>> Produced by women about women, Powerful Women: Let's Talk is a series of interviews with women who are trailblazers and have helped shape our world transforming who we are and how we live.

>> Latesha Lipscomb Is a Grand Rapids native who has a passion for working hard to better the lives of underprivileged in the city's urban core.

Currently she's serving the community as director of engagement for Amplify GR.

Plus, there's so much more hint.

Latesha is eager to share her empowerment tips on navigating the workplace while staying true to yourself as a woman in leadership.

So welcome to this edition of Powerful Women.

Latesha Lipscomb.

Hi to you.

Hello.

How are you really find good.

Wearing a lime green is gets my attention.

That's for sure.

There are more things to discuss.

We have the time.

When do you sleep?

>> You know why?

I don't know.

I was just telling a colleague the other day.

I don't know how I'm surviving, let alone thriving.

But somehow I just raised at these mommy arms and I make it happen.

>> And we'll get to that mompreneur.

But I trust to you are a health advocate.

Sleep is important if we want to go there.

>> Absolutely.

1000%.

recently Shelley you know, I went on a health journey and the bst surgery, which is not gastric bypass, but it's the procedure in which they remove 75% of your stomach .

like many Americans.

I gained a significant amount during the COVID experience in the pandemic and so had reached almost 400 pounds.

And I was on the verge of everything diabetes, high blood pressure, constant swelling, not sleeping well at all.

And so today I'm happy to report I'’ve already lost 105 pounds.

I feel so much better and I sleep better.

>> I'm going to stay on that role.

What was it that made You say Latesha I need to I need we need to change.

How does that have?

>> And for you to make a call, you know, getting on the scale and reaching almost 400 pounds was number one.

But you know what?

The most important thing was me just saying to myself, I wanted to be around for as long as possible for my son.

I am a very active and engaged single mom to a vibrant and awesome 10 year-old little boy.

And so, yeah, I want to be alive and I want to have improved quality of life to continue to be a rock mom and to be an inspiration to my son.

And so going on this health journey with him, as my biggest cheerleader has been and a privilege to be some change, some lifestyle habits absolutely vital with this surgery.

You absolutely have to.

You have to lose a certain amount of weight up front in order for them to operate.

And then you've got to maintain it.

Right.

So VSG surgery really is just a tool that you need a renewal of the mind.

You need to shift your mindset in terms of like eating breathing and thinking health year.

And that certainly has happened for me and I couldn't be more have happy with the results.

Look forward to more conversation on.

>> That you are on many boards and committees.

beauty expert and then demonstrating that as well inside and out.

>> But take me back to the 7 to 7 year-old Latesha.

Where were you?

Oh, my goodness.

So I am a Grand Rapids native who so have happy about that.

Who's so equally happy about the fact that I am a Grand Rapids, public schools graduate and so 7 years old, I went through the entire public school system and get some time at Saint Andrews, but then also spent a lot of time at Burton Elementary, some time Southeast academic center.

And I was just really blessed and privileged to come up under the tutelage of a lot of strong.

Incredible African American women in leadership here in the city, in Grand Rapids, public schools.

And so I was involved in everything an early age, black educational Excellence program.

I was a participant in Spectrum which was a program for gifted and talented teens.

And then I bumped into Miranda and at one point and I started my journey on TV on the show.

She initiated caught fast forward.

So I'’ve had just a phenomenal relationship with, you know, coming up as a young person with youth enrichment and activity and people seeing a gift to me and sewing into that gift.

And so so many people have contributed greatly to the woman that I am today.

>> That you have a law degree.

Tell me about Boston College.

Why this?

Why this opportunity for you?

>> So Boston College was kind of a no-brainer for me.

Well, that's not holy to.

So I happen to be speaking at a he O'Brian Youth Foundation Conference.

And after my presentation, a gentleman came up to me and he said, hey, have you ever thought about attending Boston College like what are you doing after high school?

I want to know and I said no, I'm interested in University of Michigan or Harvard.

I don't know anything about Boston College.

And he said, well, why don't you let me fly you out, come visit and see if you like it.

And after that, we can talk.

And so I flew out to Boston with out.

My parents was just me.

I was seeking adventure and I loved what I found at the time.

I had no idea what a chance you it even was.

But I fell in Love, Shelley, with the idea of the Jesuit idea of service to mankind, above all others.

And as soon as I stepped foot on that campus, I knew that that was the place for me.

So I'm actually a double eagle, meaning that I have 2 degrees from Boston College.

And so I studied political science and had a focus in faith, peace and justice.

And so obviously the next step for somebody who is an avid reader, who is a great writer and just peach of a drama Queen was for me to go to law school and to take my, you know, try my hand at landing in a courtroom to see how I would be.

Well, how are you?

You know, I was actually really good.

Unfortunately, I'm not practicing because I didn't pass the Illinois bar exam and I attempted to take it twice.

But my gifts and abilities kind of landed me overseeing all of oral operations and advocacy for the institution.

So I was the head of negotiation and mediation for years.

As a matter of fact, they love to me so much.

They offered me a job to come back to be be assistant director of admissions for the law school.

And I turned it down.

I don't because I thought I'd never find love in Boston.

>> Still haven't found Love Shelley so well.

We can get to that if that's even necessary.

We you know, we want to give you a complete woman, but boy, thank you for sharing that.

Amplify GR, though.

You call home.

>> Yeah.

So amplify GR is my current home and really makes me happy because I describe my work and my life there as ministry.

That's just the bottom line.

I am the director of engagement and relationships.

And I really dedicate my whole self to making sure that we are honoring an uplifting neighbor priority in every way.

I am a huge proponent of thing.

Take inclusionary, true engagement.

And I really do finally believe that when people are, you know, involved in the process, they develop a sense of pride and ownership over their own neighborhood.

And it's so I get a lot of joy out of being the champion behind them says, you know, you don't need permission from anybody to be the architect of your own lives.

So take your neighborhood by storm and be the change that you wish to see.

This is part of your whole.

>> Authentic community partnership rule that you're on the right.

>> Absolutely.

So everything we do like our whole perspective in my I believe should be about partnership, right?

The some of the whole is greater than its individual parts.

And it's so important that we work together, it really for greater collective impact.

So in my role, you know, I get to be strategic in determining what relationships and partnerships we need to hold in order to push the community forward.

And so that's just being quite an honor and a privilege because I get to be an advocate and a voice for those that have been, you know, muted or they have quieter voices in the community.

And so I get a lot of passion and purpose out of serving in historically marginalized communities.

So before I made my way to amplify actually was serving in heart.

I where I live work and play.

And so, you know, I was able to learn from the city of grand round.

It's under Susanne Shultz.

It's too late that the way we design see these really effects how people live and learn in their own communities to repeat what you say.

You are an advocate for those with quiet.

>> Or muted voices in the city's most vulnerable communities of young lady is listening now and says I want to be on board with this with how does she start to be kind of where you are now?

>> I think the most important thing to do is to get involved in your neighborhood.

I think that neighborhood associations have impeccable amount of power.

Some organizations have to realize states organizations have yet to discover the power that is within them.

But a start at home.

Everything start to home.

So when you walk outside your front door or what ever fabulous neighborhood that might be in our Grand City, I would encourage you to start their become involved in your community.

Get involved in your neighborhood like charity really does start at home.

And then you work your way out.

You can join other boards like actively serve on the high Side Downtown Neighborhood Association board.

I serve on the downtown neighboring network.

I also so windy GIs Citizens Alliance board.

And all of that is important because I want to ensure that I am reflective of creating a sense of belonging, a sense of placemaking for all people in the city of Grand Rapids and in order for the city to become a top of mind destination, truly, we have to make sure that we're inclusive and all of our practices and that equity is always top of mind for us.

So you can't do that unless you're serving.

Yes.

>> And how do you do it to keep a calendar?

You wake up and say I have a lot to do today.

But as we get done, what's the practical me?

>> And I think I like living die by my phone.

Like if it's not in my calendar, it doesn't exist.

And so unfortunately, I'm swapped all the time.

Sometimes I have the internal journey.

That's a bit of a struggle because I think that I sacrifice my son for the amount of work that I do and pour into this community.

But at the same time, oftentimes give myself a pat on the back because if you know, even you know, my son Kai is because Kious is always with me at every event.

And so I take a lot of pride in the fact that I am raising a strong civic-minded, a citizen that is going to make positive contributions to wherever he lands and he already is because honestly, he's more popular than me.

Yeah, in that expand on that one of your hat says mom.

>> Trip, run or entrepreneur.

How how do you keep him in your life?

>> So he is number one of my reuse 10.

He's 10 years and is going to be 13, 9 and then 21.

But, you know, Kious is at the core of everything that I do.

I you know, I call him my heartbeat and that's literally what he is.

So every decision I make is with him in mind and everywhere we go, we like a tag team.

We are definitely a dynamic, dual and a package deal.

So if we're saving in community, we're saving.

They get there.

If we're serving neighbors who need a meal, Kai says right there next to me started being or he's being agree there or he is mister Personality, Mister Congeniality.

So he's a welcoming people.

He's doing signing sheet.

So I just basically build him into everything I do this morning.

I attended donuts with grownups.

And, you know, I'm just proud of that because honestly, as I was walking into the school, I was thinking there's no place I'd rather be than with you.

And so I think that the most valuable gift you can give your children.

It's your time and then even more valuable when you're leading a life of inspiration, something that they can craft their own life after can.

>> Expand on your hashtags.

Hashtag be the change.

Hashtag we all can eat.

>> Me.

And so those are 2 things that I say all the time and especially in this work for 2 reasons.

Number one, I believe that individuals are powerful beyond measure, right?

It's never that were inadequate.

It's just that sometimes we feel fearful of doing the work.

We're doing our own work to figure out what's in it for us and how we can really make a contribution to it, dancing the community.

And so when I say be the change again, it all starts with you.

So don't be fearful.

Have the courage, be brave, take a chance and go out and just do whatever you set your mind to whatever change you wish to see in your neighborhood in your neck of the woods.

It honestly start with you because each person was designed to do something special and unique and nobody can do it like you.

So the world is waiting on you.

And then when I say we can't eat, I mean that there's an opportunity for everybody to get a piece of the pie.

If you go after it, when you make that opportunity to be the change, if we all work together collectively we can eat, we can participate in the benefit.

And so that's again, like one of the things that amplify GR stands for is winding pathways so that all people can participate in and benefit from community growth.

So when I say we can eat if we work together, if we strategize together, if we create a swarm of mentality at the end of the day, we cannot face to face.

>> But let me take apart.

Eat literally.

You are a foodie as we moved in as we move into fun.

Facts yourself described foodie with yeah.

>> And man, I love it so case and I are both real seekers and adventurers.

And one of the things we like to do is research and these all of the new places opening around the city.

So if there's a new restaurant, if there's a new type of food, if there is a new experience stress to me, we've had it.

And if I haven't had yet to have on the list to try, so it could be easy thing from Persian food all the way, too.

I remember taking Kious to have lapsed or for the first time he literally 8, 3, of them.

Now mind you.

It was in Florida at a seafood buffet.

So I paid one price.

But it was just amazing to me because he was like 7 years old at the time.

And he just really enjoyed it.

I favorite food together is sushi.

So we always have Sundays at for my son.

So we always have sushi on Sundays.

>> How important is it to to be a need to do as you mentioned, I guess, be comfortable in your own skin and I'm leaving this to a fun fact.

You a self-professed proclaim selfie Queen.

So it's OK to take selfies.

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> Absolutely.

Love it.

My son teases me.

Everybody knows that.

I'm famous for the Dow clips and they're like, why don't you smile more?

You have such a beautiful smile is like I just can't let it go.

I love the deck lips and I love the south.

You can set.

I think that loving yourself.

So important and we card list of your circumstance, right?

And that could mean a number of things coming your way.

That could mean your skin color.

That could mean you can.

You're lived experiences and how they manifest and you physically, you have to be able to find the joy in yourself because if you don't, no one else can love you as you are.

And so I think I take selfies because I was teased often when I was younger for being a bigger girl.

And so I developed this self hating complex around and nothing being beautiful below my neck.

And so obviously that's how I got face with some point.

So I spent a long time doing makeup.

I have a makeup studio downtown.

That is the man preview or side of me.

It has since been deactivated because I've prayed and asked for a major leadership position.

And when I had it, I didn't have the time to really juggle, you know, a makeup artistry business at the same time.

But I got face was me raging against the machine saying no, like, yeah, got face.

But all of me is equally beautiful.

Also take it or leave it in this selfie.

Yes.

>> And goes back to the woman who is listening that says, should I take a risk?

Wait, this isn't working for me, but this is just do it.

This year example.

>> 1000% because no one is created like, you know, one is you you have an important space in this world.

You have work to do.

You have a contribution that nobody else can ever execute like you.

So find yourself like yourself, embrace yourself.

And even though in those hard moments and when it gets difficult, sit down, say to yourself, I'm self care is an act of resistance.

Walk in that and then, you know, do your best to live a life where no matter what comes your way, you can find the joy in it.

>> You do say the future is female.

>> I do.

I so I am just a big fan of women, women empowerment.

You know, I always feel a special affinity for women in transition in teen girls.

So when I was active in makeup and styling and all of that different stuff, that was always my focus being able to go into a school like Covenant House and talking to young women about self-esteem, how to look and feel beautiful, how to rediscover the beauty inside them.

Those are opportunities that feed my soul.

So, yeah, I really do believe that women are amazing.

And I do believe that our time is just around the bend.

>> I don't know you've been bending the law to successfully, but keep on.

Keep on going.

What do you leave us with?

>> You know, I just leave you with one bit of advice is no matter what like, find your passion and pursue it.

We'd let Leslie dream in cars, color.

And then finally, like live out loud, you only get one life, so don't waste time.

Go ahead.

Be bold.

Be brave.

>> And live out loud and where Lime green, where Landrieu that he should.

Thank you for this conversation on this powerful women.

Let's talk.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is awesome.