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Tameika Devine is a trailblazer who has held elected offices for nearly 20 years. In 2002, she became the first black woman to serve on the city council, and she became the first black woman to win a general election in Columbia, South Carolina. 2021 when she ran for mayor. She narrowly lost.
But that wasn’t the end of Devine’s public service. After her passing, she continued to do important work in her community, pledging to advance issues like affordable housing and mental health awareness.
“I’m a leader, and leadership isn’t given by a title. It’s about who I am,” Devine said.
Today, Devine is one of 25 women selected to join the first class of the Power, Innovation and Leadership Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Public Leadership Center. This training her program is designed for those working to empower black women and girls in the South and was conceived by her LaTosha Brown, perhaps best known as the co-founder of Black Voters Matter. I was. Community Her organizer, political strategist and consultant, Brown has gained national recognition in recent years due to the key role she played in organizing voter mobilization efforts in her Deep South states such as Alabama and Georgia. has gained notoriety.
Brown said, “When you change the world for black girls, you literally change the world. When they are in an environment that thrives and thrives, society as a whole will be in an environment that thrives and thrives.” We specifically selected our initial cohorts based on their demonstrated commitment to black women and girls.
The three-year hybrid program, held once a week, officially launched this month. Some of the participants include lawyers, formerly incarcerated women, reproductive justice advocates, social her venture her capitalists, and those directly working to enact policy change. Brown intended to include women from a wide variety of backgrounds because one of her main goals for the program was to give black women in the South access not only to institutional knowledge but also to peers. was It aims to enable women to think more critically about power, innovation and leadership through their scholars and each other.
Janelle Sanchez, a member of the first cohort and recently appointed president and CEO of the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative, an organization that seeks to bridge the racial wealth gap in Atlanta, said: for transformative results. She believes it’s important for women, especially black women, to be in the room thinking about how to access and mobilize power.
“The network here is great. We’re just getting started, but we’re already picking up calls and calling individual cohort members to get insight into real-time institutional decisions I need to make.” The depth of context and recommendations they provided me was invaluable,” Sanchez said.
Brown’s foundation, Truth Speaks Innovation, fully funds the Harvard University program. She was motivated because black women and girls, especially in the South, are often left out of philanthropy and professional development opportunities.
“Less than 1% of the $4.8 billion in philanthropy going to the South goes to Black women and girls,” she said.
As co-founder of the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium, a collective of black women who raise funds and provide resources to underfunded organizations working to support black women and girls in the South Brown worked to ease this gap in funding. Still, she has found that black women are also underrepresented in leadership development opportunities. I wanted to be able to use my own space to further my learning in an environment that hadn’t been done before, and I wanted other Black women to have access to similar training opportunities. Brown says she believes that “as the South goes, so does the country.”
That’s why Brown says she’s conscious of creating a space where women can be themselves. make that clear.
“Just being around like-minded women who challenge me is great. , this group is different.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, said programs like Brown are “very important.” The Power, Innovation, and Leadership Program “ensures that it empowers black women in the South who are making it their business to ensure programs and initiatives that target black women and girls.” It meets a need there, and is a priority in the area.”
Glynda Carr, who heads Higher Heights, a campaign to elect more progressive black women, said she was proud of Brown’s work at Harvard. Kerr led the creation of the Higher Heights Sr. Civic Her Leadership She Cohort, which aims to strengthen the leadership of her 30 Black women within the cohort and help them achieve their goals.
“If we are going to build and expand this present moment of democracy for black women, it means investing in black women’s leadership. , policy leaders,” she said. Brown’s program is an opportunity to invest in black women who “go to their communities, advance their leadership and continue to innovate.”
Both Kerr and Brown are using their power to help other Black women leaders reach their full potential.
Brown hopes to eventually partner with Southern institutions in addition to Harvard. But the program’s existence at Harvard “is not only an opportunity for us to learn, benefit from, and glean from this institution, but it is a contribution to that institution,” she said. A lot of the learning that comes from will actually benefit as the university evolves.”
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