This is part of our Connected Woman Summit feature series highlighting our amazing participants.
Dr. Damika Howard-Wayne
Founder and Executive Director of D.E.W Girl Power / Certified Life Coach and Cognitive Behavioral Therapist
Dr. Damika Howard-Wayne is a leadership expert who delivers high-energy keynote presentations that challenge audiences to leverage their focus and pay attention to what matters most at work and in life. She mentors with passion, guiding her clients to effectively strengthen and elevate their leadership vision to new heights.
Her message is simple: “No Condition is Permanent!” It’s about embracing change, reinvention, perseverance, and the renewing of minds.
She currently works in the education field, where she is heavily actively involved in her community and on campus. Dr. Howard Wayne is an activist for human empowerment, were she sits on numerous of boards such as Broadway in the Hood, Black Women for Positive Change, WIChange, she formerly sat on the board of trustee for Elizabeth City University and the Elizabeth City Youth Council, she is also a member Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and Founder of D.E.W Girl Power, LLC.
She finds herself always involved in empowering people to succeed. When she is not busy in the community, she enjoys being the mother to Kennedy Wayne, who published her first book at age 8 years old. Whether it is being a troop leader for Girls Scouts, dance mom or volunteering as a recreational coach, she believes in having a work life balance for your family and yourself.
Her faith is heavy when it comes to community service and mental health, she always believed that “You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late”. She has accomplished accolades, such as ECSU’s 40 under 40 Society recognition, North Carolina Community Impact Award, Women Empowerment Award, Ida B. Carson, Leadership of the Year award, Commencement speaker and received the Key to the City of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. She has presented on mental health at conferences such a SAMSHA, Ronald McNair program, numerous of colleges and universities.
She walks in her divine purpose daily and humbly accepts her role as a servant and leader to empower others to become the best person they can be and ultimately fulfill their divine destiny in life—
When she is alone, she pulls out her portable microphone and sings like no one is watching. Dr. Wayne enjoys the little things in life, that is what she lives on and her message entails no matter who she meets, she will always be a person full of good energy and smiles. For more information visit www.dewgirlpower.org.
I see womens empowerment as looking around to find those women that we love, and to make a garden together to harvest, in which we can grow together, care for each other, and save each other from those who’d not hesitate to hurt us, just for the sake of it. It means implementing and discovering your purpose with likeminded women that are dedicated to empower each other to succeed. It means finding women allies not only vertically, but more importantly horizontally, it means to listen rather than speaking all the time, it is a place in which we can and have to show our vulnerabilities, this is the only way we can decolonize the narratives that we have been told.