Writing about Overlooked, Divergent, and Future-Focused Leadership

Thought-provoking insights and fresh perspectives that challenge conventional ideas, spark meaningful dialogue, and inspire leaders to reimagine what’s possible.

When you look at today’s top leadership books, you’ll see words like war, laws, and power dominating the covers—offering insights rooted in traditional, often singular perspectives. But what’s missing? The voices, stories, and strategies of leaders who’ve navigated the additional complexities of race, identity, and marginalization.

Untapped Leadership fills that gap by exploring the strategies, capabilities, and experiences of leaders of color and individuals from marginalized backgrounds across industries and career stages. Through diverse stories and actionable insights, this groundbreaking book reveals a fresh and nuanced vision of leadership—one that prioritizes situational awareness, contextual agility, and the ability to navigate organizational dynamics in a complex, fast-changing world.

Untapped Leadership offers lessons for everyone—from those just beginning their leadership journeys to seasoned executives leading diverse teams through uncertainty and change. It’s a call to embrace a broader, more inclusive understanding of what it means to lead in today’s world—and a guide to unlocking the untapped potential within us all.

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What Readers Are Saying

In Untapped Leadership, the marginalized and woefully underutilized voices of BIPOC leaders find a platform to tell their stories of learning, navigating, negotiating, and transcending workplaces that are fundamentally antithetical to their own viewpoints on leadership, which center authenticity and collectivity. But beyond the power of this groundbreaking take on leadership, she creates a space for you to feel heard and seen, and that in and of itself acts as its own form of transformational healing.

Corey Matthews, Vice President, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
For anyone who is committed to inclusive leadership and building thriving and diverse organizations, this book is essential reading. Vazquez-Newsum offers critical perspectives from leaders of color too long overlooked in the field. Blending real leader experiences with tangible tools for all to learn from, Untapped Leadership should be on every leader's bookshelf.

Deanna Singh, author of Actions Speak Louder: A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming an Inclusive Workplace
Untapped Leadership must take space on every leader's bookshelf. It is unequivocally the book that leaders of color have been waiting for that see us as who we are. Vazquez -Newsum explores the beauty and challenges of leaders of color like no other leadership expert with unapologetic honesty. It was truly powerful and affirming to read.

Reena Hajat Carroll, MSW, Executive Director, California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ)