Leaders have the same attributes as great Chess players

The Chess Girls DC program layers the curriculum with interviews from guests who speak about attributes that are synonymous among leaders and surprisingly Chess players. Chess Girls DC believes that focus, commitment to your goals, confidence, strategic thinking, and problem solving among so many other skills are common with successful leaders. Inviting guests to speak on the Chess Girls DC podcast we will expand the conversation about those attributes using actual life scenarios of real female leaders. 

Join Sarah Ramson, founding member of Chess Girls DC nonprofit organization and Fiona Lam our creative director every month for an exciting interview with guests outside the Chess community who are eliminating barriers to success through their determination and perseverance.

Our creative director Fiona Lam  is a former competitive chess player (two-time National Girls 16 & Under Champion and a five-time Maryland Girls Champion). She enjoys organizing activities to encourage girls to play chess and build skills along the way that are useful in academic and professional endeavors.    

 Sherri Beatty-Arthur was appointed by Chief Judge Robert E. Morin on July 20, 2020. Judge Beatty-Arthur has been a practicing attorney since 1999 and is an active participant in the Washington, D.C. legal community. In July 2014, Judge Beatty-Arthur was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge with the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings where she presided over matters in all jurisdictions including Public Benefits, Regulatory Affairs, Rental Housing and Unemployment Insurance. Prior to Judge Beatty-Arthur’s judicial appointment, Judge Beatty-Arthur served as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she focused primarily in the areas of civil rights and labor and employment. Judge Beatty-Arthur then formed the law firm of Arthur & Arthur, PLLC, where she represented clients in family law, employment law and small business development. Also, Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed Judge Beatty-Arthur as the Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer for the Office of Employee Appeals for the District of Columbia. Thereafter, Judge Beatty-Arthur served on the executive team with the District of Columbia Public Defender Service where she advised management on hiring, recruitment, human resources and diversity. Judge Beatty-Arthur served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. She also served as an adjunct professor at the Howard University School of Law where she taught courses in Torts and Administrative Law, and at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Business where she taught Business Ethics. She also served on the faculty at Prince George’s Community College where she taught Business Law, Employment Law, and Critical Race Theory. Judge Beatty-Arthur is the former Chair of the Washington Bar Association’s Judicial Council, and the 2018 recipient of the Charlotte E. Ray Award from the Greater Washington Area Council of the National Bar Association for her commitment to minority women in the legal community. Judge Beatty-Arthur is a native Washingtonian. She received her bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics and MBA from the University of Maryland. She earned her law degree from Howard University School of Law. Judge Beatty-Arthur is married to Judge Errol Arthur and has two children. 

Michelle Howard had a Navy career filled with firsts.

Michelle Howard (born April 30, 1960) is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the commander of United Naval Forces Europe while she concurrently served as the commander of United States Naval Forces Africa and commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples. She previously served as the 38th Vice Chief of Naval Operations. In 1999. She was the first African-American woman to command a United States Navy ship, USS Rushmore and the first to achieve two- and three-star rank.

In 2006, she was selected for the rank of rear admiral, making her the first admiral selected from the United States Naval Academy class of 1982 and the first female graduate of the United States Naval Academy selected for flag rank. She was also the first black woman to command an expeditionary strike group at sea, where she made her mark on a global stage. In 2009, she led the Virginia Beach-based Expeditionary Strike Group 2 when it was deployed off the coast of Africa. The Norfolk-based cargo ship Maersk Alabama had been boarded by Somali pirates and its captain was being held hostage aboard a life raft for ransom. It was Howard’s job to set him free. She had only been on the job aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer for a week.

“That’s an eye-opening way to start a new job. Very quickly we had several ships, special forces, aircraft and it seemed like everyone in the world was focused on one American and trying to make sure he didn’t end up on shore in Somalia," Howard said in 2012. "Synchronizing that kind of might and capability was pretty amazing.” Like so many other times in life, Howard succeeded. The episode was later turned into the Tom Hanks film “Captain Phillips.” On July 1, 2014, Howard was appointed Vice Chief of Naval Operations, the second highest ranking officer in the Navy. Upon her swearing in Howard became the highest -ranking woman in Unites States Armed Forces history, and the highest ranking African-American and woman in Navy history.

Admiral Howard retired from the Navy on December 1, 2017, she became the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs at  George Washington University teaching cybersecurity and international policy.  International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announced that it appointed Howard to its board, effective March 1, 2019. 

In November 2020, Retired Admiral Howard was named a volunteer member of the Joe Biden presidential transition  Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Department of Defense. On February 12, 2021, Secretary of Defense  Lloyd Austin  appointed  Ms. Howard as one of four Departmental representatives to the commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person who serve Voluntarily  with the Confederate States of America.  Retired Admiral Howard is the recipient of the 2008 Women of Color Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Career Achievement Award, 2009 Dominion Power Strong Men and Women Excellence in Leadership Award, and the 2011 USO Military Woman of the Year among many other distinguished awards.On February 1, 2013, Howard was honored with the "Chairman's Award" at the 44th NAAP Image Awards. She is a 1987 recipient of the Secretary of the Navy/Navy League Captain Winifred Collins   Award.On June 13, 2015, Howard was awarded the Doctor of Public Service honorary degree from the American Public University System for her many years of service in the United States Navy, her contribution to the advancement of women in the United States Military, and to her continued service to the people of the United States and around the world

Retired Admiral Howard knows exactly how far women have come in the world of defense over the past half-century. When she was just 12 years old, she knew she wanted to go to a service academy, but at the time they didn't accept women. Her mother—whom Retired Admiral Howard cites as her greatest role model and source of leadership inspiration—told her not to give up. "If you still want to when you're old enough to apply, and if they're still closed to women, we'll sue the government," she recalls her mom saying. (As it turned out, they didn't have to: The Naval Academy began accepting women in 1976, two years before Howard graduated from high school.) She credits her success, and the successes of today's armed forces, at least in part to a secret weapon: diversity. 

After the Captain Phillips incident in 2009, Admiral Howard noted that the advisers who helped her design the rescue plan had a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and she emphasized the value of both inherent diversity—gender, race, and ethnicity—and the acquired diversity of learned experience and good leadership, 

Join our chat with world champion boxer, Lisa Cohen. We will discuss how boxing requires so much more cognitive discipline than you would ever imagine . Her book, "Being Too Fierce", one woman's journey from foster child to world champion boxer is an inspirational read. 

Lisa Cohen was born and raised in Washington, DC and placed, along with her four older brothers in the now-defunct Junior Village, followed by a slew of often traumatic foster-care placements. 

She began boxing in 1996, at the age of 28. She turned professional the next year, competing under the name of Lisa “Too Fierce” Foster. During her career, she won the IFBA (International Female Boxing Association) Junior Featherweight World Title. 

In 2002, while seeking the title, she established and ran Too Fierce Boxing & Fitness, in her hometown of Washington, DC.  "Being Too Fierce" is her story! 

Strategy plays a very important role in Boxing because it allows boxers to put themselves in the position of imposing their will onto their opponents. Simply executing combinations is not enough, boxers have to set up their offense in order to obtain optimum results .

More information about Lisa Cohen can be found at http://lisapcohen.com/about-us/