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Friendship and respect,  in a challenging academic setting, helped  mold two women into history making captains of industries. 

Before Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice became President and Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA she studied chemical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.  That's where she met Wonya Lucas,  another chem-E student. 

Both were young,  extremely bright African-American women who needed to escape  unpleasant college roommates. 

They roomed with each other, graduated from GaTech and went on to become life long friends who broke barriers in important arenas. 

Wonya  Lucas is President and Chief Executive Officer of Hallmark Media.  It's a position that suits her perfectly because, in addition to earning an engineering degree, she holds an MBA from Wharton and has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the broadcast cable industry.  

This podcast shows the path each of these two women took to achieve their C Suite careers.   

This episode is unique, though, because most of the half hour is spent allowing  Wonya and Dr. Rice  to interview each other.   There is laughter,  moments of sadness and a whole lot of truth telling because these are friends who have stood by each other for decades.  What they say about their lives and to each other has the potential to inspire everyone who hears this broadcast. 

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Science and business are not two topics that ordinarily operate in sync.  But this episode of LESSONS from LEADERS focuses on the achievements of an extraordinary man.  
Lonnie Johnson's name might jog something in your memory that makes you smile.  That's because he's the acknowledged inventor of the Super Soaker a powerful water gun that, at one time,  was the best selling toy in the world.  
This podcast allows Lonnie the opportunity to explain why something that became so well liked took ten years to go from concept to the cash register.  Along the way he tells stories about his time as an inventor rocket scientist  at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; a nuclear engineer for international space programs that are still receiving data and a teenager nicknamed "the professor" who built a functioning robot in his mother's Alabama kitchen.  
This podcast will let you hear stories about a man who is humble but fiercely self assured.  This Hall of Fame inventor has faced challenges that would stop most people from reaching their life's potential.  Nothing has fazed him, which is why he has been able to secure funding for an engine that uses waste heat for power and a battery that has no moving parts.  
Lonnie Johnson's story of taking the time to learn hard lessons in business is a blueprint for other inventors and many other creatives.  What he takes the time to share is invaluable information.  

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This is a story about friendship. 

 Ryan Wilson and T.K. Petersen met each other in college.  However, learning  about their lives before they shared a dorm room on the campus of Georgetown University really helps more people understand why Variety Magazine, INC.,  Wired,  USA TODAY, Bloomberg,  Black Enterprise,   The Guardian, The Root,   All the Fly Kids,   Buzzfeed  and many, many more label them - with astonishment,  as super-star entrepreneurs.

Ryan and T.K. started a membership club called The Gathering Spot in 2016.  In 2023, it has more than 13,000 members and locations in Atlanta, Ga., Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, Ca.  

Both call Atlanta, GA home and started their company in that city.  But it's really their friendship and worldview that makes what has happened in their personal lives and their company so very listen worthy. 

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This is the story about how a brilliant builder used  the life  gifts of a stable family upbringing, good education,  and both cultural and business mentorship to do more than just benefit himself. 

Egbert Perry L. J. Perry is the dynamic and articulate chair and president of the Integral Group, LLC.  It's described as an Atlanta, GA based  real estate development, advisory, and investment management company.  However, under Perry's leadership the company has created urban environments with livability scales that were unthinkable before he came along. 

This podcast allows listeners to hear more than just stories about inner city building projects.  The topics of market permission, the Atlanta Project and the reasons poverty is treated as a crime are examined in ways not usually discussed. 

Perry also explains the global housing market from his perspective as the former chair of the $3 trillion organization, FANNIE MAE. 

LESSONS from LEADERS is produced as part of the Atlanta Business League's 90th Anniversary celebration. 

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This episode of ABL DUOs actually aired during one of the Atlanta Business League's signature events, the Super Tuesday conference, in 2021.  The event is the largest gathering of Black business and professionals in the United States. It is an all day conference that has several segments and this Q&A session ran as a 45 minute broadcast.  

The two women who are a part of today's podcast are mold breaking icons in Atlanta, GA.   Monica Pearson is the first African American woman to anchor an evening newscast for a local network affiliate television station.   Leah Ward Sears is the first Black woman in the United States to hold the position of  a state Chief  Supreme Court Justice. 

Monica retired from her television news on air position and Justice Sears is now in private practice.    But both women share their life stories, both professionally and personally, with passion and honesty. 

This is broadcast is presented in honor of Women's History Month. 

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Karen I. Duckett founded , one of Atlanta’s most respected architecture, planning and interior design firms in the metro area, Duckett Design Group.   Her company has executed  projects totaling more than $1.8 billion in construction costs creating  3 million square feet of space. 

She was the joint venture partner for the design of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a 1.2 million sq. ft., $1.3 billion project.  Her contract for that project was  the largest awarded to an African American woman owned design firm in the world. 

In addition to blazing trails in her chosen field,  she further enhanced her skills by earning a Juris Doctor of Law degree from Woodrow Wilson College of Law.  She also holds a Masters in Urban Studies from Yale University/Occidental College and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Ohio University. Her registrations include Designer-Georgia, AIA- Associate, IBD, CCID and IIDA. She is married, the mother of three and a grandmother. 

But beyond all of the accomplishments is the story of a woman who wouldn't give up on her dream career even though she was ahead of her time in her choice of occupations.  This is a story about the type of determination it takes to succeed. 

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Atlanta Business League Duos interviews two African American professionals from Atlanta, GA about one topic.  

This  episode for the series talks to Daryll Harris Griffin and her son, Michael Griffin, Jr.  Their story as Black business entrepreneurs starts with Daryll's grandfather, J.E. Jordan, born in 1888.  This podcast introduces Jordan's accomplishments  and those of Jordan's daughter, Narvie,  nicknamed the Black  School Superintendent of DeKalb County, GA.
  
Daryll also tells her own story of entrepreneurial success. She explains how she left corporate America and started a promotional products company, while her husband left a corporate position to start a plastics company.  

Their son concludes the family's business narrative  with tales of his personal success that loop through the world of collegiate sports.  He leaves college in the Midwest, comes back to Atlanta, Ga and graduates from  one of  the most prestigious Black male private colleges in the United States. 

He is now a father of two sons and his interview ends talking about his hopes for their future.  

This is the second of twelve podcast episodes showcasing Black business owners in Atlanta, GA where two people share perspectives on one topic.  This series is a part of the Atlanta Business League's official 90th anniversary celebration. 

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Thomas W. Dortch, Jr. spends 30 minutes explaining how his leadership as a student at a Georgia HBCU launched his career into politics.   His political experiences ultimately helped him become a successful businessman.  Dortch also provides an unique perspective on how his life was impacted by the  municipal power dynamics shaped through race relations in his home town of Toccoa, GA.

Thomas W. Dortch, Jr. is the founder of TWD-Inc. which is the umbrella company for six separate firms based in Atlanta, GA.  He has been a successful entrepreneur for 29 years.   He has chaired the Atlanta Business League on three separate occasions and has spent more than ten years leading the 100 Black Men of America, Inc. 

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In this episode of ABL DUOs husband and wife, Dave and Karla Moody talk about topics you don't normally hear on a program about African American business ownership.  

Dave owns a construction company, based in Atlanta, GA,  that has generated $3 billion in projects. He bluntly  explains the obstacles he and his wife faced when they started his firm out of necessity.  But he also  has talks about  the  30 years he spent  fighting debilitating anxiety attacks triggered by one single incident.  He discusses how he first ignored, then hid and finally acknowledged the impact his personal struggles had on his business.   

Karla, a retired hospice nurse, has been married to Dave for more than 40 years.   She tells the story  of her husband's success from the perspective of a family member who understands how hard it is to run a business and fight mental illness.    She shares an amazing story about how  contributions of healing and support made a big difference in the bottom line and growth of the family business. 

This couple is dynamic, informative, surprising and very frank.  

This is the first of twelve stories from Black business duos and is exclusively part of the Atlanta Business League's 90th Anniversary celebration.