Verna Volker: With Leadership Comes a Responsibility For Others - R4R 260

It's a pleasure to welcome Verna Volker on the show. She is an ultrarunner, Hoka Global Ambassador, and the founder of Native Women Running, a space to celebrate and lift up native women's stories. Verna is also a part of Native Women's Wilderness, a platform that shares and elevates native women's stories exploring the outdoors. Verna is currently training for the Javelina 100K in October and the Black Canyon 40K in February. "I wanted to to make a difference where people were seeing native women in a positive light that we are matriarchs, that we are leaders in our families, that we are successful." - Verna Volker n this episode we cover…

• How she has taken responsibility as a leader to bring communities together and call them to action.
• "Getting up and doing what you can, is a celebration…" Verna speaks to the importance of holding onto a lens of gratitude in everything we do
• Being an agent of change to shift the perception of what mainstream media dictates a runner looks like
• What she has done to bring awareness to the mass graves of indigenous children found in Canada
• How Verna has used her virtual events to connect and support indigenous running communities in Canada and beyond.

Resources: Native Women Running (events) Native Women Running IG Verna Volker IG Native Women Wilderness (website) Native Women Wilderness IG Thank you to Tracksmith, Generation UCAN, and InsideTracker for sponsoring this episode.

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Thank you to Verna, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.