The Good Fight: Founder, Advocate, Policy Expert Avis Jones-DeWeever Brings It To Power Up Conference

“I am a fighter and if there ever was a time to fight, now is the time. And I know we will move forward to protect ourselves, our children and our communities in order to love this country and have it be the way it needs to be,” says Avis Jones-DeWeever, PhD, Principal and Founder of Nouveaux Strategies.

A speaker at Power Up Conference 2026, Audacity: Leadership in Action, in Washington, D.C., August 26 on the panel, “Invest in Herself: Women, Money & Long-Term Success,” Jones-DeWeever previously served as the youngest ever Executive Director of the National Council of Negro Women.

The Power Of Story To Own Your Voice

By Anna Rosa Parker

Throughout my long creative career, I have had to stand up for myself time and again. Whether hired to write or rewrite a script, act in a commercial, or develop a new creative concept, I have often had to fight just to get paid, and have seen my own work and ideas taken without proper credit, a reality that many women and creatives still face today.

That experience became part of the driving force behind EVOKE, the company I founded to make a real difference in my own community. I saw talented, capable people holding themselves back because of the limiting stories they believed about themselves, and I set out to build a creative, practical methodology to help them build confidence and rewrite those narratives.

Why The Numbers Are Wrong About Women's Job Losses

The headline in The New Republic reads: “Terrible July Jobs Numbers Only Hurt Women. And the number of women who have left the workforce since January is more than double the number of men."

You’ve probably heard it said that the numbers don’t lie.

But it’s also said that there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I thought about Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, profiled in The Movement blog this week. I have long admired her “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” mindset about advancing women’s careers. I can’t wait to hear her speak at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference August 26.

The moment we have all been building toward is almost here.
Power Up 2026: Audacity: Leadership in Action is just weeks away and the energy is wild.

Margaret Atwood takes the keynote stage live and in person. Yes, you can get a signed book.

Minda Harts, Jamia Wilson, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Sophia Yen MD, Cheyenne Hunt, Rachel Rubin MD, and Wanjiku Kamau are among the extraordinary voices waiting for you in that room.

Bold panels. Real conversations about how you can harness the human side of AI, build your wealth, solve the caregiving crisis, and more. And The BETTY Concert closing out the evening in the most powerful way possible—you’ll be dancing!

Seats are going fast. The countdown has begun—the Femme Art Fair, VIP reception, and dinner are exactly two weeks from today!

The women (and men who support gender parity in leadership) who are meant to be in that room are claiming theirs right now.

Own Your Power. Secure Your Seat Now.

August 25–26 in Washington, D.C.

thepowerupconference.com

What I Learned From Take The Lead:

Power Tool #5 — Carpe the Chaos (The Change Catalyst)

Meet Davina Lyons — 2026 Power Tool Champion for Power Tool #5: Carpe the Chaos (The Change Catalyst). An educator, resilience strategist, speaker, author, and founder of Rising Resilience Education and Consulting, Davina created the RISE Framework to help educators, leaders, and high-performing professionals build resilience before pressure becomes collapse — because strong people should never have to sacrifice themselves to lead, serve, or succeed. Join us in celebrating her at Power Up 2026 in Washington, DC on August 25–26! 🏆

Learn more: ThePowerUpConference.com

Same Performance Levels, Different Outcomes

Dorian Readnour, Vice President, International Business, Sarepta Therapeutics Companies, one of a few women leaders in biotech, tells Reuters: "Some of the unwritten rules of leadership have proved harder to dislodge. The same decisiveness that signals authority in a man can still be interpreted differently in a woman."
So companies that "want more women in senior roles should therefore examine not only hiring and promotion outcomes, but how talent is developed before those decisions occur. Who gets international exposure? Who is trusted with a difficult market? Who presents to senior leadership? Who receives the assignment that proves readiness for the next role?"
Read more here.