MILWAUKEE — As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we highlight a Milwaukee leader who is redefining success—an author inspiring change through her new book, Fail Forward: Stories of Brave Intuitive Leadership.
For LaShawndra Vernon, failure isn’t the end of the road—it’s a stepping stone to something greater. She has spent years shaping public policy, using the arts to drive social change, and turning obstacles into opportunities. Now, through her writing, she hopes to inspire others to embrace challenges with courage and resilience.
“My name is LaShawndra Vernon. I'm a creative, a convener, a storyteller. Being a woman, to me, means being a living, breathing portal,” she says.
WATCH: Milwaukee author LaShawndra Vernon turns setbacks into success
I asked her what "failing forward" means to her.
“It’s about getting up every time there’s a fall,” she explains.
In Fail Forward, Vernon explores how setbacks can be transformed into victories, not by ignoring failure, but by learning from it.
“Looking for the victories during the failure moments, managing that experience afterward, and then navigating your way to your next big win,” she says.
But she also stresses that failure doesn’t always mean immediately getting back up—it sometimes requires reflection.
“That center of space, where we should sit down for a second—failure doesn’t mean jump back up in all instances. You might make that injury worse. Sometimes, it’s ‘Wait a minute, how did I fall?’” she shares.
For Vernon, learning from failure is essential for anyone striving to create meaningful change. She credits the strong women in her life for instilling this mindset.
When asked who she turns to for inspiration, she doesn’t hesitate.
“My mom, my grandmother—that power comes from the ancestors I have. I have a powerful family of women,” she says.
With her new book, Vernon hopes to inspire the next generation of leaders to embrace failure not as defeat, but as an opportunity for growth.
“What taught you the power of failing?” I ask.
“Failing,” she answers simply. “Every time you fail, you have an opportunity to decide how you recover.”
Through her work, Vernon continues to prove that setbacks don’t define success—it’s how you rise from them that truly matters.
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