Her Story
About Essence
Essence Spencer brings together her roots in STEM and the humanities to inform her consulting practice. A first-generation college student, she attended UC Santa Cruz where she initially studied environmental sciences before switching to critical race and ethnic studies with a focus in linguistics. Her professional path includes roles in the nonprofit sector, higher education, and tech environments such as startups and design companies. She later founded her own consulting firm that integrates the humanities and sciences. Spencer is passionate about fostering psychological safety in the spaces she curates and has launched initiatives including the Vantage workshop for women founders, which achieved a 75 percent success rate and secured national sponsorships. She also curated the Football on the Block community watch party series in partnership with the Tomescal Business Improvement District. Her approach to collaboration emphasizes starting with conversations to ensure alignment of goals, and she draws motivation from community and her neurodivergent perspective.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Essence
01What do you attribute your success to?
Community genuinely contributes a lot to my success. I'm fueled by people, and when it comes to wanting to be creative and knowing how to execute that, being able to provide safe spaces that focus on psychological safety is really important to me. When people find that safety inside the spaces I curate, I really appreciate it because that also keeps me going. I'm also neurodivergent, and being able to feel safe inside my spaces helps me a lot.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's really important to start with a conversation with someone when you are trying to partner or collaborate with them. To really connect with them and understand what their main focal points are before assuming that you can execute what they're asking for. Make sure that there's alignment in what your goals are and what their goals are to begin that collaboration process.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In the consulting space, there are tech companies that do not know how to connect to people. When someone comes from a background of knowing how to collaborate, handle partnerships, sales or operations, that's really helpful because sometimes tech companies don't know how to partner. There's strings they can provide to that industry, or even small businesses or organizations that want to know how to access tools, and women techies that know how to connect to those tools.
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