The Transformation: Building What’s Next (Vol. 2, No. 2)

By Dahab Hagos-Fewell

The Shift | Vol. 2, No. 2 – Transforming Black Futures Together: Driving Change from Within

We’re Not Piloting Programs, we’re prototyping the Future.

There’s a pattern you’ll find across Black history, one that shows up in every generation. When the systems we inherit fail to see us, we build new ones. Not because we’re invited to. But because we have to.

Black leaders have always made something out of necessity. Whether in business, education, health, or labor, we’ve led innovation not for recognition, but for survival. Solutions weren’t framed as experiments they were commitments. When school districts locked students out, they were reimagined as welcome spaces for young minds. Movements were launched when voices were silenced, pathways were created where there were none.

At LeadersUp, we carry that same DNA. We don’t approach systems change as a short-term project or a test of what’s possible. We approach it as a mandate, one that comes from our mission, our community, and the young leaders shaping the future economy.

In my role in the Transformation Office, that mandate becomes operational. My work is to help turn vision into structure, to design the processes, partnerships, and infrastructure that allow bold ideas to take root. Throughout this work, and my career, I’ve drawn inspiration from the power, ingenuity, and innovation of Madam C.J. Walker.

To this day, her Barbie sits proudly on my shelf as a constant reminder that we build what’s best for our community, not what impresses the market. Walker didn’t pilot her vision to see if it might work. She built because something wasn’t right. The economy wasn’t designed for her. The industry wasn’t made for her. So she designed something better and brought others in her community along with her.

That spirit lives in our work today. When we use our Design for Equity process to assess, discover, design, deploy, learn, and amplify, we’re not just following steps, we’re honoring a lineage of leaders who understood that transformation is not optional when the system is broken.

We’re not piloting programs to see what sticks. We’re prototyping the future, intentionally, collaboratively, and unapologetically. And we’re doing it together.

As we honor Black Futures Month, I invite you to reflect:

• What system in your sphere of influence needs redesign, not repair?

• Who is missing from the table in shaping that future?

• Are we building what’s best for our community or what’s easiest to explain?

• If young Black leaders were truly co-architects of our systems, what would look different tomorrow?

Transformation doesn’t begin with permission. It begins with participation.

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Dahab Hagos-Fewell is the Vice President, Head of Transformation at LeadersUp, driving organizational alignment and cross-functional execution across the organization’s portfolios.