Command the Room: Personal Branding for Leaders

Event Details:

• Event Title: Command the Room: Personal Branding for Leaders
• Date & Time: Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.ET
• Location: Virtual, Zoom 

The 2025 Colin Powell Leadership Institute invites you to join us on Tuesday, May 20 at 7:00 p.m. ET for "Command the Room: Personal Branding for Leaders." We’ll be joined by Ethel Mwedziwendira, Head of Communications at BPIA and strategic communications leader, for a powerful session on how to craft and elevate your personal brand.

Your leadership brand isn’t just what you do, it’s how people experience you. In this session, Ethel will break down the building blocks of personal branding for leaders who want to be seen, heard, and remembered. Learn how to position yourself strategically, show up with confidence, and create alignment between your values, voice, and vision.

Speaker Bio:

Ethel Mwedziwendira is a strategic communications leader with a lifelong connection to the craft of storytelling and a career shaped by high-stakes, high-impact work.

With over a decade of experience across journalism, editorial design, and public relations, she has built a reputation for crafting narratives that inform, influence, and drive meaningful outcomes. Her foundation was laid in newsrooms and yearbook rooms and has since evolved into a career spanning litigation PR, brand reputation, storytelling strategy, and executive visibility across multiple industries.

Mwedziwendira has led strategic communications efforts across sectors, supporting some of the most high-profile wrongful conviction cases in the country, securing Tier-1 media coverage for visionary clients, and advising organizations navigating moments of risk and opportunity. Her expertise includes courtroom narratives, policy messaging, and reputational strategy for leaders in tech, sports, business, philanthropy, international affairs, and public service.

A journalist by training, Mwedziwendira holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Mississippi, where her early work earned recognition from the Associated Press and various other journalism awards.

She lends her expertise as a board member for Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA) and Hunger Free America, contributing to missions aligned with her commitment to equity, visibility, and global engagement.

Pre-submitted questions can be emailed to communications@iabpia.org.