For Black women, the instability of today’s job market has been particularly severe. Since early 2025, approximately 600,000 Black women have become unemployed, left the labor force, or otherwise been pushed out. Behind that staggering figure are accomplished and overqualified women who did everything they were told would create professional security: earned degrees, exceeded expectations, ascended into leadership, and remained loyal to their employers.
Still, many found themselves laid off, underpaid, marginalized, retaliated against, or removed during corporate restructurings. Losing a job forced them to question identities they had spent years building around their titles and careers.
The 21 women below are inspiring, to say the least. They refused to allow an employer’s decision to become a permanent judgment of their true potential. They turned painful exits into businesses, books, public service careers, community platforms, and opportunities to build on their own terms. Their stories offer encouragement to Black women to take back their power and navigate unemployment in an increasingly unforgiving job market.
1. Yanna Williams, founder of The Group Chat
Williams made the painful decision to close a multimillion-dollar company she created to support Black girls, after economic conditions and sponsor priorities shifted. After questioning whether she should abandon her purpose altogether, she returned to it by building The Group Chat, a membership community helping Black women founders grow through community, culture, and capital. She encourages women to remember who they are, trust what they are called to do, and refuse to let a setback define their future.
2. Dawn Kelly, cofounder and CEO of The Nourish Spot
After nearly 16 years at one of the top insurance companies, Kelly arrived at work with luggage for a business trip only to learn that her position had been eliminated. She took business classes and joined programs for small businesses before launching The Nourish Spot with her daughter, growing the Jamaica, Queens, wellness bar to include concessions at Kennedy Airport and the U.S. Open. She advises Black women to feel the pain without remaining trapped in it, rediscover what once brought them joy, and consider whether an unmet community need could become their next business.
3. Mia Aime, CEO and CCO of Aime PR
Aime was leading communications for one of the most diverse divisions of a major media company when changing corporate priorities eliminated her team and work associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Former colleagues continued referring clients to her, prompting her to formalize Aime PR, where she now advises executives and brands while teaching future communicators at New York University. Her advice is to grieve the experience without internalizing it, because corporate rejection often reflects shifting power structures rather than a lack of capability.
4. Alex Harris, product manager at Google
Harris left big law after being denied meaningful advancement and overhearing a partner describe her as a “token,” only to experience similar marginalization in nonprofit leadership. Therapy, support from other Black women, and a willingness to recognize her transferable skills helped her transition into product management at Google while also pursuing her creativity as a science-fiction writer. She encourages Black women to apply beyond the industries where they appear to be conventional candidates and pursue roles that value the distinctive perspective their experience provides.
5. Denise W. Barreto, founder, Chief Building Officer of Built For Us All
While serving as a chief equity and engagement officer, Barreto filed an internal complaint about workplace mistreatment and later faced an ethics investigation she described as retaliatory. She returned to entrepreneurship by founding Built For Us All, a national civic platform applying her experience in transportation, advocacy, public policy, and community engagement to reparative infrastructure. Her advice is to protect the mission rather than rush to replace the title—the organization may take away a position, but it cannot take away your life’s work.
6. LaTresha Howland, cofounder of Breadless
After building a successful advertising career, Howland joined a workplace where she says she was excluded from opportunities and labeled “aggressive” for challenging ideas. She left, earned her MBA, transitioned into technology, and eventually cofounded Breadless, a Detroit-born fast-casual company where she leads communications, marketing, partnerships, and community engagement. She advises women not to allow one workplace to define their potential and to remain open to changing industries, earning another degree, or creating an entirely new path.
7. Manaze Baptiste, founder and principal of Sovrant
Baptiste spent years operating as a high-growth company CEO’s right hand, but after raising concerns about pay equity, advancement, and psychological safety, she was isolated, micromanaged, and eventually laid off. She now leads Sovrant, an operating-design firm advising founders and executives, while developing a nonprofit that will support young adults transitioning out of foster care. Her advice is to resist immediately rebuilding the life that rejected you and first ask yourself what you genuinely want your life and work to become.
8. Nicole Doswell-Busano, executive director of The Riviere Agency
Doswell-Busano had relocated to Miami for a modeling agency position when she was abruptly terminated during what had appeared to be an ordinary workday. After researching career paths and conducting informational interviews, she moved closer to the creative work she loved and now produces fashion shows, brand experiences, and events around the world as executive director of The Riviere Agency. She also founded Models of Color Matter and advises women not to let one person’s decision determine their worth or destination.
9. Adyna K. Pressley, founder and CEO of AKP Innovations
After reaching the vice presidential level, Pressley watched corporate restructuring, exclusion, and new management layers gradually diminish her authority as the only Black woman at her level. A conversation during a girls’ trip helped her recognize that women and entrepreneurs had already been seeking her guidance for years, inspiring her to launch AKP Innovations. She now helps Black women build scalable businesses and use AI more effectively, reminding them that they are not starting from scratch but from experience, wisdom, and power.
10. Amira Barger, executive VP of D&A Communications
Barger was unexpectedly laid off after years of advising organizations on diversity, leadership, and culture, during a broader corporate retreat from equity commitments. She remained connected through daily conversations, writing, speaking, and relationship-building, eventually becoming executive vice president of D&A Communications, where she is positioned to succeed to the CEO role. Her guidance is not to confuse being rejected with being reduced; losing a title or email address does not erase your gifts, leadership, or ability to create change.
11. Lauren Woulard, founder of LPC Consulting and The CultuHER
Woulard’s 2025 layoff from a major media company came shortly after the end of a long-term relationship, prompting her to return to New Orleans and reconsider both the career and life she had built. She launched LPC Consulting to advise entertainment, culture, sports, and lifestyle clients while creating The CultuHER, a community where ambitious women of color can connect and collaborate. She encourages women to stop asking how they can return to where they were and begin asking what the disruption may be preparing them to build next.
12. Angela Dugan, founder of South Side Tours
After nearly a decade helping grow a television production company, Dugan was told that her contract would not be renewed and that day was her final working day. She realized that producing was not merely a job title but a transferable skill, which she used to create South Side Tours, an immersive Chicago tourism company whose storytelling earned a 2026 Webby Award. Her advice is to remember who you were before you had a boss and build from the abilities and passions that have always belonged to you.
13. Ashley Jones, founder and CEO of Sovereign Made Co.
Jones filed a formal complaint involving racial equity concerns and a potential conflict between leadership and human resources; 72 hours later, she was terminated for alleged performance issues despite strong reviews. She gave herself 48 hours to be angry and then built Sovereign Made Co., an intelligent-infrastructure and AI-governance company, in just 17 days. She advises women not to remain stuck in the pain, but to set a deadline, begin moving, and refuse to allow anyone else to define who they are.
14. Denise Aguilar, strategic principal and fractional CMO
Aguilar experienced a gradual corporate pushout as expectations multiplied, feedback became inconsistent, and responsibilities and authority were removed despite her strong performance. Therapy, executive coaching, time with family in Colombia, and a detailed record of her professional accomplishments helped her transition into portfolio work as a strategic principal and fractional CMO. She recommends treating the experience as data rather than a verdict and creating a career ecosystem that protects your autonomy instead of depending on one employer.
15. Brandi Sims, founder and CEO of Brandinc PR
After being promoted to vice president, Sims discovered that she was dramatically underpaid compared with white male colleagues, many of whom had less experience but earned well into six figures. She launched Brandinc PR, completed a PhD while running the agency, and built a career spanning client work, teaching, podcasting, and national industry leadership. Her advice is to document your impact before anyone else defines your value, because that record becomes both your confidence and your negotiating leverage.
16. Stacia Crawford, founder of Stay Ready Media
Crawford had spent nearly 20 years at a local news station when a new general manager canceled her midday newscast even though it dominated its time slot. She invested her severance in coaching and business development, then transformed three decades of newsroom experience into Stay Ready Media, a six-figure PR and media-strategy firm helping overlooked experts earn national exposure. She advises women to inventory the problems they know how to solve, the knowledge they possess, and the abilities other people consistently seek from them.
17. Kalia Nicole, communications director for the Philadelphia City Commissioners
After nearly 14 years as an Emmy award-winning journalist, Nicole was included in the sweeping 2025 layoffs that affected major newsrooms. Rather than panic-apply, she rested, leaned into her faith and community, and returned home to Philadelphia, where she now leads communications for the city commissioners while developing her podcast, Unanchored. Her advice is to remember that a job is something you did, not the totality of who you are, and that one painful chapter cannot determine the rest of your story.
18. Renee Daniel Flagler, president of the National Cares Mentoring Movement
Flagler endured four marketing layoffs between 2001 and 2004 and another in 2009, leaving her questioning whether her degrees, hard work, and professional experience mattered. She used one of those layoffs to pursue writing, eventually earning an MFA, publishing more than 20 books, and becoming president of the National Cares Mentoring Movement. Her message to other Black women is that any moment, even one filled with fear and uncertainty, can become the right time to reinvent yourself.
19. Ashunta Sheriff, founder and CEO of Ashunta Sheriff Beauty
After more than three decades as a celebrity makeup artist, Sheriff watched social media transform the beauty industry from expert-driven to influencer-driven, making traditional freelance opportunities and rates less predictable. She turned her artistry into ownership by launching Ashunta Sheriff Beauty and, alongside Thembisa S. Mshaka, cocreating Hip Hop Beauty, a traveling exhibition and cultural platform celebrating hip-hop’s influence on beauty. She advises Black women to view reinvention not as failure but as an opportunity to turn every relationship, lesson, and challenge into an asset for what comes next.
20. Janine Dawson, founder of Well Traveled With Janine
When Dawson’s corporate position was eliminated, her initial relief became fear as interviews repeatedly failed to produce another job. She began treating rejection as redirection, trained as an independent travel advisor, and now owns Well Traveled With Janine, a luxury travel advisory, and True North Performance, a learning and organizational development consultancy. Her advice is to “go where the yeses live,” recognize that every skill is transferable, and avoid viewing a career change as starting over.
21. LaToya Evans, founder of LEPR Agency
Evans joined the C-suite at 31 as vice president of communications for a major company, only to have her position eliminated nine months later when communications was absorbed into marketing; her second layoff was caused by a corporate reorganization. She created an LLC, landed a historic political campaign as her first external client, and ultimately used her severance to invest in LEPR Agency, which surpassed $1 million in revenue during her first full year. She advises women to negotiate carefully, use every resource available during a severance period, invest in training, protect their financial foundation, and begin building their next opportunity before they urgently need it.
