THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF SUCCESS
LAWS OF LEADERSHIP FOR BLACK WOMEN
Elaine Meryl Brown
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To learn more about Elaine's work and accomplishments, visit her website HERE.
Elaine Meryl Brown, former Vice President, Special Markets, Creative Services at HBO, is a Daytime Emmy Award Winning Writer as well as producer who has won numerous industry awards in the cable industry. At HBO, she led a team that launched and created content for HBO’s digital platforms and established the in-house agency, providing creative services for internal clients. As Creative Director at Showtime, Elaine oversaw the On-Air promotion and branding of Original Movies, Series and Pictures for Kids. While working, Elaine’s passion for writing led to two novels, the critically acclaimed Lemon City and Playing by the Rules, both published by Random House, as well as the Amazon bestseller, The Little Black Book of Success: Laws of Leadership for Black Women. As the result of the success of The Little Black Book of Success, Elaine has spoken at Fortune 500 companies, Johnson & Johnson, ESPN, Exxon Mobil, Ogilvy and Mather, Warner Bros, and others, as well as non-profits, colleges, universities, various radio, TV shows, and virtual presentations. Passionate to motivate and encourage entry and mid-level talent with leadership support and development, Elaine inspires individuals to be strategic and intentional to tap into and maximize their leadership potential, with the message “the first person you lead is yourself.”
Chosen as one of The Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women in Business, Elaine is also a graduate of NAMIC UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Leadership Development Program, the CTAM Executive Management Program at the Harvard Business School. She was also selected to participate in the Simmons College, Time Warner Women’s Breakthrough Management program.
After moving south to be closer to family, Elaine became Director Savannah Film Studios at the Savannah College of Art and Design where she served on the board of the Georgia Studio and Infrastructure Alliance. As Director CINEMA Project at Georgia State University, she launched a JP Morgan Chase funded program to provide free media training for young people to prepare them for jobs in the film industry. Elaine is a member of Women in Film and Television Atlanta, Women In Cable and Television – Atlanta Chapter, Georgia Production Partners, National Association for Multiculturalism in Communications – Atlanta Chapter, The Producers Guild of America, East. She is a former board member of the Boys & Girls Club of Bluffton, SC and former Alumnae/I Trustee of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.
A graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Elaine has a BA in English and Drama, a Mini MBA in Digital Marketing from Rutgers University and was recently accepted into the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program at Reinhardt University in Waleska, GA where she will specialize in screenwriting. She currently works in advertising and is writing a TV anthology series.
More from Elaine
Faye Dunlap violates the number-one rule of her family and her small town when she marries an outsider, a man she had purposely chosen in college as her ticket out of Lemon City. The tight-knit little town was founded in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia by black folks escaping the virulent racism of the American South. Chief among their chosen survival strategies was keeping to themselves and keeping their young close to home. Anxious to break free of the restraints of Lemon City and taste the new freedoms promised by the black power movement of the 1970s, Faye marries Harry Lee Thompson from New York City. Faye's family smolders with outrage, but Granddaddy Dunlap bribes the opportunistic Harry with the promise of staking him in a new business if the young couple stays in Lemon City. Faye won't be put off and is prepared to leave Harry and Lemon City when Harry turns up dead. The entire family comes under suspicion as they hunker down for Thanksgiving dinner, under house arrest, and ponder who might have dispatched Harry.
The fictional historically black town of Lemon City, Virginia, is visited by the dreaded Outsiders when Jeremiah, a 25-year-old Vietnam vet, and his 12-year-old sister, Ruby Rose, stumble upon the town. They are running from the authorities, Jeremiah accused of kidnapping his sister from foster care following the death of their drug-addict mother. Dunlap family matriarch Nana takes pity on the young girl and makes an exception to the rule against welcoming outsiders. This is particularly hard for Nana, who lost her granddaughter Faye to marriage to an Outsider, a marriage that ended in tragedy. While Ruby Rose has captured Nana's heart, Jeremiah threatens to steal the affections of Nana's granddaughter Louise, who has recently become involved with Medford though the two have eyed each other for years. The Outsiders shake up the complacency of Lemon City even as they learn to adjust to the rhythms that have sustained the community for generations.