Alumni Q&A: Selena Rezvani ’95

As an author, speaker, and consultant on leadership, Selena Rezvani ’95 thinks a lot about how people problem-solve, listen, respond, and guide others toward achieving their own potential. As an expert specifically on women in leadership, she also considers the influence of how gender politics affect women's paths through typically male-dominated industries and spaces.

Rezvani applies a practical, digestible approach to learning and practicing leadership skills in her “Quick” series of books—Quick Confidence (2023, Wiley), Quick Leadership (2025, Wiley), and two more coming out in the near future. 

She’s also garnered a large social media following and has become a sought-after speaker and media source with quotes appearing in stories in notable publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Oprah.com. She writes a column for MS Now, and in 2018, she gave a TEDx talk, “Interrupting Gender Bias Through Meeting Culture”, which was recognized with a Croly Journalism Award.

Rezvani is also one of the many alumni parents who, after reflecting on the impact of their Quaker education, have decided to send their children here. Her twins enrolled in GFS in Kindergarten and are currently in Middle School!

We discussed all of this, and more, with Rezvani in a conversation this spring:

How did you arrive at leadership as your focus? Was it inspired by your own experiences in the corporate world?

Selena Rezvani: I actually began my career in social work. I felt really drawn, in part because of my Quaker education, to helping people find their voice, problem-solve, navigate difficult dynamics, and build consensus.

But while I was working in the Manhattan DA’s office counseling victims of violent crimes, I realized I couldn’t sustain the work. It was all-consuming. Soon after, I found a really great job at Great Place to Work Institute, the company that ranks the 100 Best Places to Work For list for Fortune magazine. I ran focus groups with employees and assessments with leaders. It was an intersection of a lot of things I felt passionate about, and cemented my interest in how power and influence are shaped inside organizations.

What steps led from there to becoming a women’s leadership consultant and author?

I decided to pursue an executive MBA at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, which helped me round out some of my understanding of strategy, organizations, and leadership. There, I had the opportunity to direct some of my own research. I wanted to study women in leadership roles, but there weren’t many in the companies I was studying every day in business school. 

I had one female professor in my two years there, Dr. Lindsay Thompson, and I pitched her that I wanted to interview top women leaders about how they negotiated their career success. She said, "I’ll approve it only if you go after the giants, the women you think won’t even open your email." I was wowed by that challenge, and I did reach out to some really high-level women, such as the CEOs of The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Charles Schwab. Dozens of them said yes.

Those interviews changed my life: they became the basis for my first book, The Next Generation of Women Leaders (Bloomsbury), which was published in 2009, and led to my business. 

How, if at all, have you seen things change for women in leadership roles—or in the corporate world in general—since 2009?

From a representation standpoint, women are very slowly gaining ground. Since 2009, the percentage of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies has increased from 3% to 11%, so there is some slow forward progress, but not parity. That number is not nearly as high as I want it to be!

Workplace power is also really uneven. On average, women still earn less than men—84 cents on the dollar, and the gap is even wider for women of color. Between that and lower promotion rates than men, we still have a lot of work to do to make our picture of leadership more inclusive, and less likely to default to white male standards. I feel such a strong call to redefine who looks like a leader. One thing that gives me hope is seeing the younger generations of workers, Gen Z especially, being far more vocal about fairness and power dynamics

Can you tell us a bit more about your newest book, Quick Leadership? 

This book series was born out of a weekly newsletter I started during the pandemic to help people rebuild confidence during that time of job uncertainty. It was the first thing I ever did that went viral, and it became a forum where people were sharing confidence challenges and wins. That inspired my book Quick Confidence.

Soon after that I began hearing more about how the needs of leadership are changing. In the current employment landscape, there are so many types of workers to manage across multiple generations. And for people who want to lead even if they don't have the highest title, there are still ways to shape and build high-performing teams they’re part of. This is what I wanted to address in Quick Leadership.

I feel such a strong call to redefine who looks like a leader. —Selena Rezvani '95

What has the response been from your readers?

The most meaningful compliment I hear is “This book is so usable.” Of course, I want to inspire people and help them think bigger, but the single most satisfying bit of feedback is that this is concrete and practical. 

Some of the not-great norms in organizations have become so everyday that you can stop seeing them, or you maybe even uphold and advance them. For instance, there is an urgency culture that’s taken over a lot of workplaces, where everything has an air of being “due yesterday” and everything is an emergency. A lot of behavior and emotion at work is contagious, because humans are …. porous.

Encouraging people to self-reflect and challenge those norms is so important. A win for me is helping people become more self-aware of what they’re asking of others, themselves, and what they’re normalizing.

Some of your leadership work is about confidence. How did you find and develop your confidence?

For me, it was working on my mindset. Being an achievement-oriented, Type-A striver, as I have been my whole life, can come with a lot of self-criticism. 

One of the most transformative things for me was changing my biting inner critic into more of a supportive inner coach. Great coaches call out what you’re doing well, not just what’s wrong. They also talk to you directly about what's not going well without shaming you. If the stories you tell yourself are only self-sabotaging or hypercritical, there’s only so far you can go.   

My peer network of women leaders also makes a big impact on me, and I’ve found so much affirmation from that group. Sometimes when I doubt myself, having that group to go to, to run something by, and to learn from has been the most incredible boost.

What are some of the things you still remember about your time at GFS?

One of my top-five life experiences was going on an exchange program in ninth grade to Canada. French was my favorite subject and I was overjoyed to be chosen to go on that trip and live with a family in Montreal for a month. I had lost my dad at the end of eighth grade, and it was really devastating, so this travel experience was like the sun coming out in a cloudy, dark year. 

It was the most enjoyable, confidence-building, awe-inspiring experience; going to new places, smelling new smells, hearing French speakers, reading French signs, and getting to speak a language that I really loved. It had all the joy of immersive travel but with the addition of gaining some independence as a young person. 

I ended up doing my Junior Project in France. I lived for a month with a family in Normandy who meant so much to me. They showed me all the jewels of France, and introduced me to their family; they were so happy to share their country with me. I will never forget the openness and love with which they welcomed me. It just boosts your humanity to have experiences like that. I loved my host sister, Maela, and we’re still in touch. We actually met up two years ago when I was in Europe for work. 

And, to this day, my very best friends in the world are my GFS classmates. They are my people! I feel so lucky that many of us met in Kindergarten and Lower School. 

Can you share about your decision to send your children here, as well as what it’s like being a parent at your alma mater?

Trust is such a big part of choosing your kids’ learning environment. I had instant, unquestioned trust in GFS. Even knowing that some things at the school have changed since my time, I still have total faith that this is a place where my kids can grow to be aware, considerate, curious, global citizens. 

I’ve really enjoyed coming back to campus. There’s a sweet nostalgia to some of the moments, like walking through the Main Building or going back into the Kindergarten rooms. Those were some of my happiest memories, and seeing my kids do that was like an encore. 

Now my kids are in seventh grade, and I think GFS Middle School is really serving them well. It’s been a great environment for them to stretch themselves, find confidence, and be affirmed in their strengths. I think that’s a pretty incredible balance: to be both challenged and encouraged to cultivate your gifts and interests.