Ebony Easiley Of Art 4orms Foundation: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Shifting the education paradigms in our public school system to introduce exposure to more trades.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ebony Easiley.
Ebony Easiley is the founder and Executive Artistic Director of Art 4orms Foundation, Tulsa’s first art and wellness nonprofit organization. Taking from her own experiences, she dedicates her time to helping public school students have access to art education and art therapy, expanding wellness, academics, and future career pathways for the students. She is also the creative mind behind the first-ever Art Therapy Pod.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in North Tulsa, a community that has experienced severe economic disparities for generations after the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and an ongoing lack of tangible investment from the city and state. For as long as I can remember, I have always been an artist (visual and performing), but my family couldn’t provide me with quality arts-based educational opportunities. Although I obtained my B.F.A. from the University of Tulsa, my technical skill set was extremely behind my peers. I had no previous art training before attending The University of Tulsa. This meant working triple the amount of hours as my peers to catch up to the expected performance standard. While serving as the Founding Director of Operations for Greenwood Leadership Academy (G.L.A.) The Met Cares Foundation founded Oklahoma’s first partnership school; she was able to experience firsthand the erosion of art opportunities provided to students in our public school system. This inspired me to provide as many art opportunities for G.L.A. students as possible, such as annually signing students up to attend Hope for the Holidays. For some G.L.A. students, attending Hope for the Holidays, was their first time attending a Tulsa Performing Arts Center show. This inspired me to launch the inaugural A.R.T. (Ambition Reveals Truth) Benefit Concert in January 2019. This event closed the night, raising critical funds to gift the Tulsa Girls Art School with art supplies to sustain them for a year’s worth of art supplies. The initiative is positioned to fund art programs in the Tulsa Metroplex annually, focusing on providing more art opportunities for black and brown students. After assessing the need and success of the inaugural benefit concert, the Art 4orms Foundation (Oklahoma’s first arts & wellness nonprofit) was born.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The most interesting and humbling story is a funder telling me I made them a better philanthropist. Often, founders find themselves compromising or shifting the heart of their business model to please a funder, but my approach has always been to lead boldly and never compromise the integrity of my foundation for funding. The goal has always been to find like-minded funders who are aligned with our mission, not the other way around.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I can’t think of a funny mistake, but I do wish I had learned the following valuable lesson sooner: how to create a healthier and more balanced pace when building out program streams for your organization. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your organization will not be built in a day either, and that’s okay. It’s okay to perfect what is already working before adding other components to your organization.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
No business success is achieved in isolation. In each phase of my career, I have received help from individuals who have taken the time to provide me with valuable mentorship, constructive feedback, and sacrifice. I would feel wrong naming one because there are friends, family, and business colleagues who made it possible for me to have all the success I have had to date.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book truly changed my methodology around how I view myself and the power we all have within us to enhance our experience on Earth. It talks the reader through tackling past traumas in adulthood and how we can navigate those experiences to restore our spirit. The power of loving ourselves the right way is a valuable internal resource that can help us through every experience.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“All good decisions may not be the best decision for you at this moment”
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
My career goals will always be rooted in returning as I gain more access to resources and opportunities. Ethically, a leader is responsible for creating tangible pathways for others to benefit. Those are the attributes of a leader who values building.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
All inequalities lie in the access to the right resources, exposure, and being connected to the successful people in the field you are aspiring to pursue.
Can you share with our readers what you are doing to help empower women to become founders?
I always make myself available as a resource to provide valuable information and continuously reach back to offer opportunities to those interested in my expertise. It’s so important to remain accessible in some capacity to help the generation that will follow.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Women should be founders because they have a unique approach to connection-building and inclusivity. We need more women leaders to ensure that our current and future generations ‘voices are heard, seen, and valued.’
Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders?
If you can, please share an example or story for each.
1. Access and networking with current women who are founders.
2. Shifting the education paradigms in our public school system to introduce exposure to more trades.
3. Endowed funding to support future generations of women entrepreneurs.
4. Mentorship programs
5. Resource guide for women entrepreneurs.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I could inspire a movement, it would be to change how we invest in our public education system, especially in states with extremely low rankings, like Oklahoma. A mentor once told me that public school systems have been designed to build the next generation of workers, and private schools are designed to produce the next generation of leaders. There are viable things we can do as a community to improve the quality of life of communities across the nation through crucial changes related to how we respond to mental health and the structure of the school day.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US With whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love a private breakfast or lunch with Tia Mowry or Vashti Harrison. Both women helped me reimage the beauty of being a black girl growing up in America in different phases of my life. I grew up watching Sister Sister, and I remember being gifted with confidence and creativity that has always helped guide me through my career. As an adult artist, I recall being captivated by Vashti’s illustrations because I never witnessed such a high level of excellence in art for black girls. I purchased every Vashti Harrison book she illustrated to place in my daughter’s library so she can see beautiful black girls from all walks of life and the power she holds through the illustrations.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.
Ebony Easiley Of Art 4orms Foundation: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.