HealthStack Virtual Summit, powered by AFROTECH™, will take place on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. The event brings together physicians, nurses , and healthcare leaders for candid conversations about the healthcare industry. What Is HealthStack? HealthStack is a B2B platform for clinicians, health executives, and innovators committed to advancing equitable health care through credible reporting, industry news, and professional development opportunities — all in one centralized hub. What To Expect At HealthStack’s Virtual Summit The summit is designed for early- to mid-career professionals. They’ll be able to learn from industry leaders and gain a clearer sense of the future of health care — and their place within it. The summit will kick off at 10 a.m. PST with a welcome from Blavity Co-founder and CEO Morgan DeBaun , followed by an “AI for Nurses” workshop led by Anika Gardenhire, AdventHealth’s chief digital and transformation officer. Programming will continue with a fireside panel...

Former President Barack Obama is looking to fill more than 150 roles for his presidential center, opening soon on the South Side of Chicago. Obama Presidential Center As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the Obama Presidential Center, first announced in 2015, is expected to open in June 2026 and is an $800 million project, making it the most expensive presidential center in the nation’s history. The 19-acre center is intended to serve as a “global center for change,” providing space for leadership development and civic engagement, particularly for young adults already driving positive change in their communities. The center will feature a fruit and vegetable garden, a world-class museum, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, an athletic facility, and more, offering community events, exhibits, music, movies, and workshops, according to its website. “I could not be more excited because I know people here on the Southside of Chicago, and visitors from all around the world are going to...

An AI-powered solution was launched for displaced workers and recent college graduates in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. Talent Capital Talent Capital, a regional career services initiative of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, was launched in Washington, D.C., by Mayor Muriel Bowser and partners in October 2025, according to a press release. The new program comes after over 317,000 federal employees lost their jobs in 2025, with defense, agriculture, and treasury departments taking the hardest hits, per Federal News Network. In the DMV area, 34,100 federal employees lost their jobs from January to September 2025, according to Bethesda Magazine. Furthermore, college graduates have also been challenged in the job market with fewer entry-level positions available, CNBC mentions. Youth unemployment is sometimes an “early indicator that the economy is slowing down or maybe even heading towards a recession,” according to Anders Humlum,...

Dwayne Tucker’s leadership is steering Tennessee State University (TSU) in a positive direction. Tucker is an alum of the school, having earned a bachelor’s in business management in 1980, according to a press release. He assumed the role of interim president at the university in December 2024, succeeding Ronald Johnson, who was forced to resign. WKRN News 2 reports he also previously led a network of charter schools in the metropolitan area. Tucker brings experience in human resources and profit and loss for small businesses and Fortune 500 companies, notes the press release. He has also established board of director and compensation committee strategy, governance, and compliance-related programs. “It’s my pleasure to accept appointment of interim president for our beloved Tennessee State University,” Tucker expressed in the news release. “I also want to thank our board of trustees for their confidence in me as well as the bigger big blue community in terms of their support and...

Zoe Saldaña is approaching a milestone that few actors in film history have reached, and the moment is arriving with both statistical weight and cultural resonance. According to USA Today, the Afro-Dominican actress has officially surpassed Samuel L. Jackson to become the second-highest-grossing actor of all time, with her films earning approximately $15 billion worldwide. She now trails only Scarlett Johansson, whose box office total stands at roughly $15.4 billion. With “Avatar: Fire and Ash” continuing to perform well, that gap is narrowing fast. The Road To No. 1 The latest installment in the blockbuster franchise she’s been a part of from the beginning has been a key driver of that momentum, opening up to $88 million domestically and quickly surpassing $760 million worldwide. As with previous installments, the film’s global staying power has positioned Saldaña to continue climbing the all-time rankings in the weeks ahead. Currently, the top-grossing spot belongs to Scarlett...

Dr. Jaha Howard isn’t your average dentist. The Atlanta native is a Howard University alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, according to information on his LinkedIn profile. His website states that he graduated at the top of his class and went on to earn a doctorate in dental surgery in 2007. Later transitioning to the University of Illinois, he obtained a master’s degree in oral science and became a specialist in pediatric dentistry . Dr. Howard currently owns his own practice,  A+ Pediatric Dentistry of Atlanta, which offers children’s dental care and orthodontics. In addition to not requiring patients to have insurance, it provides preventive care through an affordable monthly subscription tier. Beyond health care, he is passionate about education, small business, and politics, as reflected in his steadfast public service. Dr. Howard, who was victorious in Georgia’s Senate District 35 special election on Dec. 16, CBS News reports, previously served on the Cobb County...

Daymond John has advice for families of students navigating today’s turbulent economic landscape. John is a “Shark Tank” judge, investor, and entrepreneur who put skin in the game through his foray into FUBU (For Us, By Us), a streetwear brand that catered to Hip-Hop culture when it launched in 1992, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. He was rejected by 27 banks, but had the support of his mother early on, who took out a $100,000 loan on her mortgage to invest in the business. In the company’s early days, he even worked as a waiter at a Red Lobster. By 1998, FUBU was generating more than $350 million in sales, and it has earned over $6 billion today. John also did this without going to college, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t see the merit of higher education. “Most of my employees have come from college,” John told CNBC in 2018. “because as an intern, you can come into my company and get credit [for] college. Those people then out-work the people that are already working there, and...

At AFROTECH™ Conference, connecting directly with industry leaders feels effortless. Jamell Watson attended AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 as Attentive’s director of office operations, an SMS and email marketing platform. He is responsible for running the workplace across three different offices in the U.S., London, and Australia. He is also one of the founding members of the company’s Black union employee resource group, which sponsored some employees’ attendance at this year’s conference under the Executive badge. “We thought we would [be] boots on the ground and talk to students and people looking for jobs for recruitment purposes,” Watson told AFROTECH™. “We had some shirts made that made us kind of stand out, along with the Executive badge,” Watson said. “That kind of signifies to people that ‘I’m not looking for a job. I’m here for a purpose.” “Our main goal was to recruit for some of our sales roles, our engineering roles, and then also to, I wanted the Black union members that...

Alexia Grevious Henderson is taking another step forward in her communications career. The Fort Mill, South Carolina native is a Clemson University graduate with a degree in communication studies, where she helped establish the school’s first digital foundation and athletic video department, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Her career experience includes working in digital communications at the NCAA before joining the Washington Commanders (formerly the Washington Redskins) as its corporate communications manager from 2015 and 2017, according to information on her LinkedIn profile. She has since been working for Magic Johnson Enterprises. She rose from senior manager of marketing and communications to director of marketing and communications, and by 2023 to vice president of strategic partnerships and marketing. Along the way, she secured an MBA from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School in 2020. She was also featured in Diverse Representation’s “The Ten to Watch in 2022” and Sports...

After 32 years at Black Entertainment Television (BET), former CEO Debra Lee continues shaping culture and business. Today, she sits on the boards of Warner Bros. Discovery, Marriott International, and Procter & Gamble — but her legacy at BET remains untouched. At AFROTECH™ Conference 2025, Lee reflected on how her leadership from 2005 to 2018 helped define generations of Black entertainment, from shaping beloved programming to setting new standards for representation. Lee began at BET as the company’s first in-house counsel, building the legal department from the ground up. She later — and unexpectedly — became president and chief operating officer, succeeding founder Bob Johnson. “When people started writing articles, ‘Debra Lee is the heir apparent,’ it really shocked me,” Lee recalled. “I thought I was just going to continue to do the work, and Bob would get all the credit. That’s the way it went. No big deal. And it wasn’t until Bob left and I became CEO that people started...

Black women are facing increasing economic challenges today. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs or have exited the workforce. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, along with Trump’s tariffs, has contributed to these losses. Times are hard, and many are being stretched to make ends meet. Adding to these challenges, the stalling of SNAP benefits under the government shutdown is impacting millions of Americans. In addition, homelessness is at an all-time high , according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s most recent 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. The study cites that homelessness rose by 18% since 2023, meaning roughly 118,000 more people experienced homelessness in 2024 compared with 2023. For some, like 22-year-old Imani, the instability of today’s landscape has made it increasingly difficult to secure employment and...

Olivier Rousteing has parted ways with fashion house Balmain. The designer entered the fashion industry with determination and risk. According to an interview with Vogue, at 18, he left the fashion school after six months. This decision was also not understood by his parents, who had already been perplexed by his pursuit of fashion. “I fought because I had no school or background behind me, just determination and desire,” he told the outlet in a November 2021 interview. That decision paved the way for a historic appointment at Balmain at age 24 as its creative director in April 2011. Before this, he had worked under his predecessor, Christophe Decarnin, for two years, notes Vogue. According to a separate Vogue article, he was the “youngest non-founding designer to lead a major Paris house” since Yves Saint Laurent’s appointment at Dior at age 21. That’s not all. Rousteing was the first Black individual to become a creative director at a major European house, the Business of Fashion...

Jason Mayden’s parents invested in him early on, helping him realize his dreams at Jordan Brand. Self-Belief Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he believed his imagination was better than his reality after spending time in and out of the hospital. He also observed that he was different from his peers as a neurodivergent individual and often felt overlooked. In an interview held during the 2025 AFROTECH™ Conference, he revealed that he gave himself permission to dream. This became his superpower. “In that imaginative state, I was able to give myself permission to dream and to eventually decide that who I am is enough,” he said. “I rejoice and relish in the fact that people underestimated me and I thank them for that because it forced me to realize that I have to be the progenitor of my own outcomes and, I’m the protagonist in my own narrative. I couldn’t choose my origin story, but I can write my ending,” he continued. Investment From His Parents When Mayden was 10 years old,...

Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye has turned a new leaf. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, N’Diaye-Mbaye announced the closing of her beauty brand Ami Colé in July, which was on Sephora shelves across North America. Rather than being able to focus on moves that would have positioned the company for longevity, she admitted to allocating time to appraising investors who were not all consistent in their support of inclusivity. “Instead of focusing on the healthy, sustainable future of the company and meeting the needs of our loyal fan base, I rode a temperamental wave of appraising investors — some of whom seemed to have an attitude toward equity and ‘betting big on inclusivity’ that changed its tune, to my ears, from what it sounded like in 2020,” she told The Cut. Joining SKIMS N’Diaye-Mbaye said her belief in beauty hasn’t changed and that she was optimistic about what’s ahead. It appears her journey has led her to SKIMS, the shapewear brand founded by Kim Kardashian alongside Emma Grede and...

Generosity isn’t just about being nice — it’s the key to earning the trust of a Fortune 100 CEO. At AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 in Houston, TX, Juan Bonilla, president of marketing agency Walton Isaacson, and Ayiko Broyard, executive vice president and head of account management, unpacked the power of strategic generosity as a growth strategy that strengthens relationships, unlocks bigger budgets, and leaves chief marketing officers (CMOs) feeling supported, empowered, and recognized. Broyard shared how this philosophy shaped Walton Isaacson’s long-standing partnership with Lexus. Early on, she noticed how luxury buyers valued the brand’s respect and hospitality — something missing from competitors. To truly understand that experience, she and her team visited dealerships, sat in the cars, and immersed themselves in the customer journey. That firsthand insight became a cornerstone of the agency’s experiential strategy: every event must feature a vehicle people can touch, sit in, and...