Hope Henson-Lehman

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Hope (She/Her) is a social entrepreneur, healer, artist, and change agent. She is passionate about building new cooperative economies and community wealth models in her lifetime where the most vulnerable (Black, Indingenous, POC, womxn, LGBTQI, disabled, and poor) folks are protected and thriving. Her passion stems from a family legacy of economic self-determination.

As a young child raised between South Sacramento and Davis, California she observed her young entrepreneurial single Black mom and working class white dads make tough choices often out of economic desperation. These experiences stuck with her as she navigated her own mental health challenges and career path. She knew that structural economic change rooted in equity was required to end poverty and build a world where everyone had a right to thrive.

This passion is what brings her to the RUNWAY team as their new Operations Director. Her journey to RUNWAY pulls from 11 years experience working in economic development through workforce development, tech diversity, and entrepreneurship. Hope holds a B.A. in both Feminist Studies and Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has coached 150+ entrepreneurs in the California Bay Area and beyond through her two companies Fresh to Def Collective and Just BE that propel women of color toward economic freedom through entrepreneurship.

She loves getting down into the nitty gritty of how to make folks’ visions come alive one business plan, spreadsheet, app, and action plan at a time. She knows that decolonizing one’s mind, soul, and body requires a lifetime of intentional work that she leans into daily as a member of Standing in Our Power (SiOP), an intergenerational network of POC healers.

In her free time Hope loves morning chats with her mom, boogying to hip hop freestyles with her partner, geeking out over afro futurist sci-fi/fantasy with friends, and stretching out neck kinks with meditative yoga. As a recovering perfectionist, one of Hope’s favorite quotes reminds her to detach personal value from productivity, “We must recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.” - Audre Lorde #Ashe