Michelle Mills Clement was already an accomplished leader in her field when she joined the 2019–2020 cohort of the Chicago Urban League’s IMPACT Leadership Development Program—but the program helped her become a better leader for Chicago, she says. After five years leading real estate organizations in Seattle, she returned to her hometown of Chicago in 2018 to become the first Black CEO in the 138-year history of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® (CAR).
The Urban League and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business launched IMPACT in 2014 to give Black professionals tools to thrive in increasingly responsible leadership roles in their careers and in the community.
Reconnecting to her hometown, where she grew up in the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods and attended school in Beverly, drove Mills Clement's interest in IMPACT.
"I felt like a lot had happened in the city while I was away," she says. "I had changed, the city had changed, and I felt detached from the African American community here. I saw IMPACT as something that could help me get re-attached to Chicago and explore what I can do as a leader in this city. I knew I had a lot of room to grow and be a better leader."
IMPACT combines a business curriculum with leadership development work, one-on-one mentoring, and explorations of Chicago issues, politics, and history. The city's history of segregated housing is a major topic of discussion, and one about which Mills Clement is particularly passionate. Soon after joining CAR, she spurred the organization's groundbreaking statement apologizing for its history of housing discrimination and recommitting to fair housing.
But, she says, there's much more to do. "Acknowledging the past is step one. And now we have to carry out the work through the next steps. Housing is the catalyst for ending racism and discrimination, because it determines who you live with, who you know, who you interact with every day."
The deep-dive discussions with her IMPACT cohort helped her tackle that next phase of the work. Under Mills Clement's direction, CAR is taking a leadership role in building a diverse pipeline of real estate professionals and creating equitable housing solutions to help shape the future of Chicago.
"What I learned through IMPACT was how important it is, regardless of the consequences, to step out of your comfort zone and be bold all the way through. Once you take that first step, you're not done. I now make sure I'm very vocal around racial diversity—speaking nationally about it, and calling out organizations that don't even do simple things like have racially diverse representation on their websites."
Inspired by IMPACT discussions, Mills Clement co-founded a series of podcasts and webinars in the summer of 2020 about race and leadership.
Mills Clement's IMPACT experience also connected her with peers all over the city, from media and business executives to local government officials and nonprofit leaders. Not only do those relationships help foster cross-sector collaboration around Chicago, it also "takes a load of pressure off to come together with people who are navigating many of the same challenges," Mills Clement says.
"IMPACT helped me see that what I'm doing here is so much bigger than just being the CEO of CAR. I was able to build more confidence in what I'm doing—and think about how to instill that confidence in someone else who can come along behind me but not have to walk the same road. Representation matters: Others can say, 'I see you, I know I can be you.'"
Click here to learn more about applying to the IMPACT program.
