Kappa Delta President Madi Dodd: Female Leadership, Empowerment, and Uplifting Women and Girls

SOPHIE JAEGER

Madi Dodd is a current junior at Brown from Scottsdale, Arizona. She studies electrical engineering with a focus on sustainability. Besides her role as President of the Theta Gamma Chapter of Kappa Delta, she also serves as the communications director of the Engineering Departmental Undergraduate Group. 

Sophie Jaeger: What is Kappa Delta? 

Madi Dodd: Kappa Delta is one of the four sororities here on campus. We're a national organization that’s also affiliated with Brown’s National Panhellenic Council. There's about 61 members right now. It's a community of women who all come together and support each other. We have two philanthropies that we work with, which are the Girl Scouts and Prevent Child Abuse America. We do annual philanthropy events for those two organizations. We also have weekly sisterhood events and events with other organizations, just to bring all of our sisters together and promote confidence among women.

SJ: How do you believe your role as sorority president contributes to uplifting and empowering women within your organization?

MD: Being the President of Kappa Delta is really fun, but [it’s] also interesting because I serve as a leader for girls who are normally just my friends. There's a balance between stepping up to that leadership position, and then also just acting as a friend to the girls that are in the sorority. Since I'm already friends with a lot of these women, they will come to me and ask for advice, which is something that I really enjoyed doing because I think that some people don't really have a community of people outside of their [class year] at Brown. Being able to be a mentor to other girls is really nice. I think that also just by welcoming anyone who wants to come talk to me is something that I do that hopefully uplifts women and also working together with a bunch of different women from all different backgrounds and concentrations at Brown is something that really contributes towards that. We try to do events through the sorority that are focused on confidence and uplifting people.

SJ: What specific initiatives or programs have you implemented or worked on to promote female leadership and empowerment among members? Definitely.

MD: Starting in December, which is when my presidency started, we've been working a lot more to have increased leadership opportunities within the sorority. We recently just elected a Director of Health and Wellness and a Director of Finance. A lot of the girls that are new members have the opportunity to be involved in something that goes towards empowering their sisters, which is really fun. We've also been focusing on getting feedback a lot from the chapter and taking into consideration what other people want to see aside from just the executive board or what we call council.

SJ: Can you share a personal experience where you've seen the impact of female leadership within your sorority?

MD: A few semesters ago, when we had just finished elections, one of the members that we selected as the Vice President of Learning and Development, which is the role that interacts mostly with the new members, had to step away. Immediately after that, we had a special election. Now that we needed someone to step up to the plate, there were so many girls interested in the position. We ended up electing one of the girls who ended up being my roommate, Ava, and she, even though she didn't know much about the role and hadn't been formally trained for it, was able to work with the members of council who served as role models to her. It was just a really good example of how people just step up when they're needed and can be leaders in times where other people can't fulfill that position.

SJ: How do you ensure that the voices of all members, especially those from diverse backgrounds are heard and valued within your leadership team?

MD: One of the positions that we have on our council is Vice President of Inclusion. She is currently working to have a lot more education modules because, in the past, we've done just a lot of fun sisterhood events. Now we want to really shift the focus to education and making sure that people are aware of things like civil engagement and mental health. I think that her role is really helpful for girls in our sorority to see that we do care about people’s backgrounds.

SJ: What strategies do you employ to mentor and support younger members in developing their leadership skills?

MD: Like I said before, we do have a lot of opportunities for new members to join different committees within the organization or director roles. Although it might be a little bit intimidating for them to apply to these positions, because they are so new in the chapter, we definitely encourage those younger members  to try and run for the positions. Once they are elected, they get to work with a current member on council who becomes their mentor and then teaches them the ropes like how we run things in Kappa Delta behind the scenes. A lot of the girls will just come to sisterhood events, but not everyone knows exactly what goes into planning the events and logistics working with the University. That's a really good way for the girls to develop leadership skills, especially because they do get to be paired with a mentor within the sorority.

SJ: What ways does your sorority engage with broader community efforts aimed to uplifting and empowering women beyond the campus?

MD: Kappa Delta has two national philanthropies. One is Girl Scouts and then the other one is Prevent Child Abuse America. In terms of Girl Scouts, this philanthropy is super rewarding because we get to work with a local girl scout troop and have events with them every semester. We recently did cookie selling and helped the girls do that. We're [also] planning confidence workshops with the girls. I used to be a Girl Scout, and I know that if I was a Girl Scout and had girls from a sorority who were giving confidence workshops, and also acting as mentors, I would have felt uplifted. Hopefully, that's something that we can do for the girls in this local troop. In terms of Prevent Child Abuse America, every spring semester Kappa Delta does our Shamrock Event. In the past, [last year] we raised around $2,000. Although we don't get to work directly with people for this philanthropy, just knowing that activities that we're putting on on campus are helping a broader community of children is really rewarding, especially knowing that we're just getting the word out about philanthropy because not a lot of people know that it exists. .

SJ: What role do you see sisterhood playing in the empowerment of women within your sorority?

MD: Every week Kappa Delta does sisterhood events. Those range from movie nights in the lounge to health and wellness sisterhoods. For example, we have a yoga sisterhood coming up soon. Overall, I just think that it brings all the girls in the sorority together and makes them feel like they have a community of people that are always there supporting them, and they have girls that they can always go to and talk to about anything that's going on in their life. I feel like at Brown it is sometimes a little bit hard to get that bigger sense of community just because we might not have as much school spirit as other schools do. Having a large community of women who all have the same values is really nice because you feel like you always have a community to go to. 

SJ: How do you balance fostering a supportive environment for members while also encouraging them to challenge themselves and grow as leaders?

MD: Especially with the new members, we try not to only be leaders for them, but people that they can look up to and go to for advice, which is something that I think is really beneficial to the younger girls in the chapter. At the same time, we always try to push them and challenge them to pursue leadership activities, whether that's within Kappa Delta or outside just in the broader Brown community. It's always something that they're encouraged to do, especially because a lot of the girls in our chapter have prior experience in clubs or different organizations on campus, and they can recommend opportunities for our girls to pursue.

SJ: Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the continued empowerment and advancement of women within your sorority and beyond?

MD: Something that I'm really excited that we're planning on doing is being more involved in health and wellness efforts throughout Kappa Delta. Because in the past, we've just done fun sisterhoods and it's been great, but I feel like it would be even more beneficial to have things where people can look forward to learning and can also step away from classes and look forward to events that can help with de-stressing. I'm really looking forward to implementing more leadership roles or more committees that our newer members and existing members can have the opportunity to join. One of my big aspirations for my presidency is to promote leadership and also bring in Brown alums or people from Kappa Delta national to talk about leadership and how our members can get involved on campus and outside of campus along with networking and finding career opportunities. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity