Commerce helps develop women leaders through the Greater Missouri Leadership Foundation.

The Challenge is a year-long statewide traveling symposium that provides women leaders with education and experiences to assist them in addressing critical issues facing Missouri. Commerce’s annual sponsorship offers the opportunity for several of our team members to participate in the Challenge each year.

Two Commerce team members who have participated in the challenge in recent years are Lacy Haden-Peaches, a senior inclusion program manager; and Kristine Roche, a manager of investor relations. Haden-Peaches, who participated in 2022, is grateful for the experience. “It was life-changing for me,” she says. “It was probably the best development opportunity I’ve ever experienced in my career.”

Roche, who participated in 2023, found it inspiring to meet the women in her cohort. “I learned so much just from being around them, having good discussions with them, and seeing different perspectives,” she says. “I met small business owners, people who were chief financial officers, people who founded and ran their own nonprofits — it really ran the gamut.”

As Roche describes, the Challenge takes place across four phases, each lasting three days and taking place in a different region of the state. “In Columbia and Jefferson City, the focus was on Missouri government,” she says. “When we visited Kansas City, there was a focus on nonprofits and socioeconomic issues. Our visit to Kirksville emphasized rural issues. In St. Louis, there was a global focus, and we visited companies that had a global reach in one way or another.”

The Challenge offered Roche one new experience after another. “I ate lunch at the governor’s mansion,” she says. “I toured a high-security prison, where I heard leaders discuss their efforts to build a sustainable culture, just like many other types of organizations do. I learned how important immigration is to the economy of Kirksville, and that there’s a water scarcity problem in northeast Missouri. It was eye-opening.”

Haden-Peaches says that during each visit, cohorts meet with female leaders who share their perspectives and help participants develop their own leadership skills. “You really grow from that experience,” she says. “The Challenge provides a very full view of the state as it pertains to health care, the economy, politics, nonprofits, agriculture — you learn so much about many different things.”

In addition, adds Haden-Peaches, participating in the Challenge connected her with a large network of previous attendees. “That network is one of the incredibly valuable parts of the program,” she says. “A typical cohort is 30 to 40 people, and you get to know them over the course of a year-long program. But beyond that, once you’re an alumna, you’re in a network of more than 1,000 other female leaders — business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, philanthropic leaders; it’s an incredible group.”

Gretchen Pettet, a senior talent development consultant at Commerce who helps identify team members to participate in the Challenge, says the bank’s support is beneficial in many ways. “First and foremost, it creates an opportunity for women to really leverage their leadership differently outside the bank and on behalf of the bank,” she explains. “It’s also a demonstration that we are committed to supporting and developing female leaders.”

Pettet adds that the program helps Commerce team members develop a deeper relationship with people in communities around the state. “It broadens people’s understanding of the issues that impact us as a state level,” she says. “A byproduct of that is that it fosters greater empathy and a greater call to action. When you can provide an opportunity for people to engage with the community in new ways across industries and geographies, that’s a terrific outcome for that person and for the bank as a whole.”

As Haden-Peaches explains, Commerce’s support goes beyond sending participants each year. “We have people who serve on the Challenge’s Regional Planning Committees, helping to determine what the cohorts do and where they visit,” she says. Haden-Peaches herself has served on planning committees, and at the beginning of 2024, she joined the Foundation’s board of directors.

Roche says she’s glad Commerce’s support for the Foundation runs deep, as she found her experience to be highly valuable. “Getting to experience all the different things Missouri has to offer and learning so much about so many different aspects of the industries and sectors that are important to our state was just incredible,” she says. “It really makes me appreciate my state even more.”