Jazmine Lewis

I attribute my success to two main things. First, being able to be present for my daughter and all of her milestones. I only have one child - she's my blessing child after I had 6 miscarriages in the second trimester due to PCOS and endometriosis. When I was working in the nonprofit field, I was holding up the bloodstained banner, being the martyr for a cause, there from sun up to sundown. My daughter sat in many board meetings and city council meetings. I had an aha moment where I thought, how can I be about youth development when I have a youth at home and I'm not even there to develop her? So when she started high school, I decided to build my own business so I could pick her up from school every day at 3:30 and talk about her day. That was really important to me - to be there for her for all four years of high school. The second thing is being able to mentor other folks along the way and stand in the gap for them in specific situations. For example, when a young lady at one of my previous employers was having a miscarriage at work, I immediately stood in the gap for her because something similar happened to me and no one was there to tell me I could get counseling through the job or go on FMLA. I experienced injustice when a white female counterpart in a similar situation had the red carpet rolled out for her while I didn't receive the same support. I told myself that when I ever see injustices like that, I want to be there to stand in the gap for that person. Those messages I get on LinkedIn from folks saying I did something for them that I didn't even know about - those things make me feel proud of what I've accomplished.

The best career advice I've ever received is especially important when you level up into a supervisory role - whether that's coordinator, manager, director, whatever. You need to meet people where they're at, not where you think they should be. Meeting people where they're at shows folks that you're taking the time to get to know them, that you want to know them, and that you're taking the steps to help them level up to where they need to be, instead of meeting people where they need to be when they're not there yet. That was one of the best lessons I've ever gotten, and it saved me a lot of heartache when I saw counterparts that were supervisors doing the opposite. It brings a breadth of empathy and humanity that most people don't have, or they've been in a role for a long time and they've become super jaded and they don't realize that's what they're doing.

I would say a couple of things to young women in general. First, make sure that you have a sponsor in the workplace, make sure that you have a mentor, and make sure that you have a coach. Those are three very important things to be able to have. We don't talk enough to young women about the importance of social capital - what it is and how to use it. It's more than just networking. It's a part of building out a map to help you get to where you need to go. It is your social credit. I talk to my daughter about this - ever since she started high school, when she wants to get something or an internship, I ask her what social capital she's using to get that thing. It really makes her think strategically about the relationships that she's building with her teachers or whomever. So for young women, I definitely say be mindful about building out social capital. If you don't know what it is, find out what it is. Social and cultural capital, and how it's unique to you, and how you can build up on it, and making sure that you get a mentor, and a coach, and a sponsor, and understanding the difference between those three.

I would say one of the biggest challenges in my field right now is balancing the demands of professional growth with deeply personal experiences. For example, I’ve faced significant personal challenges, including multiple miscarriages, which have impacted my academic progress. Navigating these experiences while continuing to advance professionally has been difficult, but it has also offered an opportunity to cultivate resilience, empathy, and a deeper understanding of how personal circumstances intersect with career development.

The most important value to me in my work and personal life is to dream beyond. I have it as one of my values for my business, but that's because it's also a personal value of mine. Dreaming beyond what people tell you is possible for you, or people that look like you, or live where you live, or speak the way that you speak. When you dream beyond that threshold, anything is possible. Going back to being in those boardrooms with folks that didn't look like me, it was very discouraging. I received lots and lots of micro and macro aggressions. But when you are able to be in those places and still speak the way that you speak - I always tell people, just because I have my own firm or whatever title, I still speak the vernacular that I'm gonna speak. I'm in the boardroom and I'm saying this is dope. It's not gonna change me, and that's important because I need people that are next to me, or supporting me, or people that I supervise to be able to see that you can still bring your full self to the table and still make change. When you put those two things together - dreaming beyond what other people said was possible - that's what matters most to me.