In this exciting debut, legendary leader and former CEO of Black Entertainment Television Networks, Debra Lee, will show readers how she climbed to the top of the entertainment industry and broke through the glass ceilings of gender and race. Part memoir, part career advice book, Lee will impart key insights, share hard-earned lessons, and tell the story of how she came to be the leader of a major enterprise and the “first” in many rooms. Through vivid storytelling, she’ll show readers how she made her own way in the world from day one, from her childhood in the South and daughter of a military officer, the Black Power movement, her years at Brown University and Harvard Law and then her ascent into law and ultimately the building and flourishing as the second CEO of Black Entertainment Television Networks (BET).
From being a shy “good girl” growing up in Greensboro to gracing major stages and having personal friends like President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Lee writes about the invisibility she felt in rooms where she was the only woman or only Black person to the extreme visibility that she gained at BETs Networks' helm.
This book will also explore the critical moments and decisions she made that have shaped her career in life, showcasing a multifaceted, modern woman’s prowess at the C-level and in the boardroom while also including detailed narrative about her personal struggles and triumphs. The themes she explores will resonate: motherhood, “having it all,” reproductive choice, being Black in America, corporate diversification all the way up to the leadership. She will also tackle her personal journey with topics that many women struggle with in the workplace but that aren’t as discussed in books by CEOs: Time’s Up, #MeToo, abortion, and fertility.
There is a vacuum in the market for business and leadership memoirs from Black women at Debra’s level—which emphasizes the need for not only her story, but more stories like hers. In I AM DEBRA LEE, as she has done her whole career, she opens the door for those to come after her, by sharing her own inspiring story of power, perseverance, and success.
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