Beyond the Desk – Women’s Fund Leadership Academy

We’re excited to introduce a new series, Beyond the Desk: Learning Together, Serving Better, showcasing the professional development opportunities our library staff pursue. In this series, we’ll share reflections on how these experiences help our team stay current with trends in academic libraries and enhance the services and expertise we offer to our community.

The reflection below is from Brittany Fischer, Social Sciences & Scholarly Communications Librarian.

I recently had the privilege of participating in the Women’s Fund Leadership Academy, an enriching program designed to connect women across the Greater Grand Forks community while strengthening leadership skills. As someone deeply invested in community care and collaboration, this opportunity was meaningful both personally and professionally.

The Academy took place over four days across a month, with sessions and speakers covering a range of leadership topics:

• Strengths and mindset: Using the CliftonStrengths assessment, we explored how to leverage our unique strengths and operate “above the line,” bringing creativity, curiosity, and positivity even under stress.
• Team building: Activities highlighted communication, understanding working styles, and using strengths to foster productive, supportive teams.
• Civic engagement: Local leaders emphasized the importance of women’s voices in community decision-making and encouraged involvement with transparency, self-care, and purpose.
• Authentic leadership: Sessions focused on inspiring and guiding others through listening, celebrating milestones, and stepping outside comfort zones.
• Service and creativity: Hands-on projects, including service learning and an art activity, emphasized bravery, experimentation, and giving back to the community.

A key outcome of the Academy was creating a personal leadership brand statement. Through reflection and conversations with colleagues, I identified mine as:

“To be a candid advocate and resilient team player who empowers others, seeks feedback, plans strategically, and fosters growth and collaboration.”

This experience informs my work as a librarian every day. Many activities focused on how we show up for ourselves, our colleagues, and our communities—encouraging us to bring our full strengths to any situation. While the CliftonStrengths assessment highlighted qualities like strategic thinking, responsibility, learning, arranging, and achieving, the Academy also reinforced my broader commitments: advocating for change, championing inclusivity, and continually striving to be my best self. These values shape how I approach my work, which centers on supporting and empowering others.