How Women of Color Can Redefine Identity and Power in the Workforce with Deepa Purushothaman

Deepa Purushothaman was one of the first senior partners at Deloitte, where she spent more than 20 years focusing on women’s leadership and inclusion strategies to help women of color navigate corporate structures. She was the first Indian-American woman and one of the youngest people to make Partner in the firm's history.  After leaving Deloitte in 2020, Deepa co-founded nFormation, a membership-based community for professional women of color, offering brave, safe, new space and helping place women of color in C-suite positions and on Boards. Deepa’s book The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America, was published by HarperCollins in March 2022. In the book, Deepa shares stories from women of color and lays the groundwork for how women can unearth their power and channel it to redefine success for their most authentic selves. Deepa is a Women and Public Policy Program Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School where she concentrates on research to combat systemic racism in corporate structures to help women of color rise. She is also a founding board member of Avasara, India's first leadership academy exclusively for young women. She has degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard Kennedy School, and the London School of Economics. She lives in Los Angeles. During the interview, we discuss…how corporate America is not built for us or by us, and what needs to changehow to reframe the “fit in” and “lean in” mentalities that have left women burnt out and isolatedadvice for women who are ‘“the first, the few, the only”moving past “working harder” to get aheadcommonalities for underrepresented groupsovercoming limited images of leadershipevolving workplaces with culturecreating cultures of belonging Get Deepa’s book, The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/First-Few-Only-Redefine-Corporate/dp/0063084716 Get in touch with Deepa after the interview…Email: deepa@n2formation.comWebsite: https://www.deepapuru.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepapuruTwitter: https://twitter.com/deepapuruFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/deepa.purushothaman.75Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deepa.puru