The people who moved me in 2017

My “year in review” is still in motion, because 2017’s most inspiring innovators are movement-makers. These people take a stand early and boldly, and with an ability to localize action, passion and power. I love how they’ve catalyzed movements that look like sine waves, moving up and down (and always powerfully) through the personal and political, local and global, unique and universal.

My amateur sketch of a sine wave (thx, Microsoft Paint)

So here’s an ever-growing list, largely focused on where I spend most of my time: amidst VR, tech, storytelling, and Seattle.

Often after initial inspiration I get stuck wondering: How do they do it? With every person below, you’ll see some of the tools they use to make shit happen. Hope it provides a glimpse towards how.

In no particular order…

Princess Nokia — artist, rapper, genius

Why: Princess Nokia is Destiny Frasqueri, the 25-year-old independent artist and urban feminist from New York hailed as an innovator and business mogul. She redefines what fresh means in the music industry by weaving history and futurism into every track of her 2017 album ‘1992’. She synthesizes the old and the new with a spirit of “you can, too”… which means no one can say she’s looking too far forward or backward — everyone can relate and contribute. Her vision is broadcast by The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, The FADER, and Refinery29, and her thought leadership also travels via her Smart Girl Club media collective geared toward empowering Black and brown women and femmes, becoming a feminist icon for everyone in the process.

From her highness:

• “I’m old-school with a new-school heart.” (Village Voice)
• “I love the richness and history of different styles, being [in] conversation with that legacy … It reflects my current sense of self, my current interests.” (Urban Outfitters)
• “I’m one of the last people in my generation of my mother’s family, and I know that I come from strong, resilient women. The indigenous woman is reflective of the modern, urbanized ghetto woman. I don’t like to lose sight of that. Because my people were oppressed, murdered, and their spirituality was taken away from them, I feel it’s my duty to exhibit it in my art. Once we touch back into that tribal shit, we can understand our potential as fabulous women and break the stigma of the urban brown woman.” (The FADER)

It’s one thing to defy the past and define the future, and it’s another thing to synthesize them. By “simultaneously looking forward and honoring her roots,” Impose mag and many others believe “Nokia’s work feels vital at a time when internet-based conversations are shifting towards unpacking intersecting identity matrices, and investigating how to be human in a digitally mediated, tech-driven society.”

Just because she digs history doesn’t mean she’s not killing it in the digital-media game. AR-filtered Snapchat fan shout-outs sprinkle her feeds. She launches both podcasts and entire albums on SoundCloud. It’s interesting that a person who identifies as “someone who doesn’t fit in” plays sold-out shows internationally and boasts more than 462K Instagram followers. But that’s the beautiful thing about my generation: the more you you are, the more universal your story. Is this anything new? Perhaps not. But the way Princess Nokia, her fellow artists, and followers share it across Spotify, Insta, and pick-your-favorite-platform’s livestream is.

She’s today’s version of a people person. Or maybe it’s the reverse — she’s creating person people, those who celebrate their individuality and roots with our increasingly connected, future-obsessed world.

Her tools: Instagram, SoundCloud, Tumblr, ✨ conversations

Keara McGraw — illustrator and tattooist

Why: An obvious disclaimer…Keara McGraw is a Chicago-based illustrator, tattooist, owner of Keara McGraw Creative, and my identical twin. We are similar in many ways — we love peanut butter, believe research fuels art, and are accepting and rebuilding our relationships with anxiety. But believe me, our differences make all the difference. Where I’m a word nerd, Keara’s a linework genius. Illustration has been Keara’s medium since…always. But this June, she tried her hand at handpoking. Friends, coworkers, and twin sisters 😉 have always asked Keara to illustrate their tattoo ideas before heading to their studio of choice. Her response has been constant: “Find a tattooist you love, and trust their work.” But now her answer is, “Come to my studio.” Finally, she’s doing flash and commissioned art for clients that span the globe.

It feels inevitable if you know her work. Keara treats tattooing as an extension of her illustration. And while the essence of her work is constant across mediums, she’s helping create change for artists, Chicago and beyond. She recently shared her ethos with Harmonious Homegirl:

I am overwhelmingly inspired by the womxn, femmes, and GNC individuals in my life. Holy shit! I’m moved. Makeup artists, photographers, stylists, tattooists, illustrators, painters, writers, chefs — I could cry over how amazing all of these womxn are. Honestly, their stories are pretty much the only stories I want to hear right now … We’ve got to continuously check ourselves and unlearn harmful behaviors that support oppressive structures — hire womxn, hire WOC, hire queers. As a white woman, I’m included in this and need to put work into my own self-examination. There’s a lot of work to be done. I see a lot of work that’s labeled as feminist but it’s super commodified, shallow, and falls really short. You want to support the idea of the future being brown and female and queer? Pass the mic, be willing to lift others’ voices over your own.

Keara proves what I firmly believe: democratized, diverse work will transform our very definition of work and entrepreneurialism. Her desire to learn is insatiable, but she never stops there. Once she learns, she (re)designs, opens access, and offers gratitude. That’s a virtuous cycle we need to see more of in 2018. Where there are no experts, there is immense opportunity and responsibility. Honoring both is a true art.

Her tools: Instagram, Twitter, monthly donation days, pop-ups

Elaine Weltewroth — Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue

Why: Though technically Teen Vogue’s EIC, Elaine is more aptly hailed as their “refashionista” because she has taken on a “seemingly impossible task: reinventing the glossy magazine for a hyperempathetic generation.” That’s coming from one of my Twitter heroes Jazmine Hughes, who wrote a fiercely frank New York Times Magazine feature on Elaine that I return to often.

Elaine is a true movement maker, having moved millennial mountains from print to social (and now digital-only), from “cute” to powerful, from body project to personal and political content, from only white women to intersectional identities. So. Much. Respect. And doing so has scaled her audience: By honing in on newer, truer brand identity — “rebellious, outspoken, empowered” — she connects with and converts folks far beyond teenagers without sacrificing the beloved brand.

So how did Elaine do it?

Smart passion

• Teen Vogue’s shift towards diverse representation and political content is a great business move. Teens who grew up online are as likely to be informed about social issues as their parents are, and just as eager to consume and share stories about their worldview (shout out to The Atlantic’s “Teen Vogue’s political coverage isn’t surprising” for those stats).
• Take it from Elaine: “It’s the right moment for this. We have this incredible, civic-minded, motivated community. They are hungry to connect with the brand.”

Focus on the company as a platform

• Elaine stresses that, at its core, Teen Vogue is a platform to help its community of readers and writers raise their voices.
• As Elaine reflected on Instagram after her Trevor Noah interview: “This is so much bigger than Teen Vogue. This is a testament to the power of young voices. I hope that our evolution is only a reminder to reframe how we think and talk about young women and what they are capable of.”

Living her mission socially

• The reason I can speak so passionately about Elaine is because I feel like I’ve been on the journey along with her via social media. After all, her promo to EIC merited its own Twitter moment.
• She’s unafraid to fuse personal and professional brands together, which helps followers relate every personal post to the brand at large — be they “yassss, queen” shout outs to people doing good work or reflecting on the history of empowered women.

I love it because she is hopeful but critical, and always honest. When her NYT Magazine feature went live, she shared the news on Instagram:

“While I’m sure my mother was beaming with pride when she pinned this profile onto her cubicle wall at work, this is not just an acknowledgment of me, but every young person with a dream worth chasing, every black woman who persists, every young woman with fight, everyone who chooses to go right when the world has gone wrong. It’s for anyone who has been ‘othered,’ unseen, discounted, or second-guessed and pushed on anyway. It’s for every single member of the @teenvogue team doing the work that’s driven by making a difference. We are all revolutionaries in our own right. Right where we are. Just as we are. And on that note, huge shout out to @jazzloon, the witty young black woman at The Times who tracked me down, pitched, reported, and wrote a story that might not have been told otherwise. Thank you for seeing me — and for giving my mother endless bragging rights.”

Elaine provokes a question that inspires and intimidates me: Now what? How do you, I, we speak about and celebrate growth — that of our company, our culture, ourselves— after we vocalize our commitment to change? How do we keep boldly innovating if/when our transformation is (or appears) complete? When we exist only online, how do we keep seeing and empowering ourselves and others in the real world?

Elaine offers a wonderful answer for now … “My purpose right now at Teen Vogue is to make sure the audience feels like constituents and not just consumers. I want them to feel like they are invested in this mission. It’s so much more about them then it is about me” (San Francisco Chronicle) … and what’s next: ‘‘We’ve come to stand for something, and it has resonated. So phase 2 of Teen Vogue’s evolution is activating this audience that we’ve galvanized. I see that happening through live experiences, products and services. You’re woke. O.K. Now what?’’ (NYT Magazine)

Her tools: Summits, meetups, Instagram (a self-proclaimed 👑kween of Boomerang), Twitter

Emily Weiss — CEO of Glossier

Why: Emily Weiss has created a beauty movement that demystifies daily routines (and therefore creates confident habits, inspiring many a #bodyhero) using social media and the best of the internet to make products and content more customer-responsive than ever before. The result is celebrated as “cult-like.” Yes, celebrated.

Glossier has long been a millennial media darling, and Nitasha Tiku’s August 2016 BuzzFeed News profile covers how Emily and G humanize technology. It’s pretty cool, aesthetic pun intended. 💁

This biz rakes in investments, but what’s most incredible is how Glossier tailors itself to the tiny triumphs and whimsies of any and every woman. How? As Tiku put it: Glossier surpasses and sustains goals through “a curious alchemy of market research, calculated intimacy, and ineffable coolness.” I love how Emily:

• Leads responsive product development by studying followers’ comments, developing a product from/for them, and launching with community leaders
• Perfects her platform through original, imperfect, customer-generated content

It’s like Emily figured out today’s lyrics to Madonna’s Material Girl, showing us all how to be thoughtful and unapologetically obsessed with what we love in a digital world.

Her tools: Instagram, website/blog, brick-and-mortar pop-ups, everyday customers as influencers

Eva Hoerth — virtual reality champion and mentor lead at Women in XR

Why: Eva is a driving force behind Seattle’s VR community and has helped establish the city as a global leader in VR/AR/MR. Most importantly, she has galvanized a movement for diversity, accessibility, and mental health in the industry with VR/AR Collective and We Make Realities, two collectives providing opportunities to learn, teach, and hack equity in VR. All while being a gif genius (one of the many reasons to follow her on Twitter).

Her work is unstoppable because it is just as personal as it is researched. Working in emerging tech, it can be tempting to embrace everything as unprecedented. In the case of VR, today’s innovation is the result of decades of experimentation, failures, and breakthroughs. By unpacking the past and sharing findings with the community, Eva is fostering a new technology paradigm that can check itself, and do better and be built by people often silenced or deprioritized by big tech — women and nonbinary folks, people of color, and indie creators, among others.

Interested in VR? Get ready to love what Eva calls “all the R’s” because our vocabulary is forming in real time, from VR to AR, MR, XR, immersive computing, and more (!). I love how Pitchfork recently explained the spectrum of realities, and I’ll never forget what I learned at a VR/AR Collective workshop co-organized by Eva: this medium involves and even creates memory, so if we promise empathy, we’d better design it with the gravity and respect we hold in the real world — physically, emotionally, morally.

I’ll end with inspiration from just before 2017— Eva’s post-election letter to the community. We only have the opportunity to create a category once, so let’s do it justice, do it right.

Her tools: Twitter, Meetups, Medium

Morgan DeBaun, CEO of Blavity

Why: Morgan founded Blavity in 2014 after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. She wanted to provide a vessel for intelligence, humanity, and action. Today, it’s the largest media company and lifestyle brand for Black millennials “pushing the boundaries of culture and the status quo,” acquiring collaborators in the travel industry to both localize and unite the voices it serves. Take it from Morgan: “Yes, I could have marched in the streets … But really my unique contribution and the contribution of our Blavity team was being able to be a platform and a space for people to get the word out about what was happening in their cities.”

Her tools: Website, conference, Instagram, Twitter

Whitney Wolfe Herd — CEO of Bumble, the “$1 Billion Queen Bee of Dating Apps”

Why: Whitney has essentially created confidence technology, and in doing so sparked a movement for equity and respect in the age of digital relationships. You’ve probably heard of this Tinder co-founder’s dating app Bumble. While essentially geared around finding others (and possibly your soulmate), it’s actually all about self-love, the magic ingredient that’s helped Bumble grow from dating to BFFs and now Bumble Bizz, an app aiming to refresh and redistribute professional networking. Launched in 2017, it has already expanded to a global audience hungry for real-life connection. And Whitney is a steadfast leader — just as bold as she is kind, and always relentless in differentiation. No wonder she’s Forbes’ 30 Under 30 cover star.

Her tools: Instagram, pop-ups, influencers

Amy Nelson — CEO and co-founder of The Riveter

Why: Amy Nelson is CEO and co-founder of The Riveter, a platform for women, work, and wellness thriving here in Seattle (and soon beyond). She’s also been an amazing lunch companion and creative comrade (I’m grateful to share “a-ha!” moments with Amy while shoving some gloriously-burnt toast in my mouth). Stories are the salt of startups — they add all the flavor and make sure you don’t slip — and I love how intentional Amy and team are about prioritizing their members’ stories as they scale from an idea to a space to a boundary-less, digital movement. The Riveter offers work spaces, a glass-ceiling-shattering network of women and allies, and community events that tackle topics spanning meditation, financial planning, and addiction (to name a few!). I’ve enjoyed the most intense yoga session of my life (tbh I’m still sweating four months later) and a Seattle startup pitch event (Founders Live!) within the walls of the Riveter, and the folks I’ve met here are unforgettable. Amy’s honesty and empathy are contagious, and she’s a stellar example of values-driven business and redefining and redesigning status quo.

Her tools: Instagram, workshops, salons, space, visiting influencers and events

Julie Young — CEO of SH//FT

Why: An early employee at award-winning Emblematic VR, Julie Young wears many hats (or should I say headsets 😉). Today she is both co-founder of SH//FT, a company that stands for Shaping Holistic Inclusion in Future Technologies, and a founder and moderator of the beloved Facebook Group Women in VR/AR, the world’s largest network of diverse VR/AR/MR creators. I’d argue it’s THE most influential group of people in the immersive industry, period. If you have an event, a job, a product, or content you want to launch, you share it here. The group boasts VCs, VPs, and C-suite members as well as triple-threat creators who design, develop, and market some amazing work.

Women in VR/AR has been one of my indispensable resources for community (albeit virtual 😎), industry research, and — most simply — hope. This February, Julie published “The Invitation Effect,” a now-seminal piece on designing diverse communities. From it come enduring questions: How can we act on this? We must answer what we shouldn’t have to ask: How do people empower often-marginalized individuals and communities without ostracizing others?

Julie’s work is part of the answer. By treating her company as a platform, she rocks a much-needed truth in tech: culture change must be outcomes- and impact-driven. Julie believes her work is never diversity for diversity’s sake. Is it imperative? Is it a responsibility? Absolutely. It’s for driving and redesigning a bottom line that’s open to everyone, with ladders and mics made for and by underrepresented voices. Julie is the ultimate connection consultant, and she never shies away from sharing her challenges with the community. Julie creates collective power by amplifying successes, stresses and, most importantly, the people building and using solutions in VR, AR, and mixed reality.

Her tools: Facebook Groups, Twitter, Medium

Saqib Keval, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik and Jocelyn Jackson — co-founders of People’s Kitchen Collective

Why: Food is social. Food is home. Food is fuel. For many, food is growing more expensive, less accessible, and increasingly gentrified. That’s what makes Sita, Jocelyn, and Saqib’s work so essential. Launched a decade ago, People’s Kitchen Collective (PKC) creates accessible and impeccable dining experiences under the belief that “good food should be for the people.” In 2017, the org began a year-long meal series, “From the FARM, to the KITCHEN to the TABLE to the STREETS!” FARM and KITCHEN now complete, STREETS! will be a historic, public meal for 500 people in West Oakland this coming May. PKC describes it with beauty and power:

This seated meal spanning three city blocks will bring together artists, activists, musicians, performers, and social justice organizations to advocate for the issues most urgent to our communities. We crave spaces that deliberately center the voices and experiences of people of color. Our lives are shaped by displacement, migration, loss of land, and access to resources. In the absence of land, we create space through ritual in the form of a meal. In the face of a gentrifying Oakland, this is how we feed a revolution.

Fellow Oakland-based chef and activist Bryant Terry stresses the importance of food pathways — not only what we eat, but where and how it gets to us, both historically and systemically in the context of food distribution. Bryant, Sita, Jocelyn, and Saqib are in it together, and I love how they centralize the role of memory in our meals — what is familiar, what is forgotten, what needs to be (re)taught. PKC is curating a living history by demanding and redesigning pathways to the farm, the kitchen, the table, the streets. I love it.

Their tools: Instagram, Facebook, Indiegogo

Chloe Csadenyi-Benson — founder of Gather Seattle

Why: Chloe wanted to stop hardball networking and provide the culinary and design industries a chance to collaborate and find new flavor. Enter Gather Seattle, a digital-physical movement for conversation, food, and innovation. She’s scaled in-person gatherings to a powerfully-personal professional network through membership and a consistent content calendar. With weekly flavor like Gather Seattle’s “Sunday Spotlight,” she localizes Gather’s impact as a way to say, “You’re driving this.”

Her tools: Instagram, influencers, membership, monthly events…it seems like more is always coming 😉

Avery and Emma — tattooists at Constant Hands Collective

Why: Avery and Emma are making an entire medium more representative, affordable, and approachable by prioritizing queer communities and people of color and empowering any and every tattoo client to apply local history, current events, and social art to their body. I was introduced to their work when my sister guested at their studio, which points to one of the most moving aspects of tattooing: it’s not just the ink that’s forever, it’s also the relationship and the hunger to improve, learn, and help people feel at home in their bodies. It’s the best kind of network. It has heart and soul, and Avery and Emma have their hands and needles on the pulse of local artists (Emma recently shared “The Wisdom of the Blood,” a workshop from Phelicia Magnusson of Queen & Crow Healing Arts).

Their tools: Instagram (Emma and Avery), studio space

Laurel Friesen — CEO and founder of Heylo Cannabis

Why: Heylo Cannabis is an extraction company educating and empowering customers through learning sessions at Laurel’s lab. Stoner stigma be gone, because Laurel defines her category as social, researched, transparent and inclusive, defying stereotypes and bringing together scientists, industry leaders, and customers. I love how Heylo and Laurel debunk fact and fiction by gathering people on-location and via the apps/experiences they already love (they even pair strains with Spotify playlists). It’s such an active, visible approach to community awareness. When brand and category learning happen together, and when the experience is shared irl and on social, passion and partnerships are inevitable. I see so many parallels between her approach and the powerful movements grown throughout 2017.

Her tools: Instagram, mini-concerts, community events

Martina Welkhoff — Founder of ConveneVR and Partner at Women in XR

Why: Martina communicates emerging tech like VR to commercial and consumer audiences not by explaining the tech itself but by proving its value through shared, networked experiences, often at the heart of a movement. She held the first-ever job fair in VR, and after the Women’s March in DC, she and Google artist-in-residence Drue Kataoka virtually gathered women around the country to raise their voice in VR. The experience, called Yes! Now is the Time, is now a key case study for VR as a tool for social advocacy.

Martina also has an incredible way of focusing on not only the bigger picture, but also the societal structures that hold it up. We recently spoke about Seattle’s rising cost of living, and what the real estate industry will need to do (and cede) in order to ensure communities and histories endure, and livelihoods are respected. Her passion for deconstructing and redesigning the world(s) before us is just one of the reasons why we need venture capitalists like Martina.

Speaking of…this year Martina, Malia Probst, and Abby Albright launched Women in XR (WXR) Venture Fund, which invests in VR/AR/XR startups committed to equal gender representation. This movement is like the mayonnaise of a sandwich, bringing flavor together and making things stick. Though Martina and team foster something far more meaningful than mayo: community infrastructure to support women leaders in immersive tech. And you can get involved NOW…or on January 6, when WXR hosts its inaugural pitch showcase via the beloved social virtual reality platform AltspaceVR.

Martina makes movement so much more than a physical or ideological act — her work shows the very real canvases digital media unleashes.

Her tools: Twitter, VR pitch events, art and activism

Leila Janah — the “Chanel of social impact” and CEO of Samasource and LXMI

Leila is rocking culture and capability transformation within and beyond her companies Samasource and LXMI. Both are social enterprises on a mission to lift people out of poverty by giving dignified work through the internet, a model they call impact sourcing.

I first “met” Leila last June at Augmented World Expo, a leading VR/AR/MR event. In between HoloLens demos, I saw her take the keynote stage for “Better Algorithms, Better Lives; Alleviating Poverty Through Training Data.” I was blown away. Leila captivated an audience of industry experts by focusing first and foremost on the culture she and many peers want to shape the next era of computing.

“Let’s leverage the talent pool of global human intelligence to advance technology sustainably,” she urged. “Let’s ensure our automated cars and VR headsets don’t isolate but instead connect us more deeply to each other.”

But at and beyond AWE, she’s made her mission and company culture much more than a sound bite. How?

Really real talk— She is unabashedly herself on and in front of all media, but she never seems self-promoting or narcissistic. This is because her personal stories get nitty, gritty detailed and then turn to company vision and capabilities at key moments. Her recent Girlboss essay “Why First-World Feminism Just Isn’t Enough” is a perfect example, where she moves from a quick meditation on her mother growing up in postcolonial India to her personal approach to rebellion and equity as a millennial and an entrepreneur, to the story of Martha Kerubo, a woman who completed Samasource’s computer training program. Leila weaves herself throughout, and by the time she delivers the clincher — “Dignified, living wage work is the answer for all of us” — it’s not coming from a talking head or a CEO in an ivory tower. It’s coming from Leila, the gutsy woman you know like the bestie you count on for Wednesday-night venting sessions.

Make the movement social — Leila prioritizes company culture. She just launched a book, Give Work. On social, #GiveWork is a prompt and a movement. What I love about #GiveWork is that it is also a refusal. She calls on followers to #GiveWork, not aid. With a challenger mindset, she’s brought both employee stories and company tools to the movement that are more than a collection or even calls to action, they’re fuels for a fire.

Be a drumbeat — Whether it’s retweets, LinkedIn Pulse essays (she’s got more than 60!!!), or a “miss my team” Instagram post from the road, she’s always creating content. With a regular thought leadership rhythm, it’s no wonder New York Times, Fast Company, and Refinery29 all want her perspective on their platforms.

As the holidays approach, she’s even got a #GiveWork holiday gift guide. I’ve always admired those who are contagiously social, and in Leila’s case, she makes doing good through radical retail a habit. This is what I want the future of buying to be: not an addiction, but a practice of equity and power that always prevails.

Her tools: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter

Karen Okonkwo and Joshua Kissi — co-founders of TONL

Why: Everyone knows stock photography is a thing. But few have thought to redesign it until Karen Okonkwo and Joshua Kissi launched TONL, a new kind of stock photography that reflects the true diversity of our world. Their company is deeply researched and actively refreshing and redesigning a new era of digital representation.

I love how they link images and identity through product offerings — the photos themselves and the narratives of those pictured — and community activism and engagement.

Their movement is just that: conveying our lives in compelling, complex motion. As Joshua told NPR:

I’m just looking for people’s stories. And when I’m on a train in New York City, and I see — I’m on the F train, for example — and even going from Queens to Manhattan, there’s just a plethora of this diversity and beautiful people from Eastern European people to Southeast Asian to African-Americans to Africans to Hispanics. And I just see everybody’s stories coming to life on this train. And I’m like, hey, this is what TONL should look like and feel like.

Karen has shared her own passion for movement-making via her Instagram and brunch series, becoming one of the business leaders to know in Seattle and beyond.

Take it from Karen:

“We live in a world that isn’t just white and we have to question why the media continues to try and feed us this idea. Also in this age, we are all our own media companies.” (One Tribe Magazine)

“We will always make sure that our imagery is reflecting the under-represented. That in and of itself is a big mission, but we just want to be different. We want to create a loyal customer base. Things like having a place where you can educate yourself on different ethnic backgrounds, we think that those are things that add value … I want people to start to see people for their total beauty … My big dream is to honestly change the way that people view people.” (The Outline)

Their tools: Instagram, face-to-face meals, pop-ups, Twitter (TONL, Karen, and Joshua)

Bozoma Saint John — Chief Brand Officer of Uber

Why: This September, Richard Branson’s out-of-touch Hurricane Irma behavior made me wonder: What makes an in-touch exec? One person came to mind immediately: Bozoma Saint John, Uber’s Chief Brand Officer. Previously Apple Music’s head of marketing (where she famously helped WWDC attendees realize the industry’s lack of diversity), Bozoma is what I call a newer, truer corporate leader. Why? Because she does three things incredibly well:

Humanizes the digital economy

“[I’m] coming at it from both ends, from both a human standpoint to connect those emotions to the end user, as well as being an example myself for company culture. The way I behave, the way I interact, the way I live in my life is going to be as important as what I do in my daily work. I’m part of the community and the culture. So I’m going to be a part of what is going to be the future of what the company looks like … It’s about the riders and the drivers and the cities and making them human.” (Glamour)

Brings her whole self to work

“Be your whole self. If there’s an opportunity to share an idea or, hell, even to dress up for the office, be your whole self. That’s the example I’m living for my daughter and other women. Being everything I am — that’s magical, and I want everyone to see it.” (Glamour)

Fearlessness

“I’m not afraid. I’ve never been afraid. I see potential. I see opportunity. [Regarding Uber’s reputation] There are certainly things that I don’t condone, that I’m not comfortable with, that I’m not okay with. But I think representation matters, too. I’m not naïve about that at all. That’s very serious. It’s about trying to be the representation of what I want to see. I want change. I want things to be great for people of color and women — for us to be able to show the work, do great work, and be appreciated for that work.” (CBS News)

And she does it all without disclaimer. Without apology.

How?

• Candid tweets that challenge her company just as much as they celebrate it.
• Interviews with an often-underserved C-suite press tier: women’s media (Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Essence’s Yes, Girl! Podcast, Refinery29, annnd last but not least, Teen Vogue, the mag for young women and their allies that’s redefining the power of youth in press and politics).
• True-to-Boz photography (again, she’s bringing her whole self to work) — she takes us on her #watchmework wardrobe journey, which is so much more than couture…it’s rewriting the leadership script that for way too long has portrayed power as mostly white and male (and yes, she’s the best-dressed exec I know). From selfies to NYT features, she’s someone my friends and I see, believe, and admire.

And she’s doing it all on the platforms millennials know and love most: Twitter, Instagram, and woke media. What’s her impact? Renewed trust in Uber. After hearing about Uber’s sexual harassment cases and my sister’s own scary experience with Uber, I deleted the app and opted for Lyft. Now I believe that the company is committed to change and believes its customers matter and have power — especially women, people of color, and immigrants. *Redownloads app* So Bozoma’s voice just acquired (at least) one customer back to Uber. Don’t get me wrong — it’s gone the second I don’t see change — but I want to give the company a chance to live and prove its new cultural norms.

Bozoma rocks contagious empathy. And I think we all have what it takes to fuse humanized, whole-self, fearless soul into our passions, purpose, and whatever we call “work.”

So there we have it. 2018, let’s keep moving — farther, boldly, together.