ABOUT

Welcome to our Ask A Leading Woman series, one of our organization’s projects dedicated to featuring amazing women leaders in rural! Currently, the majority of leadership roles in rural are held by men, meaning we don’t always get the same opportunity to witness strong women leadership. Therefore, our organization founded this series as a way to feature various women serving as formal or informal leaders. At these 45-minute meetings, these women share their own life stories and pathways to leadership with women like you. Then, following their presentation, we create space for attendees to engage in an open Q&A.

A picture of a woman's hands grazing long grass in a field.
who can be featured?

Any woman you think is making an impact through her (formal or informal) leadership in rural areas. Contact our features point person, Alexa Jo Schafer, to nominate someone: alexa@100ruralwomen.org.

who can attend?

Anyone! All 100 Rural Women sessions are open to all women (and men) who want to be a part of our mission and vision. We welcome you to join us as we work to empower and inspire rural women everywhere.

PREVIOUS ask a leading womAn Interviews

Ask a Leading Woman with Moira Villiard

Held Wednesday, November 9th, 2022 Moira Villiard shared her life experiences [...]

A picture of a woman with short brunette hair wearing a blue sweater with a colorful scarf smiling. She is standing in front of an outdoor scene in winter.
Ask a Leading Woman with Beth Peterson
A picture of a brunette woman smiling. She is wearing a yellow turtleneck.
Ask a Leading Woman with Senator Julie Rosen
Cheniqua is standing wearing a champagne pink velvet blouse. She has short brown wavy brown hair and light brown skin. She is smiling widely!
Ask a Leading Woman with Cheniqua Johnson
A picture of a woman with long, brunette hair smiling with dangling earrings and a patterned shirt.
Ask a Leading Woman with Colleena Bibeau

This series came to be through the 100 in 100 Project, a virtual trip taken across the state of Minnesota dedicated to connecting and learning from women. Through these meetings, we were able to better understand key support requests of rural women in Minnesota interested in making a difference for themselves and their communities. This project was supported by the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP), the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), The Center For Small Towns University of Minnesota Morris, the Blandin Foundation, and other funders.

Another way we highlight rural women is through our Spotlight Profiles! While they are similar projects in that they highlight women doing incredible work, they differ in how they’re executed. Spotlight Profiles are not public meetings, but the recordings are available on our YouTube. These go more in-depth about their story, what they do, and their advice.