Navigating Courage follows the leadership journey of Dr. Robin Martin, a first-generation college graduate whose career illustrates the personal and professional risks that lurk behind every opportunity afforded women of color in the workplace. On the surface, Dr. Martin was living the dream. She emerged from a childhood in public housing as a college basketball star who turned her talents to coaching and then to leading athletic programs around the country. She earned her doctoral degree and was elevated to one of the highest academic administration positions in a large, public, urban, research-intensive university. She was an expert in educational leadership, but under the surface, she railed against a meritocracy that demeaned and destroyed the hopes and dreams of so many of her peers. In Navigating Courage, Dr. Martin bears powerful witness to failed systems and the pains they inflict. More than that, though, she also illuminates a path for academics and professionals of color who dare aspire, as she continues to do, to build true equity in and around institutions where it is both seriously lacking and essential.
