8 Career Lessons from People of Color Leading in Their Industries

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8 leaders of color in their respective industries share their advice for young professionals in 1871’s “I Got a Story to Tell” speaker series.

In June 2021, we kicked off our “I Got a Story to Tell” summer speaker series for our summer intern class, hosted by 1871 Chief Operating Officer, Lisa Laws. Inspired by the 1997 Biggie song of the same name, each week the series showcased eight professionals from all walks of life sharing their story of how they got to where they are today, pursuing their passions unapologetically. 

“The goal was to showcase people of color in my network who took a unique path to where they are today through focusing on passion, maintaining a good network, and the power of mentorship,” said 1871 COO Lisa Laws. “It’s important to show everyone watching that you don’t have to follow the path that others project for you, you can follow your own journey.” 

Here are eight key lessons we learned over the course of the series.

Lesson One: Be kind to people

Rosa Escareno, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

We kicked off the series with Rosa Escareno, proud Latina and current Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. 

After college, she found herself in the mayor’s office working as a budget analyst and auditor, roles that allowed her to make a real impact working on some of the city’s biggest issues. She soon realized that working in government was truly her passion, but was more a fan of the operational side of work than crunching numbers in the budget office. 

“I decided, what I really like to do is talk to people,” Rosa shared. Her plan was to go back to graduate school to pursue communications. 

She was washing her hands in her workplace bathroom where she ran into a colleague who happened to be the assistant to the mayor’s press secretary. She asked her if she spoke Spanish to which Rosa responded, “Si, yo hablo Español!” The rest was history. Within a month, with no media relations experience, she was working in former Mayor Richard Daley’s press office. This role led her to a multitude of other opportunities such as Director of Media Affairs for the Chicago Fire Department and later Deputy Chief of Operations for former Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. 

“I was always kind to her. That’s where being nice to people gets you. I always gave her the time of day.”

Lesson Two: Aim high and align yourself with the best…but don’t be an a**hole!

Adrienne Cheatham, Restaurateur & Top Chef finalist

Soul food was always an integral part of Adrienne Cheatham’s life. Born in Chicago’s Hyde Park to a family from Mississippi, she was raised surrounded by the comfort and tradition of southern cooking. After graduation, Adrienne moved to New York City, where she quickly became acclimated to the restaurant industry. 

“I asked, what’s the best restaurant in the city? Great—I’m going there.” And she did just that, working at one of New York City’s top restaurants for the first 8 years of her career. 

Starting off her career with this level of confidence opened many doors for Adrienne and launched her into success as an entrepreneur. She’s worked on restaurant openings all over the world and in  2017, booked a role on Bravo’s competition cooking show, Top Chef, finishing as first runner-up. Most recently, Adrienne has been working on her very own pop-up dining series, SundayBest, allowing foodies to get a glimpse into her upbringing as she sheds a light on soul food with her own modern twist. 

Needless to say, Adrienne’s growth mindset has led her to reach unimaginable heights. 

“You have to align yourself with the best. You want to build your resume and show people you have the background and experience at high levels. That was my goal: find the best restaurant possible.” 

Lesson Three: Find your passion and stick with it 

Adolfo Hernandez, Director of the Pritzker Community Health Initiative for the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation

Born and raised in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, Adolfo Hernandez recalls not ever needing to speak English in his childhood due to the neighborhood’s rich Latino population. His parents immigrated to Chicago from Mexico in the 1970s and like most immigrants, wanted to create a better life for themselves, their family, and future generations. 

Adolfo spent two years at Columbia College Chicago before he stumbled upon a part-time street intervention job in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, cementing his interest in nonprofit work. He soon dropped out of school to pursue nonprofit work full-time, spending 10 years working with Black and Brown at-risk youth in the Humboldt Park community. This role led him to many other opportunities in the nonprofit sector and later began working for the mayor, launching Chicago’s very first office of immigrant affairs, the “Office of New Americans.” 

“My job was to make Chicago the most immigrant friendly city in the nation,” Adolfo shares. “Serving people who came to Chicago who were like my parents, who wanted to create a better future and opportunity for me and the family back home. This was a chance for me to help people realize those goals and those dreams.” 

Adolfo currently leads the community health initiative and the human and civil rights portfolio for the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation while simultaneously serving as the President of the Office of M.K. Pritzker, LLC, advising M.K. Pritzker on her agenda as First Lady. 

Focusing on his passion of serving his community has led Adolfo to where he is today. 

“This job did not exist before I got here — I couldn’t have dreamed of this job. Don’t close the door on opportunities or focus on a [specific] role, because the thing that may be perfect for you may not exist yet, and you may be the one who creates it.” 

Lesson Four: Don’t be afraid to rewrite your story

Alex Bell, Surveillance Standardization Project Functional Coordinator at Synchrony Financial

Growing up in Harlem in a less-than-perfect living situation, Alex Bell didn’t really know what his future would look like. His first love was sports, and was able to pursue this passion through support from his football coaches. Along the way, he had to navigate rejection, comparison, and a lack of resources from his university. 

“Everyone has their own race, they’ve got their own track. Someone is always going to have something you don’t have. For me, just focusing on getting better, doing the work, and being okay with the journey is how I ended up playing for the NFL,” Alex shares. 

After playing professional football for a while, Alex soon realized that the day-to-day life of a football player was not all it was cracked up to be. He switched gears and realized that he had a natural talent in sales. 

“I’m a people guy. I enjoy conversation, dialogue, and convincing people to do stuff that’s good for them,” Alex shared. “I wanted to learn sales from the ground up.” Alex later decided to pursue his MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business, a program he feels indebted to for teaching him to see past his comfort zone. 

“I learned it’s important to open your eyes to opportunities that align with what you want to do and what you’re interested in. It goes back to not competing with anybody but yourself. Being rigid doesn’t allow you to take advantage of the blessings life has for you, ” Alex shares. 

He currently serves as the Vice President of Surveillance Standardization at Synchrony Financial, the largest privately-owned credit card company in the United States. He is living proof that being open-minded, willing to learn, and finding positivity in all of life’s challenges are keys to success. 

Lesson Five: Cultural competency is key 

Suheily Natal Davis, Senior Director, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at McDonald’s

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Hyde Park, Suheily Natal Davis credits her multicultural upbringing for making her who she is today.  

While dipping her toe in the workforce through a few public interest law fellowships, she was taken aback by the lack of diversity in the field, later switching into the labor and employment sector. She worked as an attorney for an employment labor boutique firm for seven years before taking her skillset over to McDonald’s, working on the Senior Counsel of Global Labor and Employment for the corporation in 2017. 

After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, there was a global awakening to the reality of racism and prejudice that still exists in the United States. Many companies began to buckle down on their diversity and inclusion initiatives, and McDonalds was no stranger. 

“The team started getting the resources and attention it deserved and it expanded exponentially. One of the roles created was to lead Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the US specifically, and someone came and asked me.” 

Suheily, who thought of herself as a lawyer first and foremost, knew this role would be out of her comfort zone but trusted that it aligned with her purpose. 

“I thought maybe this is a good space for this moment in time, based on the needs of our country and our brand,” she shared. She currently works as Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the billion-dollar corporation, 

“My perspective for this moment in time is that this is not a moment in time and we, as humans, will be making some really foundational impacts to embed cultural competency in people, and that will be the start of something new,” she shares. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re in this for the long run. We’re finally starting to have some of the really meaningful conversations that we should have been having a long time ago.” 

Lesson Six: Use your skills in creative ways

Jason Crain, Restaurateur and Chief Revenue Officer at Slutty Vegan ATL

When he left Kansas City to attend Morehouse College at 18 years old, Jason Crain thought for sure that he would pursue a career in investment banking. His plans completely changed when he got an internship at Google his junior year, introducing him to the ever-changing world of technology. After graduation, he found himself at Google’s New York City office full-time, working with Fortune 500 companies and ultimately developing the skills that would propel him to later success in the tech and business worlds. 

“Google taught me the standard, it kept me on my toes,” Jason shared. 

From there, Jason was working at Shazam when he was contacted by a former colleague at Google asking to join forces for a new app she was developing called Partpic, which was later sold to Amazon. After the acquisition, he worked with Amazon to develop key tech features for their app, particularly in the fields of visual search and augmented reality, continuing to develop his skill set. 

In 2017, he decided to pursue his MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business while simultaneously investing in new projects. Among these were a new vegan restaurant in Atlanta called Slutty Vegan, which grew very quickly in success. 

As Chief Revenue Officer, Jason was able to use his background in technology and incorporate it into the restaurant industry, skyrocketing Slutty Vegan to success. The burger chain beat all odds, expanding from one to four locations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I invested in a restaurant that a year later turned into this bustling brand,” Jason shares. “I recognized that [the founder] had built something that needed support in terms of scaling the business. From the tech side it’s very easy because you’re building it into the code, but from a brick-and-mortar perspective, that’s very different. I’ve infused technology at every angle of this business.”

Jason accredits his time at Kellogg School of Business for teaching him the importance of using transferable skills in today’s business world. 

“I’m gonna have to credit Kellogg for helping me understand that I’m an entrepreneur; business and fundamentals are the same across industries,” Jason shares. “There’s nothing stopping me from going from advertising, to product development, to restaurants, to space. The business fundamentals are the same. I believe in finding and building teams of experts and coming together. That’s been the crutch of how we’ve been able to grow.” 

Lesson Seven: Community is the foundation to success 

Autumn S. Merritt,  Vice President of Operations at Manifest 

Autumn Merritt always had retail and fashion in her blood. Growing up, she took on retail jobs and her mother worked in merchandising, proving to have left a deeper impression on her than she realized at the time. After studying Marketing at Howard University, she knew she wanted to make a real impact on the creative community in her hometown of Chicago. 

“Our creatives that were born [in Chicago] and making an impact were moving away, and we couldn’t afford that at the time,” she shared. To combat this, Autumn began to host social events to foster a community of creatives that strived to bring change to the city. 

After years of working on their craft and building their network, she and her husband opened clothing brand “Sir and Madame” in their hometown of Hyde Park in 2007, creating a name for themselves in the Chicago fashion scene. Sir and Madame found major success, doing collaborations with global brands Shiseido, HBO, Complex, and even a commercial with Honda. 

Autumn believes in the power of community, mentorship, and connecting people. She attributes her success to taking the support she’s had and paying it forward in any way possible. 

“We built relationships that really helped catapult us into the next phase of life,” she shares. “Never burn a bridge. Things may not always work out how you think, but my whole world is a 180 — I’m always coming back to some point that is familiar. It’s nice just to be able to say ‘hey, we worked well together or maybe we didn’t, but I still appreciate what you brought to the table and I was able to learn something from it.’” 

Lesson Eight: Search for the success story in everyone 

Dr. Calvin Mackie, Founder of STEM NOLA

It’s hard to believe that someone with the credentials of Dr. Calvin Mackie recalls growing up in a house with no books. 

“My father dropped out of school in the eighth grade to pick cotton and my mother went to a state-approved Negro high school. My dad eventually started a roofing company,” Calvin shares. “By the time I could walk, weekends and summers I had to work with my dad. He would give me a hammer and a nail and I would try to build something. That was my introduction to STEM.” 

Calvin attended Morehouse College, pursuing a degree in mathematics and finishing number one in his class. He went on to become one of only eleven African-Americans in the country to receive a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering and the first and only African-American to have ever tenured in the history of the College of Engineering at Tulane University. 

Today, Calvin has dedicated his life to changing the narrative for low-income students of color who grew up in similar circumstances. Seven years ago he founded STEM NOLA, a community based non-profit with the mission to expose, inspire, and engage communities in STEM. 

“We live in a nation right now that makes sure every black and brown boy touches a football or basketball before the age of 4,” Calvin said. “My vision is to make sure that every kid, especially from low-income, low-resource communities, touches STEM before the age of 4 so that our kids know they can create something, to not only transform their lives, but transform their communities and create new economies. “ 

Calvin’s story proves that with every difficult situation there comes an opportunity for growth, success, and the chance to beat all odds. 

“The SAT said I shouldn’t be in college and 11 years later, I had four STEM degrees. That is why when I look around at our children, I see hope and possibility, because people looked at me and they didn’t see that.”

We’d like to give a huge thanks to Lisa Laws for making this series possible, and to all our speakers for sharing their stories over these past eight weeks. Thank you for inspiring us with your wisdom, truths, and life lessons, making this a truly memorable summer!