Leading Women

Finding Our Place, Lifting Each Other

When I first walked into Kelley Indianapolis in the fall of 2024, I carried quiet questions with me. Would I belong here? Would my voice matter in a school that, like so many business schools, has been shaped by traditions that often center on men? As a woman and a woman of color, I wondered how I would navigate classrooms, organizations, and leadership roles. What I found in my first year surprised me. The community I stepped into was not only welcoming but intentional a

7 days ago4 min read

Whole Women. Whole Leadership.

“Women who.” It sounds unfinished until you meet the women who complete the sentence. Women who open a door and widen it. Women who speak truth with tenderness, work with rigor, and make room for others as a matter of practice. In our cohort, I’m honored to witness five such leaders whose paths are distinct and whose impact overlaps: Christian Massey, Karen Lyles, Belinda Murray, Dr. Juaneka L. Thomas, and Alexis Watts. Each is a graduate of A Seat At The Table’s Undivided Co

7 days ago6 min read

Community Building: The Power of Speaking Each Other’s Names

Alone means having no one else present. Everyone has felt this feeling at least once in their life—starting a new school, moving out, or launching something brand new. That moment of discomfort, when you don’t know where to begin, is exactly why communities matter. When building community, the questions that you ask yourself are simple but profound: Who? What? Where? How? Networking can be one of the hardest things to do if you don’t know where to start. Create. Connect. C

7 days ago3 min read

Rising Together: The Impact of InspireHER Collective

Success for women has too often been defined by impossible standards – balancing careers, families, and personal dreams without missing a beat. The pressure to be everything to everyone can feel relentless. In a world that often tells women to “do it all,” InspireHER Collective offers a powerful alternative: a trusted circle where ambition and authenticity can sit at the same table. Launched in 2024 by Colleen Hungerford and Cheryl Medeiros, InspireHER is an all-women’s ma

7 days ago6 min read

A Source of Renewal and Resilience

When I launched Make Your Money Matter – Michigan, I knew I wasn’t just creating a business directory, I was building a love letter to the women and communities who show up, open shop, and do the work that keeps our cities not just running, but thriving. This is for the women who unlock their storefronts before sunrise and flip the sign to open with pride and purpose. It’s for the women who make neighborhoods feel like home, one My aunt was born five years before my father

7 days ago5 min read

Invincible

My Power Was Never Hard to Pronounce—Just Hard to Contain Growing up in a predominantly white community in Wisconsin, I was one of only three Indian students in my entire high school. For four years, I faced racism, bigotry, adversity, and xenophobia—experiences that made me acutely aware of my differences. My name, Alabhya, meaning "one who is invincible," was constantly mispronounced or reduced to nicknames for convenience. Instead of making the effort to learn my name, tea

Apr 115 min read

You Are the Main Character

In popular media, people’s background context is often told explicitly to help us, the audience, understand characters quickly and get focused on the storytelling. Blockbuster movies tend to quickly attribute the highest influence to those characters who have an Ivy League education or surged to success within their careers in record-breaking time. Iron Man is a great example because he’s a super genius who went to MIT, and that equates to inherent goodness as a superhero. Wh

Apr 115 min read