Live United: Event centered around women’s health this month – Albert Lea Tribune

Live United by Erin Haag

Erin Haag

I came into this job with quite a bit of experience, but I’m still a small fish in the world of CEOs. When I took the job as the interim, I wasn’t really thinking about taking it long term. My baby had just started preschool, coming off of years of serious medical situations. I thought I might be navigating a whole new world of parenting a school-aged child with a medically complex disease. I figured I’d earn some money for a few months, build my resume for a future job and remind myself of my professional self. Of course, I navigated that job offer, ensuring I had flexibility for my children and those medical situations if they popped up. I got the job, and I faced a full bookshelf of binders as my training. I was determined that the permanent executive director would be set up for success. I figured I might have a part-time job after it as a transition person, helping guide them in what I’d learned so far. We started the advertising process, and I worked really hard to spread the word on a national level. We leveraged every avenue we could think of. Within a month, my son was the healthiest he’d been for a long time. He was thriving. Within two months, I was hooked. The board chair called me and said, “Well, are you going to throw your hat in the ring?” Maybe it’s the control freak in me, but I took a deep breath and said yes. Obviously, you know the rest of the story.

It’s been seven years now, and that baby boy is almost as tall as I am. Programs have been developed, programs have been dissolved and there’s been so much change. Many things have stayed the same though. It’s hard work. I’m currently brainstorming a name for an upcoming group and educational series. I happened to see notebooks and pens for sale with a cartoon of a dumpster fire. Sounds weird if you don’t know what I’m talking about, but it’s cute and silly, I promise you. I joked to Rosemary that we should name our group, “The Dumpster Fire Support Group” and hand out these notebooks and pens.

A few weeks ago, I sat in a room with a couple of women in leadership positions at the Y. We hadn’t seen each other all summer, and we caught up. We talked a little bit about how hard things are right now, as nonprofit leaders, as women, as mothers, as working professionals. We talked about our health, and in particular, women’s health challenges. We talked about how we don’t want to walk away from our jobs or find new jobs, because these particular positions give us things we couldn’t get anywhere else. Solidarity gets you everything sometimes.

Last week, I saw what they had been working on. I laughed out loud and felt renewed just seeing what they were accomplishing. The Albert Lea Family YMCA is hosting a Women’s Health & Wellness Expo on Sept. 25 from 5 to 8 p.m. You’ll be able to go and check out different vendors and learn about a wide range of services and topics. Some of these vendors are familiar to me, such as Daisy Blue. Others, I’ve never heard of, and I’m intrigued to learn more.

Then they took it a step further. For $20 there’s a panel of guest speakers talking about women’s health. Dr. Gaston, a local OBGYN is one of them, and she’ll be speaking about burnout. You’ll get to do this while eating a light meal from Moms Bread Company.

It brought me so much joy to see this, to see women in leadership passionate about their cause, their job and their health. It aligns perfectly with their mission, and they chose to bring that passion and open up the conversation. I mentioned this to April, the executive director. She told me, “Well, look at us and the conversations we’ve had lately, the conversations we had at our last meeting with some of the board members. No one’s talking about women’s health, and we need to be talking about it.”

Health matters. Women’s health matters. The health and support of women in leadership is critical to building strong organizations — not just in nonprofits but in our corporate sector as well. Sometimes that means giving women the opportunity to listen to topics geared towards them, give them the opportunity to be together in the same room and just talk. In Freeborn County, women make up nearly half of our population. In Minnesota, we’re making strides in equality, but there’s still a long way to go. Women make up 75% of employees in the nonprofit sector, but only 37% of those in leadership are women.

I’ve had some ideas percolating around this topic quite a bit this summer. I think about our nonprofits, and a vast majority of our funded partners have women in leadership.

Are we supporting these women? Are we celebrating the strides we’re making? Our experiences as women, and our experiences as mothers (for most of us) gives us different perspectives. Add that to women of color, women that have lived experience in marginalized communities, and there is an opportunity here. I don’t know what that looks like for me or for United Way quite yet, but I promise the concept is starting to gain traction.

This isn’t a man-bashing article. We need men in leadership, too, so don’t let that stop you from joining a board or anything like that. We need men who know how to support women, uplift them and recognize the unique perspective we bring to the table. No matter what category you fall in, I invite you to take a look around. Who are the women in your life, the ones that need to be invited to lunch, to be encouraged and supported? Who are the leaders that may not get as much recognition? If you’re in a position of authority, are there women in your workplace that could benefit from mentoring, women who aren’t being recognized for their work? Invite someone to the Women’s Expo at the Y. I’ll be there.

Erin Haag is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.