In the face of difficulty, an inspirational leader will overcome

Survive and Advance shares an intimate family portrait and professional journey, elevating readers and showing them how to imagine themselves into a new future with optimism, conviction, and confidence.

Grind and single parenthood on one side of his family, mental health and addiction issues on the other, Derek Lewis' childhood role was to protect himself and his younger brothers from hardship and abuse. Growing up in Washington, DC in the 1970s, it was enough just to survive.

But Lewis demanded a different future for himself and his family. Growing his 1988 just-out-of-college Pepsi sales management trainee route into multiple C-suite roles, he overcame early adversity to achieve the highest level of corporate success possible. Not content with delivering record-breaking financial results, Lewis leveraged his reputation and relationships into building gender and racial equity and justice inside and outside the company.

In this personal growth memoir, Lewis shares his path to Black excellence from Chocolate City to HBCUs to the Divine Nine to Pepsi's Team Elite to national catalyst for social change.

Derek Lewis' profile page

ELLE GLENCOE is an award-winning writer. Her clients include Chief Robert Joseph, Scott Shute, Eckhart Tolle, Geneen Roth, Marianne Williamson and Oprah Winfrey/OWN TV. Elle Glencoe lives in Victoria.

Elle Glencoe's profile page

"This powerful memoir chronicles Lewis's remarkable journey from a challenging childhood in 1970s Washington, DC, to becoming a transformative corporate leader and advocate for social change. With unflinching honesty and compelling narrative skills, Lewis weaves together accounts of personal struggles, professional triumphs, and breakdowns of hard-won convictions to create an inspiring roadmap for achieving success without compromising one's values or identity."

Publisher's Weekly