Five Board Practices That Lift Black Women Leaders

Inspired by Monica L. Coleman’s 2025 Nonprofit Quarterly article, “How Women of Color in the South Are Reclaiming Space,” I found myself reflecting deeply on what Black women leaders carry—and what boards must do to honor, support, and protect that work. As a Black woman born in the North but shaped by more than 30 years of living and leading in the South, I’ve seen firsthand the power, pressure, and purpose woven into this leadership.

To lead as a Black woman—especially in the South—is more than a job description. It’s a calling, a lineage, and sometimes a load that feels heavier than it looks. These leaders aren’t simply running organizations. They are carrying history, community memory, ancestral stories, healing work, and the deep expectation to make it all better—often with a fraction of the resources their counterparts receive.

And yet, Black women keep showing up. They keep building. They keep leading with love, strategy, data, culture, and a whole lot of bravery.

Boards have a choice: Either they can simply watch Black women leaders do the labor of community transformation—or they can show up as active supporters, truth-tellers, resource-mobilizers, protectors, and accountability partners.

This blog invites boards to choose better - and show up!

Below are five board practices that lift Black women leaders who are deeply rooted in their communities and why it matters now more than ever.

1. Honor Lived Expertise as Strategic Expertise

Every woman highlighted in Coleman’s article brings something no textbook can teach: the Mississippi Delta, a post-Katrina childhood, Southern educational legacies, motherhood, faith traditions, cultural memory, disaster survival, and community wisdom.

Boards must stop treating lived experience as “bonus insight” and start treating it as the kind of knowledge strategy depends on.

Boards can support by:

• Naming lived expertise as a leadership asset

• Trusting the leader’s community-informed vision

• Paying equitably for cultural, emotional, and relational labor

The Board Pro believes: Boards thrive when they trust the wisdom of the leader they hired—and stop second-guessing the very expertise they claim to value.

2. Make Rest and Healing Nonnegotiable

From Sara Sneed’s spiritual grounding to Nakeitra Burse’s maternal health healing work, Black women leaders show us that transformational leadership begins with the wellbeing of the leader. Boards must move beyond “take care of yourself” rhetoric and become guardians of wellness and sustainability.

Boards can support by:

• Building sabbaticals or extended rest into leadership agreements

• Monitoring workload and stepping in early before burnout takes over

• Protecting the CEO from unrealistic expectations, toxic funders, and mission creep

The Board Pro teaches: A burned-out leader is not a leadership issue. It’s a governance failure.

3. Move Resources Toward Equity—Boldly

Coleman’s article reminds us that only 3% of philanthropic dollars reach the South—and even fewer reach Black-led organizations. Yet Black women leaders are transforming entire communities with budgets that wouldn’t fund a pilot program anywhere.

Boards can support by:

• Opening networks Black women shouldn’t have to fight to access

• Advocating for multi-year, unrestricted funds

• Rejecting deficit narratives in conversations with funders

The Board Pro equips boards to activate their fundraising muscles, not sit on their hands.

4. Protect Their Power, Presence, and Voice

Joyvin Benton speaks powerfully about refusing to shrink. Black women leaders often face boards or external stakeholders who question, undermine, or attempt to “soften” their leadership. Boards must be the guardrail, not the hazard.

Boards can support by:

• Naming and interrupting bias—especially bias against Black women

• Centering the CEO’s voice in decision-making

• Standing with the leader in moments of pushback

• Ensuring she doesn’t have to justify her right to lead

The Board Pro trains boards to govern with equity at the center, so Black women leaders can actually lead.

5. Lead With Relationships, Not Just Resolutions

From Keecha Harris to Anasa Troutman to Michelle Bidwell, every story underscores that relationships are the strategy. In the South especially, trust is currency. Culture is curriculum. Community wisdom is data.

Boards can support by:

• Spending time in community, not just the conference room

• Listening deeply to those the organization empowers

• Honoring the histories and cultural patterns that shape community life

The Board Pro helps boards build these muscles so they can partner authentically, not performatively.

A Final Word: When Boards Lead Well, Black Women Don’t Have to Lead Alone

Black women leaders are holding healing, culture, data, storytelling, policy, education, maternal health, philanthropy, and community survival—often simultaneously. They deserve boards who match their courage with competence, their strategy with support, and their vision with resources.

If your board is ready to strengthen its governance, deepen its equity practice, and become a true partner to the Black women leaders guiding your mission forward, I’d love to support you.

I’m Christal M. Cherry, The Board Pro—board consultant, facilitator, trainer, and truth-teller helping boards lead with equity, courage, and community at the center.

👉🏾 Let’s work together. Reach me at hello@theboardpro.com or www.theboardpro.com.