Lighting the Way: Leadership, Service, and a Lesson from Fort Collins

Leadership development often focuses on strategy, technology, and the complex decisions required to guide organizations into the future. Those things matter deeply. But sometimes the most powerful leadership lessons come from stepping outside the boardroom and connecting with the real challenges people face around the world.

During a recent site visit to the City of Fort Collins with participants in the 2025–2026 RADIATE Women’s Leadership Program, our group had the opportunity to do exactly that.

Tracey Winey, one of the founders of Engineering Brightness, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing light poverty worldwide, introduced us to the organization’s work. Its mission is simple but powerful: provide safe, solar-powered lighting to families who otherwise rely on dangerous and unhealthy alternatives such as kerosene lamps or open flames.

For many of us in the room, the experience was entirely new. Under the guidance of volunteers, we learned to solder small circuit boards and assemble solar-powered lanterns by hand. Each lantern we built will be shipped to Liberia, where families without reliable electricity will use it to study, cook, and navigate their homes safely after dark.

In North America, access to electricity is something most people rarely think about. We flip a switch and expect the light to come on. But for millions of families around the world, safe and reliable lighting is a daily challenge.

Light poverty affects far more than convenience. It affects education, health, and economic opportunities. Children struggle to study after sunset. Families breathe toxic fumes from kerosene lamps. Communities face increased safety risks once darkness falls.

A simple solar lantern can change all of that.

But Engineering Brightness is more than building lanterns. The program also engages students - like those at the Fort Collins middle school who participate in assembling the kits for volunteers like us - in learning about communities around the world and understanding how engineering and service can improve lives in very tangible ways.

For the leaders in the RADIATE program, many of whom work in the utility sector responsible for powering communities, this project was a powerful reminder of the global importance of the systems they help operate every day. Reliable electricity is more than infrastructure. It is one of the foundations of opportunity, safety, and human progress.

At the Utility 2030 Leadership Collaborative (U2030), we intentionally integrate service projects into our programs because leadership is about more than strategy and performance. It is also about perspective, empathy, and understanding the human impact of the systems we manage.

Sometimes that perspective comes from listening to someone’s story.

And sometimes it comes from holding a soldering iron for the first time and realizing that a small piece of technology you helped build will bring light to a family thousands of miles away.

Learn more about Engineering Brightness by visiting: https://philanthropic-engineering.org/