Donna Reed

I would honestly say it's being put into places that I can serve others. The most admirable thing we could really hope for in our lives is to create a legacy that shows us serving others. When we are elevated in those places, being able to reach back and understand that our job isn't to continue rising - our job is to create steps for the people behind us and really work to ensure that we're not the only ones at the top of the mountain. Because if we're the only ones at the top of the mountain, then it's going to be a really lonely world we live in, and what happens once we're gone? Being in a place where I can effect change to the point that it creates a new generation of leaders and thinkers - I would say that would be my biggest accomplishment, being able to pour back in to that next generation, and hopefully create some leaders that will one day take care of me.

I think the best advice I ever received was "always make the coffee". My first job out of college, I had a fancy title and expense account. It was really exciting. I was traveling all over the country and talking to so many people. I remember walking to my boss's office the first day, and she was like, "hey, can you go make the coffee?" I looked at her, thinking to myself, don't we have somebody that does that? Also, I had never made coffee before. I was like, I don't know how to make coffee, and she said, "okay, let me take you to the break room". She said as the leader, you should always be making the coffee. You shouldn't assume anything is somebody else's job.. Get there early, make the coffee, then when people come in, they feel a little more relaxed into their day. So I always make the coffee. It's a little way that you can serve others and keep yourself humble. It was more of a lesson in humility, which I needed. You come out of college, you think you know everything. The truth is, sometimes you have to start out a little bit more humble to and realize there are still things that you're going to learn. To be a good leader, you have to be a good learner; So, always make the coffee.

Never lose yourself. I think it's really easy, when you're progressing in your career, to mold into the image that you think people want. People spend far too much time trying to be the person they should be, and they miss out on the value they bring to the world, just as themselves. So always keep yourself in check, and never let yourself get so overwhelmed that you forget who you are; where you came from; and how that journey looked. The journey is your prize.. It's not about the destination. It's not about the outcome of our lives. It's about the journey, and that's where the richness really lies..

The biggest challenge and opportunity in my field right now is the life affordability gap we're facing across the country. Current wages are not providing the life it did 30 years ago. People should be able to afford families, homes, cars, and even vacations on 40 hour a week salaries. This is not happening as we see wage stagnation in many careers, and cost of living increasing rapidly.

We need to look at what our workforce is currently and what workforce we need for companies to come in and keep wages competitive in our area. The more companies that come in with a competitive wage, the better we are, but they're not going to locate here if we don't have the talent needed to support those companies. A lot of that work is at the university level, making sure we're creating the right talent alignments means being bold and leaning into change. Understanding that the workforce of the past is not what is needed to create competitive wage jobs of the future. This means having open, honest, and vulnerable conversations with our workforce partners, and allowing those conversations to guide effective and swift changes to programming.

From my political position it means making sure we are really recruiting the right companies that fit our area. Ensuring companies meet a certain pay point which will allow people to have housing and live sustainable lives in their community. Housing affordability is workforce development. If families can live where they work, communities thrive. We're facing a huge gap, and if we can do our little piece to close that gap, I think we're doing the right thing. That's why I'm especially proud of our residential TIF project that's bringing more than 60 affordable three- and four-bedroom homes to our community, priced starting around $199,000 and aligned with our county's average wage of $26 per hour..

I would say a hard work ethic is so important to me. I grew up with a very different home life. I had depression-era parents, and I am a millennial. My father was born in 1932. He always taught us, you don't get anything without hard work,. I feel like everything I get, I have to earn, and I really enjoy putting in the effort. I think that that is just something that will always stick with me. Sometimes, when I am tackling a really big problem, I like to take a break and go weed my garden, or plant some flowers. Being able to see the outcome of what I am working on is really peaceful and helps me focus on the mental work.

Beyond hard work, I believe deeply in women supporting women. I think it's so important to see women supporting women and really uplifting women in our workforce. When we look at representation - there's something called the Disney effect, which is a study that correlates the amount of women in high-level board or CEO positions in America with the amount of females in Disney movies. It's directly correlated, because people do what they see other people doing, and kids believe they can be what they see other people being. When the show Bones came out, the amount of females in forensic science programs went up by 400 percent because they saw someone doing it. So when I look at organizations that support women, it's important for us to be out there, to be excited about each other and supporting each other and showing off, because if we don't show young people that they can do it, they won't know. There's no need for us to continue climbing the same hills, generation after generation. We can show our daughters and sons and the kids that are out there that this generation was able to do it, and this is how we did it, then they can start from an even higher point. I also remain actively engaged with organizations like 1SI, our local chamber, Leadership Southern Indiana, and several community commissions because leadership does not end when the meeting adjourns. At home, I'm a proud soccer mom and cheer mom. I have a son and a daughter, and I spend a lot of time on the soccer field or at games cheering on the cheerleaders. We have a goal as a family to reach all 50 states with my kids before they graduate high school. We're at 28, and we're knocking off 3 this spring and 4 more this summer. I love to travel a lot, so if we're not on the soccer field or cheering on the cheerleaders, we are traveling.