Hope Lehman

Lead Instructor & Mentor

Hope Lehman is a visionary social entrepreneur with 11 years of experience in economic development. She has coached 100+ entrepreneurs in the California Bay Area and beyond through her two companies Fresh to Def Collective and Just BE that propel women of color toward economic freedom through entrepreneurship. She is also a member of Standing in Our Power (SiOP), an intergenerational network of healers of color and the Runway Project, a friends and family financing program for Black businesses. Her art and community work has been featured all across the U.S. from Facing Race, Essence Magazine to Shondaland.com, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Her passion for business ownership stems from her childhood growing up with an entrepreneurial single Black mom. She observed her mom and other women in her life make tough choices often out of economic desperation. These experiences always stuck with her as she navigated her own mental health challenges and career path. She found freedom within entrepreneurship.

Hope holds a B.A. in both Feminist Studies and Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also a graduate fellow of the nationally renowned Public Allies social justice leadership program. She is an Oakland emerging 100 entrepreneur and a certified facilitator of the SiOP break down to break through methodology of healing.