17 Years of Lessons from Julia: Interim Executive Director, Ami Kane's speech at the Radiant Goodbye Celebration
This blog post is an adapted for print from Interim Executive Director, Ami Kane’s, speech at Julia Cuba Lewis’ Radiant Goodbye Celebration, held in Austin on Friday, January 26, 2024. It is being published by request from attendees! If you would like to join Ami and the whole Girls Empowerment Network in celebrating Julia’s legacy, you can make a donation at our Julia Cuba Lewis Future Feminist Fund campaign page here! All donations given to the Future Feminist Fund will be matched 2:1 by a generous donor through International Women’s Day on March, 8th, 2024!
(L to R) Interim Deputy Director, Kameryn Sampson, Exiting CEO, Julia Cuba Lewis, Interim Executive Director, Ami Kane
Over winter break, as I thought about what that first day back earlier this month would be like as I stepped into the Interim ED role…I kept thinking “Girls Empowerment Network without Julia Cuba Lewis? That doesn’t even make sense!” But in the days following, I’ve come to realize, of course it doesn’t make sense. And that’s because it doesn’t exist—there will never be Girls Empowerment Network without Julia Cuba Lewis, and that’s for two huge reasons…
The first is that, she’s not really gone! Although her relationship to our organization has changed from employee to supporter, she is still in this Network, and she always will be. (Plus, she’s promised me and Kameryn she’ll always take our calls…and SHE HAS and we plan to hold ya to that, Julia! 😊)
But the second and much more important reason is that there is no Girls Empowerment Network without Julia, is that after as many years of hard work as she has given, the DNA of this organization, the youth and families we serve, and all of us who have worked within it over the past 17 years have been deeply impacted by Julia’s vision, coaching, tenacity, leadership, and personal power!
Just before her last day on staff, Julia penned a beautiful blog post about 17 Leadership Lessons Learned Lessons Learned during her time with us. If you haven’t gotten to read it yet, I encourage you to visit our blog on our website when you get a chance and check out her pearls of wisdom. Julia, I now offer you 17 things that you taught and role modeled for us at Girls Empowerment Network across the years…We’re gonna do this countdown style...here are MY top 17 things that Julia Cuba Lewis taught us at Girls Empowerment Network:
top 17 things that Julia Cuba Lewis taught us at Girls Empowerment Network:
Lesson #17. When you get 2,000 3rd-8th girls and the people who care about them all together in one building for one day, in support of gender justice and empowerment, the energy of it is an all natural, organic, healthy high that is unlike anything else on earth.
Lesson #16. That speed limit signs are a…let’s say suggestion and you can actually invent time if you’re willing to zip across our giant state a little bit faster than the average Texan. But still safely—always safely!
“Lesson #15. That we all have the power to break up from toxic relationships, whether those are in our personal lives or whether they are funders who don’t share our unshakable belief that every single girl has the right to be in the driver’s seat of her own life. ”
Lesson #14. That good leaders would never ask staff to do things they wouldn’t do themselves—like let’s just say, like totally random example, it’s 10 days until your biggest event of the year and your city has a fresh drinking water crisis and a boil notice is in effect. Well, in that case, even someone like the CEO needs to be willing to roll up her sleeves and drive all over creation to get 2,500 water bottles so that everybody stays hydrated. Oh and also…
Lesson #14. A sub lesson—stay hydrated
Lesson #14. B sub lesson—sometimes HEB plain sparking water is the best way to do that.
Lesson #13. That we must never forget that our mission extends to ALL GIRLS and gender expansive youth, whether those youth are in a 3rd grade classroom in Dallas, a Radiant G Conference at a middle school in Houston, a summer program at our office in Austin, or whether she spends her days and nights in a facility where she’s called, “inmate” and feels forgotten. Every girl deserves to have someone like the people who are on our program staff showing up for her and saying—I see you, I love you, I’ll support you.
Lesson #12. Invest in staff who are invested in the work. Look for within for your next new hire. When you’ve got talented folks on your staff who are ready to level up, everyone wins when you allow them to do that growth with your agency.
Lesson #11. That “the meeting after the meeting” helps no one. When tough discussions need to happen among a team, we are all best served when we have those tough discussions together and we all put our best brains on crafting solutions together.
Lesson #10. It’s a privilege to get to do this work and to be a part of girls’ lives like this. Julia always reminds us people all over the world have reached out to our agency over the years, asking how we do what we do, asking if we can come to their community, asking if they can experience our curriculum, and wondering about our next open role. Gratitude for what we have helps us realize we have so much.
Lesson #9. Always make sure your menu has a GOOD vegetarian option. Even better if it’s vegan.
Lesson #8. To know your worth—both personally, but this also means we must be clear about the value of our services and the costs of delivering them through trained professionals on staff. So we must always ask the community to join in the work by investing financially.
Lesson #7. That helping girls believe in themselves starts with us believing in ourselves. It means stepping into our own power and welcoming others to come along with us in theirs.
Lesson #6. The nature of this work will bring difficult days and weeks…but in the long run, we should be having fun and enjoying ourselves. Adolescence and girlhood are not just difficult experiences, they are also full of beauty and worth celebrating.
Lesson #5. That when you lose sight of your “why” you not only risk things organizationally like misalignment, you risk losing the soul of your work. This is why we always go back to and start from our why when we are planning just about anything new as a team. If you’re wondering right now, “Wait, what’s the ‘why’ again?” I am so happy to tell you. Our why is simple: we believe that girls are powerful people. So the elevator pitch?
Girls Empowerment Network helps girls grow their self-efficacy (a girls’ belief in her ability to succeed) in 7 core domains: Communication, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Coping Skills, Creativity, Confidence and newly: Change-Making. Once they’ve increased their belief in their ability to succeed at these Seven C’s, they increase their confidence throughout their lives. No matter what her barrier or goal is - when she experiences self-efficacy building curriculum at a school, camp, or conference, and she advocates for herself in spaces of power - she realizes she has the ability to succeed, and she steps into her power.
Lesson #4. That we should be raising a little hell and when we do, we’ll be following in the footsteps of Texas women who always have raised hell for a better world for the next generation…women like Barbara Jordan, Selena, Ann Richards, Beyonce, Bessie Coleman, Janis Joplin, Emma Tenayuca, Molly Ivans, Ma Ferguson, and Julia Cuba Lewis. On that note…
Lesson #3. That today, the organization that exists is standing on the shoulders of giants who came before us to begin this work. And we are a link in a chain, we are now the shoulders that will become the platform for the next generation to find their footing upon.
Lesson #2. That you can lead an organization with love and authenticity. When our staff met for the first time after Julia’s last day earlier this month, we worked on sharing our personal values that drive our passion for this work. The top 3 values most frequently shared by all staff were: Love, authenticity, and community. We looked at that result and we said, “We utilize love and authenticity to curate community.” Who wouldn’t want to work someplace like that? And although this was a big moment for us after Julia’s last day—that is the team that she built and that is the organization she nurtured. So we will live the principles she showed us for 17 years into 2024 and beyond.
Lesson #1. Girls, employees, and all people deserve to be seen and treated as whole humans; doing so will unleash the best in them…and ignite a spark they may not have even known they had.
Julia, this part’s just from me, but I know my story is only one among hundreds with similar themes. I’ll keep this part brief lest I ugly cry everywhere.
Thank you for seeing the potential 14 years ago in a 25 year old Hoosier who had just left behind everything she knew to start a life in a town where she felt she could be 100% herself, where she could have the chance to be challenged by work which makes her soul feel alive, and where she could learn new so many new skills, gain access to your transformative coaching, and build a brand new belief in her own personal power ALL while feeling brought to life by this mission for girls and gender expansive youth. BUT MOST OF ALL thank you for helping her feel like she belongs to something so much bigger than herself, in some profound way that has forever transformed her heart, mind, and spirit. Your mentorship is inextricable from who I am, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thank you. Thank you. Pretend I said that 1700 more times.
You can make a donation to the Future Feminist Fund campaign page here and invest in the future of Girls Empowerment Network! All donations given to the Future Feminist Fund will be matched 2:1 by a generous donor through International Women’s Day on March, 8th, 2024!