Why 100 Rural Women?

Throughout my career, I have often been one of the only women in a room of powerful men. I’ve also been lucky enough to connect with women leaders who have inspired, encouraged, and supported me on my path.

I want 100 Rural Women to help all rural women have those opportunities—and for girls to have a broader vision of their own futures in rural communities and throughout the country.

Why Now?

For our rural places to survive, we need young families to stay, locate, and thrive in our communities. Rural America is being painted with a broad-brush these days. And now its more important than ever that we check our politics at the door and work together for community building. I believe that women can model the way for better collaboration and effective leadership.

In 2022, women are still underrepresented in leadership roles and through our initial research and meetings, I’ve seen that women are eager to meaningfully connect with each other and work together for a brighter future.

For the first 20 years of my career, I was an elected officer of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Mid-career, I had the life-changing experience of pursuing a graduate degree in organizational leadership at St. Catherine University. It grounded me in the principles and practices of leadership and ethics. This experience helped me find the courage to reinvent myself—to move out of government into other industries and sectors. This allowed me to build and lead organizations locally, statewide, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Public service was still in my blood and I wanted to be involved in my daughter’s education. So, I ran and was elected to the Waconia School Board where I served as board chair for a few years. I am proud of the work we did together as a board. We championed all-day kindergarten, stabilized the district’s finances, and changed the teacher negotiation process from positional top-down to interest-based which included all voices at the table.

My executive leadership experience includes legislative, children’s book publishing, the renewable energy industry, and rural public policy development. I live on a lake in northern Minnesota in Marcell Township. Here, I am an elected Trustee and Officer on the Bigfork Valley Hospital Board, serve on the Marcell Township business loan committee, and am dedicating this chapter of my life to building 100 Rural Women.

Growing up in southwest Minnesota, I was fortunate to have strong female role models in community service and leadership. My great-grandmother, Bridget McDonough Regan, was the first woman in the early 1900s to serve on the school board in Butterfield MN.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to live in, work in, and learn from rural communities. Throughout my career in public service, business, and non-profit work, I’ve been interested in how rural women can connect better, support each other, and be more representative in decision-making leadership.