Tag Archive for: Intrepid Women Series

Kimberly Bryant: Founder and CEO, Black Innovation Lab and Ascend Ventures Tech

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Kimberly Bryant“We got to survive to run the race. So, it is very important that we find mechanisms, and we create support systems to save ourselves along this path.”

Kimberly Bryant is the founder and CEO of the Black Innovation Lab and Ascend Ventures Tech. A little over ten years ago, Bryant wanted to see more black and brown girls in computer science, which led to her creating Black Girls CODE to support her young daughter’s interest in coding. Now, she is working on her next set of passion projects; an early startup accelerator to nurture founders in the US South called the Black Innovation Lab in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee; and a book and advocacy work to support Black women leaders in both the nonprofit and for-profit business space.

“What I wanted to do as a part of the Black Innovation Lab is take all of the knowledge and networks I’ve acquired over the last almost 20 years in the heart and center of innovation back to my hometown to create a space to support founders that come from communities that look like me, and have had challenges, and to show what the pitfalls may be, so they do not repeat some of the mistakes that I made within my career as a leader. It’s to create a solution to finding support and finding supportive spaces where we can thrive as well as maintain that which we create. I really feel that my experiences and my founder journey brought me to this moment, where I can be a mentor, a supporter and advisor to others like me. There has been a recurring theme of mentorship throughout my career both within my previous nonprofit work with Black Girls CODE, and also as a foundation for my work within the Black Innovation Lab and the advocacy work I’ve been doing with other Black women leaders.”

Bryant cites the ‘Black GirlBoss Paradox’ as a crucial phenomenon she has been exploring within her advocacy work alongside other Black women leaders and as part of the OpEd and Equality Now’s Public Voices Fellowship On Advancing The Rights Of Women And Girls. Her efforts to address the ‘Black GirlBoss Paradox’ are focused throughout her written work, research, and the foundation of a future advocacy organization. While distinct from the Black Innovation Lab, these endeavors complement and align with its central themes of equity, inclusion, and empowerment, collectively working toward a more equitable and supportive landscape for marginalized founders and leaders. She describes the ‘Black GirlBoss Paradox’ as the situation when, “black women ascend to a certain level in leadership and they find many obstacles, and many biases around our ability to lead and hold power in current infrastructures.”

Bryant continues, “when I experienced challenges within my leadership journey I was surprised by the number of other Black women who reached out to me publicly and privately to share their similar experiences. I believe we have a crisis with respect to Black female leadership and need transformative change to the nonprofit and for-profit systems which have been a barrier to our ability to thrive and grow in these spaces”.

Bryant is a trailblazer, altruistic and focused on real change. She hopes that future generations of women leaders will be given the opportunity to have safe learning experiences. She recognizes that systemic change may not happen overnight, but as more support is built through organizations and we speak truth to the gendered and racialized biases which exist in our systems today, there will be change over time.

“I want something different for the next generation. Where they are actually given just as much opportunity and chances as their male peers and there is true equity of opportunity in the world to both succeed, fail, and get back up and try again.”

The Significance of Black Innovation Lab – A Continuation of a Legacy

Bryant speaks more about her current project, the Black Innovation Lab, and her hopes for how it will support and empower marginalized entrepreneurs. In Bryant’s words: “I wasn’t looking to come home to build a startup accelerator as much as I was looking for ways to support and nurture other founders and creators such as myself and I wanted to do more than just give advice; I wanted to be able to write a check. There is no lack of talent in the startup economy–however what is not equitable is the access to opportunities and I hope to plant seeds to address this gap with a focus on the US South.”

Kimberly Bryant’s journey as the founder and CEO of the Black Innovation Lab is deeply intertwined with her legacy of community work, particularly her role as the visionary behind Black Girls CODE. Over a decade ago, Bryant’s mission was to create pathways for black and brown girls to excel in computer science. Today, that mission continues to evolve, expanding into the creation of the Black Innovation Lab—a natural extension of Bryant’s dedication to community empowerment. This new venture isn’t just a departure for Bryant; it’s a growth and a commitment to providing resources, mentorship, and opportunities to underrepresented tech founders who often face systemic barriers.

Memphis, nestled in the heart of the US South, is the perfect canvas for this venture. The region is teeming with untapped potential and burgeoning talent waiting to be nurtured. By establishing the Black Innovation Lab in Memphis, Bryant is sowing the seeds for a vibrant startup ecosystem to flourish in the South.

For Bryant, it’s a heartfelt homecoming—a return to the city that raised her. Memphis is where her journey began, and it’s where she now intends to make an indelible mark. As the Lab takes root on the historic grounds of the former HBCU Griggs College, she hopes it will serve as a reminder that innovation knows no boundaries. It signifies a full circle moment—an opportunity to bring transformative change back to the place that helped shape her.

Making Space to Learn from Mistakes

Learning from mistakes can be an invaluable experience for leadership growth, if only given the space to make them and bounce back. Bryant points out, however, that women are not given that grace to the same amount as their male peers.

“Women in leadership, and Black women in particular, are seldom afforded the space to acknowledge and recover from their missteps. While we, as leaders, can grow from our errors and find the resilience to get back on course, there exists a pervasive expectation of perfection that disproportionately affects us. It’s a notion we must challenge because male leaders routinely receive second chances, and organizations often cushion their landings. This safety net is seldom extended to women in leadership roles, forcing us to fight tenaciously to reclaim our positions.”

One valuable lesson Kimberly Bryant gleaned from her own journey was the profound importance of trusting her instincts when making pivotal decisions. She reflects, “Far too often, I allowed my rational mind to undermine the decisions I needed to make. Our intuition and the insights we derive internally from these signals hold tremendous power. We mustn’t allow our logical minds to dissuade us from the choices we should pursue. There’s a popular business adage, ‘trust but verify,’ but I propose a modification: ‘verify first, then establish trust.’ If something or someone feels amiss, it’s crucial to trust your instincts and exercise caution.”

Making Space for Serendipity

Bryant reflects on what it means to be a trailblazer and the importance of taking care of oneself as an innovative leader, particularly as a woman of color.

“You absolutely can be what you don’t see in the world because that is what innovators do. So, if you transfer innovators with trail blazers, that’s what trailblazers do — they see a need in the world, and they find a way to fill it. And I think that the need for each of us that are called trailblazers is unique.”

As a trailblazer and founder, Kimberly Bryant recognizes that, “the endurance piece of being a leader and being able to get to that end goal and not have lost all of yourself, is extremely important.”

In that vein, she rejects the trope of the “strong woman”, as she says, “that needs to be put away in the filing cabinet and not used as a badge of honor because I think it’s important for us to realize that the body keeps the score. The position to ‘warrior’ through some challenging times, it catches up with you, and it catches up with the body.” She hopes to set a different pace in this next part of the road in her career and make time for creativity and space for serendipity.

One of the passions that Bryant has in mind when she talks about making space for serendipity is gardening. She describes gardening as “”a means to re-engage with the natural world, to immerse oneself in the process of nurturing life. It’s about celebrating successes and learning from failures, all while maintaining a profound connection with the earth. My garden is more than just soil and plants; it’s my sanctuary—a place of both respite and revival. Over the past few years, I’ve come to realize that tending to my garden has been a source of profound healing and renewal, a lifeline that has helped me navigate life’s ups and downs.”

It seems a fitting hobby for Bryant who has dedicated her career to growing as a leader and nurturing others along the way.

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Intrepid Woman: Marie Heron, Executive Director at On-Track Career and Employment Services

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As part of disability awareness month, we are giving a platform to women to tell their stories. Marie Heron

Successful, career oriented, and a visionary, Marie Heron has transformed her $100,000 funded agency into multiple delivery sites and more than 1.5 million dollars in funding. Over the years, she has been an adult educator, career counsellor and eventually an Executive Director. Heron’s career path, however, was far from barrier free.

At the age of 24, Heron worked as a sales representative for an International Personnel Agency. A self described over achiever, Heron strived to climb the career ladder to become a site manager. Her life, however, was about to take an unexpected turn, beginning with an emergency visit to St. Michael’s Hospital. After three days of testing, Heron was diagnosed as having the chronic illness Multiple Sclerosis.

Left with more questions than answers, Heron returned to work, where she quickly learned that life was not what it was before. ”After the initial diagnosis, I had three successive relapses, which required time off of work,” said Heron. “My employer had to let me go because I was taking so much time off work.”

Taking a Step Back to Move Forward

Not wanting to repeat this experience, Heron made the decision to take on shorter-term contracts while she adapted to life with a chronic illness. Although, it was a choice that resulted in significantly less money, it was a necessary step to gain a better understanding of her illness and what she would need to do to adapt. Over time, Heron realized that she could either sit and wallow in self pity or proceed forward with her dreams. And so, she moved forward, determined to construct her own career path. “Physically I was having periodic episodes of vertigo, vision loss and falls, intermixed with periods of remission,” said Heron. “I recognized that I was the only one responsible for my career, so I took control.” The answer for Heron was to start her own business, the Art of Reception, a training company for receptionists.   The business started out small, with a few key staff members that she could trust to take the lead during periods of relapse.

After a few years, Heron recognized the company’s potential for growth, but to do so she would require additional capital. “I went to a local politician’s office, every week, for a year and half, with the hopes of obtaining federal funding,” said Heron. Her perseverance paid off. “I was the youngest and first woman to get that much federal funding,” said Heron. “But it was what my contact said when the funding was received that was both surprising and inspiring.” The politician shared that he had helped to knock down the doors, but what Heron did beyond the doors was up to her.

And that is exactly what she did, continuing to break down barriers and expand her company. With the growth of the company, Heron became less forthcoming about her illness to her staff. “When people heard that I had multiple sclerosis, immediately they started to research and develop biases that impacted our interactions,” said Heron. “And so, I made the decisions to not tell people about my illness, as it did not define who I was.”

Strange Side Effects of the Illness

Navigating a career with a chronic illness, equipped Heron with both a positive attitude and perseverance that helped to both inspire and motivate her clients. Because she had such high expectations for herself, she, found herself expecting her staff to follow her example. “Because I had done so much myself, “said Heron. “I found that I had developed extremely high expectations for my employees.” To help manage her expectations, Heron hired a human resources consultant to assist her with both management techniques and to develop policies and procedures for her company.

Over the years, Heron has learned a lot about growing her career and the importance of self-care, but this wasn’t always the case. In her twenties and thirties, Heron, would often find herself working overtime, including weekends, to get in documents days before the deadline. Today, she’s learned to take things a bit slower, still ensuring that the deadline is met, but also taking the time to rest and rejuvenate.

“I recently read an article by Jack Osborne, who shared that there is a silver lining with being diagnosed“, said Heron. “He said, that if you can maintain your positivity, you can steer your progression. It resonated with me because I’ve always tried to be positive.” Although, multiple sclerosis does not define Heron, there is no question that it has helped evolve her to the person that she is today.

About Marie-Heron

Marie Heron, Executive Director at On-Track Career & Employment Services, was diagnosed with M.S. at 24. She has created a new podcast, “Truth Be Told” so that young people living with M.S. can find a safe resource for hope, inspiration, and advocacy.

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Intrepid Woman: Elisabeth DeMarse, Chair, President, and CEO of TheStreet.com

 
Elisabeth DeMarseElisabeth DeMarse is the archetype of a distinguished leader. The current Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer of TheStreet.com is a pioneer in the field of digital media and information technology, leading the next generation of women by example.
 
Young Startup
 
As a deliberate decision-maker with a persistent and insatiable work ethic, DeMarse had the good fortune of knowing, from the beginning of her career, what professional path suited her personality.
“I was co-opted by business early on, by the idea of getting things done,” said DeMarse, who, before delving into business technology, spent her pre-graduate school years working in social reform. First cutting her teeth in public policy after graduating from Wellesley College as a History major, DeMarse served on the Senate Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Watergate Committee), and as an aide for then New York Congressman Edward Koch, following him to City Hall when he was elected mayor. However, the sluggish pace of the life of a public servant, slowed by the bureaucracy of politics, frustrated DeMarse and she sought out the quicker pace of an occupation that matched her industrious temperament.
 
“Business is so much more interesting than it gets credit for,” said DeMarse, who attended Harvard Business School where she received an MBA in Marketing and Strategy. “I intentionally sought out a career in technology in 1980. I told me classmates, ‘I think this is going to be big’.”
 
Following graduation DeMarse looked specifically for a tech job, and by determined perseverance landed a staff position on the Operating Committee at Western Union, where she gained valuable insight about engineering, technology, and communication networks. After Western Union and a brief stint at Quotron, an early financial information space, the motivated young professional took a job as head of marketing in the late ‘80s for then up-and-coming company, Bloomberg L.P. With just a couple hundred employees at the time, DeMarse, “employee number 217,” joined Bloomberg during its formative years when the company was a “rocket ship” propelling forward into the new, unchartered territory of digital financial analysis.
 
Years later, when Michael Bloomberg left the company to pursue the mayoral candidacy, DeMarse –knowing her tenure with politics expired long ago – opted to continue down her forged path of information technology. Coming off of several successful media property creations at Bloomberg, DeMarse was soon recruited by Jeff Cunningham, the iconic Publisher of Forbes, to run the public company iLife.com. As the new CEO, she engineered the turnaround of the sinking business, bringing it back from financial turmoil and rebranding iLife into Bankrate.com. The success of the image change and rapid growth of Bankrate’s shareholder revenue not only secured DeMarse’s fascination with finances and the power of the Internet, but helped solidify the marketing executive as a reputable, prominent, and innovative leader in her field.
 
Gold Standard
 
The reputation that DeMarse established help her found another digital financial content company, Creditcards.com, which she eventually sold to her former employer. Moving into the online media profession, she accepted the position of CEO in 2010 of Newser.com. From this news service organization, the digital media expert took over her current job at TheStreet.com, where she has been serving as CEO, Chair, and President for the last two-and-a-half years.
 
‘I’m liberal arts major who’s succeeded in tech,” DeMarse explained of her own work history, noting the opportunity for women of any educational experience to join the technology vocation. “You don’t need a heavy engineering background in order to succeed, especially in digital media. There is plenty of room for people with strong liberal arts backgrounds.”
 
For DeMarse, it was a combination of joining the technology industry early on – in the revenue and marketing side – and developing strong leadership skills during the beginning of her career that helped her maintain a long, successful profession. Additionally, she credits her accomplishments to the career-changing advice, wisdom, and knowledge of several influential advisers.
“I had some great, important mentors. Ed Koch, Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Cunningham, Michael Wolff (founder of Newser), and Jim Cramer,” she said. “No one makes it on your own. You need to seek out the best people and learn from them. These folks changed my life. They gave me a chance, and I ran with it. ”
 
In turn, DeMarse, whom Cramer, co-founder of TheStreet, calls ‘indefatigable,’ seeks to inspire the next generation of women in tech by setting a positive, tangible example.
 
“Success inspires success. Just by being here, as a female CEO, speaks volumes. I try to mentor, support, encourage and coach all my employees, male or female. I desperately want them all to succeed, to be the best they can be,” she said, stressing that the best advice she can give to young professionals is to place great importance in making smart business choices and operating under fair and honest business practices.
“Life is short, choose how you do business. Is what you are doing fair, accurate, and honest?” DeMarse asked, noting that she takes utmost care to make sure she delivers a good product, maintains excellent customer service, and honest marketing tactics. “It’s important to me to maintain a gold standard.”
 
After 40 years within the industry, DeMarse, who also currently serves on the Board of Directors of AppNexus Inc., still upholds her gold standard of excellence and places a strong belief in the moral value of work. She continues to find technology a source of growing interests, including her long-time passion for online financial literacy.
 
Moving Forward
 
In response to the theory that the media places a heavy emphasis on how women in high-powered positions must struggle to balance home life and work, DeMarse finds, “the whole thing preposterous. The media misinterprets real life, and they are making an issue that’s not an issue.”
She hopes her home/work life situation will eventually set an example for what could be the new norm for professional businesswomen.
“I’m one of the rare people who says ‘you can have it all.’ I don’t know how to cook and don’t know the last time I was in a grocery store, but I love what I do, and have two great children and a great husband.”
 
Last week, in a keynote speech at a Columbia University’s Journalism School Gala, DeMarse turned off topic to point out that, “Today, journalism schools are over 70 percent female and Columbia’s MS program 76 percent female.  Yet we are hopelessly out of synch. Newsrooms linger at 40 percent female.  There is a gap is in hiring and promotion. There is a gap is in giving women and minorities a fair chance. Now, let’s discuss the people business journalists are interviewing. Today, in 2014, elite business schools are 35 percent female. Imagine that.”
 
Recently, DeMarse was recognized by the Girl Scouts of Greater New York as a Women of Distinction honoree for her achievements, leadership and integrity, and inclusion and social accountability within her field. And despite her previous accolades (including: Folio’s Top Women in Media, Working Mother of the Year, Most Intriguing Person in Media, NOW Woman of Power and Influence, and Fast Company Fast 50, among others), DeMarse – a former Girl Scout ­– felt more personally connected to her recent award and its young audience, as she was able to reunite with her own youthful experiences and visions.
 
The role model, who inspires “confidence, courage, and character” for intrepid women of all ages, offered a final word of advice, explaining that diverse backgrounds can help open up new possibilities in any career path, in any profession.
“Don’t give up on anything, ever. Be persistent, indefatigable. The idea should be that you do the best job you can all the time and operate at the highest level,” she encouraged. “Furthermore, take on the obligation to make this world a place where women and minorities never experience limits based on their race or gender.”
By Hadley Catalano
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