By Asia Armour
The Seattle Medium
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is often quoted to advise recent graduates to take the road less traveled. It makes sense to create one’s own lane. If there’s less foot traffic on this path, the scope of your vision goes further, you don’t feel rushed to complete the journey, and you’ve got the freedom to move the way you want.
But Zenovia Harris, the first Black woman CEO of the Kent Chamber of Commerce, said she had no desire to go to college after she graduated from high school. When she initially joined the workforce as a young professional, her main focus was to provide for herself. It was her opinion that higher education would deter that goal.
By the time she did obtain a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Phoenix, she was 29, had already bought her first home, managed multiple telemarketing firms in the United States and closed a business deal on a golf course in the Caribbean that expanded her company overseas.
“College just gave me a definition for what I was already doing,” Harris said. “I just knew this is how you close a deal. I didn’t know that I was putting together a business plan. I went to school at the perfect time for me. At that point I’ve got a career going, I’ve got a home. It meant a little bit more for me.”
No one had to coach her to take a road less traveled when she was young, and yet her journey is proof that there are a multitude of avenues one can take to reach the same destination.
In her current role as CEO of the Kent Chamber, she is an advocate for business owners in Kent, representing them to the City Council and funding a workforce development commission to educate the community and its future leaders.
Harris, who also serves as President of the Pacific Northwest Diversity Council, has been part of the 11.4 percent of Black women who worked in leadership positions in the United States over the last 10 years. First as marketing manager for Pacific Monarch Resorts, then as operations manager at the University of Phoenix.
Harris moved to Seattle when she was just 19. Working for Pacific Monarch Resorts started off as just a way to make money, but she soon discovered her talents in sales and communications. Her brilliance and work ethic got her noticed by her managers and promoted to higher positions.
Her upward mobility as a telemarketer yielded one of her greatest accomplishments, homeownership at the age of 25. To Harris, this proved it doesn’t matter where you come from, that “if you aspire to do something, you can do it,” and that a title is not necessarily an indicator of success.
“I don’t let my position define who I am or what I do,” Harris said. “I have the title of Chief Executive Officer, but I was just as successful when I was a telemarketer.”
Kela Hall is a close friend of Harris’ who has grown with her through both triumphs and strife over the past ten years. She is the one who urged Harris to interview for her C-suite executive position.
Hall believes Harris’ ability to relate with and learn from any type of person is one of her strongest traits. She suggests this is the reason she occupies the role of CEO of the Kent Chamber.
“That tenacity that she brings to the table, her relatability, she’s a real person who has lived real life,” Hall said. “She can connect with people, regardless of whether they’re a CEO or a janitor or if they’re a homeless person. I think that has a lot to do with the reason she’s in the position she’s in now.”
The two women met when Harris interviewed for a position at the University of Phoenix in 2010. Hall said Harris was so compelling in her interview that she and another manager both gave a presentation on why she should join either team.
Hall beamed brightly, recalling her victory in their friendly competition.
Not uncommon, Harris and Hall gravitated towards one another because of the scarcity of Black women in their positions. Defying her own rules about having friends in the workplace, Hall became enamored with Harris’ genuine spirit, passion and work ethic.
“Naturally, there was the beginning of a sisterhood built in being two of the only African Americans and women at our job, but what I liked about her was that she was very creative and she cared,” Hall said. “I knew that if I connect with her and help her get to another level, she would be a person who would run through walls for me, and she did. She performed very well.”
Hall believes Harris’ commitment to the community and ability to get things accomplished will not only aid her in her position as the CEO of the Kent Chamber of Commerce, but will catapult her into an even more prestigious role.
“I see Zenovia being the mayor of the city of Kent one day,” she said. “That’s the type of leadership she possesses.”
Harris is featured in Volume II of author and business coach Sheya Chisenga’s collection of stories from women who were “unapologetic, determined and fearless” in their pursuit of destiny. She is commended for her persistence through what the author describes as conditions of “hunger, homelessness, physical, verbal and emotional abuse.”
Harris’ mother died when she was seven and she grew up with one of her older sisters in Oak Park, California, where gang violence was prevalent. She had only music and dance to keep her out of trouble. It was her self-determination that helped her forge her own path to becoming the successful woman she is today.
According to Harris, the older she becomes, the more she understands the importance of fulfilling her civic duty and the power of wielding her voice to impact change.
“I was about 30 when I figured out I, as a citizen in the community, actually have a voice,” she said. “I didn’t know that I could have a meeting with the mayor and ask questions. I didn’t know that I could sit on commissions and be responsible for almost $2 million in funds. What I like about this role is I get to choose what I do. I’m going to let people know how important their civic duty is. You can make your community the way you want it.”
To Harris, representation matters and it starts within the community. She hopes that underserved groups see her operating in her position, utilizing her voice, and feel inspired to get more involved in the changes happening around them. She said things are being decided, with or without their consent.
Her position with the Kent Chamber allows her to operate within her passion, to utilize her life experiences and her tenacity to better the circumstances of children in underserved communities whose struggles mirror her own.
“I have this unique voice,” Harris said. “I know what it took for me to get
( out, but I also know what kept me in [these adverse circumstances], what resources or lack thereof kept me into the welfare system, the foster care system.”
“So, when I’m speaking at a committee meeting or commission meeting at the human services level, I get to say, well listen, these aren’t the services we need to offer to the children. These are the things that they need,” she continued. “I get to tell them we’re missing the whole point.”
Harris said she is unafraid to face any challenge. She is secure because she knows what her rock bottom feels like and has confidence in her ability to build herself from that point again and again, if need be. The passion she exudes is contagiously inspiring.
She lives her life as a message to her daughter and future generations to worry less about lofty titles and salaries and more about obtaining a truly gratifying position.
“I’ve been a worker bee and I was a proud worker,” Harris said. “It afforded me a lot of different things. I will always be able to make money, but at what point am I going to do what’s good for me? What feels good to me is helping people, and I’m able to do that in this capacity and I love that.”
“When you can wake up and go to work in the morning and be happy and be proud and you know you’re making a difference. For me, that’s what’s important,” says Harris.
