Confidently You: Women in Leadership · Rebecca Malotke-Meslin & Lynne Macziewski

Running Towards Confidence

November 3, 2025·44 min·2 clips

My body's power, not my body's appearance, became the story.

Emily Kritschbaum joins Rebecca Malotke-Messlin and Lynn Macheskey. They open with the show's familiar frame: helping women navigate the unique challenges that come with becoming leaders, taking on new roles, defining an authentic leadership style, and building confidence. Emily begins in childhood. She remembers a small rural town in Ohio, braces, glasses, patent leather Airwalks, and Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts, and she remembers not feeling naturally tough. Running shows up early. A sixth-grade teacher sends the girls outside to run to a tree and back, then tells them that if they are athletic enough to cheer for other people, somebody should be cheering for them. That lands. At the time she still thinks confidence belongs to other people, so she ends up on the volleyball team, where she can take part without feeling fully exposed. The story then jumps ahead. In her late twenties, while working on her PhD and teaching full time, she starts running again and discovers a different feeling: less proving, more presence, almost like mindfulness and full flow. Rebecca and Lynn respond to that turn with recognition. They keep drawing out the point that leadership lessons often arrive through ordinary, embodied moments rather than polished advice. Emily's professional path includes American women's history, school leadership support, and institutional work. She is the founder of the Center for Girls and Young Women's Leadership at Columbus School for Girls and currently directs strategic programs and education at the National Women's History Museum. The conversation moves through confidence, mentorship, leadership, belonging, and the way women in schools often arrive at leadership by way of detours. It stays warm. The hosts use small asides and a little laughter to keep the discussion feeling like a real conversation rather than a presentation. By the end, they note that they could keep talking for hours. The close leaves the sense that the episode is less about a single answer than about a life slowly becoming more fully its own.

As heard by us

Confidence here grows from memory, not from a keynote.

Emily Kritschbaum's story builds confidence through small scenes that stay with the listener: a sixth-grade run to a tree and back, a teacher who said somebody should be cheering for the girls, the awkwardness of braces and glasses, and an adult turn toward running as joy, flow,…

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Why you'd press play

You want a confidence story that starts with running and lands in leadership.

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