The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Michelle Genece Patterson, grew up on Blueberry Hill Lane in Sudbury, Mass., a suburb of Boston that she describes as “idyllic, but very much a dissonance culturally and experientially as we were the only family of color.”

Her father was a native of LaGonave, an island of Haiti, where there was no electricity or running water, and her mother was from Port Au Prince. It was their tenacity in moving from Haiti to New York City to Boston, that was a “key pivotal turning point for me,” Patterson says.   

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The speech class Aly Palmer took her junior year at the University of Maryland where she was studying liberal arts, shifted her life completely.

The award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, performer, artist, activist, philanthropist and founder known globally for her work in the musical trio, BETTY, says, “That feeling of being on stage, feeling something important was happening, is when my entire life changed.”

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It’s red carpet season known for awards and applause given to so many deserving winners across entertainment and business arenas.

At Take The Lead, it is also time to celebrate the Power Tool Champions, those entrepreneurs and individuals who will be honored at the Power Up 2025 Concert & Conference with the theme of Courage To Lead. The awards will be given on Women’s Equality Day in Washington, D.C. to deserving entrepreneurs, founders and creators making real change in their lives and the world.

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Now more than ever each one of us needs the courage to lead.

In a difficult, divisive cultural environment and a complicated economy, leaders identifying as women face silencing, resistance and erasure as funds disappear and companies, organizations and brands recalibrate to maintain.

In organizations experiencing growth, leaders, colleagues, supporters and collaborators need to define ways to strengthen systems for success and encourage everyone in the network to expand by defining today’s evolving winning strategies.

This year’s Power Up Conference 2025 from Take The Lead held on Women’s Equality Day with the theme, Courage To Lead, offers such strategies, solutions, accolades, insights and learnings from an extraordinary group of experts and leaders in order to assist anyone looking to lead with dynamic innovation and intelligent energy.

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Two years after the 50th anniversary of the publication of Erica Jong’s iconic novel, Fear of Flying, and three years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade with the Supreme Court of the United States’ Dobbs decision, Molly Jong-Fast is telling the story of her mother, feminism, fame and what her generation is dealing with today politically and culturally.

Both anniversaries are connected as in 1973 was the launch of Jong’s book and also the year of the Roe V. Wade SCOTUS decision that legalized abortion, a right that held for 49 years.

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In a stunning demonstration of their ability to collaborate and connect effectively across cultures, time and geography, these two co-authors met only once in person 11 years ago, after following each other’s successful global marketing careers from afar.

And then they spent years writing a book together—remotely— with an ocean between them.  

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The spacesuit was too big for her, as the size “small” was eliminated by NASA, and officials  announced going forward they would only carry sizes M and L to space.

But this did not deter 5’4” Cady Coleman, retired astronaut who now has two completed space shuttle missions, plus 159 days living at the International Space Station on her resume.

“I was the smallest person ever to be qualified in a spacesuit,” she says.

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Only the second nation leader in world history to have a baby while in office, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, dedicates her new book to “the criers, worriers and huggers.” And she is not talking about newborns.

The 44-year-old who became the 40th prime minister of a country in 2017 that has only seen three women in that position, was recently on stage for the Chicago Humanities Festival discussing her memoir, A Different Kind of Power.

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