<p><strong>Describe your very first civic engagement.</strong></p>
<p>Registering people to vote on the campus of Dillard University, the historically Black college I attended in the 1990s.</p>
<p><strong>What was your biggest professional triumph?</strong></p>
<p>Spearheading the inaugural prayer service by the Black Caucus to open up the 2012 Democratic convention. It is always a struggle to get people to think outside of what they have ever done, and we had a lot of roadblocks — from buy-in from the party to getting sponsorships and finding speakers to volunteer their time. It was a huge task, and I had to call in a lot of favors, but we did it, and it was terrific. You know it's a good night when Rev. Jesse Jackson and Michael Eric Dyson crash your party!</p>
<p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p><strong>And your most disappointing setback?</strong></p>
<p>Struggling to deal with people acting against their self-interest. People are not often empowered to get out of their own way. </p>
<p><strong>How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?</strong></p>
<p>Who I am is my work, who I am is my profession, what I am is my calling. I will always be a Black woman. I take the task of ensuring that Black people, especially women, are always included in the picture of what America should like.</p>
<p><strong>What's the best advice you've ever been given?</strong></p>
<p>It was from the late civil rights and women's rights leader Dorothy Height, when she saw me trying to move to the far edge of a group posing for a photo, almost hiding myself. She said to me: Don't stand on the end; that's how women get cut out of history. </p>
<p><strong>Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.</strong></p>
<p>Non-dairy Blackberry Cannoli. Who knows how it would taste, but those are two of my favorite things!</p>
<p><strong>What's your favorite political movie or TV show?</strong></p><p>"The West Wing," hands down. It reminds me of one of my first jobs, working in the executive office building next door to the White House during the Clinton administration. </p>
<p><strong>What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?</strong></p>
<p>Honestly, scroll through Facebook.</p>
<p><strong>What is your deepest, darkest secret?</strong></p>
<p>I may or may not have a "W" from an old school computer keyboard! </p>Related Articles Around the Web
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