June 8, 2026

Conversations on the Porch with Michiganders: Monica Woodson, CEO, Girl Scouts of Southeastern MI

Preparing girls for the future isn’t just important — it’s urgent.

In a rapidly changing economy, preparing girls for the future isn’t just important — it’s urgent. On this episode of the #FactsMatter Podcast – Facts from the Front Porch, Eric Lupher and Guy Gordon sit down with Monica Woodson, President of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan, for a thoughtful conversation about how one of the nation’s most iconic youth organizations is reimagining its mission for a new era. Woodson is also a Trustee of the Citizens Research Council.

Woodson explains how the Girl Scouts have overhauled their programming to focus on workforce development, using data, university partnerships, and collaboration with youth‑serving organizations to expose girls to careers they might never have considered. She stresses the importance of leadership, self‑advocacy, and confidence, noting that girls need both hard skills and the ability to navigate their own paths. From STEAM exploration to financial literacy and career‑focused skill building, the organization is intentionally aligning its badges, activities, and partnerships with the demands of tomorrow’s job market.

The conversation also highlights a major policy gap: Michigan’s lack of out‑of‑school infrastructure. Woodson argues that safe, structured, high‑quality programs between school and evening hours are essential — not optional — for youth development, public safety, and long‑term talent retention.

Leadership and self‑advocacy remain at the heart of the Girl Scout experience. Woodson underscores the importance of teaching girls to make decisions, speak up for themselves, and navigate challenges with confidence — skills that are essential whether they pursue college, skilled trades, entrepreneurship, or public service.

A candid, forward‑looking discussion about data, collaboration, and the systems Michigan must build if it wants its young people to stay, thrive, and lead.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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speaker-0 (00:00.526)
Welcome to the Facts Matter Podcast. I’m Guy Gordon with Eric Loufer, President of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. And we’ve got a beautiful day here on the island. This is Facts on the Front Porch. We’re joined by Monica Woodson, Girl Scouts of America, and also one of our board members at the Citizens Research County.

speaker-1 (00:17.624)
Yes, Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan is very proud to be represented on the CRC board. We are we I think we do incredible work. Eric and I were just talking about just the importance of making sure that people in our state are educated about the issues. And that’s one thing that we stress a lot within our girls is to make sure that they understand facts and figures. They understand how to advocate for themselves and their communities. So I’m just happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me this morning.

speaker-0 (00:43.662)
Well there’s a great tie-in for the work we do and the work that you’re trying to do is making sure the young ladies have the information to become productive members of society someday. One of the things we’ve done and probably one of the pieces of good news that doesn’t get enough attention, we’re we’re kind of agonizing and very anxious about our birth rate, but one of the reasons our birth rate is low is we’ve made tremendous strides in making sure.

That our teen mother’s unwed birth rate has dropped substantially and that’s about self esteem, which is what the Girl Scouts are all about.

speaker-1 (01:17.944)
Yes, leadership, self-esteem, confidence, all of these things that contribute to making our girls leaders and folks are waiting longer to have children. And so to your point, yes, the birth rate is low, but our women are soaring. They are doing great things in in the in the marketplace, in their careers. So it it is I think a healthy balance would be great to find, but I’m never gonna tell a girl, listen, don’t go be great, go get married, go have a baby, and then go be great. I think that we one of the things that we do

Encourage in Girl Scouting is for them to make their own decisions and for them to again know how to self-advocate and decide what they want and what works for them.

speaker-0 (01:57.208)
What type of conversations have you had on the island? what sort of issues have you heard people talk

speaker-1 (02:04.462)
So today is actually my meeting day. So I’m meeting heavy today. But one of the things that we talk, one of my favorite things about this conference, as you well know, is just the random meetings on the porch. But one of the things that I’m finding people really want to know relating to Girl Scouts is what are we doing to prepare our young people for the future. So we actually reframed our programming about three years ago. We completely rebooted it. And now everything, all of our programs are viewed through a workforce development lens. As you know, workforce development talent gap is a challenge here in Michigan.

And so we’re working very hard to lean into our programming. So when I meet with potential funders or legislators, of course, first thing they want to know is did I bring cookies? No, I did not.

speaker-0 (02:46.326)
Well we’re we didn’t want to express our disappointment. All right, interview’s over.

speaker-1 (02:51.118)
Had I known I was gonna do this podcast, I would have brought you some cookies, but I can send you some. But

So once we get past the cookie conversation, and then we really are I’m able to talk about, but here’s what our girls are doing, here’s how we’re partnering with schools, here’s how we’re partnering, partnering, excuse me, with other youth serving organizations to move, try to move our work forward and really to help. I know our mayor is very much committed to a strong youth pro youth component as a part of her agenda. Last summer, the CEOs of YMCA, Boys and Girls Club Junior Achievement and Alternative Some Girls, we came together.

together and co-authored in op ed and calling for a youth agenda, calling for intentional attention, I shouldn’t say those two words back together, but to be placed on our youth.

speaker-0 (03:39.522)
When you’re talking about putting together a workforce development curriculum for your girls, who do you partner with and where do you, who gives you the leads about where you they think that the labor market is going a few years down the road? Because you’re getting these girls at their at really the the nascent stage of their development. So you gotta be forward thinking.

speaker-1 (03:58.072)
I have a fantastic data person who does spend a lot of time read reviewing CRC data. But we also are partner because we’re we’re Girl Scouts, right? We know that we know how to work with girls, our thing is leadership, leadership development, and then of course our core tenants, our courage, confidence, and character. So we’re a big believer in partnering and collaboration. And so if we’re doing our four pillars are STEAM, financial literacy, life skills, and outdoor education.

And so when we’re looking at how do we introduce girls to new careers that perhaps they wouldn’t explore, we go to the experts. We partner with some great universities. We partner with organizations that are doing workforce development. One of the initiatives that I’m very proud of since we’re on Mackinac this this week is we have a partnership with the Michigan Women’s Commission. And that’s all about

getting girls to learn how to advocate for themselves, for their communities. And I have to shout out Governor Whitmer because this came this initiative started about three years ago. She hosted, I’m told she hosted several female Democratic governors from around the country and they were talking about how do we get more girls interested in public policy and advocacy. And she said call the Girl Scouts. And so they did and so this partnership was born and so

We are I am very much committed to collaboration as is my team. We are very much committed to data. We understand that data tells the story, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. And so we want to make sure that when we have the data, we’re also able to back it up with context, with nuance when appropriate. And so I’m just very proud of the work that we’ve done and we’re working to grow our programming in areas that will allow us to introduce girls to careers that they might not have considered in the past.

speaker-0 (05:53.546)
do you have any sort of programming you know broadly? just before we hit the record button we were talking about opportunities to do more together and what sort of external programming, not necess well, I mean it could be for the young ladies, we’d love to talk to them. but you that those partnerships, those things like that. where’s some opportunities where the research council can bring its research and and be part of those conversations?

speaker-1 (06:21.722)
I think the advocacy piece would be in incredibly important for us. But also things around workforce development, data I know that you guys are paying a lot of attention. Everybody’s talking about growth, the gro the population decline. The lack of growth. The lack of growth, but the population decline in the state. But they’re also talking about how Detroit’s population is growing. And so we want to make sure that when we are as we’re exploring opportunities for our girls,

We want to make sure that when we talk about this is a place where young people want to settle as our girls are growing and you know getting married and starting families.

Michigan needs to be an option for them to live. It shouldn’t just be the place they grew up and then they left. We want to make the case that Michigan is a great place for you to settle down, have a family. So we would love to work with CRC, and I’m gonna be held accountable because I’m saying it on camera. We would love to work with CRC in helping us sort of formulate what is that strategy. How do we communicate that? It’s certainly not, we’re not taking on the mantle of getting folks to move to Michigan. But we are willing to say, you know what, girls, as you are going to college,

Even if you leave the state to go to college, come back home. It’s a great time to be in Michigan. And so I think that there’s ways that we can leverage the work that we do to partner with CRC and begin to have those conversations.

speaker-0 (07:42.894)
We’ve we’ve talked a lot about workforce development, but just about the K-12 piece. And everywhere Eric and I have gone, I mean it’s it’s a five-alarm fire. How important in in talking about K-12, we kind of talk about it narrowly about classroom. How about what happens outside the classroom or what happens after hours?

speaker-1 (07:50.668)
Yes, yes.

speaker-1 (08:00.842)
Exactly. Well we talk about infrastructure for every area of our lives except young people. There needs to be young people need to have a place to go, they need to have things to do, they need to have ways to make money in the summer when they’re out of school. And so I think figuring out this youth agenda, this youth, whatever we want to call it, but building that infrastructure to make sure that what happens out of school is just as productive and safe as what happens in school. Everyone talks about the out-of-school time hours to

after school hours. We need to really sort of get back to focusing on that. And there’s organiz I I named five great organizations we’re currently partner partnering with right now. We all have very strong programs and this isn’t a case to say, enroll your girls and Girl Scouts or send them to the Y. But my point is there’s options. Pic parents have options.

to enroll their their children in programs that will create help help them grow, help their development, but also keep them safe in those key hours between what is it, three and nine or three and six or something. Those are incredibly important.

speaker-0 (09:06.766)
Yeah. All right. Thank you for coming and talking to us. For joining us on the porch. Hey. Do we get a merit badge?

speaker-1 (09:10.914)
Thank you for having me. This was great. You get a you you know and I send you a CEO patch. I’m serious. I have a patch.

speaker-0 (09:20.012)
Frankly we’d rather have the cookies. Monica, thanks very much. And keep it here for facts, Matt, or more coming your way from Akin Island.

speaker-1 (09:24.974)
So this was great. Thank you so much.

speaker-2 (09:32.13)
The Citizens Research Council of Michigan has been providing lawmakers, academics, the media, philanthropists, business leaders, voters, and all Michiganders with factual, unbiased, independent information on significant issues concerning state and local government organization and finance. For over a century, our research is available to you. Go online at CRCMish.org.

And on all the social media platforms, Twitter, Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and download our research. Check out our numerous papers and blogs, and listen to our podcasts. And while you’re there, please consider supporting our research with a donation. This has been a Facts Matter Podcast, a presentation of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

Conversations on the Porch with Michiganders: Monica Woodson, CEO, Girl Scouts of Southeastern MI

In a rapidly changing economy, preparing girls for the future isn’t just important — it’s urgent. On this episode of the #FactsMatter Podcast – Facts from the Front Porch, Eric Lupher and Guy Gordon sit down with Monica Woodson, President of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan, for a thoughtful conversation about how one of the nation’s most iconic youth organizations is reimagining its mission for a new era. Woodson is also a Trustee of the Citizens Research Council. Woodson explains how the Girl Scouts have overhauled their programming to focus on workforce development, using data, university partnerships, and collaboration with youth‑serving organizations to expose girls to careers they might never have considered. She stresses the importance of leadership, self‑advocacy, and confidence, noting that girls need both hard skills and the ability to navigate their own paths. From STEAM exploration to financial literacy and career‑focused skill building, the organization is intentionally aligning its badges, activities, and partnerships with the demands of tomorrow’s job market. The conversation also highlights a major policy gap: Michigan’s lack of out‑of‑school infrastructure. Woodson argues that safe, structured, high‑quality programs between school and evening hours are essential — not optional — for youth development, public safety, and long‑term talent retention. Leadership and self‑advocacy remain at the heart of the Girl Scout experience. Woodson underscores the importance of teaching girls to make decisions, speak up for themselves, and navigate challenges with confidence — skills that are essential whether they pursue college, skilled trades, entrepreneurship, or public service. A candid, forward‑looking discussion about data, collaboration, and the systems Michigan must build if it wants its young people to stay, thrive, and lead. 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.