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photo by steed media service
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President, Black Professional Coaches Alliance
Running from the police, having different aliases, engaging in
shootouts, and living in an abandoned church were just some of the
things that Veronica Conway became accustomed to during her childhood.
Today, Conway is the president of the Black Professional Coaches
Alliance, showing that you can never count someone out.
“My father was a former Black Panther. We had to pretend we were
leading a normal life, in the middle of what was a war zone, I remember
this climate of fear,” says Conway. “I always had the sense as a child
that we were being followed, watched or that our phones were being
tapped – which was true. We received death threats. There was always
this overwhelming fear that we were going to be shot or something.”
Conway’s father was eventually convicted of murdering a park ranger. He
was sentenced to life in prison, and is still serving time today.
Conway recalls the day her father was captured.
“One morning in 1972, there was a knock on the door. It really wasn’t a
knock, it sounded more like thunder. It was six in the morning and I
[still] remember my mother looking out the window, [and then] saying
[to my father], ‘They’re here.’ The next thing I remember is the doors
being beaten down and all of this commotion. They came into the room
and one of them put a gun to my head and said, ‘If you move, we’ll blow
this black b*!ch’s head off.’ So he surrendered. I still remember that
day,” says Conway.
Conway would eventually rise above such a harrowing past, and move on
to create new leaders as the founder of the Black Professional Coaches
Alliance, an organization devoted to providing personal inspiration for
today’s business people.- adrienne gadling
