I have a long history of volunteering and serving as a board member of organizations that serve girls such as Girl Scouts, Girls Hope of Pittsburgh, Girls on the Run, Step Up for Women and Girls Inc of NYC so I know first-hand the unique value of single-gender learning experiences. As a mother of two daughters, I am a staunch advocate for efforts to leverage single-gender expertise to uniquely serve the needs of girls. And so, when I first heard about the lawsuit the Girls Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) filed against the Boy Scouts of Americafor trademark infringement, it made me want to shine a light on the impact that GSUSA has had on my life and why I stand by them.

In January of 2000, I wasstudent government president at the University of Pittsburgh, representing a student body of over 18,000 undergraduates. I was a huge leadership book junkie and an administrator handed me Hesselbein on Leadership by Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. This was the first leadership book I had ever seen that had a woman’s face on the front cover and was written about her own leadership principles. Being exposed to Frances at a pivotal moment in my early leadership experiences was transformative. And since then, I have had the fortune of having Frances as a trusted mentor whose wisdom has played a strong hand in guiding my own career.

She continued, “Women need these spaces. We know the outcomes for women and men in corporate America