“For anyone who is committed to inclusive leadership and building thriving and diverse organizations, this book is essential reading. Vazquez-Newsum offers critical perspectives from leaders of color too long overlooked in the field. Blending real leader experiences with tangible tools for all to learn from, Untapped Leadership should be on every leader's bookshelf.” – Deanna Singh, author of Actions Speak Louder: A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming an Inclusive Workplace
“As a black woman in a leadership role, I have taken many courses and read several books on being an effective leader while aiming to remain true to my authentic self. However, I often found myself not truly connecting to the material presented. Untapped Leadership does an amazing job on delving into the BIPOC leader and the idiosyncrasies of leadership as a person of color.”– Jaccara Cadet Smith, Managing Director, Ernst and Young, LLP
“Untapped Leadership is a refreshing and powerful take on why we must rethink leadership. Readers will appreciate Vazquez-Newsum’s ability to speak truth to power and name how race, gender, and other social identities can strengthen our understanding and enactment of leadership. Untapped Leadership is a must-read for anyone seeking to lead in more effective, humanizing, and socially just ways.”– Dr. Bianca Baldridge, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Author of Reclaiming Community: Race and the Uncertain Future of Youth Work
“Vazquez-Newsum’s pioneering work to bring visibility to BIPOC leadership is long overdue. The amplification of BIPOC leaders has been a void for far too long. We cannot build competencies that drive inclusive behaviors and outcomes within a field that is exclusive.”– Natalie Samarjian,President and CEO, Coro Southern California; Commissioner, City of Los Angeles
"I finished reading the book while in Baltimore. I felt seen. I felt understood. I was reading the words from the little voice in my head. It’s always been our moment, but Untapped Leadership makes it plain that BIPOC leaders are the future. We are what’s needed today, tomorrow, and always. We are the (secret) sauce for leadership reimagined." – Dr. Nomsa Khalfani, Co-CEO/Chief Strategy + Equity Officer, Essential Access Health
"Untapped Leadership must take space on every leader's bookshelf. It is unequivocally the book that leaders of color have been waiting for that see us as who we are. Vazquez -Newsum explores the beauty and challenges of leaders of color like no other leadership expert with unapologetic honesty. It was truly powerful and affirming to read." – Reena Hajat Carroll, MSW, Executive Director, California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ)
“In Untapped Leadership, the marginalized and woefully underutilized voices of BIPOC leaders find a platform to tell their stories of learning, navigating, negotiating, and transcending workplaces that are fundamentally antithetical to their own viewpoints on leadership, which center authenticity and collectivity. But beyond the power of this groundbreaking take on leadership, she creates a space for you to feel heard and seen, and that in and of itself acts as its own form of transformational healing.”– Corey Matthews, Coaching Transitions, LLC, and Vice President, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase & Co.