“I was in the middle of changing my seven-week-old daughter’s diaper when I got that call,” said Carly Viegut, Communications Manager at Boreal Waters Community Foundation, of the hows and whens of finding out she’d be receiving the Emerging Leader of the Year award at this year’s Annual Meeting & Dinner Celebration.
“I’ve been on maternity leave since July, so I was very surprised when I found out.”
For her, being honored for her work with the recently rechristened Boreal Waters (formerly known as the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation) went deeper than expected.
“I think being recognized during maternity leave has really made me reflect on how deeply ingrained the idea is that women lose professional momentum when they have to step away to have children,” Viegut said. “I’ve had an incredibly supportive workplace, but part of me just assumed that I would need to rebuild momentum when I returned. And so getting a call about kind of a professional milestone or award while on maternity leave was just really surprising. And it really means a lot to me. I have a three-year-old son and now a three-month-old daughter. Having a young family and balancing your professional career can be difficult, and so being recognized at this kind of season of life is really meaningful.”
Viegut’s only been with Boreal Waters since 2024, but she’s got a lot of experience at places like the Entrepreneur Fund, the Red Cross, the University of Wisconsin-Superior and a Montana community foundation on her resume, so she brought along a full toolkit to her current job that has allowed her to hone in on the tasks at hand with alacrity.
“Through all of those different experiences,” Viegut said, “[I] naturally evolved into communications, because I observed that a lot of these organizations doing really wonderful work in the community – their communication structure was lackluster. People who would have supported them weren’t learning about what they were doing in the community. And so that’s really what my passion is: helping organizations better tell their stories and be strategic with their communications.”
Viegut helped shepherd Boreal Waters through its rebrand right after arriving. “I’m really proud of the role I played in developing and launching the foundation’s new name and brand,” she said. “It was really about ensuring that our organization, which serves 25,000 square miles across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, has a name and identity that reflects all the communities it serves.”
Going forward, Viegut – who also recently co-founded the Lake Superior Impact Collective for women and non-binary people – imagines that her recognition by the Chamber will spur her on to greater heights, she said. “I think I want to just continue to grow as a leader and take on as many opportunities to influence the direction and impact of organizations. This has really felt validating. I’m really excited to get back with my team at Boreal Waters and continue doing the great work that we are doing.”
