Kelly Fair

Kelly Fair is the author of They’re All the Same Girl and the Every Girl Is a CEO Career & Success Guide. Her work on behalf of girls and young women has earned recognition from the U.S. State Department, Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women, Crain’s Chicago Business, Bank of America, Ann Taylor, Vital Voices, ComEd, Verizon, Google, Duke University, Chicago Foundation for Women, Operation PUSH, Social Enterprise Alliance, and more. Connect with Kelly Fair on LinkedIn to learn more. Recognizing that girls of color in Chicago experience the same poverty, violence, and trauma as boys, but have far fewer programs designed to address their specific needs and life experiences, Kelly launched Polished Pebbles in 2009 to provide a continuum of programming that starts when girls are 10 and ends with supporting young women in new employment and/or higher education or trade school. For nearly 15 years, Polished Pebbles has provided mentorship and career readiness programming to 10,000 girls and young women of color. Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program is the only girls program in Chicago that brings an innovative group of stakeholders to the table to beat the odds and provide real opportunities in careers in technology, hospitality, retail, construction, engineering, health care and the nonprofit sector. To learn more about Polished Pebbles, visit www.polishedpebbles.com.