François Locoh-Donou has several truths he believes Black professionals should apply. Locoh-Donou’s father was from a fishing village on the banks of Lake Togo in West Africa and was the fourth in a family of 16 children, Locoh-Donou explained on stage during AFROTECH™ Conference 2025. When it was time for his father to start school, admission was determined by height. After three failed attempts, he shares that his father refused to leave the school until he was accepted at age 9 into first grade. When it was time to graduate, his father then had the option to become a teacher, but he had broader aspirations. Leaving the village to study at a public high school 300 miles away, he graduated in the early 1960s. He applied for and was awarded a full-ride scholarship from the government to study architecture in college, which enabled him to complete projects across Africa. Locoh-Donou shares that he learned what an “extraordinary figure” his father was. He had not only helped his...

You can never predict JuJu Watkins’ next move. The University of Southern California (USC) basketball player is now an investor in the National Women’s Soccer League’s Boston Legacy Football Club (Boston Legacy FC), according to a press release. Watkins makes history in the process as the first college athlete to invest in a women’s professional sports team. She joins a group of investors that includes Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, actress Elizabeth Banks, Celtics General Manager Brad Stevens, WNBA player Aliyah Boston, and Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. Sportico reports the city of Boston was awarded a National Women’s Soccer League team in 2023, and the team will begin competing in 2026. “Boston Legacy FC is creating a space for women to achieve, lead, and inspire others at the highest level, and I’m proud to be part of the movement pushing women’s sports forward,” Watkins said in a press release. Jennifer Epstein, controlling owner of Boston Legacy FC, commented:...

Dr. Astro Teller shares how Google X is pushing technological boundaries to solve global problems. During an AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 panel moderated by Blavity Inc. COO and Co-founder Jeff Nelson , Dr. Teller defined a moonshot as a groundbreaking technology that can solve a major world problem, but may sound like a piece of science fiction. He has worked at Google for 15 years as the co-founder and captain of moonshots at X, the moonshot factory, which engineers technologies specifically to solve global problems. Innovations that have come out of its lab include Google Brain, which is responsible for many of the advancements seen in machine learning today, such as AI chatbots. Additionally, Waymo, self-driving cars, and “Project Wing,” a drone delivery service, emerged. “The idea was not that we would look backwards at Google and try to fix Google’s problems, but instead our mission has always been go out in the world and find new problems to have and then hopefully solutions for...

Scarlet by RedDrop Co-Founders Dana Roberts and Monica Williams are celebrating great success for their business, driven by a vision to support young girls navigating puberty. It all started with Robert’s time teaching fifth graders in an Atlanta classroom. She was approached by a student who had started her period and felt that she was dying, according to Yahoo! News. This would lead her to launch RedDrop, which was rebranded to Scarlet by RedDrop in 2025, alongside physician Williams, to serve tweens and teens. It offers pads, tampons, and period kits that include pads in various sizes, as well as a diary that shares helpful tips, according to its website. “RedDrop was our beginning, born from a desire to fill a gap in puberty care for school-age girls,” Williams told Inc. “But as we grew, we realized our name no longer held all that we were becoming. The rebrand reflects the company’s new educational period-care product line that supports tweens and teens at every stage of their...

More than 1 million people have lost their jobs already in 2025. Many people are out of a job this year, and this includes more than 300,000 Black women, according to The Root. This also comes at a time when diversity is under attack — with federal dollars being used as bait — and Americans are feeling the effects of a government shutdown. In Big Tech alone, there has been a string of layoffs this year at media companies, including Paramount, VIBE, and Teen Vogue, as a result of mergers, as well as other companies that include Meta, Microsoft, Starbucks, Oracle, American Airlines, and, most recently, Amazon. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Amazon will lay off 14,000 corporate workers, and AI is partly to blame. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet,” Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said in a memo. “We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and...

Mustafa Suleyman has high hopes for the future of superintelligence and its impact on humanity. During a conversation at AFROTECH™ Conference 2025, he joked that he grew up playing “Snake” on a Nokia phone, which was supposedly a “phenomenon” when it launched in the late ’90s. Suleyman’s fascination with technological advancements never wavered, and his enthusiasm remains strong as the CEO of Microsoft AI. He shared his thoughts on superintelligence, stating early on that it “must always work in service of humanity.” He also offered his predictions for it by 2040. He expressed optimism about its potential to benefit humankind, believing that if developed successfully, it would align with human interests and improve the standard of living. Suleyman explained that it is already capable of world-class medical diagnostics and continues to advance in emotional intelligence and autonomous action. “It’s going to learn to use APIs, send emails, make phone calls, interact with us,” he...

Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche continues to prepare people to take control of their finances. The Budgetnista The Nigerian American and former Newark, NJ, preschool teacher may no longer be working a traditional 9-to-5, but she remains an educator. For 15 years, she has taught financial literacy, a lesson rooted in her upbringing. “I grew up in a household where money was talked about all the time. My father was an accountant and a CFO … It wasn’t really until college that I realized that people didn’t get financial education at home,” she told attendees during the AFROTECH™ Conference 2025. Aliche had a reckoning while teaching on a $39,000 salary, realizing that the corporate world was not her goal and she wasn’t willing to lose her soul for a paycheck, she explained. This led her to become a master of her finances, and she also taught the parents of her students how to do the same. “The kids went to sleep during nap time, and I had Parent University during nap time. I showed...

A team of Morgan State University graduates has banded together to empower other HBCU students financially. Venture for T.H.E.M. is a D.C.-, Maryland-, and Virginia-based accelerator and social impact collective that was founded in 2024 to serve marginalized founders, students, and creatives. It is led by Kiante Bush (CEO) and Clarevonte “Clay” Williams (COO), who are joined by Jewel E. Bush (communications director) and Jeffrey S. Scruggs, M.S. (CTO), according to its website. It offers resources that include weekly workshops and networking, one-on-one mentorship from venture capitalists and C-suite executives, and funding pathways, including non-dilutive grants for HBCU startups. Already, more than 20 entrepreneurs at HBCUs have received funding. Under Venture for T.H.E.M., the AI-powered mobile app Fund.FWD has launched to connect HBCU students and alums to grants, scholarships, investor opportunities, and accelerators, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™. Fund.FWD...

Dr. Jessica Shepherd’s upbringing emphasized education, which led her to become a doctor and chief medical officer. Dr. Shepherd, who brought her expertise to the AFROTECH™ Conference on Thursday, Oct. 30, admits she was intentional at an early age in planning for her future. Her path to being of service to others in health and wellness became clearer through her years of schooling, which started at the University of Oklahoma for her undergraduate studies. She brought that focus to Ross University School of Medicine (Doctor of Medicine), and then completed her OB/GYN residency at Drexell University College of Medicine, according to information shared on her LinkedIn. Today, she is the founder of Sanctum Med + Wellness, a concierge wellness concept founded in 2020 and based in Dallas. Additionally, since October 2024, Shepherd has served as chief medical officer of Hers, a telehealth platform that addresses hair loss, weight loss, perimenopause, menopause, midlife issues for women,...

Food critic Keith Lee has launched an initiative to ensure people on SNAP benefits can remain fed. During what is now the longest U.S. government shutdown, individuals and families are not receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as of Nov. 5, meaning some families may not have the means to buy groceries amid the holiday season. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Providence, RI, has ordered the Trump administration to use a contingency fund for those who rely on SNAP benefits. The Hill reports the administration has agreed, but payments will still be delayed and are projected to be half the amount of what recipients typically receive. Community support is needed more than ever, and Lee is using his platform, which includes 17.3 million TikTok followers alone (at the time of this writing), to launch a relief initiative for those impacted by changes in SNAP benefits. Lee revealed that when he got his start on TikTok, he was...

Black women are facing increasing economic challenges today. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs or have exited the workforce. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, along with Trump’s tariffs, has contributed to these losses. Times are hard, and many are being stretched to make ends meet. Adding to these challenges, the stalling of SNAP benefits under the government shutdown is impacting millions of Americans. In addition, homelessness is at an all-time high , according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s most recent 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. The study cites that homelessness rose by 18% since 2023, meaning roughly 118,000 more people experienced homelessness in 2024 compared with 2023. For some, like 22-year-old Imani, the instability of today’s landscape has made it increasingly difficult to secure employment and...

This Black-owned design and operations firm is expanding its technology footprint. ContinuumX.ai Space Continuum, led by President Joshua Johnson, has launched ContinuumX.ai , its technology division, which will focus on robotics, AI integration, and enterprise deployment and will target healthcare, education, hospitality, and manufacturing industries, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™. Humanoid and cognitive robots are in the works to be deployed in the U.S. Its efforts are in collaboration with strategic technology partner NEURA Robotics. Partnering with NEURA Robotics was a natural fit, since the company focuses on serving humanity and views robotics as a tool to collaborate with humans rather than replace them, Johnson told AFROTECH™. “A lot of robots will replace certain jobs. That’s based on the company saying that’s actually requiring what their vision is. That can be for different reasons. But we also need to identify where there’s a labor shortage in some...

Olivier Rousteing has parted ways with fashion house Balmain. The designer entered the fashion industry with determination and risk. According to an interview with Vogue, at 18, he left the fashion school after six months. This decision was also not understood by his parents, who had already been perplexed by his pursuit of fashion. “I fought because I had no school or background behind me, just determination and desire,” he told the outlet in a November 2021 interview. That decision paved the way for a historic appointment at Balmain at age 24 as its creative director in April 2011. Before this, he had worked under his predecessor, Christophe Decarnin, for two years, notes Vogue. According to a separate Vogue article, he was the “youngest non-founding designer to lead a major Paris house” since Yves Saint Laurent’s appointment at Dior at age 21. That’s not all. Rousteing was the first Black individual to become a creative director at a major European house, the Business of Fashion...

Jason Mayden’s parents invested in him early on, helping him realize his dreams at Jordan Brand. Self-Belief Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he believed his imagination was better than his reality after spending time in and out of the hospital. He also observed that he was different from his peers as a neurodivergent individual and often felt overlooked. In an interview held during the 2025 AFROTECH™ Conference, he revealed that he gave himself permission to dream. This became his superpower. “In that imaginative state, I was able to give myself permission to dream and to eventually decide that who I am is enough,” he said. “I rejoice and relish in the fact that people underestimated me and I thank them for that because it forced me to realize that I have to be the progenitor of my own outcomes and, I’m the protagonist in my own narrative. I couldn’t choose my origin story, but I can write my ending,” he continued. Investment From His Parents When Mayden was 10 years old,...

Spelman College is the latest HBCU to receive funding from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. CBS News reports Scott signed the Giving Pledge after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019. She vowed to donate over half her wealth, and she has been doing so ever since, with some allocated to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She made early rounds in 2020, with Spelman College receiving $20 million toward scholarships and its endowment. Fast-forward to 2025, and Scott has doubled down on her pledge and invested an additional $38 million in unrestricted funding. The commitment will support financial aid and the school’s technology infrastructure. “This investment is a powerful affirmation of our mission and our commitment to educational excellence and equity,” Spelman Interim President Rosalind “Roz” Brewer said in a statement, according to CBS News. “The flexibility of this gift allows us to move more swiftly to strengthen the entire student experience,...