Empowering Future Leaders
In October 2013, this Commission put out a call to the public: send us Southern Arizona's high school girls, and we will take them to Washington DC, New York City and beyond — and send our middle schoolers to the Capitol for a Day of Civics and Science. It worked. Then it stopped.
In our 50th year, we are turning it back on — and this time we are inviting every high school and every region in Pima County.
It was born here. It should come home here.
My Girl Power was born at this Commission. In October 2013, the PCTWC issued its first call to the public — a search for high school girls across Southern Arizona to travel to DC, NYC and beyond, and for middle schoolers to attend a Day of Civics and Science at the Capitol.
The Commission served as the fiscal sponsor for what became the Legacy & WingTappers Tour. Girls from across Pima County went. They stood in the places where decisions about their lives get made, and they came back different.
Over the years the program moved to another fiscal agent and grew into My Girl Power, now powered by The Force for Health. The Commission's own website still lists "Empowering Future Leaders — launching an internship program for young women" among its planned activities. It has been listed, and unlaunched, for a while.
So we are launching it. As an ad hoc committee, with a year-long badge challenge, open to every high school in the county — and the games, tools and coaching come in as an in-kind gift, at no cost to the Commission.
🗓️ The through-line
Four badges. One year. Every school invited.
Leadership from every region and every high school in Pima County is challenged to put a team forward and earn all four badges across the school year. Each badge pays out LEARN It, LIVE It and SHARE It coins — and the leaderboard is public.
Know Your Voice
Learn how a decision actually gets made in Tucson and Pima County — and then go make one happen. This is the badge the Commission itself was built for.
Own Your Health
Know your own body, your own numbers, and your own rights as a patient — before somebody else tells you what they are.
Flex Your Wings
The WingTappers part. Take the thing you're good at and use it in front of people who don't know you yet.
Leave Your Mark
Do something that outlasts you. The Commission is fifty years old because women kept handing it forward.
My Arizona Civics Girl Challenge
The middle-school half of the original 2013 program — the Day of Civics and Science at the Capitol — rebuilt as something a girl can start from her phone tonight.
She learns who represents her, what a commission actually does, how a public meeting works, and how to be heard in one. Then she goes and does it.
Play it. Learn it. Then walk into the room. The games are the on-ramp — the badge is earned in person.
The Empowering Future Leaders Ad Hoc Committee
Proposed to the full Commission as an ad hoc committee — which under Art. VIII of the Bylaws needs only a simple majority of a quorum. No bylaws amendment. It can be stood up at a single meeting.
Lucy Howell
Founder of My Girl Power® — which was born at this Commission in 2013, with the PCTWC as its fiscal sponsor. CEO of The Force for Health Network. Brings the platform, the games and the coaching in as an in-kind gift. Also serving on Website & Social, Development & Tech, and the 50th Celebration.
Zoey Dzieman
The Commission's newest voice, and the closest in age to the young women this program serves. Confirmed by the Board of Supervisors in June 2026. Co-chairing the committee that will launch the My Girl Power series and the Reality Health Games challenge across Pima County.
📌 What this committee will do: recruit a team from every high school and region in Pima County · run the four-badge year · launch the My Girl Power series and the Reality Health Games challenge · rebuild the pathway to DC, NYC and the Capitol · and stand up the internship program the Commission has had on its list, unlaunched, for a year.
What it costs the Commission: nothing. The platform, the games, the coaching and the badges are contributed in-kind. What it needs is the Commission's name, its convening power, and its blessing — which is exactly what a 50-year-old advisory body has to give.
Every region. Every high school.
This is not a program for one school with a good counselor. The challenge goes out to every district and region in Pima County — and the leaderboard is public, by school.
If your school is not on this list, that is our error, not your exclusion. Tell us and we'll add you.
Put a girl in the room.
That is the whole program, in one sentence. Nominate a school, sponsor a team, or sign a girl up. The Commission has done this before — and the women who did it are still here.
Nominate a school → Sign up to help