Born to Lead

Born to Lead was written to inspire change agents and young activists searching for an authentic story about the fight for social justice and life in public service. It’s a non-conventional case study on the role of culture in America. It explores my personal loss while attending Yale Divinity School and transitions backwards through my professional and academic achievements that include: serving as president of the student divestment movement that convinced the University of Maryland Board of Regents and the state’s eleven campuses to withdraw all holdings from South Africa; encounters living and working in sustainable development (in Benin, West Africa, Haiti, and other countries); and chronicles my rise in political communications having served as director of communications for the second largest polling firm in America during the 2004 presidential election (with partners like NBC’s Meet the Press, Wall Street Journal Online and Reuters Newswire). It’s a fairly short semi-biographic that celebrates the highs and lows of exceptional opportunities and the implicit pressures of being young, black and female in Washington, DC’s political jungle.