have touched you in the last year, then know there is access to steps to improve your mental health.
Moving towards an economic, health and wellness recovery, many women—and men— are strategizing to not only cope with the effects of the pandemic, but to manage a re-emergence and recovery post-COVID that is better than before the crisis hit.
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Issue 151 — November 29, 2020
Do you sometimes feel powerless in these challenging days?
Let me assure you of this: you have the power to help women recover from the pandemic’s effects on their lives and livelihoods when you make a contribution to Take The Lead.
And — great news — your contribution will be matched by our amazing board members, led by chair Dr. Nancy O’Reilly.
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“Half of all children born today in the United States and Europe are going to reach their 103rd or 104th birthday,” Neurologist Claudia Kawas explains to Lesley Stahl on CBS News recently.
Kawas is the leading investigator on the 90+ Study that has been ongoing for six years. She adds, “I have seen several 116-year-olds.”
So I guess, at 62, I am middle aged.
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Issue 150 — November 23, 2020
Happy Pre-Thanksgiving. I hope you are well and that however you plan to spend the holiday will be enjoyable.
Whatever you have planned, we can all breathe a big sigh and agree on this: It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? One we can’t even describe yet because it’s not over and every day brings new surprises. But there are a few things we know for sure.
This pandemic has made us more creative.
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2020 came dancing in with such hope.
2020 was going to be Take The Lead’s year to scale up after seven years of building our credibility, developing our unique methodology of accelerating women’s advancement in leadership, and proving that it works. We’d earned the opportunity to grow exponentially. We had an amazing year of programming planned. Symbolically, 2020 being the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote after seven decades of struggle, seemed like the perfect time.
But just as the suffrage amendment was flawed by not assuring voting rights to Asian, Indigenous, and Black women, 2020 brought to light many deficiencies. Like those punching balloons that keep popping back up for more, it seemed like every time we thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.
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Amanda Zelechoski not only practices what she preaches; she practices what she researches.
As an attorney, licensed clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in child and adolescent trauma, she co-founded the site and resource, Pandemic Parenting, to help others and herself as a mother of three young boys.
During COVID lockdowns with remote work and remote schooling, “The stress at home can be bad,” says Zelechoski, associate professor at Valparaiso University, where she directs the Psychology, Law and Trauma Lab, and whose sons are 11, 8 and 5.
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This graphic circulated around the internet quickly upon breaking news that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would become the next President and Vice President of the United States. Harris is smashing one of our two highest and hardest glass ceilings. In doing so, she represents so much of our history and more importantly, our future.
Harris Represents Women — the obvious, overarching 51% of the population that has waited since 1776 to see one of its gender represented in the highest halls of power. Her white suit was a nod to the 100 year anniversary of the 19th amendment writing women’s right to vote into the U.S. Constitution — and the decades-long battles afterward to make sure all American women have the unfettered right to exercise that primary civic duty.
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“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before. And we will applaud you every step of the way.”
These were the stunning words from the next and first Madam Vice President, Kamala Harris, from a Delaware stage before introducing President Elect Joe Biden after the election results were announced.
“But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” Harris said.
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A lot of the Greek gods were already taken.
So Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of Nepris, an education technology company, settled on the Greek god Nepris as the name of her new company who is the “lord of sustenance.”
“We were looking for unique names to build a brand, so we turned to the Greek gods, and every Greek god was already an education company,” says Raja, whose platform connects 85,000 K-12 educators with experts for instruction to more than 550,000 students in this country.
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