Mission

Our library is transitioning into an academy. New mission as of April 2026.

Gals Guide showcases hard-earned wisdom found in books, visual arts, and shared stories from women past and present. Our mission is to share women’s achievements and lessons learned to strengthen women’s voices and make the world a more equitable place. Turning history into action and reflection, Gals Guide provides hybrid classes, courses, and workshops about women’s history to build a compassionate future.

Gals Guide is online and seeking a new physical location in Moorhead, Minnesota. Our lending library will transition to a resource library.

Projects & Services

Classes

Gals Guide offers women’s history classes from January to October. We have a Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall season.

Podcast

The Gal’s Guide podcast features a round-table discussion where each guest picks a woman of history to talk about that fits into our monthly learning theme.

Annual Anthology

Gals Guide Press publishes a yearly collection of stories, poems and essays.

Writing Workshop

Gal’s Guide hosts multiple writing workshops throughout the year. Our flagship class is a 12-week Feminine Healing & Creativity Writing Workshop that incorporates women’s history into our unique teaching method.

Gals Guide Library

We ran the first independent women’s history lending library in America. Gal’s Guide Library was open to the public in Noblesville, Indiana, from 2020-2025. Our library is transitioning into a resource collection.

Meet Our Staff

Dr. Leah “Riwo” Leach (she/hers) – Executive Director, Podcast Director, Academy Head Mistress, Director of Instructors, 42@galsguide.org

Make an Appointment to Chat with leah

Bonnie Just-Fillenwarth (she/hers) – Head Librarian bonnie@galsguide.org

Katie Young (she/hers) – Book Club Director katie@galsguide.org

Amber Jones (any/all) – Podcast Editor – info@galsguide.org

Jackie Donegan (she/hers) – Ireland Community Library – jackie@galsguide.org

Cathy Sutton (she/hers) – Anthology Assistant – anthology@galsguide.org

Basil Leach (he/him) – Marketing & Storytelling Lead – info@galsguide.org

Planning Committee – Leah Leach, Jackie Donegan, Bonnie Just-Fillenwarth, Katie Young, Robert Pyatt, Joshua Leach, and Debbi Sponsler

Meet Our Board

Katie Young President katie@galsguide.org
Term ends January 2028

Bonnie Fillenwarth, Vice President bonnie@galsguide.org
Term ends January 2028

Robert Pyatt, Secretary
Term ends January 2027

Dr. Leah “Riwo” Leach, Treasurer 42@galsguide.org
Term ends January 2028

Jackie Donegan Board Member at Large
Term ends January 2027

Lori Cates Hand, Board Member at Large
Term ends January 2027

Lindsay Zehren, Board Member at Large
Term ends January 2028

Nocona Canady-Flatt, Board member at Large
Term ends July 2028

The Gal’s Guide board is a strategy board with a few members also working as staff. Applications are reviewed in January, April, July, and October.

Apply to be on the board

Apply to be An Officer

History of Gals Guide

2013 April 24, a group of women met in Leah Leach’s living room and formed Women Empowering Balance (WEB). We were a modern consciousness awareness-raising group.
2016 May, 16 Gals Guide to the Galaxy becomes a nonprofit corporation in the state of Indiana. Our mission: to share women’s history by utilizing multimedia technology.
2017 June 2, Your Gal Friday Podcast launches to provide women’s history in a student-friendly format.
2018 February 13, Gals Guide hosts its first Galentine’s Event. Inspired by the TV show Parks & Recreation.
2018 July 12, Gals Guide Podcast launches with a more grown-up feel (that means we are usually drunk).
2019 Gals Guide evolves its mission to form the first women’s history lending library in the United States.
2020 March 6, Gals Guide Library opens to the public in Noblesville, Indiana. The collection contains 1500 books written by women or about women. Gals Guide rents a small space in Noblesville Creates (then called Nickel Plate Arts) in the Stephenson house. 11 days after opening night, COVID-19 would cause a state-wide lockdown.
2021 March, Gals Guide moves into the Judge Stone house, a bigger space on the Noblesville Creates campus.
2021 May, Gals Guide was named TinyCat’s May Library of the Month. Click here to read the interview.
2021 In the fall, Gals Guide hosts its first writing workshop. The workshop was supported by a grant from the Indiana Pacers Foundation.
2022 March, The first Gals Guide Anthology is published.
2022, November 17, Gals Guide was awarded Organization of the Year by Advancing Noblesville. Gals Guide also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from IN-05 Congresswoman Victoria Spartz.
2024, September Gals Guide founder, Leah “Riwo” Leach wins Arts Leader of the Year from Noblesville Creates.
2025, June 28, Gals Guide Library leaves Noblesville, IN. Puts books in storage and heads to Moorhead, MN.
2025 August, Gals Guide starts online clubs and events broadcasting from Moorhead, MN
2026 April 13, Registered and received Certification of Authority from the Minnesota Secretary of State.
2026 April 26, Gals Guide evolves its mission to become a women’s history academy.