About Us

Good Morning, Sisters

 

About Us

Career Sisters ™ is here to help forge the careers and businesses of women of color. We are a place where sisters can connect and emerge empowered.

Contact Us

Our Community

Career Sisters was established in 2018 out of the need to establish resources for Women of Color in their careers and entrepreneurial endeavors. Career Sisters offers a safe space for Women of Color to:

  • Learn and Grow
  • Collaborate and share their experiences and how they navigated the nuances of corporate organizations
  • Connect and E.M.E.R.G.E.

By empowering women - our concept is simple, "Creating spaces where every day accomplished women were invited to collaborate, share their experiences and how they navigated the nuances of corporate organizations as well as establishing their own businesses."

Our Mission

To empower Women of Color by leveraging our E.M.E.R.G.E. Signature Program to customize participants' experiences and create an experiential learning methodology (educating through first‐hand experience). It is a proven fact that experiential learning enhances learning, taps into emotional intelligence, increases retention, increases engagement, delivers exceptional ROI, and produces demonstrable mindset changes.

Leadership like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it.

Henry Mintzberg

Create

Create, enhance or add to Diversity programs by leveraging our E.M.E.R.G.E. approach to customize participants' experiences and leverage experiential learning methodology integrating connectedness and relatability exercises to address unique cultural differences. We do this by a shared methodology - we offer a pipeline to new talent and/or we partner with corporations on existing talent. In addition, we continue mentoring/coaching with our signature program.

Develop

Develop programs that build/enhance the following critical competencies: Develop/Translate Strategy, Communicate Effectively,Execute for Results, Build Relationships, and Model Accountability and integrating connectedness and relatability exercises to address unique cultural differences.

Provide

Provide environments that allows women to be authentic, share like-minded experiences/approaches to strengthen their performance and drive higher impact in the organization.

Partner

Partner with entrepreneurial women of color and develop customized road maps and access to resources that will assist them in reaching their goals.

E ducate

Emotional Intelligence

M entor

Community of Likeminded Women

E ncourage

Collective Collaboration

R estore

Increased Confidence

G uide

Growth and Development

E mpower

Entrepreneurial Leadership Skills

Our Vision

To develop a leadership pipeline for women of color that can benefit companies in all sectors. We can provide training, coaching, education, mentoring, talent and/or entrepreneurial partnerships to companies that come through our Career Sisters' services. We not only provide companies with the women; we partner with them and continue working with the women to ensure a win-win solution. When they win, you win and when you win, they succeed.

Firms with the most ethnically diverse teams were 33% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability, and those with executive level gender diversity worldwide had a 21% likelihood of outperform their industry competitors.

Harvard Business Review
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1. Learn

  • Provide clients training courses that give professional women a market advantage in their chosen field or entrepreneurial pursuits.
  • Provide clients with individualized coaching that helps them refine critical leadership skill for business settings

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2. Strategize

  • Provide clients with guidance on leveraging resources and building professional relationships (mentors, sponsors, collaborators and partners) to fulfill entrepreneurial endeavors.
  • Provide clients with the insights required to strategically achieve professional milestones, including, but not limited to, salary parity, promotions. and leadership opportunities.

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3. Network

  • Provide clients with a superior co-working environment to serve as the setting for their professional development and/or the incubator of their entrepreneurial projects.
  • Provide women of color a safe space to exist free from biases and discrimination. Create a protective environment where they can be vulnerable, but resilient and can support other women in the spirit of sisterhood and shared experiences.

Meet Our Team

 

We have over 30 years of experience in the areas of Strategic Leadership, Executive Coaching, Operations, Capital Management, Human Resources Management, Leadership & Development, Finance/Accounting, Marketing/Sales and Diversity & Inclusion across multiple industries. Our resources represent corporate leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners from small to large organizations. Our team has certifications in Executive Coaching, Change Management, DISC, Lean Six Sigma, Myers Briggs, Birkman, Hogan and Center for Creative Leadership.

Management Team

Founder & CEO

Fern Johnson, MBA
Career Consultant

Sonya E. Hodges, MBA, CPCC
HR Consultant

Nicole Mitchell-Kirkland
Founder & CEO

Fern Johnson, MBA

Fern Johnson is the founder of Career Sisters. She guides strategic direction and builds strategic relationships to promote Career Sisters. Her responsibilities include, but not limited to making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of the company, and acting as the main point of communication between the advisory board and corporate operations.

Career Consultant

Sonya E. Hodges, MBA, CPCC

As an accomplished HR professional with over 18 years of experience in the private sector and has worked in several industries to include healthcare, insurance, construction equipment and professional services.  Sonya is responsible for implementing human resource management strategies that enable companies to recruit, train and retain a high performing and motivated workforce. Sonya has extensive generalist experience and expertise which includes talent management, staffing, learning and development, and leadership and management coaching.

HR Consultant

Nicole Mitchell-Kirkland

Certified professional with working knowledge of current HR policies and best practices.  Primary area of expertise is the development of organizational structure and enhancing company stability. 15+ years professional experience in retail, state and federal government and the private sector provides a unique perspective on employee relations and company needs. Hands-on approach to drive proven results based in practical application not just in theory.

Advisory Team

Michael Mercer

Sharlene Smith

Marion Lewis

Michael Mercer

A commercially-focused, C-level, life science executive, who has built and led high performing companies, launched innovative and disruptive technologies, which have changed clinical practice, successfully raised private and public capital, in excess of $100 million and implemented financial performance measures which have led to significant investor returns and multiple investor exits. Success has traversed medical devices, point-of-care diagnostics and laboratory services. Accomplished career began as a highly awarded medical device sales rep, rising through the commercial ranks and ascending through the organizations to be President and CEO of several esoteric clinical laboratories. Currently CEO for a Women’s Health Organization is Chicago, Illinois.

Sharlene Smith

Serial entrepreneur, former C-level executive, who has built and led companies serving in the capacity of VP and General Manager for fortune 500 companies. She serves on multiple boards as a servant leader and is recognized for her management and leadership training. She currently owns and operates several health and wellness franchises in the Southeast region along with her wife.

Marion Lewis

Marion is an accomplished, professional and creative Leadership trainer, Executive Coach, workshop facilitator and businessman. Recognized for his expertise in facilitation, strategic planning, and personal career development planning. His sessions are characterized by high-energy, interesting, and thought-provoking interactions. For the last 4 years, Marion has been on staff as Senior Adviser and Executive Coach. Prior to launching his own firm in 2006, Mr. Lewis was Regional Director of Training and Development for Wendy’s International Restaurants. In that role, he was responsible for leading and directing the Southeast U.S. region’s Human Resource training/development programs for 1600 restaurants in the 10-state Southeast region. He led a staff that conducted management and leadership skills training for all company and franchise operations including over 100 franchise owners/ operators.