When Stephanie Hull was a kid, long before she became the CEO of Girls Inc., a national organization aimed at helping young girls succeed, she dreamed of being a fashion designer. In preparation for her future stardom, she sought to learn French and Italian.
“I thought it would be convenient to speak French and Italian so that when I showed my collections in Milan and Paris, I could understand what people were saying,” Hull recounted. “In fifth grade, that was my vision for the future.”
Not all of it came true, she admitted, but she did go on to learn those languages and earn a Ph.D. in romance languages and literature from Harvard. The degree springboarded her into a career in education. She began as a professor but moved to K-12 where she ran an independent school for girls. From there, she served as an executive officer at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation before taking over as CEO and President of Girls Inc., where she oversees a network of nearly 80 local organizations across the U.S. and Canada providing mentorship and STEM education to 132,000 girls.
Hull took the reins of Girls Inc. a year before the pandemic upended society and she is currently preparing the organization’s roadmap so that it can better serve its affiliate chapters.
The Conversation
How has the pandemic impacted Girls Inc.’s roadmap for 2022?
Our organization was very much based on in-person interaction. We were very much about place and presence with the girls, so when the pandemic hit, we had no virtual infrastructure really to speak of. The girls we serve are often from some of the poorest communities — about 60% of them are living in households with income below $30,000. So they’re not on the right side of the digital divide. They’re very unlikely to have a device that’s dedicated to them and very unlikely to live in a place where there’s stable Wi-Fi. The pandemic helped us fast-track a virtual curriculum. As a result, our strategic plan has at its core a stable vision for infrastructure.
Can you tell me more about what the infrastructure plan looks like?
We’re going to build a new technology master plan that guides us so we can provide infrastructure to our affiliates. Besides our advocacy and public policy work, the national Girls Inc. office provides curriculum, research, evaluation, marketing and branding for a network of 77 Girls Inc. affiliates across the U.S. and Canada. Each has its own individual 501C3. They use our materials to ensure that the Girls Inc. experience is delivered with fidelity, using evidence-based programming and providing mentoring to girls ages 5-18 in a pro-girl environment. The affiliates have some flexibility but at the core is one experience and it is centralized and delivered by us. We are now thinking of ways to do more centralization. What if we centralize things like purchasing or technology delivery? Would that free up capacity for the affiliates to spend more time with girls and have more girls come to the program? So those are questions that we’re really pondering right now.
How has the national spotlight on diversity, equity and inclusion impacted afterschool and what work needs to be done?
Both the pandemic and the racial reckoning have created a big opportunity for people to understand how hard-hit certain populations can be by these big national, international or global events. Many companies and many people who have means are thinking about how they can invest in some of the solutions most likely to have an impact. We feel fortunate to be one of the solutions that can actually demonstrate impact. But more to the point, there will always be many girls and many young people that don’t have the benefit of this kind of experience. So I think we both want to increase the number of girls that we’re able to serve directly, and also to broaden the conversation about what it means to be in a safe supportive learning environment and what it means to have mental health as well as social and emotional learning support taken seriously.
What are the biggest opportunities you see for Girls Inc.?
Fulfilling the commitment to a future of gender equity in the workplace. I think employers have come to recognize the importance of a diverse workforce, whether that be different ethnic backgrounds or LGBTQ+ people. Many companies have made statements in support of social justice and gender equity. I want them to see Girls Inc. We are a source of very well-prepared girls, who will become both the leaders of the future as well as the employees of the future. I know that the leaders of the future, especially the Black and Brown female ones, are right now sitting someplace in a Girls Inc. team meeting with a bunch of other girls.
What accomplishments as CEO of Girls Inc. are you most proud of?
We were really proud to be seen as a leader by the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge and Pivotal Ventures. We were awarded $10 million for a project that has the dual strategy of helping to prepare girls for leadership roles in different kinds of companies and at the same time helping to prepare companies to pave the way through different talent management strategies — hiring and recruitment strategies — to welcome people from the kinds of backgrounds that our girls come from.
How has Girls Inc. risen to meet kids where they’re at during the pandemic?
With schools going virtual, and kids and parents at home, we know that young girls were taking over a lot of household duties. Girls Inc. provides, even virtually, a space to be a kid. It provides girls with an adult who respects their views and wants to engage with them in the process of growing up to be the person they’d like to be, and at the same time, knows you’re a kid and really respects that too. So even if they end up getting off that Zoom and going back to changing diapers, they had a moment to be the young person that they deserved to be.
The Details
Location: New York City
Title: President and CEO of Girls Inc
Hobbies: Designing clothes
Favorite book series: Aimée Leduc mystery series by Cara Black
Education: Ph.D. in romance languages and literature from Harvard University; B.A. in French and economics from Wellesley College
Previous employment: Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; Head of The Brearley School, independent school for girls in New York City.
