What is your personal story?

I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and the oldest of two children. My mother taught second grade for 40 years in Atlanta Public Schools and my father was a foreman at a General Motors plant. Having grown up during a time of segregation, I knew at a very early age that there was something about me that was very different. I also learned quickly that "all things were not equal." I understood as a child that my journey would involve justice work, as my parents were clear in articulating that I was excellent...but that I would need to fight for my place for that excellence to shine. I left Atlanta to pursue my undergraduate studies at the University of Alabama. There were few Black students on campus during this time and again, I was faced with isolation and in many ways, that all-too-familiar quest to find a place for my excellence to be illuminated. I have had a rich professional journey in both Operations Management and HR Executive Leadership in extraordinary organizations like Kaiser Permanente, McKesson, city government and a leading Children's Hospital. Because I have always worked in very large organizations, I feel I am equipped to reach the masses in very unique ways. I learned the importance of that because I have never wanted anyone else to ever have to fight for their excellence to shine like I have. Because of that, I look for the light in others and highlight it for them. Today, as an entrepreneur with two successful businesses - The Equity Project and The HR Shop - I am the manifestation of a solid belief system that I have always had and that was instilled in me by my parents...

  "Dreams can come true" 

Who influenced your success? 

My parents certainly influenced my success in powerful ways, but there are others who fortified my life, too. I grew up in a church pastored by Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, the close friend and mentor to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Growing up exposed to civil rights giants - up close and personal - provided early lessons about civil rights, justice and equality. These were not just empty words to me; I got to see the words operationalized by iconic men and women. Dr. Morehead, our family pediatrician, was the first Black doctor that I ever met. He made it perfectly clear that I could be anything I wanted to. My grandmother, Constance Hancock, was a woman who didn't seem to have much, but somehow was able to take care of our entire family. I learned from her that assets are not always obvious. It was here that I learned not to stereotype or generalize about people. Having an opportunity to lead the Office of HR for the City and County of Denver was by far one of my favorite roles; I learned from city employees and administrators about the important intersections between community engagement and government processes. I was afforded so many wonderful opportunities to bridge those gaps and to open the door to a different type of government access. 

How did you pivot from formal organizations to entrepreneurship? 

After a rich 32+ year professional career in large corporate, healthcare and government organizations, I had an epiphany. In 2016, as I sat in the c-suite of Children's Hospital  and we had just elected a new President in our country, I began to watch a phenomenon that was all too familiar to me - we were polarizing as a country, as communities and even inside of workplaces around our ability to tackle things like race conversations and racism. Because I had already lived through a time like this, I struggled to sleep at night. I didn't want to go through this kind of era again and I honestly didn't want anyone else to go through it either. I knew we were all better than this. It was in this moment that I made the biggest decision that I've ever made. I decided to disrupt my professional trajectory to do something new and much broader. I decided to increase my platform. I launched a consulting practice called The Equity Project, LLC to help organizations and systems across the country advance their equity, inclusion and diversity strategies. For the past three years I have been working with well over 300 different organizations, crossing all sectors, in their equity work. The work has been passion-filled, important and in some cases, ground-breaking for the organization participating. The Equity Project was featured in both Fortune and Entrepreneur magazines in 2019 and that was a great validation (and confirmation) that I made the right decision in tailoring my work to my social justice platform. I now I officially call myself a "serial entrepreneur" with other businesses up my sleeve. 

Words of Wisdom

We are at a pivotal time in history to get serious about what it actually takes to advance equity of any type. It is no longer appropriate to talk about things like equity, inclusion, equality and diversity in cursory ways. The "check-the-box" mentality has to be eradicated and we have to operationalize the things we are talking about. I believe equity work is construction work. It requires us to look at our systems. This is a not a change-hearts-and-minds endeavor. In many cases systems, in all of their complexity, will need to be dismantled. In some cases, systems will need to be re-wired. In some cases, a slight chipping-away-at-the-system will make all the difference in the world. The intricacy of marginalization and oppression built right into our systems is today's greatest lesson. We must understand the continued negative outcomes of these systems and commit to changing them so everyone can thrive.