I’m Sage Ke’alohilani Quiamno, a 27 year-old Native Hawaiian woman from Hawai‘i, particularly from the island of O‘ahu, and the co-founder of Future for Us, a company dedicated to accelerating the advancement of womxn of color at work. I’m fierce pay equity advocate, diversity, equity and inclusion champion and overall adventure capitalist.
I’ve always been a passionate storyteller, connector and community builder. I believe because of my Hawaiian culture, this gift is in my blood and a part my core ethos. I tap into this skill to fight for gender equity and advocate on behalf of womxn of color, who often marginalized because of our gender, race and beyond. Opening people’s eyes to look at feminism with a lens of intersectionality is my recent torch I’d like to continue carrying on.
Last year I’ve spoken at over 75+ interviews, panels and conferences to over 4,000+ people, coaching salary negotiation strategies and advocating for equal pay. In this effort, I was able to help negotiate $500K+ in salary increases and positioned 150+ promotions for the women I’ve met last year in 5 U.S. cities. Playing a part in the betterment of women’s careers and financial future is what drives me - putting more money into women’s pockets.
I want to leave my mark in this world by being instrumental in advancing and uplifting women of color. McKinsey and Lean In released a ‘Women in the Workplace’ report last year and the stats were staggering for women of color. Women of color only make 4% of the c-suite in corporations, women of color make up 20% of the U.S. population and holding 40% of all the low wage jobs in this country, and on average only making 66 cents on a dollar to a white male. This report reaffirmed my beliefs of the barriers and challenges women of color face compared to their white counterparts. My goal is to change this, create more access to resources and opportunities and leave behind a legacy of powerful, badass women of color.
Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, said this, “I am the key maker, not the gatekeeper,” and these are words that I live by. This quote struck me because in a time full of unaccountable narcissism and power, how do we as human beings obtain power and how do we pass power along. Achieving this, to me, makes you great.
I flew back home to Hawa’i for Thanksgiving and being home really forced to me think about how I want to live my life and what I want to stand for. I knew that there needed to be a better world for women of color to thrive and achieve their dreams. That’s when my co-founder, Aparna Rae, and I decided to start Future for Us.
Since December of 2018, we’ve pitched over 100x to various individuals, companies and organizations in different U.S. cities, hosted a launch party with over 300 RSVPs and created a community of 1,000+ professionals - and we’re just getting started. We just had our one month old birthday, rolled out an event series for Spring and announced our first conference called the Future for Us Assembly, geared for womxn of color professionals happening on April 27th in Seattle.
Join US!
We hope to break barriers, make headlines and take up space in 2019 and share these wins with the world.
