The idea for Lampkins & Co. began long before the company was officially established in 2023.

Throughout my career, I found myself returning to the same question: Where are the Black women in positions of power and influence?

I saw Black women earning degrees, leading teams, exceeding expectations, and delivering results. Yet many remained underrepresented in leadership roles where decisions were made, resources were allocated, and futures were shaped.

The disconnect was difficult to ignore.

What started as a professional observation eventually became a research question.

As a doctoral researcher, I spent years studying the lived experiences of Black women in the workplace. I wanted to better understand the gap between talent and opportunity and the invisible hurdles that so many women were navigating every day.

What I discovered was that the challenge was rarely a lack of ability.

Many women were carrying extraordinary responsibilities while navigating unwritten rules, shifting expectations, and environments that often required them to adapt in order to belong. They were leading, caregiving, mentoring, advocating, producing, and persevering. Often all at once.

The more I listened, the more I realized that many women were longing for something workplaces rarely provide: space.

Space to think.

Space to tell the truth.

Space to be seen.

Space to wrestle with difficult decisions.

Space to reconnect with themselves beneath the expectations, responsibilities, and roles they carry.

That realization stayed with me.

Lampkins & Co. was created in response to that need.

At its heart, this work is about creating space. Space for reflection. Space for growth. Space for honest conversation. Space for women to examine where they are, where they want to go, and what they need to get there.

It is also about care.

The kind of care that acknowledges the realities women are navigating while refusing to reduce them to their challenges. The kind of care that makes room for ambition and rest, achievement and authenticity, strategy and humanity.

Because after all these years, the question that continues to guide my work is simple:

How do women remain whole while navigating systems that often require them to fragment themselves?

I do not claim to have all of the answers. But I remain committed to creating spaces where women can reflect, reconnect, and move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and intention.

With a bell hooks kind of love,

Paris Marie

Founder, Lampkins & Co.