The Power of AND
Embracing Multiple Identities: Why Leadership Means Staying Connected to Your Community
The Power of AND
Throughout my career, I have noticed something interesting.
The higher you climb, the more people expect you to distance yourself from the ground.
As our titles become more prestigious, there is often an unspoken assumption that certain opportunities are no longer worthy of our time. That some invitations are too small. That some audiences should be left to someone else. That leadership requires us to move farther and farther away from the very communities that helped shape who we are.
I have spent much of my career wrestling with that expectation.
A Tension Between What I Do and Who I Am
Recently, I found myself reflecting on a series of invitations I received from my community. A local school invited me to participate in Career Day. Another asked me to serve as the keynote speaker for an eighth-grade graduation. A third invited me to speak with students during National Signing Day.
To some, these may seem like routine requests.
To me, they represent something much greater.
They represent opportunities to show up.
To show up for students who may never have met a first-generation college graduate. To show up for young people trying to imagine what their futures might look like. To show up as someone who once sat where they sit today, wondering whether their dreams were possible.
Yet these experiences also highlighted a tension I have encountered throughout my professional journey.
A tension between what I do and who I am.
Today, I serve in a statewide senior level position. I am also the Founder and CEO of Leading Young Women, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering girls and young women through leadership development, mentorship, and community engagement.
To many people, these roles seem distinct.
Some view one as my profession and the other as my passion.
Some see one as my career and the other as my volunteer work.
Some even suggest that, eventually, I may have to choose between them.
But I have come to believe that the question itself is flawed.
Why Can't It Be AND?
Why does it have to be either/or?
Why can't it be AND?
Why can't I be a public servant and a community advocate?
Why can't I be an educational leader and a mentor?
Why can't I help shape statewide initiatives while also showing up for a classroom of eighth graders?
The truth is that neither role exists independently of the other.
My work in higher education allows me to understand the policies, systems, and barriers that affect students across our state. My work in the community allows me to see how those same policies and systems affect real people, real families, and real futures.
One informs the other.
One strengthens the other.
One keeps the other grounded.
That Understanding Did Not Disappear
As a first-generation college graduate, I know firsthand what it means when someone takes the time to invest in you. I know the impact of mentors, educators, and advocates who see potential before you can see it in yourself. I know what it feels like to navigate spaces where you are unsure whether you belong.
That understanding did not disappear when I earned my doctorate.
It did not disappear when I began serving as a senior leader.
It did not disappear when I joined boards, assumed leadership roles, or accumulated professional accomplishments.
If anything, those experiences deepened my responsibility to remain connected to the communities that shaped me.
I often think about the message we unintentionally send when successful people become inaccessible.
What does it communicate to young people when the very individuals they aspire to become are no longer visible in their schools, neighborhoods, churches, and community organizations?
What does it say when success requires separation?
Leadership Is About Creating Pathways
For me, leadership has never been about creating distance.
Leadership is about creating pathways.
It is about reaching back.
It is about ensuring that others can see what is possible because someone took the time to show them.
This belief extends beyond my work with Leading Young Women. It shows up in my service through Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. It shows up in my involvement with community organizations, boards, and civic initiatives. It shows up whenever I am invited into a space where I can encourage, educate, mentor, or advocate.
Not because I have extra time.
Not because every opportunity advances my career.
But because I remember what it felt like to need someone to show up for me.
The Power of AND
Too often, women are encouraged to shrink themselves into a single identity.
We are asked to choose.
- Career or family.
- Leadership or service.
- Professional success or community engagement.
- Entrepreneur or public servant.
But the most impactful women I know have never lived within the confines of a single title.
- They are mothers and executives.
- Mentors and entrepreneurs.
- Advocates and administrators.
- Visionaries and builders.
Their power comes not from choosing one identity over another, but from embracing the fullness of who they are.
That is the power of AND.
I am not a Senior Leader or the Founder and CEO of Leading Young Women.
I am both.
I am not a professional leader or a community advocate.
I am both.
And I have come to realize that my greatest impact does not happen when I choose between these identities.
It happens when I embrace all of them.
Because success was never meant to separate us from our communities.
It was meant to equip us to serve them more effectively.
