About Diana

Diana was born in 1968 into a complicated world, and a complicated family. She had a White dad and a Black mom - which taught her a lot about the complexities of diversity. 

She also learned early on how to advocate for herself. Her advocacy work began at 14, when she stopped her father from trying to molest her. 

What did she do? She ran. She didn’t run away from her dad, she started running track. 

For over a year, every time she slipped her foot into her track shoes, she’d find a note from her mom, encouraging her with scriptures and positive quotes. 

 “Mom's notes gave me the courage to go to law school.”

By the ripe age of 25, she had quickly started climbing the corporate ladder with Fortune 500 companies, and working her way up as an advocate and Civil Rights Attorney at a Fair Housing organization. Still, in her heart, she saw herself as a person whose ultimate purpose is encouraging women to stand up for themselves. In 2016, she had an epiphany - what if she started her own business, radically empowering women like her and inspiring them to say yes to becoming their ultimate selves? And that’s exactly what she did. These days, she uses her Rise Advocates™ movement to help professional women overcome challenges and amplify their voice in order to better advocate for themselves, and for diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

On a personal side, she’s been happily married to a White man, her husband, David, for the past 24 years, and they have two beautiful adult children. Along the way, she’s won leadership awards, and has written two books, Inspiration in My Shoes and This Yogi’s Journey. We still live in a complicated world, and that’s why Diana’s work and story continue. Collectively, we all still have more work to do.