In today’s world, we are surrounded by noise, but are we truly listening? Dame Evelyn Glennie is the world’s premier solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras, conductors and artists. Her solo recordings exceed 40 CDs and are as diverse as her career on-stage. A double GRAMMY award winner and BAFTA nominee, she is also a composer for film, theater and television. Dame Evelyn is currently forming The Evelyn Glennie Collection with a vision to open a centre that embodies her mission to Teach the World to Listen.

Zabrina Jenkins, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel at Starbucks, shares 3 lessons she learned while leading through crisis. In 2018, Zabrina was a core member of the incident crisis management response team that addressed the arrests of two Black customers at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Starbucks. She personally led the negotiations and creative resolution of claims against the company stemming from the highly publicized arrests.

Zabrina Jenkins. Senior Vice President Deputy General Counsel at Starbucks

Deborah Wahl, Chief Marketing Officer at General Motors, shares 3 things you need to know about electric vehicles. She highlights the research and findings from GM’s Battery Innovation Lab and Manufacturing Technology Center, emphasizing the extraordinary distances electric vehicles can sustain, removing charging barriers and EV's surprising rate of acceleration:

On this Women’s Equality Day, August 26, 2020, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 19th Amendment states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

In this edition of In the Lead, the Honorable Barbara Hackman Franklin discusses this important milestone in American history. Her unique perspective stems from serving in leadership positions for five U.S. Presidents, leading the first White House effort to recruit women for high-level government jobs and being listed by TIME Magazine as one of the 50 Women Who Made American Political History.

In her responses below, she expands on successful strategies employed by suffragettes, why few women are in global positions of political and corporate leadership and important actions that young leaders can take to press forward with efforts towards fuller equality.

As climate change continues to affect our communities and livelihoods, it's become increasingly important to change how we treat the planet on which we live. We have been inspired by climate activists all over the world doing just that, including Vanessa Nakate of Uganda. Originally part of our program in London, Vanessa and her fellow climate justice warriors have had to change how they fight for change in this new normal.

Vanessa was the first “Fridays For Future” climate activist in Uganda and Founder of the Rise Up Movement, which has since spread to other African countries. Her work includes raising awareness about the danger of climate change. In this edition of In the Lead, Vanessa tells us about how climate change disproportionately affects African nations, how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed climate activism and how we can sustain the environmental progress made so far. 

For this special edition of In the Lead, we're sharing a timely piece written by Clinical Psychologist and IWF South Africa member "DrD" Dorianne Weil.

Most of us have experienced unpredictable challenges or crises. Sometimes the initial response may be, “it’s not fair.” But here’s the truth: Life is fair, because it’s not fair to everyone. The difference? This time we’re all in it together. We are living in an unprecedented time of uncertainty and disruption. This global pandemic does not discriminate.