There Must Be Action...Mellody Hobson

"...corporate America is on notice. You can't just talk about issues. There must be action. Talk is cheap." 

--Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO & President, Ariel Investments

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com provides #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. 

Mellody Hobson has been a leading and consistent voice on racial inequality in corporate America and its unwillingness to be accountable for making meaningful change. In a frank conversation with the @TheEconomist's Anne McElvoy, Ms. Hobson speaks about how corporations can be braver on race and hold themselves accountable for the change that is needed.

Mellody's talk is required viewing for all leaders working for change as it relates to diversity and inclusion, and racial equity. Check out, "How can business be braver on race?"

Follow #LeadershipTuesdays on Twitter at @LeadershipTues to see daily posts with resources that help you develop and strengthen your leadership skills.

#LeadershipTuesdays: "Do or Do Not"...Mellody Hobson

"We don’t want to just admire problems, we want to try to find solutions to them. So, you have to truly believe that the world is changing and that you want your customers represented inside of your company, and you want to have different types of people and brains to come up with new and creative ideas. You have to truly believe that leads to a better outcome. ...Yoda said ‘Do or do not, there is no try.'”

--Mellody Hobson, President, Ariel Investments

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, gave a courageous TED talk in March 2014 about an experience she had in 2006 of being mistaken for the "kitchen help" when she showed up with then Congressman Harold Ford for a lunch meeting at the offices of a highly regarded New York publication. Your first reaction is to chuckle and then you give a heavy sigh and side eye because you know that her experience is not funny at all.

Although Mellody has broken the glass ceiling and achieved success, she recognizes that other minorities and women are not being given the same opportunities to excel in their fields and reach the highest echelons of corporate power. With an authentic and courageous voice, she continues to champion diversity even though this is not her main gig. She actually runs an investment firm and sits on the board of a few firms including Starbucks and JP Morgan Chase. She says it’s time for less talk and more action. More of 'this is what we have accomplished' versus 'this is what we are trying to do'.

To watch her talk at Fortune's Brainstorm Reinvent conference in Chicago, go to our home page at womenatliberty.com. Or you may also view it here.

Follow #LeadershipTuesdays on Twitter @LeadershipTues to see daily posts with resources that help you develop and strengthen your leadership skills. Happy #LeadershipTuesdays.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Call Me Chief!

"People want to know, 'What do we call you?', like ‘chief’ is a man’s word."

--Glenna Wallace, Eastern Shawnee Chief

Chief Wallace served for years as the Eastern Shawnee tribe’s secretary. In 2006, she replaced her brother as chief making her the first woman to be elected chief of a Shawnee tribe. Wallace holds Bachelor and Master degrees from Pittsburg State University in Kansas as well as a specialist in Education degree from the University. She also completed post graduate work at Tulsa University, Arkansas State, and Southwest Missouri State University.

Meet Eastern Shawnee Chief Glenna Wallace as describes the scope of economic development projects her tribe engages in and the historical role of leadership that women played in the Shawnee tribe.

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we feature Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma. For more information on #LeadershipTuesdays, go to @LeadershipTues on Twitter. There you'll find resources to help you develop your leadership skills and learn from others who are successful leaders.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Leaders...Past, Present, & Future

"All of us stand around the fishing net as equals. Sometimes one person pulls harder than another. Sometimes a person pulls for another. Leadership is like that. Leadership moves around the circle."

[Everyone in the circle should be treated with equal respect because everyone in the circle is a leader, past, present, or future.]

--Bay Mills Indian Community Elder

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we look at how leadership is viewed within Native American cultures and communities.

Martha McLeod, Ed.D researched and wrote a dissertation on leadership in the Native American Culture after serving the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan for many years. She is the founding president of Bay Mills Community College in Brimley, MI. She was also the President of Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, New Jersey where she retired in 2013 after leading for 10 years.

In 2002 while still president of Bay Mills,  President George W. Bush appointed her to the Advisory Board of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities (WHITCU). The Board's purpose was to make recommendations to the President and the Secretary of Education regarding expanding and providing resources to tribal colleges and universities to ensure that they offered high quality programs and technologies to the communities they served.

As a part of her doctoral work, Dr. McLeod designed a leadership development program for Bay Mills Community College. The quote above comes from an article she wrote about what she learned during her research and provides some insight into how the Native American leaders in the Bay Mills Community perceive leadership. This is not to say that Native American culture is a monolith; it is not. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes. And not all tribes lead in the same way. However, there are a few common distinctions and one of those distinctions is that "Native Americans envision life as one great, interconnected web". This makes top-down leadership somewhat inappropriate for them. When leaders are viewed from a perspective of connectedness and in a continuum as the quote above intimates, they are either being prepared to lead, leading, or passing on wisdom to future leaders and modeling leadership for those behind. What a valuable way to view members of the community.

Click "Keeping the Circle Strong: Learning about Native American leadership" to read the article by Dr. McLeod. For more information on #LeadershipTuesdays, go to @LeadershipTues on Twitter. There you'll find resources to help you develop your leadership skills and learn from others who are successful leaders.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Why not me?...Geisha Williams

"It's the power of influence and having someone that you look up to tell you that they think you can do something that you don't think you can do yourself. I didn't know I was going to become CEO. At that point, I doubted it, but I thought, I'm going places. I'm going to work hard and I am going to be a leader."

--Geisha J. Williams, CEO, PG&E

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Geisha Jimenez Williams immigrated to America from Cuba with her parents at five years old in the mid 1960's. Fleeing as political refugees, they started out with virtually nothing but the clothes on their backs. Her parents eventually became successful business owners and she grew up to be the first Latina CEO of a fortune 500 company.

Her story is an amazing example of success. Even more interesting is how she, an immigrant who spoke no English, prepared herself to be in a position to lead a major corporation and make history? She gives a lot of credit to her parents, her work ethic and her mentor.

After leaving Cuba where her father had been held in jail for three years because of his political views, her family migrated to Minnesota. But because their initial sponsor died within a month after their arrival, they had to move again. They eventually settled in New Jersey where her father worked in a factory during the day and washed dishes in a restaurant at night. Her mother worked out of the family home. They saved their money and were soon able to buy a modest grocery store in New Jersey. After school Geisha would come to the store, do her homework and then relieve her mother who also worked at the store so that her mother could go home and start the family dinner. Seeing her parents work hard, gave her a strong work ethic that has followed her throughout her career.

Williams also credits an early mentor at her first job at Florida Power and Light, Clark Cook, with helping her question her limited view of what she could achieve in her career. He said to her, "Geisha, somebody has to run this company some day. Why not you?" She refers to him as a role model for diversity and inclusion.

That question and his belief in her abilities stayed with her and helped her to ask herself, why not me? 'Why can't I be the first Latina President of a large company'. An unimaginable dream for any Latinx at the time.

She believed, work hard, and prepared herself. She earned an engineering degree at the University of Miami and later an MBA at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. She took on a series of work assignments in customer service, marketing, external affairs and electric operations to make sure she was prepared and had a broad base of experience. Today, after 30 years in the utilities industry, she is the President and Chief Executive Officer of PG&E, a position she was promoted to in March 2017.

Williams is a shining example of excellence and achievement. She and her husband, Jay, have raised two daughters, Carolyn and Anne, whom she is very proud of. Check out her talk with Poppy Harlow at Fortune's 2017 Most Powerful Women Summit.

For more information on #LeadershipTuesdays, go to womenatliberty.com. There you'll find resources to help you develop your leadership skills and learn from others who are successful leaders.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Prepared & Ready To Make A Difference...Cynthia Marshall

"I'm blessed with a good brain because I got a good education. Faith. And I know people. I know how to lead. I've made mistakes, so I know how to deal with those, too."

--Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall, CEO, Dallas Mavericks

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today we are highlighting the leadership of an organization who is making changes to transform a workplace and culture that has negatively impacted the lives of women who worked for it.

Cynthia Marshall has been in news headlines recently for successfully completing a 100-Day plan to change a toxic workplace at the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Dallas Mavericks. In early 2018, it was widely reported that the 2011 NBA Champions' front office operations were plagued by complaints of sexual harassment, domestic violence, and a culture that is unfriendly to women. The owner, tech billionaire Mark Cuban, known to many from his role on the Shark Tank TV show, was subsequently cleared of any involvement or complicity by an independent investigation. To fix the crisis in the basketball operations side of the house, he personally called and recruited Marshall to be the first African American woman CEO of a NBA team.

Cynt, as she likes to be called, is a highly respected business leader and Human Resource professional who has experienced many firsts. She was the first in her family to go to and graduate from college. She was also the first black cheerleader at her alma mater UC Berkeley where she completed a Bachelor's degree in business administration with a focus on organizational behavior and human resources. She brings to the MAVS job a wealth of experience from her 36 years at AT&T where she was considered a "rock star" and was the first African American head of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce. She's focused on making a difference and confident that she along with the MAVS staff and employees can do it.

In her first seven months, she has:

• She hired a woman as senior vice president of human resources. 
• She added another woman in a new position: chief ethics and compliance officer.
• Over the past several months, she has increased the ratio of female management in the Mavericks organization to 47 percent female management in the Mavericks organization to 47 percent from ZERO.
• Cynt mandated respect-in-the-workplace training.
• A “zero tolerance” office culture is enforced.And she has put in place a “Mavs Women’s Playbook,” which she says “uplifts, develops, promotes and encourages Dallas Mavericks women.”*

Cuban has given Marshall carte blanche to make whatever changes she needs to transform the culture in the organization and as demonstrated by the results above, her presence and leadership is being felt. She has not only instituted training and programs for her 140 member staff, but also included the players and coaches. MAVS Head Coach Rick Carlisle stated, "It's just a completely different vibe over there. Things have changed so much -- the mood, the atmosphere, the environment, the optics and the people. It's been a great thing to see."** Good luck Cynt!

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, go to womenatliberty.com. There you'll find resources to help you develop your leadership skills and learn from others who are successful leaders.

Sources: 

*Rick Smith, "In cleaning up Dallas Mavericks, Cynthia Marshall sets example of equality for all businesses", WRAL TECH Wire
https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/09/20/in-cleaning-up-dallas-mavericks-cynthia-marshall-sets-example-of-equality-for-all-businesses

**Tim Macmahon, "CEO Cynthia Marshall making quick impact for Mavericks, says" Carlisle, ESPN.com
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24755991/rick-carlisle-lauds-new-dallas-mavericks-ceo-cynthia-marshall

#LeadershipTuesdays: Creating Change That Impacts The Culture...Elaine Welteroth

“…I know from first-hand experience being a young brown girl growing up in a place where I did not see myself represented on the covers of magazines or in the pages prominently featured, it has an effect on your self-esteem. And so the idea that as a journalist you have a responsibility and opportunity to change that is endlessly inspiring and empowering.”

--Elaine Welteroth, former Editor-In-Chief, Teen Vogue

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today we are featuring Elaine Welteroth. 

She is a Northern California native who made history in the fashion and beauty industry as the first black beauty director at Conde Nast and the youngest and only second person of color to be named Editor-In-Chief at any Conde Nast magazine. She is first person in her family to attend college graduating from California State University-Sacramento with a degree in mass communications and journalism in 2007.

A pivotal moment occurred in this young woman’s life when, after contacting Harriette Cole numerous times via letter, email and calls to her assistant, Elaine finally got a chance to speak on the phone with her role model. Harriette Cole, who was then the Editor-In-Chief of Ebony Magazine, was impressed with Elaine and later tapped her to assist with a photo shoot of Serena Williams in Los Angeles California. Her professionalism with that assignment led to an internship and a permanent position at Ebony where she eventually became the Beauty and Style Editor.

Welteroth joined Conde Nast in 2011 as the Beauty & Style editor at Glamour. The company also owns a hosts of other well-known magazines such as Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker and Vanity. In 2012 she was promoted to Beauty and Health director at Teen Vogue. From there she was named editor of the magazine in 2016 and in 2017 she was announced as Teen Vogue’s new Editor-In-Chief.

Known for her commitment to both cultural and workplace diversity, social issues and providing a space for young voices to be heard, one of her most notable accomplishments at Teen Vogue was creating the first ever Teen Vogue Summit in 2017 which featured guests including former first lady and Senator Hillary Clinton, film director Ava Duvernay, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, actress Rowan Blanchard, Compton Mayor Aja Brown, and Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe. 

Welteroth has remained true to her passion even after leaving Teen Vogue this past January. She is currently represented by CAA and is expanding her talents into the film and television industry. Click on @LeadershipTues and see our Twitter timeline to view a recent Forbes video where Ms. Welteroth talks about the power of young people to effect change.

2026 Update: Welteroth is still creating change. None a mother of two young boys along with her husband has Jonathan Singletary, she is still very active working on projects that are close to her heart and bring her joy while living in the Los Angeles, California area. In 2024, she founded BirthFUND to bring awareness to the rising mortality rates of black women during childbirth and assist women in locating and affording midwives to support their child birth experience. 

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, go to #LeadershipTuesdays. There you'll find resources to help you develop your leadership skills and learn from others who are successful leaders.

#LeadershipTuesday: Yes, You Can Make The World Better...Wilfred Peterson

“Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it…”

--Wilferd Peterson

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Click this link and follow @LeadershipTues on Twitter for today's feature on Stacy Brown-Philpot. As a young girl who was raised along with her brother by her single mother in Detroit, she did not know she would make a difference by being one of the few African American CEOs in Silicon Valley. Today, she is an example of what is possible. 

#LeadershipTuesdays #MotivationalMoment: Embrace The Possible...Edith Eva Ager

Happy #LeadershipTuesdays! Being assertive and seizing opportunity are not celebrated for women as often as it is for men. However, being assertive is a leadership quality that is essential for success. Believe in yourself, be assertive and embrace the possible.

Follow @LeadershipTues on Twitter for resources to help you develop your leadership skills and follow others who are successfully leading.

I AM, YOU ARE

I am, you are...

A phenomenal woman. 

Worthy. 

Valuable. 

Beautiful. 

Lovely. Smart. 

💎 ❤ 💯

#LeadershipTuesdays: Great Miracles Come In Great Moments of Opportunity

"Great Moments Are Born From Great Opportunity!"

--Coach Herb Brooks, 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team Coach

"Perhaps you have come to this place, to this moment, to these people, to this challenge, for just such a time as this.” (The Bible)*

Jefferson Building, Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.

In 1980, Coach Herb Brooks coached a hockey team of rival college players to victory in the Winter Olympics over the favored and what many believed unbeatable Russian hockey team. The movie, "Miracle", tells the story of how Coach Brooks trained and led his team to play and win for the "U.S.A." letters they wore on their chest and not their own college team that hated their teammate's college. As long as they identified with their college team above the letters on their jersey, they could never play as a cohesive team and win for their nation. 

This is a very divisive moment in U.S. history. It's not the worst, but I believe that history will record these moments as one of the worse times in the post-Civil Rights era. I am stunned by how much hate and even micro-aggression toward our fellow Americans go unchallenged everyday. How some people feel above the law. How some even feel comfortable using social media, a communication tool that has broken down the barriers of telecommunications, as a tool to spread vitriol, hate speech and white supremacy. How can we win against foreign hackers and terrorists when we consider each other the enemy? We can't unite as a team against hate and evil forces if we harbor hate and ambivalence that alienate our own country men and women who look and may have different beliefs than us. We have so many challenges in need of good leaders. What will inspire us to work together for great solutions? Do we have leaders who will faithfully accept the challenge and opportunity of this moment?

As we approach Christmas, may we each reflect on the miracle of love that caused a divine baby to be born outside of the royal family and priesthood to an unassuming young unmarried mother who accepted her challenge and opportunity to be the mother of the baby we Christians now call Savior. May her example lead us to consider who we are and our purpose in this moment in time. Maybe we have been born to bring change for such a time as this. Maybe we have been called to this moment, to this challenge. May you be refreshed and replenished during this Holiday Season for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Merry Christmas,

--Nona Ogunsula, Founder, womenatliberty.com

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. To view part one of a two part profile of April Reign, an attorney, activist, social media strategist and the creator of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, click here.

For more information on LeadershipTuesdays, go to: womenatliberty.com.

*The excerpted quotes and inspiration for this writing are from: Great Moments Are Born From Great Opportunity

#LeadershipTuesdays: I Lead By Example...@vnona

"I am an example of what I seek in the world. My actions are an example of my core values and beliefs. I lead by example."

-- Nona Ogunsula, Founder, womenatliberty.com and Women Making History

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. To view the recent profile of April Reign, an attorney, activist, social media strategist and the creator of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, click here.

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, go to: womenatliberty.com.

#LeadershipTuesdays: My Greatest Mentor...Ursula Burns

"My mother raised us to think that if we worked hard, and if we put our end of the bargain in, it would work out OK for us."

--Ursula Burns, former CEO and Chairwoman

On Tuesdays, WOMENATLIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. In 2009 Ursula Burns was named CEO of Xerox and in 2010 she became the Chairwoman of the company succeeding Anne Mulcahy. Ms. Mulcahy, a history maker in her own right, was the first female CEO of Xerox. She hand picked and mentored Ursula to become her successor. Burns characterized their relationship as a "true partnership".  A career that started with her working as an intern culiminated with Burns making history as the first African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. In May 2017, she retired from the company after more than 30 years of service.

Anne Mulcahy as well as many others including her husband, Lloyd Bean, have mentored her; but when she talks about her mother, you hear the emotion in her voice and you understand the deep respect this native New Yorker holds for the woman she calls her greatest mentor. Olga Burns was a hardworking single mother who believed that education would be Ursula and her two siblings' passport out of the housing projects into a bright future. She says her mother was right and she is eternally grateful for her mother's sacrifices.

Olga Burns

In today's #LeadershipTuesdays feature, Ms. Burns goes back to the place where she grew up and went to school to share with CNN Money's Cristina Alesci how her humble beginnings shaped her, helped her make decisions about her life and prepared her to become the well respected leader that she is today. To see the video, go to womenatliberty.com. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here. 

*You can also view the interview by clicking here.

Respected and Acknowledged...Zoe Saldana

To be seen and respected for my work and acknowledged as a true American Latina...means a lot to me.

--Zoe Saldana, Actress and Dancer (Star Trek, Avatar)

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. To day in honor of Hispanic Heritage month, we are acknowledging Fortune Magazine's "50 Most Powerful Latinas of 2017". These women were selected by the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) and they include senior Executives from Fortune 500 companies and some very impressive entrepreneurs. Topping the list is PG&E CEO and President Geisha Williams who made history as the first Hispanic woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. Also on this prestigious and influential list are: Grace Puma, Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Officer at PepsiCo; Yasmine Winkler, Regional CEO of UnitedHealth, a healthcare company providing health care services and products, including Medicaid services, to more than 100 million customers; and recently retired Gloria Santona, a former Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of McDonald's.

Role models are so important in helping women to dream beyond their current circumstances and achieve what has never been done before. As a community, we acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of these extraordinary women and thank them for being an inspiration to not just Hispanic women, but to all of us.

To find out who the women pictured above are, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.

Leading Yourself...Israelmore Ayivor

"Go out and lead the world; but never forget to begin by leading yourself first at home. You can’t lead the environment if you can’t lead yourself in it."
--Israelmore Ayivor

#LeadershipTuesdays: Embracing & Cultivating The Leader In You

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." 

John Quincy Adams

Whoopi Goldberg as Laurel Ayres in "The Associate" (1996 Comedy)

On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. The featured article today is, "10 Signs You Are Really A Leader (and Might Not Know It)" by Lolly Daskal (Forbes.com). Embracing your leadership skills is easy for some and difficult for others. Some people don't want to be a leader. They just want to get the job done and keep it moving. Others don't want the hassle of managing others. It can be a lot of work. But there are times when embracing your leadership skills becomes a necessity to thriving and realizing your potential as Whoopi Goldberg did as the character Laurel Ayres in the movie "The Associate". When her current organization did not value her skills, she left the company and embarked on one of the greatest adventures in business of her life.

One of the things that makes a difference in an organization and has the greatest impact on its culture is its leadership. Good leaders are difference-makers. They add value to people and customers. They also set the tone for how the organization will interact with each other and relate to its customers. 

You owe it to yourself to embrace and cultivate your leadership skills. Learn how to add value to people. If your current organization doesn't value you, another company will. As "Laurel Ayres" learned your skills will be valuable to you and help you be successful if not as an employee, maybe as an entrepreneur or vendor/contractor. 

To view today's article, see "10 Signs You Are Really A Leader (and Might Not Know It)".  For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or womenatliberty.com, click here. 

Leading By Example...Himanshu Bhatia

"As a leader, it's a major responsibility on your shoulders to practice the behavior you want others to follow." 

-- Himanshu Bhatia, Founder and CEO, Rose International

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTYpresents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today's article highlights one company's, namely Apple, latest effort to improve diversity at the tech giant where there has been slow progress in increasing the representation of minorities and women. See "Apple's New Diversity Officer Will Report Directly to CEO".

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here. 

#LeadershipTuesdays: Implementing A Plan For Immediate Change...Cheryl Boone Isaacs

"We don't feel that we have looked far and wide enough for the best of the best. It's not about political correctness, it's about building the best team, the best institution, the best artists. Because unless you have the best artists as members, unless you have the best artists voting on the Academy Awards, you don't have a real reflection of the best of our film culture."

--Cheryl Boone Isaacs, President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. 

The 2015 #OscarsSoWhite Campaign by activist, attorney and Managing Editor of BroadwayBlack.com, April Reign, brought front and center Hollywood’s diversity issues. As I’m sure you remember, that year all the Oscar nominees in the “best” acting categories were white. Selma, a highly acclaimed film about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights protests in Selma, Alabama directed by Ava Duvernay, 
received nominations for Best Original Song and Best Picture, but was overlooked for the individual performances of its nearly all black cast and director. Though, the movie did win the Oscar for Best 
Song “Glory” written by John Legend and Common.

Why did Ms. Isaacs move so quickly to address the Oscar’s diversity issue? According to Pew Research, “Americans are more racially and ethnically diverse than in the past, and the U.S. is projected to be even more diverse in the coming decades.” (i) The #OscarSoWhite campaign resonated with a lot of people and caught fire in the media fueled the highly visible voices of “BlackTwitter”.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who had made history in 2013 as the first black woman and only the third woman to hold the position of president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the non-profit organization that produces the Oscars), knew that she would have to move quickly on responding to this issue. One day after the Oscar nominations were announced and the #OscarSoWhite hashtag was born, she did an interview with the Associated Press to address the issue and stressed the Academy’s commitment to “to seeking out diversity of voice and opinion”.

Minority movie goers in the U.S. represented more than one third of the total movie goers in 2014. If a mass boycott caught on, the Academy could suffer a major decrease in its Oscars’ television audience which is estimated to be worth $75M. The industry was already dealing with a downward trend in total box office tickets sold. The dollars at stake for the U.S. film industry were $10.3B and three times that amount globally. Cheryl Isaacs and the leadership of the Academy knew that they would have to quickly 
and very publicly implement change or risk alienating a sizable group of minority movie goers. The Asian Pacific Media Coalition released a statement the day after the 2015 Oscar nominations that succinctly summed up the Academy’s problem: “It behooves Hollywood – as an economic imperative, if not a moral 
one – to begin more closely reflecting the changing face of America.” (ii)

You have to applaud Cheryl Boone Isaacs and the Academy for how they responded to the issues once they were public. They did not blame the protestors for speaking out. They did not stick their heads in the sand and continue business as usual. They took action. That year to increase its membership diversity, the Academy invited a record number of 322 new members to join its ranks of voting 
members. 

But in 2016, lightning struck twice and no black directors and actors were nominated in the acting and directing categories. This time actress Jada Pinkett Smith and director Spike Lee announced that they would boycott the 2016 Oscars. These very public and highly visible protests reignited the #OscarSoWhite hashtag and media firestorm.

In a press release, Ms. Isaacs made a public commitment on behalf of the Academy that the 
membership going forward would be more inclusive of women and minorities by “[doubling] the number of women and diverse members by 2020”. Then the Academy took more aggressive steps to 
shake up its membership pool. After the changes were approved in an emergency meeting, it sent out 683 invitations for membership, more than twice the number of the previous year’s 322 invitees. The new invitees included 46% more women and 41% more minorities.

In 2017, the Oscar announced its most diverse lists of actor nominees including six black actors and 7 nonwhite actors overall. The Academy’s actions netted a record total of 18 Blacks artists who were nominated for Oscars in 2017. Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis won the Best Actor and Best Actress in A 
Supporting Role awards. Director Barry Jenkins and cast of Moonlight, and film editor, Joi McMillon won Best Picture and Best Film Editing awards, respectively.

The Academy’s efforts will not solve all the problems regarding the type of films presented for the public to see and the diversity of actors that get work and are nominated, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Kudos to them for that, but more work has to be done in investing in minority films and productions. This, however, is a subject for another day. Today, we recognized the leadership of Ms. 
Isaacs and the Academy and we hope their efforts to implement change increases and this trend to be more inclusive and diverse continues.

Sources: 

• Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2016-2020: Cinema, PriceWaterhouse, http://pwc.com/us/en/industry/entertainment-media-outlook/cinema.html
• Oscar.go.com
•  Brent Lang, “Cheryl Boone Isaacs on Oscars Diversity Push: ‘The Door Has Opened’, 9/10/16, http://variety.com/2016/film/markets-festivals/oscars-diversity-academy-president-cheryl-boone-isaacs-1201856989/ 
•  Erich Schwartzel and Ben Fritz, “Fewer Americans Go to the Movies”, Wall Street Journal, 3/25/14, http://wsj.com/articles/SB/10001424052702303949704579461813982237426 
• “2017 Oscar Nominations Show Black Artists’ Gains”, 1/25/17, colesmithey.com 

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i)  D’Vera Cohn and Andrea Caumont, “10 Demographics Trends That Are Shaping The U.S. and the World”, 3/31/16, 
pewresearch.org

ii) Oscars 2015: Film Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs Speaks Out About Lack of Diversity In Nominations, 
1/17/15, NYDailyNews.org

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Fight For Your Dreams!...Denzel Washington (Video)

Denzel Washington, two-time Academy Award winning actor, who directed and is currently starring in the movie, "Fences", a film adapted from the Broadway play written by August Wilson, joined fellow cast members* at an advance New York screening to talk about the themes in the movie. 

When asked by Jared Smith what advice he give to young actors, he said "Fight For Your Dreams!"

Cast interview after screening at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square hosted by Jared K. Smith (MTV News) in New York City.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Gwen Ifill...Leaving A Legacy of Excellence

"Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation."

--Gwen Ifill, Journalist, (1955-2016)

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Yesterday this world lost a truly great American hero and journalist. Gwen Ifill, a veteran American journalist, succumbed to cancer on November 14, 2016. She was a shero. Not because she made news headlines as a celebrity or entertainer, but because she became what she needed to see as a child. She became a role model of what it looks like to be an African American woman journalist reporting the news on television.

We watched her many interviews with presidents, vice presidents, political candidates, members of Congress and her roundtable discussions, and we had confidence that she was not pandering to the interviewee but getting the information that we needed to know to make decisions about who we would vote for or what issues we needed to know about. You would look up and see her reporting a story or at the News Hour Desk with Judy Woodruff at the political conventions, and you knew that what you were going to hear about was the real issues that were important to everyday Americans.

We will miss seeing her, but her legacy will remain forever. Thank you Ms. Ifill for becoming the career model you did not have as a child. You will always be a standard of excellence for the many girls and people of color who will watch one of your interviews and say, ‘I want to be her’.

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.