My Hero: Iyanla Vanzant

Rev. Dr. Iyanla (pronounced E-Yan-La) Vanzant’s story reads like an epic adventure filled with near misses, struggle, strength, courage and triumph! From her life’s experiences she has uncovered her life’s purpose, discovered the power that lies within and recovered her authentic self Iyanla Vanzant has emerged as a living testament to the value in life’s valleys and the power of acting on faith. The best part is, she teaches what she has learned.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in the back of a taxi cab to an alcoholic mother, Iyanla was a child of an extra martial affair. When Iyanla was two-years-old her mother succumb to breast cancer. This left Iyanla and her older brother to be raised by father, who left his children in the care of a series a relatives, including an uncle who raped her at the tender age of nine. Although Iyanla knew her father, he was often not present physically and emotionally unavailable. By age 16, she was a teenage mother. By age 21 she had three children and a physically abusive husband. 9 years, two suicide attempts and many beatings later, Iyanla and her three children made their early morning escape into an unknown future; a future where she would raise her three children alone. Being a single mother, she sustained her family for several years on public assistance. Iyanla was inspired by a sign on the bus to change her life by attending Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. Three years later she graduated Summa Cum Laude and entered the City University of New York Law School at Queens College. Her brilliant oratory skills caught the attention of the Philadelphia Public Defender’s office who offered her a job without a formal interview. Three years into her practice, Iyanla knew she had made the wrong choice for her life and left her position.

Like everyone else, Iyanla readily admits that she too has had long periods of confusion. Unlike many, however, she uses her difficult times to usher her into a new state of being. After leaving her prominent position as an attorney, Iyanla eventually found herself unemployed, sleeping on a sofa in a friend’s basement with her pregnant 16 year-old daughter. A friend invited her to teach a class for women who were being trained to transition from welfare to work. Understanding their predicament very well, Iyanla took her new job seriously. She produced a workbook for the class. In 1988, that workbook became her first published work, Tapping The Power Within: A Path To Self Empowerment For Black Women. The 20th. Anniversary edition of this book was published in 2008. (Smiley Books/Hay House). Her second work, Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations For People of Color, crossed the racial divide to become a favorite companion for Tipper Gore, wife of then Vice President Al Gore. 13 publications and 5 New York Times Best Sellers were not a part of Iyanla’s plans. Then again, the best laid plan tend to go awry.

Iyanla has received numerous awards and accolades for the power and impact of her work. She received She is hailed as one of Halle Berry’s five “Sheros” (Glamour Magazine 2006); one of the country’s most influential African Americans (Ebony Magazine 2004); among the country’s most 100 Influential Women (Women’s Day Magazine 2003); one of the “most dynamic speakers in the United States” (Emerge Magazine 2000). She is a woman of passion, clear vision and purpose.

Dr. Vanzant travels globally delivering her teachings and message of hope to thousands. A much sought after guest for prime time radio shows, her voice is a staple on The Tom Joyner Morning Show (Radio One); The Tavis Smiley Show (NPR); The Michael Baisden Show (ABC); and Tell Me More with Michel Martin (NPR). She has appeared as a host Life Coach on the NBC Daytime Drama, Starting Over (2004-2006); Iyanla, her own daytime talk show (2001-2002) produced by Barbara Walters and Billy Getty. She was also a recurring guest on Oprah (1998-1999) as part of the Change Your Life Faculty.

As Founder and Director of Inner Visions Institute of Spiritual Development, Iyanla shares her knowledge of Universal Principle and Law, Eastern and Western spiritual/religious traditions/teachings, and the truth of Unconditional Love to motivate others to create a better life, a better community and a better world! She spends most of her time now training Life Coaches and Ministers and conducting a series of community forums through Inner Visions.

Read More: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889395/bio

News You Need To Know: 11 Ways The American Workplace Is Still Really, Really Sexist

The Huffington Post  |  By Jillian Berman

We no longer live in the ‘Mad Men’ era, but the modern workplace is certainly still responsible for some Mad Men-style sexism.

That’s true in a variety of ways: Women often earn less, have more trouble obtaining high-level positions and face greater harassment threats in the office. That’s not all:

• Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is an exception to the rule. Women make up only 21 of the S&P 500’s CEOs — that’s just 4 percent.

• The situation isn’t much better in other areas of high-level management: Despite big gains, women only make up slightly more than 10 percent of big company chief financial officers. And more than one-third of public companies had zero women senior officers,according to a recent survey from Catalyst, an organization aimed at expanding business opportunities for women.

• Women get paid 77 cents on the dollar for every dollar a man makes, according to a recent study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. That’s a difference of more than $10,000 per year on average.

• That wage gap starts early in a woman’s career. Among recent college graduates, women make 82 percent of what men make, according to a report from the IWPR. In their first year of work after graduating college, men make $7,600 more than women on average, according to a fact sheet from Congress’ joint economic committee.

• The trend continues even as women rise up the corporate ladder. Female workers made up just 6.2 percent of the top earning positions in 2010, according to a report from Catalyst.

• Making matters worse, almost half of all workers are prohibited or strongly discouraged from discussing pay information, according to an IWPR report. That means women workers can’t find out if their male colleagues are earning more than they are.

• If women want to make more money, they generally have to try harder than their comparable male colleagues. Women workers have to pay closer attention to their strategy than men when asking for a raise, according to a recent study in the Psychology of Women Quarterly.

• The gender pay gap also hurts women outside of the workplace. Student loans are a higher percentage of women workers’ earnings, according to the joint economic committee report.

• In addition to making less money than men in comparable jobs, women are also more likely to end up doing low-paying work. Sixty percent of minimum wage workers are women. And nearly two-thirds of part-time workers are women, according to the joint economic committee report, and part-time workers earn less per hour than their full-time counterparts.

• Women face a variety of unconscious stereotypes in the workplacethat hold them back, like: They don’t need more money because they’re not the primary breadwinners, they can’t do certain jobs that are considered “men’s work,” their supposed to act a certain type of feminine in the workplace, they’re not committed to their jobs because their the primary caregivers to their kids. In addition, office cultures are often dominated by norms better suited to men.

• Women also face more safety risks at work than men. Of the 11,717 sexual harassment charges brought in 2010, 83 percent came from women, according to AOL Jobs.

 

A Message From The Creator