BlackExecutiveLeadershipAcademy
Remember who you are.
Deepen who you're becoming.
Strengthen how you lead.
§ I · What BELA Is
A leadership experience built with Black leaders at the center of the imagination.
The Black Executive Leadership Academy is an immersive leadership experience created to explore the whole of leadership—not only how we lead, but who we are becoming as we lead.
BELA makes room for the questions, conversations and possibilities that leadership rarely gives us enough space to pursue.
It is a place to think deeply. To challenge what we’ve inherited. To imagine what else might be possible. To learn in community with Black leaders bringing their own wisdom, experience and questions into the room.
Because BELA is about more than becoming better at the work.
It is about becoming clearer about who you are, more intentional about how you lead, more connected to people who understand the journey, and more expansive about what you believe is possible.
Welcome to BELA.
§ II · Who BELA Is For
For the leaderbuilding what comes next.
BELA is for Black leaders making consequential decisions, shaping organizations and communities, building businesses and institutions, and preparing for what their leadership may require next.
- 01
Executive Directors, CEOs & Senior Leaders
- 02
Board Chairs & Governance Leaders
- 03
Founders, Entrepreneurs & Business Owners
- 04
Leaders Preparing for Greater Executive Responsibility
- 05
Community & Institutional Leaders Building What Comes Next
Lead to Liberate
There are very few leadership spaces built with Black leaders at the center of the imagination. BELA is one.
§ III · Why BELA Exists
What becomes possible when Black leaders enter a room built for their full intelligence, humanity and imagination?
Black leaders have always built organizations, businesses, movements, communities and institutions—usually inside rooms designed with someone else in mind. BELA begins from the opposite premise: a room designed from the start around Black intelligence, judgment, humor and ambition.
Here we examine the whole of leadership: strategy, power, money, governance, relationships, identity, technology, community, joy, possibility—and what Black leaders are building next. Not because leadership is heavy, but because it is interesting, consequential and worth thinking about seriously, with people who bring their own expertise to the table.
§ IV · What Happens Here
You leave differently than you arrived.
- 01
You remember.
Who you are, what you know, and what you value.
- 02
You question.
What you inherited—and what you choose to carry forward.
- 03
You imagine.
What becomes possible beyond the limits of what already exists.
- 04
You build.
The leadership, relationships, practices and possibilities you can carry into what comes next.
§ V · The Experience
BELA unfolds across the fall—opening online, gathering in person in Downtown Seattle, continuing through live Thursday evening Leadership Intensives, and culminating together in Seattle.
8 weeks
Of immersive leadership learning
- 01
Virtual Orientation
6:00–7:30 PM Pacific. A shared beginning for the founding BELA Village.
October 7, 2026
Online
- 02
Seattle Leadership Immersion
9:30 AM–5:00 PM Pacific. Two immersive days of learning, reflection, connection and leadership practice.
October 14 – 15, 2026
Downtown Seattle
- 03
Five Live Virtual Leadership Intensives
6:00–7:45 PM Pacific — Weekly on Thursdays. Five facilitated experiences designed to deepen the work and bring the learning into your leadership.
Oct 22 – Nov 19, 2026
Online
- 04
Culminating Leadership Immersion + Certificate Celebration
9:30 AM – 6:30 PM Pacific. A closing day of integration and culminating leadership presentations, ending in celebration together.
December 4, 2026
Downtown Seattle
§ VI · What The Experience Offers
COMMUNITY IS LEADERSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE
- 01
A place to think
Step outside the noise and into a room for your depth, clarity and next right moves.
- 02
A room where you don’t have to translate
Come as you are. Your brilliance, your lived experience, your whole self belong here.
- 03
Intellectual and spiritual nourishment
Engage big ideas that stretch your leadership and feed your spirit.
- 04
Real work on real leadership
Tackle the challenges you actually face with people who get it.
- 05
Create the Village
Build relationships that deepen your impact and sustain your journey.
- 06
Room for joy
Laugh, exhale and experience the fullness of Black excellence.
- 07
Radical belonging
Be seen, be supported and be part of something bigger than any of us.
§ VII · Meet LaJuana
A practitioner. A convener.A student of leadership.
LaJuana Johnson has spent nearly three decades in rooms where something important had to happen—where leaders were wrestling with consequential decisions, organizations were navigating change, and what wasn’t being said often mattered as much as what was.
Those rooms shaped both her practice and her mission. They taught her to pay attention. To power. To people. To the questions underneath the questions. And to what becomes possible when someone creates enough space for people to think differently together.
LaJuana has led organizations, advised executives and boards, designed leadership experiences, and facilitated rooms through questions of strategy, governance, culture, conflict and change. Along the way, she has learned that leadership is deeply personal. We do not enter leadership as titles or résumés. We bring our histories, our identities, our ambitions, our fears, our relationships, our responsibilities, and our sense of what is possible into the room with us.
LaJuana knows that personally. She doesn’t believe we live—or lead—in silos. The woman, mother, sister, friend, entrepreneur, student, teacher and leader are not separate versions of her. They inform one another. Her experiences, relationships, questions, successes, mistakes and joys all shape who she is and how she leads.
She has learned that bringing her whole self doesn’t mean having everything figured out. It means being willing to be honest about who she is, what she knows, what she is still learning and who she is becoming.
That is why LaJuana’s work begins with the leader, not simply the leadership problem.
Her practice is grounded in curiosity, clarity and a deep belief in human possibility. She believes leadership asks us to know ourselves, tell ourselves the truth, remain willing to learn, and choose who we will be when the answer isn’t obvious.
BELA grew from those beliefs—and from LaJuana’s conviction that Black leaders deserve the space to explore who we are, how we want to lead, and what we want to build next.
Build. Heal. Lead. Love.
§ VIII · A Love Letter to Black Leaders
Dear Black Leader,
You belong here. I see you. I am you.
I know what it means to carry vision, responsibility, expectation and possibility—to keep going when there isn’t always a place to put down what you’re carrying, and to enter rooms that were never designed with us in mind.
But I also know who we come from. We come from builders and dreamers, from people who made a way out of no way—and then held the door open. We come from people who knew how to build, heal, lead and love.
And I want you to remember that you are not alone.
May this be a place where you can exhale. May this be a place where you are challenged and cared for. May this be a place where you remember what you know—and discover something new about yourself.
May there be laughter here. May there be joy. May there be love.
So if something in you recognizes something in this place, come on in.
Welcome home.
With love,
LaJuana
§ IX · Questions
Things people askbefore they say yes.
- Who is BELA for?
- Black leaders carrying significant responsibility—by title or by practice. That includes executives, senior organizational leaders, board leaders, founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, community and institutional leaders, and those preparing for greater executive responsibility.
- Where does BELA take place?
- In-person gatherings are in Downtown Seattle, Washington. The exact location and arrival details are shared with confirmed participants. The virtual sessions are live online.
- What is the investment?
- The Founding Cohort investment is $2,000 for an experience valued at $4,500. You may pay in full, in 2 payments of $1,000, or in 4 payments of $500.
- Are BELA Leadership Fellowships available?
- Yes. A limited number of BELA Leadership Fellowships will provide additional investment support for the Founding Cohort. We encourage you to raise your hand even if that support would make participation possible.
§ X · The Investment
Experience value
$4,500
Founding Cohort Investment
$2,000
The BELA Experience
The full value of the BELA experience is $4,500. For our Founding Cohort, the investment is $2,000—reflecting our commitment to making this exceptional Black leadership experience more accessible as we build the first BELA Village.
Payment options available
A limited number of BELA Leadership Fellowships will provide additional investment support for the Founding Cohort.
Want to make BELA possible for another leader? Individuals and organizations can sponsor a BELA Leader or contribute toward a BELA Leadership Fellowship.
Sponsor a BELA LeaderThe moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom.
— bell hooks —
§ XI · Raise Your Hand
Become part of theFounding Cohort.
There are many ways to enter the BELA Village. Whether you’re interested in joining the Founding Cohort, sponsoring a BELA Leader, or simply learning more, raise your hand below. We’ll personally follow up with next steps.
