- Hello, and welcome to our
"Celebrate Black History Leadership Spotlight,"
presented by the Ford Motor Company Fund.
Thank you so much for tuning in
throughout the month of February.
We've had the great privilege
of interviewing social innovators
from PNC, Bank of America,
Collins Aerospace, part of Raytheon Technologies,
and Stanley Black & Decker.
Today we're highlighting some of the lessons
that we've gathered throughout this month,
and we're looking forward to thinking about Black history
as more than just a 28-day celebration,
but celebrating Black leadership year-round.
I'm Cynthia Jones, the director of Museum Experiences
and Engagement at The Henry Ford.
And today I am so grateful
to my colleagues, Mydashia and Jarell,
who are joining me to kinda wrap up this series,
pull out the best of what we've been hearing this month.
So welcome, Jarell and Mydashia.
I'm gonna ask you first off
if you could introduce yourselves.
Tell us a little bit about your role
and what you do at The Henry Ford.
Jarell, I'll start with you.
- Awesome, Cynthia, thanks for having me.
Currently at The Henry Ford,
I'm the head of Analytics and Business Intelligence,
where, you know, I manage the growth and capabilities
of The Henry Ford's data engineering and analytics.
And our main goal is to develop visionary advances
in the use of data across The Henry Ford,
so we created data environments that allow The Henry Ford
to serve its mission and partners,
and systemic processes and reporting
that can be included in business, like cycle planning.
Lastly, I co-lead and support The Henry Ford's
DEIA council, with Mydashia.
- And we'll transition over to Mydashia
if my microphone is working again.
So, wonderful co-lead
on our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,
if you could introduce yourself.
- Awesome, of course, thank you, Cynthia.
I am the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion manager
here at The Henry Ford,
which means I have the pleasure of collaborating
with departments and teams across the institution,
really working to identify the critical needs
that we have in these areas,
as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.
And we also work to explore solutions
to meet the needs that we have in those areas.
As you mentioned, I'm also actively leading
our overarching DEIA Council here.
My work also includes helping to shape
our recruitment strategies to meet our long-term goal
of diversifying our workforce here,
and overall just pushing our community forward,
to become more equitable and inclusive
for every person here that we have on staff,
including folks who are traditionally underrepresented.
So that's part of the core of the work that I do.
- Excellent, and I know throughout this month,
both of you very generously stepped forward
and were moderators for these interviews
that we were able to do
with some of these amazing,
both very established and up-and-coming leaders
in their fields.
I'm wondering, from your interviews
or what you've been hearing this month,
what are key takeaways?
Did you have a quote or an idea
that you uncovered in your interviews
or in the interviews you listened to
that you'd like to share with us?
- Yes, yeah, I had the pleasure
of interviewing Jasmine LeFlore,
a rocket scientist at Raytheon technologies.
And one key takeaway I uncovered
was just the power of an innovative mindset.
Not only is she a rocket scientist,
an innovator by nature,
but she leads a nonprofit that creates environments
and programs to develop these mindsets,
in underrepresented youth communities.
It was really a light bulb
when she leveraged her professional expertise
and her passion to create a full-circle model of impact,
all from that mindset.
- That's awesome.
- Yeah, so for me,
I was able to interview Deola Animashaun
from Bank of America.
He works with their Consumer Community Banking region,
and just overall, his story was just very inspiring
as an immigrant to America.
And in our conversation,
he really highlighted the importance
of reaching back and giving back
to those folks who are sorta coming up behind us,
in our own journeys.
We spoke about Black History Month, of course,
and Deola shared that he's inspired daily, really,
by Frederick Douglass, who taught him the importance
of not letting your present situation
determine your future outcome,
which I thought was a very important perspective
for all of us to hold onto,
especially in the face of challenges,
whether it's in work or life in general.
And I think that leads into Jarell's point
as far as an innovative mindset.
The way you face challenges every day
I think helps to build on that,
and just promotes growth overall.
- That's good, I really love that you both
kind of pulled out both the innovative mindset,
but also the reaching back and reaching forward piece.
I also really like, Jarell,
your example highlighted some of what I heard
from all of our interviewees,
and what I see in both of you, which is,
you go beyond the specifics of your job,
and whether it's founding a nonprofit
outside of your official job
and working in that realm,
or whether it's working on DEAI Councils,
whether it's working on employee resource groups.
I heard that as a consistent theme
throughout all of our interviews this month.
And that made me think about my next question,
which is, here at The Henry Ford,
we've been reflecting that Black history,
innovation, empowerment, these are all things
that need to be celebrated year-round,
not just for a month.
We've been trying to move towards that as a 365 commitment.
What are ways you see this happening,
or that you hope to see this happening
at The Henry Ford, that we might reflect on?
- Yeah, you know, being from an analytics
and data background,
I see Black history in ethnic groups,
in race groups and everywhere,
in every industry, every occupation.
Taking race and color out of it,
in every group or segment, there is history of color.
You know, we just have to look hard enough,
and with the power of data,
and the power of our ability to be social,
more social than we have been in prior period,
we can connect that.
I think connecting that over time,
and continuing to find the data points
when we're celebrating every major month
or every group, really just continuing to see
who represents that group,
from all different backgrounds, including race.
So I think that's one way
that we can continue that,
through all of our programming, every month.
- I love this question, Cynthia.
And what came to mind for me
is the fact that I think every year
around this time of year, around Black History Month,
we hear the phrase that
"Black history is American history,"
which I agree that it definitely is.
And I just wanted to say that Black history does exist
here at The Henry Ford,
but we can do much better in that area,
which is, I think, an important
and a great thing, really, to acknowledge
because it means that we have the opportunity to grow.
My hope is to see us expand and deepen the stories
that we share about Black innovators and Black inventors,
and really be intentionally committed
to uplifting and championing them every day of the year.
I also wanna recognize that
the history of Black people in this country
doesn't just exist in the past,
but it's here and in the now.
And I would love to see us find new and fresh ways
to celebrate the history being made in our present today,
whether it's in the communities where you live,
supporting Black businesses,
or coming to a place like The Henry Ford
and seeing the stories that we're able to share
around Black history.
- I really love both of those perspectives.
And I think what I so appreciate
about being able to do this series with you
as joint moderators in this,
is bringing also the perspective of allyship,
and thinking about how we can constantly be learning
to be better allies,
whether that's me personally,
or whether that's us as an institution that's changing.
Thank you for bringing forward, Mydashia,
I think what you just said about
looking at who's making history today,
and making those connections.
Jarell, I love your perspective
on the data points about who's represented
in the various months throughout the year,
and how we can maybe pull those stories forward,
and gain some traction.
And I think there's a lot to learn there,
and I think there's a lot we are learning there.
So, thank you for that.
I think it goes to growth mindset for sure.
So one of the things I think I've been thinking about
throughout this series, and as we get ready
to kind of close this month of focus on Black history,
but continuing that growth mindset,
is learning from Black leaders.
And I love learning from both of you,
so thank you both for that.
Our partners for this series
have been the Ford Motor Company Fund,
and they just released a new episode.
They have a whole series of videos,
"Our Voices, Our Stories,"
and their newest one focused on Andrew Young.
And Andrew Young was someone who I had studied
around Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement,
and the work he'd been doing
as a religious leader there in civil rights.
So I watched that film recently.
It's about 45 minutes, a good watch.
And something he closed with was that,
early in his journey,
he'd asked himself if there was something he could do
that no one else could do.
And I loved that, because what the answer that he found
was that he could lead through courage.
He could lead through collaboration,
and I thought that was such a good lesson.
So for both of you,
thank you so much for leading in those areas.
Thank you for collaborating with us on this.
Are there any tips or points you would like to leave
for leaders up and coming, that you'd like to share?
- I would, you know, really label it with courage.
Do not be afraid to reach out and do something different,
and to reach out to those community leaders
that you see in your neighborhoods,
that, you know, kid, big brother, or teacher.
I would really think the focus
needs to be on collaborative,
collaboration and collectiveness.
I think it's a lot easier
to get some of these things done,
with collaboration and connection.
- Yeah, and to that I think what came to mind for me was,
the idea of "each one, teach one."
And going back to Deola's message about
how we reach back and support other people.
I think in leadership,
it's so important to continue that.
We all have our passions and things that we care about.
And you know, if you're focused on the community
and the things that are important to you,
then you really can't go wrong.
So continue to push.
As Jarell said, don't give up.
Stay encouraged and empowered
in the work that you do.
- That is a perfect way to close this series.
And thank you both so much. For all of you who have
tuned in with us throughout February,
thank you for your attention and your time.
We hope you have found this empowering.
If you get a chance to visit us
at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan,
we hope you'll consider taking our tour
of stories of Black empowerment.
You know, that is certainly something
we can focus on well beyond February.
It's a resource that'll be out there
for you well beyond February.
So, we encourage you to take the time to do that.
Visit us in Dearborn, or visit us online at thf.org
to learn about other leaders, innovators,
inventors and entrepreneurs
who inspire us every single day, thank you.