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As Debbie Esparza nears the end of her “official” career, the current CEO at YWCA Metropolitan Phoenix knows that someday soon she will step through the doors of YWCA for the last time, fully her entire self. Esparza spent so much of her career, one that traversed banking, academia, and consulting, operating in a world that didn’t feel like she could truly be herself, a self-described “Brown, gay boomer.”
“You’d be surprised how patriarchal even the nonprofit space can feel at times. But these last six years at YWCA, well, these have been the years I’ve been able to be the most full of myself,” she says with a chuckle. “I can lead a meeting with what we call ‘Deb jokes.’ We can laugh and then get on to talking about very important things. That is me bringing my full heart to the table, and it just hasn’t always been that way.”
Esparza doesn’t mourn the past. If you spend just a few minutes with her, you understand this isn’t her way. Everything she has done to this point of her life is part of something bigger, a family line that includes four generations of living Esparza women: the CEO’s eighty-six-year-old mother who is still vibrant and healthy, Esparza herself, her adult niece, and another seven-year-old niece.
Each one of these women has or will encounter systemic challenges that make life more difficult for underserved and underrepresented communities. But each Esparza woman—at least the adults —has tackled these issues in their own way, in their own right. For the CEO, that’s adamantly fighting for the empowerment of women and an end to racism.
And for her, that means leading both in work and outside of it. Before health concerns arose, the CEO spent her “free time” competitively ballroom dancing, including an appearance at the 2018 Paris Gay Games. She led there, too. But there was also a moment when she let go.
“There was a point in our choreography where we switched leads,” Esparza recalls. “The change your body has to undergo at that moment is massive. Suddenly, your body has to listen differently and react accordingly. Leadership, I think, has to work that way, especially as I plan to let someone else lead here soon.”
After six years, Esparza hopes that she will leave her team at YWCA better than when she arrived. She believes there’s a genuine caring and appreciation for each other’s humanity amongst her team, and she says her approaching retirement has been made so much easier by watching new leaders begin to rise. She knows that the process won’t fully happen until she steps away, because it’s happened to her.
“I’ve repeatedly been in positions when I came into an organization being told I would take over,” the CEO says. “But I made things so easy for that person that they just kept hanging on. I don’t want to be that person hanging on. I need to let these leaders ascend to their next opportunity.”
But that doesn’t mean that Esparza’s mission has ended. The CEO’s personal philanthropy, for one, won’t allow her to slow down. She has been or is currently a member of both Latina-focused and LGBTQ-focused giving circles. She also looks forward to being able to give more of her time to organizations that support women and girls, people of color, and the LGBTQ community.
“If you make space for possibility instead of just trying to move on to the next thing, I think you can be astounded at what bubbles up to the surface.”
Debbie Esparza
Esparza is the kind of leader who belongs in front of large groups of people. It’s a difficult quality to quantify, but when she speaks, you understand that she could impact five hundred people the same way she can in a one-on-one interview. It’s a rare quality to be able to have that kind of intimate impact on so many, and the CEO hopes to have more time to devote to public speaking in the future.
For Latinas, particularly those just beginning their career, Esparza emphasizes the importance of saving, even just a little. The Latina wage gap is still a brutal and real thing, and Esparza knows the value of economic empowerment for women to get ahead in their lives.
Esparza also underlines the value of giving yourself time to “set something down.”
“There is always a time in your life when you know it’s time to move on,” Esparza explains. “If you can, and I know this can be a luxury to many of us, but try and give yourself some time. If you make space for possibility instead of just trying to move on to the next thing, I think you can be astounded at what bubbles up to the surface. We move so fast, but if you can try and give yourself some grace, amazing things can happen.”
That’s part of the reason Esparza’s post-YWCA life is still hazy. She’s letting new possibilities bubble. But she can be assured that she is leaving this organization better than when she arrived because of the community she’s created and the leaders she’s inspired. When she walks through those doors on her last day, she will be the fully realized Debbie Esparza.
