Gazelle 14 Spring 25-48_Gazelle Magazine 4/17/14 8:15 PM Page 29
I thought, ‘Wow, this must be my calling, because I’m going to the
land of spa haven,” she said. But the move turned out to be the opposite of everything she had hoped for. She hated the city, was unhappy in her job, and yearned to return to St. Louis. She expressed
her discontent to a friend who vowed to “get her back,” and several
months later, she learned of a job opening with the St. Louis YWCA.
Though she does advise writing your future plans down, Adrian
also adds that you have to have faith and trust in others to back your
hopes and dreams. She had begun to study the practices of author
and motivational speaker Stephen Covey and decided to draft a personal mission statement. Ironically, before she even heard of the
YWCA job, she included for her overall focus to be “...enhancing and
inspiring the lives of women and girls.”
“I didn’t know that it was going to apply to the YWCA,” Adrian said.
“I reviewed it every now and then, and then eight months later, I ended
up working for an organization that’s empowering women.”
When the job presented itself through her friend’s notification, she
wasn’t quite ready to jump into a field she had no prior experience in.
She prayed about it, applied for the position, and asked for God to
“close the door” if it wasn’t the one for her. But less than a week after
being interviewed, she was offered the position. “That’s why I’m here,
because of my strong faith. Believing that God has things planned for
us, and it’s up to us to believe and not be in fear,” she said.
The shift was quite radical - a move back to the Midwest, working
in the nonprofit world, being surrounded primarily by women, but she
is fonder of her position than any she has ever been in. As the face of
the branch, her responsibilities include overseeing the overall financial stability of the organization and ensuring that its programs, which
include Head Start and Sexual Assault centers, are sustainable and
fall into the YWCA’s mission.
But it’s her daily encounters with women who are making their
lives better that empowers her to go into the office every day. “One
woman came to me and hugged me and said, ‘Ms. Bracy, I just got a
job, and I knew you would be so happy for me.’ And I almost cried,”
she said. “The joy that I received because she couldn’t wait to tell me,
and she knew that I would be happy for her…and I encounter that a
lot. When you see that you’re breaking the cycle of poverty, or someone who is homeless can now afford to get her own apartment - it’s
joy. That’s just pure joy.”
Adrian is also big on showing others how it’s done. But don’t balk
when she takes you under her wing. “I take mentoring seriously,” she
said. “Even before the YWCA, that’s what I’ve done my entire life, mentoring family members, girlfriends…that’s my DNA,” she said.
She admits that while her schedule is tight, she’s always up for a
meeting or lunch to help others brainstorm how to be better at what
they do. “I think it’s important to be honest and let them know.”
She’s also not afraid to ask her mentees for help in navigating the
twenty-first century career landscape herself. “I’ve had mentees that
I’ve went to for advice, for social media, or just something that was
not easy. I think it can be reciprocal in a lot of ways.”
Her hard work has paid off - she has been recognized by countless
publications such as Black Enterprise Magazine and The St. Louis
Business Journal for her achievements and dedication. But she’s not
through mapping her path yet. She’d like to pen a book or two on career transitioning, and possibly, an autobiography.
“I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth,” she said of her
upbringing in Miami. “I didn’t know I was poor, but I made it. I made
it out of that.” She also attributes her success to the encouragement
that her husband of fifteen years, Vernon, has always given. “You need
someone who’s going to support you and not feel intimidated by you,”
she said. “He’s been supportive from day one.”
When she looks back at where and how she has arrived in her current position