Author: Lynnette Price

For some women, home is a place. For others, it is something carried quietly within them through memory, ritual, and the stories passed from one generation to the next.

For Salwa Petersen, home begins in northern Chad, in the quiet rhythms of the Sahel and in the circle of women who gathered to share knowledge, care, and ancestral ritual. Those early experiences, watching her great-grandmother lead the sacred Chébé hair ritual, became the foundation for a life that would eventually span continents, cultures, and industries.

Leadership is often framed as endurance, output and constant motion, especially for Black and Brown women who have been pushed to carry more than their share for generations. But as Dr. Wendi Williams, President-elect of the American Psychological Association, reminds us in this candid conversation, a different way is not only possible, it is necessary.