Women of Influence
​
- Virtual Event-

Co-sponsored by Duluth Branch of American Association of University Women
​
Thursday, February 25, 2021
7:00 - 8:00 pm

This event is open to the public.

"Changing Issues Facing Women"

Guest speaker, Meg Litts

Executive Director of Duluth YWCA
and new member of League of Women Voters of Duluth

Join Zoom Meeting

lwvmn-org.zoom.us/j/96760344597?pwd=Ń29FOWZQRk4xS21HNUhWVWpHWkJqUT09

​Meeting ID: 967 6034 4597
Passcode: 410685
Call-in option: +13126266799,,96760344597#

Time will be set aside for questions through the chat option of Zoom.
 

Meg Litts is the Executive Director of the YWCA Duluth. Since 1893, YWCA Duluth has taken a leadership role on changing issues facing women and their families: childcare, affordable housing, career development, after-school programming for academic success and leadership development, domestic violence, health, and racial and gender discrimination.   
 
The YWCA's quest to be the most inclusive organization led to a leadership restructuring process. Starting in 2016 YWCA Duluth committed to examining power structures within our policies and operating procedures. This process has highlighted how this historical organization, like many others, has been existing in a white cultural framework, inadvertently suppressing voices of others. YWCA Duluth’s focus on inclusivity is most prominent in the evolving structure and policies of the agency. As a feminist organization, we were operating in a hierarchical leadership model for over 120 years, placing an Executive Director in the organization’s driver’s seat.
 
In 2016 YWCA Duluth Leadership, with support from the Board of Directors, shifted to a flatter leadership model with the intent of becoming a stronger organization better rooted in their mission across all programs. This process was rooted in recognizing the strengths of current and future staff, committing to an ethic of transparency, and including more voices in organizational development. The bottom-up decision-making process and structure were intended to provide opportunities for services at the ground level. This required including staff, community collaborators, and those served by the organization in the design, decisions, and organizational direction. In the years that this leadership structure was in place, there were turnovers in both board and staff leadership that caused a dip in momentum. We recognized that we needed someone to provide accountability and support in decision making. In 2019 the YWCA conducted an extensive search for an Executive Director, seeking someone who could provide leadership support through change while honoring a distributed leadership model.
 
At heart, Meg is an educator with a deep love of children, a passion for social justice, and dedication to making this world a better place for ALL, especially those most underserved. She was raised to believe that if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem, and to stand up against injustice. Her teaching experience ranges from kindergarten to middle school to graduate students. She has two remarkable daughters by birth, three exchange daughters around the world, and is looking forward to welcoming her first grandchild into the world this summer. She also has the amazing fortune to have had two strong, intelligent, creative, loving women as mothers in her life and a remarkable father who believes in equality for women and raised her to be a leader for change. Taking on the position of YWCA Duluth Executive Director in August 2019 brought her to Duluth, though she had visited previously for DFL conferences. Since moving to Duluth, she has become active in the Duluth NAACP Political Action Committee, Vision Duluth, the League of Women Voters, participated in weekly face mask distribution and voter registration around the Twin Ports, and serves on the Facilitating Racial Equity Coalition for whom the YWCA Duluth is the fiscal sponsor for the 2021 Overcoming Racism Conference. She applied to serve on the Citizen Review Board when there was a position open. When it was filled, she applied to serve on the Human Rights Commission in order to hear and represent the concerns of the community with a lens to racial and gender justice. The YWCA was instrumental in getting the Human Rights Commission launched in our community, and the Y continues to be invested in this work.
 

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