From HBCU TSU to Entrepreneurship to Ability Advocate to Philanthropist: Meet Nelson Mandela Inspired, Heart-Centered Leader, Yolanda Webb
In February, GlobalMindED celebrates Black History Month by highlighting influential black voices. Meet Yolanda Webb, an accomplished professional with a remarkably diverse background and experience. Yolanda is the CEO and Principal Advisor for the WEBB Advisory Group, LLC, a national minority and women-owned consulting group providing executive coaching, leadership development, executive compensation, organizational strategy, human resource consulting, and equity, diversity, and inclusion strategies that work.
Currently, she serves as Director for the Office of Adult, Aging, and Disability Services for the Colorado Department of Human Services. In this role, she oversees services and supports for those with disabilities, vulnerable and at-risk adults, and veterans living in our Veterans Community Living Centers.
While GlobalMindED is full of heart-centered leaders, Yolanda is extra-special. That is why on this Valentine’s Day, we wanted to share her remarkable journey and story of love, compassion, and generosity. Whether you celebrate Valentine’s, Galentine’s, or any other way to share your love and light in the world, we hope you will open your heart to all that is uplifting, inspiring, and fulfilling today and always. Yolanda is a living model of the highest level of heart-centered leadership.
What is your personal/professional story?
Growing up in the Deep South in the early 1960s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I gained a passion for leadership and social justice. My parents were vocal advocates. My father, an educator, and my mother a social worker, helped shape my views about those whose voices were going unheard.
I have taken those experiences and now head a global heart-led consulting firm that provides inspiring human leadership training, equity consulting, and inclusion and accessibility training. I have a proven track record of success in both the private and public sectors and in building and developing high-performance teams.
In 2004 in response to the narrative surrounding how the media defined young black women I developed a luxury and mass-market cosmetics line. My luxury line was distributed through Macy’s Department Stores and helped change the narrative of who young black women were and are. My teen cosmetics line helped shape how young teens saw themselves in the growing cacophony of voices on social media that depicted a false sense of beauty.
During my college days at HBCU Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN, I learned about leadership and became actively involved in marches against apartheid in South Africa. The life of Nelson Mandela shaped how I viewed justice. After his release from prison, he wasn’t angry with his captors, but he was kind, and compassionate and helped them see through his heart-led leadership a vision for a new South Africa. I have chosen to emulate his kind, quiet, patient, peaceful approach to justice throughout my career.
Over my career, I have held several critical senior executive leadership roles across the nation helping people with disabilities and accessibility issues, older adults, and other groups who have traditionally been underserved and lacking access and equity to the basic assurances we all have.
I also work in the public policy and government sector. It is important to me to help create public policy that serves those in the greatest need. At the juncture of my public policy work is my philanthropic work. Government, philanthropy, and business all must work hand in hand to help shape the better world and better societies we all want.
What key moments in your life led to where you are today?
The first moment was when I was a child of about 5 in Mobile, Alabama. Coming home from school one day, there were two young white girls in my room playing with my dolls. Their mom was in the kitchen talking to my parents. The woman had been evicted from her rooms at a luxury downtown hotel, where my mom worked in housekeeping, and she had nowhere to go. My mom took them in, and they stayed with us for a few months. That shaped how I saw allyship. My mom became her ally, helping her to advocate for herself and her daughters and learning to use her voice. It wasn’t about money, power, or privilege for my mom. It was about kindness, caring, acceptance, love. It was about the heart and doing the right thing.
The second moment came when I was a sophomore in college. I was traveling back from Alabama to Tennessee after attending a family reunion. This was in 1977 and the Civil Rights movement was in our rearview mirror and buses had long since been desegregated. My family had taken me to the Greyhound bus depot, purchased my ticket, and watched as I walked in the rain to board the bus.
As the bus door opened, the white bus driver sneered at me and said loudly, “This ain’t your bus N….r!” I was shocked as I had never been called that name in my life. Standing there in the rain, I heard him repeat his words. Turning slowly, I went back into the bus depot where my mom was waiting. Telling her what had just happened, she marched me back out to that bus. He opened the door and before he could get the words out of his mouth again my mom was standing in his face telling him I would get on that bus, and I would make it back to Nashville safely because if I didn’t, she would be waiting for him when he came back to Alabama. I boarded that bus. The driver stared at me in his rearview mirror the entire drive back. An older black woman and a young white soldier told me to sit between them to ensure I made it back to Nashville safely. The incident reminded me that the Civil Rights Movement would always be needed, and there would always be the need for social justice advocates like my mom, that older woman and soldier on that bus.
Where does your passion to serve come from?
I would say my parents - who were social justice advocates. I think it's also the fact that I grew up in the South and when my parents moved to Detroit during the great migration North when I was older. I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, attended private schools, and went to summer camp. I don’t say that as a boast, but to say that I didn’t know that as a black child, I wasn’t supposed to achieve. Growing up around black excellence in Detroit, I saw black brilliance, creativity, and talent (my dad’s high school was across the street from the famous Motown and I knew many of the talented performers during that era). So, you see my passion comes from seeing what is possible. My philanthropy comes from my heart and knowing that when communities of color see what is possible nothing is impossible.
How can GlobalMindED help you reach your goals?
The work I do and the passion I have aligns with the mission and vision of GlobalMindED. As a heart-led provider of solutions that change work cultures, communities, and individual lives, being on the Board of GlobalMindED helps me connect with other voices that are changing the world as well. From the wonderful CEO Carol Carter to other board members in Colorado, the power of GlobalMindED to help me reach my personal and professional goals is as Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."
You can meet Yolanda in person this June at GlobalMindED where she will be contributing her insights on the Foundations/Funders Track, the Healthcare Equity team, and in many other ways within GlobalMindED’s Inclusive Success NetworkTM.
