Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. 
 
BATTLE CREEK, MI — La June Montgomery Tabron made history when she became both the first woman and the first African American to serve as President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the seventh-largest foundation in the United States.
 
In her new book, “How We Heal”, she paints a vivid portrait of her growing-up years in Detroit during the 1960s and how they set her on the path to take the helm of one of the world’s largest philanthropic institutions. In addition to “How We Heal,” she also has written a youth-focused book titled, “Our Differences Make Us Stronger", which describes in words and illustrations a story about “sharing our identities and making new friends.”
 
Amid her travels throughout the United States to promote her new books, Tabron shares insights with On the Ground Battle Creek about her full-circle American story, a coming-of-age journey where she gains a firsthand understanding of how systemic racism prevents “our children and communities from thriving and learns about the transformative role healing can play in helping all of us transcend the legacy of racial inequality.”
 
 What prompted you to write these books?
 
I wrote these books because I believe that finding a path toward healing is essential to building a country and world where all children can thrive. Both in my personal life and in my role as President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, I have seen how many people are tired of division and yearning to heal, yet don’t know where to begin. These books introduce a proven model for change and offer readers the tools to put that model into practice. By using the tools of racial healing, individuals and communities can build trust, forge meaningful relationships, and bridge the barriers that are currently keeping us apart.


In going through the writing process, did traumas and not-so-great memories rise to the surface for you? If so, what were some of them?
 
I actually found the process of revisiting my past cathartic, which is something I didn’t entirely expect. One of the stories I tell in "How We Heal" and Our Differences Make Us Stronger is about a childhood trauma I had all but forgotten: losing contact with my best friend and next-door neighbor, Jenefer. Jenefer and I were very close, but one day, she and her family moved away — and I never saw her again. As an adult, I now understand that they left because of White Flight, or the exodus of white families from racially diverse, urban centers to predominantly white suburban neighborhoods. But as a five- or six-year-old, I had no way of understanding why I was suddenly being separated from my best friend. Revisiting this early chapter of my own life, among others, helped me better understand that this was an experience from which I needed to heal — the kind of experience all of us would benefit from engaging in our own lives.
 
What was your first paying job? How did successive jobs prepare you for your leadership of WKKF?
 
I share a lot of my career journey in the book—from my first high school internship at General Motors and my first job out of college in the audit department of a major accounting firm, to my current position as president and CEO of WKKF. Each experience has shaped my approach to leadership. A key lesson I’ve learned along the way is the importance of leading with empathy and speaking truth to power. I have aimed to embody those values as I advanced through the leadership ranks at WKKF. Thankfully, my honesty and advocacy have been well-received, and I hope they have cultivated a culture where people feel empowered to speak up for themselves and others.
 
Did you always have a heart for philanthropy? Where did that come from?
 
Coming from a family of 10 children and a community that cared deeply about its neighbors, I have always understood the importance of supporting others and helping them reach their full potential. But these values, as I share in the book, didn’t become the driving forces of my career until 1987, when the Kellogg Foundation recruited me for their financial controller position. At the time, I knew a lot about Kellogg’s cereals but little about the independent foundation created through W.K. Kellogg’s generosity. So, I started researching and appreciated what I learned — particularly when it came to the foundation’s commitment to racial equity and closing the digital divide for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). These stories spoke to me as a young Black woman navigating the American workforce in the 1980s, and I became eager to join a field that shared many of my own values.
 
As President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, what are your guiding principles?
 
La June Montgomery Tabron, President and CEO of W.K. Kellogg Foundation
I am, of course, guided by the singular mission Mr. Kellogg charged our foundation with nearly a century ago: “Use the money as you please so long as it promotes the health, happiness, and well-being of children.” Like myself, Mr. Kellogg wasn’t interested in the spotlight or anyone appeasing his ego. So, when I became President and CEO in 2014, I made referent power the driving force of my leadership. 

Referent power is guided by the principles of mutual trust and shared ownership over a mission. Instead of leading with a command-and-control approach, I prefer to model an influence-and-inspire attitude — one that shows staff members it's okay to take risks, go out on a limb, and do what’s necessary to get good ideas heard and implemented. Most importantly, as WKKF’s leader, I’ve worked hard to ensure we’re always focused on our key stakeholder: children. 

 “It's not about me, it’s not about you, it’s all about the children” has been such an important guiding principle for the culture I’ve built at WKKF that I’ve put it on a t-shirt that I’ve given to every new staff member since I became President and CEO.

Needs increasingly seem to outpace resources. In your opinion, what could and should be done to strike a balance?
 
Philanthropy plays an important role in our society, but we recognize that we can’t be everything to everyone. Our founder, Mr. Kellogg, believed in the power of communities to forge their own solutions to the problems they face and wanted to use the foundation to equip people with the knowledge and resources to pursue those solutions. In other words: we believe philanthropy is at its best when it works in community with community. Today, we’re carrying this vision forward by looking for community-led opportunities where our investments and partnership can make an outsized impact on children and families.
 
One great example here in Battle Creek is the Battle Creek Public Schools transformation and the Bearcat Advantage scholarship, which covers up to 100% of college tuition for all eligible Battle Creek Public School (BCPS) graduates who attend any college or university in Michigan or any HBCU across the country. These incredible investments were the result of our years-long partnership with BCPS families and faculty who helped the foundation identify a need in the community and co-create a solution to transform the school district, making the educational ecosystem in the city more equitable, and to prepare students to take advantage of the opportunity to attend college, without cost being a barrier to them.
 
How long did it take you to write your books?
 
From ideation to print, both books took just under a year to write. I know this sounds unbelievably fast, but it was made possible by the incredible teams I worked with both internally and externally. With their help, I was able to gather, synthesize, and piece together countless hours of conversations and research in a relatively short period of time.
 
What do you hope people get out of them?
 
After reading these books, I hope people will feel more empowered to engage with our stories — their own story, the stories we all share, and the story we can write together. This starts with having open, honest, and ongoing conversations about our differences, and engaging with the uncomfortable truths that can yield mutual understanding, mutual respect, and mutual recognition —with each of us seeing ourselves in each other.
 
This journey is reflected in many of the stories I share — including the ones that take place here in Battle Creek. Over the past three decades, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing our city’s transformation as it has reckoned with its own legacy of racism, confronted hard truths about its past and present, and become the strong, diverse community I know and love living in today. I hope readers everywhere will be inspired by Battle Creek’s journey and recognize that healing is possible for their community, too.
 
What is the biggest challenge for you as the leader of WKKF?
 
As President and CEO of a philanthropic organization dedicated to achieving racial healing and advancing racial equity, I find this current moment particularly challenging. Right now, our political dialogue seems intent on tearing our national community apart and denying our common humanity. In this kind of environment, it’s easy for people to fall into the trap of zero-sum thinking or the false belief that one group’s success comes at the cost of another’s.  And, at the same time, I also think this moment reaffirms why WKKF has focused for years on racial healing, and it motivates me to keep working to reach new audiences with our message about the positive impact that racial healing has on people’s lives. 

Despite these very real obstacles, I believe we can still embrace what we share — our humanity, our values, our aspirations, and our interdependence. That’s why I wrote these books, to help people recognize that we are all bound together by a shared fate. When we see how our differences can make us stronger, we can start building the better future our children, families, and communities deserve.