Many Black women leaders operating within historically and predominantly White organizations, including independent schools, often lead cultural work with titles such as "DEI Director" or "Chief of Equity and Belonging." Although these programs are rooted in equity and social justice, the women combat perceptions of inferiority due to race and gender. As a result, Black women may remain stuck in leadership roles that deeply under-utilize their strengths and make them feel "othered." Black women leaders may often lack agency while their schools struggle to establish cohesion within the community, particularly over the last 3 years of unprecedented crises--COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, the national outcry against critical race theory. This qualitative and autoethnographic study examined cross-cultural and cross-racial relationships in predominantly White independent schools, particularly as community members engaged in conversations related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fourteen Black women leading equity work in independent schools across the country shared their stories through semi-structured interviews and provided insight into what might help predominantly White school communities strengthen their cross-racial relationships. This study expands on existing literature focused on Black women in leadership in higher education, business, and tech industries, and contributes to the limited research focused on Black women leading in independent schools. Intersectionality theory, critical race theory, and structure-agency theory framed this study and provided a foundation to understand the lived experiences of Black women leaders within the context of their professional organizations. Using a grounded theory approach, I posited that social cohesion development is the result of "mirroring," a conceptual framework that explored sponsorship, affirmation, empowerment, and enactment of Black women leading mission and values-aligned work within independent schools. Independent school leaders can learn many lessons from Black women that may help them promote greater social cohesion at a time when independent schools seek answers to rebuild the connectedness desperately needed within their communities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]