Hello 100 Rural Women,

Can you believe we just had our fourth Leadership Exchange meeting? It seems like just yesterday we had our first meeting at Sprout getting to know one another.  2020 is proving to be a challenging year but we continue to prevail, learn from others around us, and grow stronger as a group.  And that is just what we did this past month at our Leadership Exchange meeting.

In August, we had the exciting opportunity to have a very special guest join us during our Leadership Exchange Meeting (Zoom meeting of course!), Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.  If you’re not familiar with who Lt. Governor Flanagan is or you are from another state, here is a quick introduction to our speaker:

Peggy Flanagan is a mom, an advocate, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Minnesota’s 50th Lieutenant Governor.  Her career is built on standing up for children, working families, communities of color and Indigenous communities, and Minnesotans who have historically been underserved and underrepresented.

As a former State Representative, School Board Member, non-profit leader, and community advocate, she now brings her experiences of building coalitions and advocating for children and families to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office as she works in partnership with Governor Walz to build One Minnesota.

Impressive, right?!  We were so honored to have had an hour of her time to talk with our group.  We even asked our group to invite fellow women to join us for this special meeting and our interns had the opportunity to join as well.  Prior to the meeting we gathered a couple questions for the Lt. Governor to answer.  You can find these questions below and the answers in the links below!  We really shaped these questions around the mission of 100 Rural Women and what is going on in our current world and region:

What advice do you have for rural women interested in pursuing decision-making leadership roles or running for office?

How do you think rural communities can be more welcoming in authentic ways?

Here is some work Region Five is doing in the region https://www.regionfive.org/welcoming-communities

Can you talk more about One Minnesota and equity?

What impact do you see COVID-19 having?

We cannot thank Lt. Governor Flanagan enough for giving her time and for being so open with the group.  We all received such amazing insight into what it is like to be a woman in a leadership role and what it takes to achieve those dreams.

We hope that we can have a part 2 to our fourth meeting and gather socially distanced at a park in the Brainerd community.  As we move forward with our Leadership Exchange, we would love for you all (yes, you reading this) to consider being involved in the future of 100 Rural Women and to help us think about what the future might look like.  It takes all women to come together and lift one another up.

Erica & Rachel