Jessica Byrd

The best leaders of our time are the ones about whose visions people hear and say, “That’s never going to happen.” They have a vision so big that when they proclaim it, you might think they’re out of their minds. But then you watch them get to work—and succeed.

Jessica Byrd, founding partner of consulting firm Three Point Strategies, has a vision that vast. She saw what Stacey Abrams could accomplish. She dreams in electoral justice, and works to place Black women in positions of power in order to accomplish it. With the Movement for Black Lives, she has been a champion for the BREATHE Act—a bill drafted by our movement that would divest federal funds from the criminal system and reinvest them in communities.

If Jessica’s in your corner, she believes in you, heart and soul, and moves heaven and earth to get you to victory. She may not always win, but she has the last laugh in the end, because she intoxicated you with her vision that all things are possible when we have our minds, and our hearts, stayed on freedom.

Garza is principal at Black Futures Lab