Welcome to the Transform Awards Winner Spotlight Series, celebrating innovation and leadership in reshaping industries and workplaces globally. These awards commend individuals and companies at the forefront of transformation, setting new standards and challenging the status quo. Recognized for their people-centric and visionary approaches, our awardees are the global changemakers pioneering advancements in business, entrepreneurship, and beyond. This series shines a light on their achievements and the impactful ways they’re moving the world of work forward.
About the Transform 10 Award
The Transform 10 recognizes the ten most inspirational executive leaders leading transformation across their areas of influence and moving the world of work forward. These people-centric, global changemakers challenge the status quo through business, venture, or entrepreneurial leadership.
About Transform 10 Award Winner: Transform Awards Winner Spotlight: Chandra Sanders, Founder & CEO, Heels N Hustle
Chandra Sanders is a strategic GTM architect specializing in HR Tech AI startups. For over a decade, she’s built go‑to‑market strategies that blend AI, data insights, and storytelling to ignite growth and disruption. As founder of Heels N Hustle, she cultivates future‑of‑work ecosystems—combining AI‑powered innovation, leadership coaching, and sustainability initiatives—to fuel rapid scale and elevate human‑centered workplace solutions. Previously at The Mom Project, her talent initiatives generated $17 M in economic opportunity and empowered over 7,000 professionals. Recognized by Fast Company, NBC, MIT Press, Chandra partners with senior leaders to amplify brand narratives, accelerate revenue, and shape the AI‑powered future of work.
Leadership Journey
Transform: What does being named a Transform 10 leader mean to you personally?
Chandra: Being named a Transform 10 leader is both humbling and energizing, and an affirmation that the work I’m passionate about in the future of work space truly resonates. Standing alongside such visionary peers reminds me of the collective power we wield to drive change. Having led the RISE initiative at The Mom Project to its Transform Social Impact Difference Maker award two years ago, this honor reassures me that I’m on the right path. More than a milestone, it’s a charge to deepen my impact, inspire others, and keep building human‑centered AI workplaces that transform how we work.
Transform: Can you share a little about your personal leadership journey?
Chandra: My leadership journey began in the Spanish classroom, where guiding students taught me the power of clear communication and meeting people where they are. Recognizing the promise of digital education, I moved on to architect and launch online‑learning platforms for several universities, which refined my ability to translate complex concepts into engaging virtual experiences. That foundation led me to Cognizant as a senior consultant, where I played an integral role in multi‑million‑dollar program and product rollouts for Fortune 100 companies. As VP of RISE at The Mom Project, I generated $17 M in economic impact and uplifted thousands of careers. Now, through Heels N Hustle, I design holistic, AI‑driven future‑of‑work ecosystems that empower organizations and people.
Transform: What pivotal moment or experience most shaped how you lead today?
Chandra: Over each pivot from the Spanish classroom to launching digital education and consulting for Fortune 100s, I’ve sharpened my toolkit. However, the experience that truly shaped my leadership was steering RISE at The Mom Project: driving $17 M in economic opportunity and empowering over 7,000 professionals. Under that pressure, I learned that empathy fuels collaboration, data‑informed storytelling rallies teams, and agile iteration accelerates impact. That experience now anchors how I lead: crafting people‑first strategies, clear narratives, and a relentless focus on measurable results.
Impact & Influence
Transform: How do you define meaningful impact in the work you do?
Chandra: Meaningful impact, to me, is seeing the real people whose careers, confidence, and well‑being are lifted by the AI solutions, narratives, and experiences I bring to market today and for generations to come, and witnessing the lasting shift in how work happens. I partner only with teams and technologies I believe in, so every project becomes an intentional catalyst for positive change. True impact isn’t just a metric—it’s a systemic transformation that reshapes work and life for the better.
Transform: Can you share an example of a transformational change you’ve helped lead that you are especially proud of?ˆ
Chandra: One transformational change I’m especially proud of is spearheading the GTM strategy for Uplevyl’s Future Forward Accelerator—a mission to upskill 1,000 women leaders with AI frameworks and digital acumen so they can thrive in the evolving future of work. This matters because empowering female leaders now not only closes critical gender gaps in AI professions but also builds a more diverse, inclusive, and resilient workforce as technology reshapes every industry.
Transform: How has your leadership impacted your organization, industry, or community?
Chandra: In the past five years, my leadership has delivered over $17 million in economic impact, built and guided peak‑performance teams that drove millions more in revenue, and launched award‑winning initiatives—recognized by Fast Company, MIT Press, and others—that have reset the bar for human‑centered workplaces, AI in talent and the future of work. Beyond the numbers, these programs have empowered thousands of professionals, strengthened community resilience, and inspired new industry standards for inclusive, impact‑driven innovation.
Transform: Do you have any links, articles, photos, or highlights that show your work or leadership in action?
Chandra:
Chandra Sanders on potential inequality in the return to the office
Reimagining Your Talent Approach: Unlocking Skills and Potential | Chandra Sanders
Insights & Learning
Transform: What advice would you give to future leaders who want to create a lasting impact?
Chandra: Dare to Disrupt. Lasting impact comes when you challenge the status quo. Question every assumption, embrace bold experiments, and be unafraid of “no.” Lean into discomfort: those friction points are where real breakthroughs live. Rally your team around a clear purpose, iterate fast on ideas that matter, and measure impact relentlessly. Above all, disrupt with empathy—build solutions that elevate people, not just processes, and you’ll leave a legacy and impact that lasts.
Vision for the Future
Transform: What trends or shifts do you believe will define the next era of leadership?
Chandra:
AI‑Powered, Human‑Centered: Leveraging AI for insight and scale while anchoring every decision in empathy and trust.
Purpose‑Driven & Ethical: Embedding social impact and responsible AI into the core of strategy and not as an afterthought.
Agile & Adaptive: Embracing rapid iteration, decentralized decision‑making, and continuous learning to navigate constant change.
Inclusive & Distributed: Leading diverse, hybrid teams with cultural empathy and digital fluency so every voice can shape the future.
Final Reflections
Transform: Is there a moment or experience you’ll never forget along your journey?
Chandra: I’ll never forget my first Transform experience two years ago—winning the Difference Maker award and feeling the power of authentic connection for the first time. Seeing Heels N Hustle sponsor the conference last year deepened my commitment, and being named a Transform 10 leader this year has been the ultimate affirmation. Transform’s community—its wisdom, purpose, and genuine support—continues to fuel both my professional drive and personal inspiration.
Check out our other Transform Spotlights on the blog to learn more about our Global Ambassadors, People-First Leaders, Authors, Award Winners, and more!