Leading Our Future: Growing Talent in the Great Lakes Bay

"Some people are familiar with Self Love Beauty. We started as a nonprofit in 2018 and primarily served the Great Lakes Bay Region through workshops, camps, and in-person programming. A large part of that work happened in schools, juvenile centers, and similar environments, which came with challenges. It was difficult to go during the day, difficult to decide which schools or classrooms to prioritize, and difficult to staff consistently. 

Having great facilitators has always been a huge part of what made Self Love Beauty and later Lead successful, but that also came with scheduling challenges. Most of our facilitators had full time jobs, and fitting daytime programming into their schedules was often hard. 

Lisa and I had coffee in 2023 when she was starting to think about shifting Self Love Beauty into what Lead is now. During that conversation, she shared a dream she had of taking the in-person curriculum she had developed and bringing it onto an online platform. At the time, I had spent 12 years in the tech industry and had just begun conversations with different nonprofits in the area. I have a strong passion for where technology and service provision intersect. I love working on the operational side and thinking through how programs can grow, scale, and serve greater populations. 

That coffee meeting turned into a brainstorm, which then turned into a follow-up conversation. I laid out how the idea could realistically be brought to life. At the same time, Lisa was starting to write grants for the project and was in the early development stage. That September, she called me and asked if I would be interested in a Program Director role she had opened. I took the opportunity, and it allowed me to learn the program side of what Lead is today while also bringing my operational background into the work. 

We received funding in January to build the online program, and I led the initiative to select the software, coordinate with developers and bring the program to life. 

Early on, our focus was primarily on serving teen girls. The work centered around self-esteem, confidence, and goal setting. As we worked with families, we started hearing the same thing repeatedly. It was not just the girls. Families asked how they could involve their sons. That quickly expanded into larger conversations about how to equip all youth who were preparing to graduate and figure out what was next, whether that meant college, trades, or other paths. 

In 2024, we rebranded to Lead to better align with who we were already serving. The mission did not change, but the brand evolved to be more inclusive and to better support the audience we already had. 

Anyone who knows Lisa knows she thinks in three to five year increments. At a coffee meeting in 2023, she shared that she would be looking for an Executive Director in the next couple of years. I came on initially as Program Director to learn the landscape, but much of my operational background aligned with what she was looking for from an Executive Director perspective. In January 2025, I transitioned into that role. In March of this year, Lisa will move from her staff role into a board position while remaining the founder. 

While we were building the online platform, we hired another key member of Lead, Missy Reed. Before joining us, Missy spent 15 years working in human services for the State, including several years as a protective services investigator. She saw firsthand what happens when families don’t have the resources they need, and that experience is what drew her to our mission. Her first hand experience has been instrumental in expanding our work from the classrooms and juvenile justice system to supporting Foster Youth and parents through the Department of Health & Human Services.  

I have loved being able to bring all of our backgrounds into something that serves the local community. We know this work is not one size fits all. One of the most rewarding parts has been creating something that functions like a service menu, allowing people to use what they need, when they need it.  

It has also been meaningful to dig deeper into this region and community. I am from Ithaca, and my husband is from Bay City. After graduating from Michigan State, we moved to Chicago for five years before settling in Saginaw, where we have lived for almost eight years. 

This work is very different from the tech world, but in many ways it is also similar. In previous roles, I rolled out online initiatives globally. With Lead, we are rolling things out county by county, but the same principles apply.” 

-Kelsey Snyder, Lead