Staff Spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Samantha Coleman: Leadership expert, podcaster, and author

Samantha Coleman, PhD

Associate Director of Leadership Development 
Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership 

Dr. Samantha Coleman leads the Harry L. Davis Center’s Leadership Learning Circles—peer-based groups of Chicago Booth alums brought together in a carefully curated community where they learn from each other and grow—and is also an entrepreneur, podcaster, and recent published author.

In our Q&A, learn about her career path, her personal experience as a Black adoptee, and her work in co-founding Black to the Beginning, an initiative to center voices and experiences of Black families and Black adult adoptees, including the production of The Black Adoption Podcast. This work, with co-founder and friend Sandria Washington, is also what is featured in the duo’s story titled “The Joy of Owning Your Voice,” part of the recently released children’s book, A Year of Black Joy: 52 Black Voices Share Their Life Passions.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Tell us about your role at the Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership and at UChicago.

My primary role within the Davis Center is to head up the Leadership Learning Circles, or LLCs—groups of eight to 12 C-suite and Senior Level Booth alums who are at least 10 years post-graduation. These Leadership Learning Circles are about bringing together individuals who have amassed success in their careers and leadership roles and are now seeking new and innovative ways to enhance their leadership identity with support from the Booth community. We offer them the opportunity to come together with fellow Booth peers, discuss personal and professional challenges, discuss leadership practices—we want to create a space for them to listen and learn from their experiences. We really gained traction during the pandemic, mostly in India, and when leaders were really in a place in needing and wanting that support when all we could do was connect in virtual modes. Today, we’re not only in India and Chicago, but also New York, London, the Twin Cities, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington D.C. 

I also co-facilitate an interpersonal dynamics course and am working on developing a mini course called “Integrating Authenticity into Your Leadership Identity.” January will be two years in my role at the Davis Center, and previously I was at the Graham School, where in 2016 I designed, and then taught the Conscious Leadership and Team Management Certificate Program, so I’ve been affiliated with UChicago for about seven years. 

How did you get here? Talk to us about your career path.

It’s interesting to think about where I started, which was graduating from UIC with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. I really wanted to engage into therapy, so I began my career as a mental health clinician, first working in behavioral health organizations, transitioning into psychiatric hospitals and later into traditional non-profit organizations. I initially worked with the adult population, but developed an affinity for children, adolescents, and their families. After getting my masters, I ventured into social entrepreneurship, and founded the organization Assist Her, Inc. We worked with Chicago Public Schools and other social service organizations for close to a decade and were the premiere vendor in providing female responsive services for girls ages 12–18. 

Starting this business is what really catapulted me into leadership, because even though I was a good clinician and knew how to train other clinicians, running a business also meant you had to learn how to attract and retain talent. I had to think, ‘How do I inspire others to want to do this work?” So, while I tried to understand how to do that, I also decided to experiment and build my own leadership practice, by pursuing a PhD in Organizational Leadership. 

That was a turning point for me. I thought I would come back to my entrepreneurial pursuits, but instead I decided to utilize my skills with leaders of all levels, and in different industries. The best place for me to do this was in the arena of higher education and executive coaching. I realized I wanted to be at the forefront of helping people with the skills that are traditionally viewed as ‘soft’ but are so important to leadership: the ability to formulate and maintain relationships, how to listen to people deeply, how to be empathetic. That’s what prompted me to come to Booth and really dig my heels more into leadership development. 

Your self-produced podcast, The Black Adoption Podcast, is now in its fourth season. Tell us how that got started. 

Me and Sandria Washington, who co-produces the podcast with me, have been friends for years—since 2005. I found out I was adopted in 2006, when I was 26 years old. For some time, I kept that information to myself and only discussed it with my partner because there was some shame, some embarrassment—I was just really blown away by the news. Fast forward to 2016, and that’s when I began sharing with close friends that I was adopted. Sandria was one of those people. 

Then, in 2018, Sandria finds out at age 38 that she too, is adopted. Her story is a little bit different: my parents told me about my adoption, but both of hers had passed away, with no plans to tell her. But here we find out, after being good friends for years, with no idea that we had such a similar story. We thought, we can’be the only Black people who are adopted with Black parents—which goes against the traditional narrative of Black children being adopted by white parents. 

It then became really important to us to share the oral histories of Black adoptees who had been adopted by Black parents—we wanted to create a space where we could empower other individuals of the Black adoption experience, which includes everyone, not just the people who are adopted, but their biological parents, their adopted parents, siblings, extended family members—sharing stories is really sharing all of these people’s stories. The Black Adoption Podcast is about providing that space to eradicate the secrecy, stigma, shame, and silence that is prevalent in the Black community. 

How has the podcast grown and what have you learned? 

We’ve only intentionally reached out to potential podcast guests in Season 1—we’ve never had to do it again, which amazes me. People send us their information, and we’ve had to make some tough decisions on who we want to feature. We’ve had such a great response to the work we’ve been doing, and it’s been both refreshing and healing to be able to connect with other people who have had a similar experience as an adoptee, even if their stories are different. It’s also a labor of love. This particular podcast is super emotional—it’s not easy for me and Sandria to talk to folks—it’s emotional labor like reopening a wound, but equally it’s a healing piece as well, which is why we’re so steadfast in continuing these conversations. 

Talk to us about the new book you and Sandria are featured in titled, A Year of Black Joy: 52 Black Voices Share Their Life Passions.

We received an email from author Jamia Wilson asking if we would be featured for World Adoption Day as part of the book. They originally pitched to us writing about the Joy of Black Adoption, which we pushed back against. Adoption is about loss—loss for the biological parents, the children, even sometimes the adoptive parents, who might not have been able to have children of their own, or a lost a child—so we didn’t want to talk about the joy of adoption. We landed on the title "The Joy of Owning Your Voice," and we were able to give a snippet of our adoption experience and how we’ve triumphed past that, into owning our own voices. 

How are you able to balance it all? What do you do in your spare time? 

Over the past few years, I’ve really had to do an inventory of what’s important to me, where it is I want to be going, and asking the question, ‘Am I living in my true purpose and passion?’ If anything is not contributing to those things, I’ve learned I have to say no. That can be a scary thing, but what I’ve learned is by me saying no, or not yet, not now, I’ve created space for other opportunities to come my way that are more aligned with me authentically, like this book—I had the time to sit down and think about what I wanted to say to kids about how to own their voices. 

For fun, I’m always looking for my next adventure. I love to travel, adore hosting parties for friends, I enjoy bike riding, a good glass of wine. And perhaps most importantly, it has been my absolute joy to watch my two children come into themselves. Right now, we have volleyball, soccer, homecoming, and it’s been so fun to see these people I created grow up. 

Why do you like working at the University of Chicago? What do you think makes it special? 

To me, it’s the fact that there is this constant notion of folks being curious—always asking questions and not just settling for what might be the first response, or the first reaction. It’s being a space to have more in-depth conversations. I really enjoy being able to experiment: if something fails, you can just try something else, or keep trying until you get the desired result. I also enjoy being around really big minds—I appreciate not being the smartest person in the room, because that’s the only way you grow. 

I enjoy being around others who challenge me. There is always something new and innovative and creative to glean from UChicago. Whether at Booth, or the Graham School, or interacting with the various centers, all my interactions continue to reinforce a growth mindset.