1013: From Working Class to Breaking Glass at Starbucks with Wanda Herndon | Leadership Stories

Very few women are looking for their opportunity to shatter glass ceilings from the time they are little girls. Wanda J. Herndon was one of the few. Raised in Flint, Michigan, in a working-class family shaped by the Great Migration, she became one of the first in her family to attend college, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Michigan State University. She built a groundbreaking career at Dow Chemical, DuPont, and Starbucks. 

Wanda is an award-winning corporate communications trailblazer, author, speaker, mentor, entrepreneur, Broadway producer, and the first Senior Vice President of Global Communications for Starbucks, from 1995 to 2006. Howard Schultz, Starbucks founder and CEO, asked her to return to the role in 2008 for a one-year engagement to help execute the company’s turnaround strategy. 

Wanda’s new memoir, Working Class to Breaking Glass, chronicles her journey from Flint to corporate leadership, exploring race, gender, class, family legacy, belonging, and the courage to lead without compromising one’s true self while opening doors for others. 

Listen in to hear Wanda share:

What growing up in Flint, Michigan, a working-class General Motors town, taught her about ambition, survival, and possibility

Her first executive decision at a very young age, in her self-declared role as the “CEO of Me”, that paved the way for a lifetime of success and shattering glass ceilings

Her experience being the "first" and an "only" in many rooms and the accompanying emotional cost and the responsibility that came with those titles

The significance of bringing people up with you as you grow in your career

How to define yourself before others define you

How building the Starbucks brand over the course of 11 years impacted the development of her own personal brand

Her message of hope for people wanting to break glass ceilings

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