The Roads We Walk: She Who Teaches, Learns. A Conversation with Johnnetta B. Cole

What does it look like when a woman refuses to let any single chapter be the whole story? It looks like Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole. Anthropologist. Trailblazer. The first African American woman to serve as president of both Spelman College and Bennett College. Former Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. Northwestern University alumna. Champion for equity, education, and human dignity for nine decades and counting. In this episode, Dr. Cole sits down with hosts Sharon LaSure-Roy and Sonya Seymour for a conversation that is not a career retrospective. It is an inside look at the journey, the leaps of faith, the moments of doubt, the imposter syndrome that showed up even at the highest levels, and the deep conviction that kept her moving forward anyway. She also shares reflections from a profoundly meaningful journey she led, bringing eight extraordinary young women to the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Sites in Montgomery and Selma, a trip that became the heartbeat of this entire three-part miniseries. In this episode you will hear Dr. Cole on: Why reinvention is not just a choice but a sacred responsibility for Black women What patriarchy had to do with why Spelman had never had a Black woman president before 1987 The mentors who told her she would put her name in and why she listened What it felt like to almost withdraw from the Smithsonian directorship and what pulled her back Why mentorship must enrich both the mentor and the mentee What she wants every woman who thinks her season has passed to know right now And the one song that carried her through her hardest chapter This is Episode 1 of The Roads We Walk, a three-part miniseries right here on Shameless Reinvention. Next up, Ms. Velma Monteiro Tribble, the woman who organized the EJI journey that brought these eight young women face to face with history. And after that, the young women themselves. Trust us. You will not want to miss a single episode. New episodes drop every Friday at 8:00 AM ET. Follow Shameless Reinvention so you never miss an episode. And if this conversation moves you, share it with a woman who needs to be reminded that her reinvention has no expiration date.