The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes the community's trust, how leaders set the tone for service, and how accountability drives results in and outside city hall. Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective Communities across the country welcomed newly elected mayors last month. Women stepped into their seats in meaningful numbers and that progress deserves recognition. Representation...
19 days ago • 4 min read
For the leaders anchoring their communities in a season demanding gratitude, courage, and truth amid national chaos THE CATALYST PERSPECTIVE This Thanksgiving feels heavier than usual. My husband is still recovering from his accident. My father, a Vietnam veteran, Army reservist, and lifelong public servant, is navigating new health challenges. When he and I talk about politics, we come back to the same truth: our country is in a fight for the future of its democracy, and the people holding...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes the community's trust, how leaders set the tone for service, and how accountability drives results in and outside city hall. Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective On November 2, 2025, I ran my first Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago. I wasn’t nervous about finishing; I had done the work. Weeks of training. Lifting four days a week. Eating clean the...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes the community's trust, how leaders set the tone for performance, and how accountability drives results in and outside city hall. Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective I was raised to love my hometown, Kankakee, Illinois — the county seat, the heart of the region, and a community with grit and soul. But even as a little girl, I knew something...
2 months ago • 4 min read
The Leadership Catalyst The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes resident trust, how leaders set the tone for performance, and how accountability drives results inside city hall. Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective The federal government has shut down.But the real crisis isn’t in Washington; it’s in your inbox, your council chambers, and your staff break room. Residents are...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, When America’s outrage is selective, it isn’t leadership — it’s performance. The Catalyst Perspective On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah—a predominantly white university in a predominantly white state. At the time of this writing, the shooter has been identified as a white male with MAGA ties. This is consistent with what we know: the overwhelming majority of mass shootings in this country, including...
3 months ago • 6 min read
Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective You Don’t Need a Podium to Lead; You Need Proximity. A couple months ago, I walked into the DG Fish Food Pantry… not as a strategist, not as a coach. Just a woman ready to serve. There was no speech. No clipboard. Just a quiet welcome from a circle of women who let me observe, move alongside them, and be part of the rhythm. They were collaborative. Calm. Focused. Kind. Then someone walked in with tomatoes—garden-grown, deep red, still warm from the sun. A...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective You could change the names, change the state, change the seat, and the patterns would still show up. Because they’re not personal. They’re systemic. I’ve worked with women mayors, city managers, and municipal directors across the country. Brilliant leaders navigating crises with skeleton teams and relentless public pressure. And let me be clear: I’ve lived it too. As mayor, I didn’t have a dedicated communications team. I was writing press releases myself...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, The Secret Weapon for Women Leaders No One’s Talking About The Catalyst Perspective She’s a first-time mayor, a mother, and officially a “part-time” elected official—if you can call leading a city of over 20,000 people part-time. Spoiler alert: it’s not!!! She was juggling a full-time job, a young child, and a city that expected her to be everywhere. She carried the guilt of missing events she was invited to because if she wasn’t at every event, did she really measure up? Sound...
5 months ago • 3 min read