Jamila Trimuel on closing the Black leadership gap

The founder of Ladies of Virtue discusses why sponsorship matters, how to scale with authenticity and why society abandons young adults at critical moments

Jamila Trimuel grew up on Chicago’s South Side hearing her father say she could do anything she put her mind to. But in her junior year of high school, she realized not all her friends had that same encouragement. Some had fathers killed by gun violence. Others had mothers battling addiction. The gap between her experience and theirs planted a seed that would grow into Ladies of Virtue, an award-winning organization now celebrating 15 years of preparing Black girls for leadership. As founder and executive director, Trimuel has built a program that doesn’t just mentor girls through high school but supports them for up to six years beyond graduation, addressing what she sees as a critical period when society often abandons young people.

How did you get to where you are today, and how did you know that this was something that was needed in the community?

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and my dad used to always say, you’re an African girl, you can do anything you put your mind to. In my home, college was an expectation, and my mom used to always push me to overcome any obstacles that I may have faced. But growing up, I took my parents for granted. I thought all of my friends had parents who were pushing them to accomplish their goals and dreams, and it wasn’t until my junior year in high school that I realized, I looked around, and some of my closest friends, fathers were killed through gun violence. I’ve had friends whose moms were battling addiction, and I saw firsthand how it just wasn’t the case for everyone. They had those positive role models in their life to guide them on their path. That’s what made me want to become a mentor as a sophomore in college, and I have not looked back since. Really mentoring and standing in the gap for girls who may not have those positive role models, that’s truly a passion and a calling of mine.

In 2025, women of color held just 14% of managerial roles, 10% of senior leadership positions and only 7% of C-suite titles. For Black women, the numbers are even lower. From your perspective, why has this gap remained stagnant for years, and what are we missing in how we prepare girls for leadership?

One thing that I see, especially for our young women who are entering these corporate and managerial roles and environments, is that sponsorship. Sponsorship is so key. We often talk about mentorship and advocacy and leadership development training, and all of that are critical keys to success. But that one missing piece is sponsorship. Having someone who is also in that C-suite, who’s also in those higher-level executive roles, that are in rooms that our young Black women may not be in, but are in those rooms advocating and speaking up for our young Black women, that’s the critical missing piece that I’m seeing in the workplace.

January is National Mentoring Month, and it emphasizes purpose, passion and character. Why are those three pillars especially critical for Black women and girls navigating systems that were never designed with them in mind?

This is why Ladies of Virtue is so critically important, because not only are we providing the mentorship, that long-term, consistent role models in our girls’ lives, to be able to provide the leadership development training, that confidence building, increasing their public speaking skills, and all of that, that’s critically important for our young women to help train and prepare them now. And then, what’s also critically important is for them to have women who are already pursuing their careers, to the point that I mentioned about having those women who are in the C-suites, in those director roles, and even training young women and girls to be able to say, you know what, this is how you network with people who may not look like you, because it’s very important for them to have a diverse network as well, which is why we offer speed networking events with white men and women who come from a variety of different backgrounds. As we’re preparing our young girls for success and having them have strong character, career readiness and leadership and civic engagement, that is critically important right now, like never before, so that they can be successful in anything that they choose for their careers.

Ladies of Virtue works directly in Chicago’s South Side and West Side. These communities often are defined by disinvestment rather than potential. What have you seen change when girls are given consistent access to mentorship, mental health support and leadership development?

Doors open when we provide that consistent mentorship and mental health and leadership development. One thing that comes to my mind is one of our very first six girls 15 years ago, her name is Deidra, and she started in our program. She’s from the South Side of Chicago, from a community with one of the highest violent crime rates in America, and yet she joined our program. I remember she was telling us about how her single mother really was just trying to focus on how to make ends meet. Her mom found Ladies of Virtue, and when she joined, she also mentioned that she didn’t know much about the college preparation process, and really how to be, she was interested in psychology, but then she didn’t know anyone who was in that field. Where Ladies of Virtue helps to close that gap is that we matched her with Faith. And Faith, at that time was a doctoral student who also was focusing on psychology. She was able to expose Deidra to her lab, where she was able to get volunteer hours, talked to Deidra about how to prepare for graduate school once she graduated from college, and now Deidra is Dr. Deidra Bibbs. She did not even think about PhD until she met her mentor, Faith. The benefits of having a mentor is because they open up doors that girls would not have even imagined.

How do people find your organization, and how do people get involved, donate or give back?

Typically girls will find our organization through word of mouth. We have so many sisters and cousins and god sisters and all the neighbors who join because of the impact that we make in one girl’s life, and then they share with the world, and that’s how they end up finding out about Ladies of Virtue, but also through social media, our website. We’re in the communities, going to the back-to-school events, so people will see us that way as well. Once they get involved, then they just go on our website to complete an application. We are always looking for mentors as well, so for mentors, please go to our website at lovchicago.org and click on the mentor tab in terms of how to get involved. We are definitely seeking more women who want to give back to the next generation. And if they’re interested in donating, please go to our website, and on the top, there’s an icon that says donate, and we would love for your network to donate to Ladies of Virtue to pour back into the lives of the girls that we serve.

You have a Community Day, Ladies of Virtue Day and Community Love. It has become a powerful act of visibility and care for Black girls. What does it mean for a young girl to feel seen and celebrated, and why is that as important as academic or career support?

We know that across the country, Black girls actually are the highest demographic that say that they do not feel supported or safe at school. What we want our girls to know is that we hear them, we see them and we love them. And that no matter what girls may be going through, they have resources within Ladies of Virtue to support them every step of the way. Love Day is our expression of that, to just say, we stand with you and for you throughout your life. This is an opportunity during Black History Month, and in celebration of Valentine’s Day, we created our own holiday called Love Day, where we are spreading the love to Black girls across, not only in the city of Chicago, but we’re expanding to cities around the country as well. One thing I love about Love Day is in the box, there’s health and wellness items, there’s vision boards and stickers, but when girls receive that box, that’s their opportunity to, many times, learn about Ladies of Virtue for the very first time. We have girls that are being mentored today in Ladies of Virtue because they received that box from three years ago. This is also our olive branch to say, join our family, join our sisterhood, we’re here for you every step of the way.

You’re celebrating 15 years and expanding. What lessons have you learned about scaling impact without losing authenticity or community trust?

One thing that I’ve learned about scaling is, one, there’s great work being done in every city in America. We don’t want to come into a city to say, hey, we’re here, as though there’s no other mentoring organization that’s currently serving Black girls. We want to say is that we want to be in partnership. This is our authentic way of saying we want to be in partnership with the organizations that are already doing the great work on the ground, serving girls across the country. For example, when we travel to Atlanta, there’s a mentoring organization that we’ll be partnering with called Camping Ground. They’re doing great work in different schools across the city. But guess what? One of the mentors is our alum, Angel Brown. She has been with us as one of our six girls, and now she’s a mentor for another organization in Atlanta. So it’s just a full circle moment for us to be able to go and partner with organizations across the country, and in partnership, many of the cities are in partnership with our very own alum, and that’s what leadership is all about.

Ladies of Virtue supports its girls up to six years after high school. Why is that extended commitment essential, and what does it tell us about how society often abandons young people at critical transition points?

Society often abandons that 18 to 24 year old group. After, there’s so many resources that are available for elementary school and high school, but then after that, you see a drop in the amount of resources and opportunities available, especially for Black girls across the country. What we want to do, and what we are showcasing, is that, no, we continue to support our girls with professional development for our young adults, we provide emergency stipends for our alumni as well, for those who are in college or need emergency rental assistance. Even when our young people become parents, we’re the first ones that are sending gifts and things of that sort to support. Even when SNAP went out a few months ago, and some of our young parents did not know where food was going to come from, but Ladies of Virtue stepped in and filled those gaps for them. That’s what Ladies of Virtue was all about. After graduating from high school, our alum continues to be mentored and supported for up to six years, whether they’re in college, trade school or armed forces. Or if they go straight into their career, we’re still there for them every step of the way, with the hope that after 24 years old, they become mentors, or we hire them on as staff members, and if they still need that additional support, we are still there for our girls, even beyond the six years as well.

For individuals, corporations and funders who are watching this conversation, what is one concrete action that they can take right now to help close the leadership gap for Black women and girls?

I would give one piece of advice to close that leadership gap, is to serve the young Black women that are in your organizations today. Many women in your organizations need that sponsorship, need that mentorship and that support. And then the second piece is give back to those organizations, like Ladies of Virtue, who are providing that leadership development right here and right now for our young Black girls. If you want to assist Ladies of Virtue in our endeavors, we ask one thing, provide those introductions for us. We would love to be connected to corporations who are like minded, who want to see Ladies of Virtue thrive. We would love to connect with those type of companies, so please introduce us. And then, if you would like to donate, please go to LOVChicago.org and click on the donate icon.

To learn more about Ladies of Virtue, volunteer or support Love Day, visit lovchicago.org/lovday.