She Leads

Dr. Sara Taylor has spent her career advancing opportunities for women of color in leadership. As a leadership development strategist and equity-centered practitioner, she operates at the intersection of systems, power, and people. This conversation does not shy away from what is happening right now. Dr. Taylor speaks candidly about the national backlash against DEI and inclusion work, the fear or...

Aubre Fox builds rooms where ambition becomes visible. As CEO of A Fox Interiors and founder of the Next Level Collective, she brings ambitious women together to grow, collaborate, and stretch beyond the limits they once placed on themselves. In this conversation, Aubre reflects on the moment she stopped writing resumes and started designing her own path. She realized she was not just good at her...

Constance Mitchell Jefferson grew up at the center of Rochester’s civil rights movement. Her mother, Connie Mitchell, was a pioneering political leader who helped establish Action for a Better Community and worked inside government to expand access and opportunity. Their home was filled with community leaders, organizers, and difficult conversations about justice. Constance grew up listening. She...

There is a moment in a woman’s life when she realizes no one is coming to save her. For Maisha, that moment came after her mother exhaled for the last time. She felt the oxygen leave her body and had to remember how to inhale on her ownEverything shifted from there. In this episode, we talk about what it means to become your own protector. To stop managing other people’s perceptions. To release th...

Growth starts with the leader. Jill Peterson, founder of Clover Insights and creator of the Four P’s Pathway, works at the intersection of people, process, profits, and purpose. Her work centers on one belief: if the leader is unclear, the organization will carry that confusion forward. In this conversation, we go straight to the root. We talk about hyperachievement. About the pressure to perform....

Cheryl Letray has spent more than three decades building financial freedom through real estate. As an investor, educator, and founder of Freedom by Design, she approaches wealth as something structured, intentional, and deeply personal. Her journey began long before the success. Becoming a single mother of seven reshaped everything. She renovated apartment units with her children alongside her.  S...

Melissa Suchadolski is the President of USC Builds, a woman- and minority-owned construction firm in Rochester, and the first woman and first person of color to chair the Builders Exchange of Rochester. In this conversation, Melissa speaks openly about surviving childhood sexual abuse and how hypervigilance, overachievement, and hyper-independence became the traits that shaped her leadership. Thos...