Meet Holly McIlwain M '17, a RMU alumna who is an author, coach, nonprofit founder, and advocate for women in leadership. As a cancer survivor and a leader, Holly’s journey is one of evolution, resilience, and vehement commitment to empowering people—especially women in professional roles who are navigating life’s narrowest of spaces.

“I loved working at RMU… it was probably one of the most impactful roles that I had served professionally… It shaped so much of who I am today and what I do,” Holly said.

Before the launching of her nonprofit organization, The Brave Women Project (BWP), Holly’s professional career was molded through personal challenges and hardships. After falling in love with the Organizational Leadership Program at RMU, she pursued her master’s degree while balancing a recent job promotion, moving to a new home, and raising two children—her first born right before beginning the program and her second while she was still completing it.

“I’m like a double RMU fan… I… just had my first baby and I had just gotten promoted… a couple months into the program, I found out that I was pregnant again with my second baby… It was absolutely wild and I felt like the education I received was so immediately impactful on the work that I was doing… It also was hard and challenging to me—in ways I needed to be challenged…”

During this transformative time in Holly’s life, she was paired with former NFL quarterback and nonprofit leader Charlie Batch. This unexpected relationship turned out to be crucial to Holly’s professional development.

“When I was in the program, I was matched up with Charlie Batch… I didn’t know who he was. I called him ‘Charles’ in our first interaction… We developed a really strong relationship in working together, learning together… When we finally met in person, I was about a million months pregnant… He sat down with me and I will never forget the conversation over dinner… He said, ‘You know you’ve really outgrown your role at the organization you’re in. It’s time for you to do something different. I see you with a brand, with a book, and doing things completely different—things that no one else has done…’”

After transitioning out of her former nonprofit leadership role, Charlie’s vision for Holly became a reality, as she began writing her first book, For She Who Leads: Practical Wisdom from a Woman Who Serves, and later, launching both her consulting firm, The Narrow Spaces, and her own nonprofit organization, The Brave Women Project.

“I created a company called ‘The Narrow Spaces’ where I work with business leaders to navigate the narrow spaces of work and life with dignity, integrity, and passion… I believe that everyone is entitled to have the best work of their life… I used so much of what I learned at the University both as a master’s degree student and as an employee to meet the demands of reality for my clients…”

Holly and her mission were never solely motivated by professional development, but also by survival.

“I feel incredibly privileged to be alive. I’m a cancer survivor… I’m no stranger to struggle and grief, so I feel that it is a privilege to wake up in the morning and to make other people have an experience where they feel empowered…”

Also, Holly’s time at RMU gave her significant relationships with former colleagues and faculty members; however, one person stood out to Holly most.

“Over that time… I had the privilege of working closely with Lisa Hernandez. She completely changed my life—I never worked with a person like her before,” Holly said. “It was her really deep understanding of what is right in business and what labor law should look like… Also, she saw that I had a passion for people and allowed me to really personalize the onboarding experience… as well as the offboarding… My very favorite thing was onboarding new people, being the first face that people saw when they started and the last voice that they heard before they left… the privilege of walking people out the door was something that I never took for granted—in that… you can walk someone out the door with dignity and preserve their dignity…”

In early 2020, Holly’s book For She Who Leads: Practical Wisdom from a Woman Who Serves launched.

“... Another impactful moment from my time at RMU was when my first book was released and Lisa was in the audience. She was there for my book release party—and so was Charlie Batch… How cool is that?” Holly said. “I mean it was truly amazing to look out into a room and see these people… Also, another faculty member and Lisa both wrote forwards in the book for me (or advanced praises) and that was truly amazing…”

However, just a few weeks later, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit and overwhelmed the world—and with that, Holly’s life would change again. Within a few months, she was pregnant with her third child, helping care for her father-in-law—who had recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer—, and experiencing a devastating personal loss.

“As soon as the book came out, COVID hit… In May of that year, my father passed away and I travelled to say goodbye to him… and I suffered a physical attack… that caused me to lose the baby… The HR Team at RMU really supported me and provided me space to heal, recover, and just went above and beyond… To see it all come together and be part of something significant made a difference…”

From this tragedy, a new sisterhood was born.

“In August of that year, I sent a bunch of my girlfriends… these little bottles of champagne and an invitation to meet me through Skype… in August of 2020, I hosted the first Brave Women Brunch, which included myself and 11 other of my brave, professional friends… We opened our bottles of champagne and we talked about how we were doing. I watched… these professional, strong women become very vulnerable… What developed from that was The Brave Women Project…”

The Brave Women Project (BWP), was founded at the end of 2020—and is a nonprofit community that has been established to support professional women through providing an environment of professionalism, connections, mentorship, and psychological safety.

“We have a ‘come-as-you-are’ confidential support session. Every month, we have this virtual meeting of members’ only who… talk about what’s really going on in their lives. We have expanded to 19 states and we have a member in another country… We have our third Pillar Awards event, where we recognize women of influence and service in our community—this year, we are at the River’s Casino with the expectation and availability of over 400 people…”

These impacts are noticed and in connection with other foundations in the community and region.

“We have changed the lives of so many women and we have a focus on impact… We’ve gone back to Charlie Batch and The Best of the Batch Foundation and participated in their gift wrap parties. We do a lot of work with the Magee Women’s Research Institute and the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank; we feel it is just such a privilege to mobilize resources for these professional women and also provide unparalleled support. It is the best work of my life.”

From these experiences, both personally and professionally, Holly was able to create her “5 E’s”: Educate, Empower, Encourage, Engage, and Evolve.

“Everything that I do is values driven…” Holly said. “As we were starting this, the Brave Women Project is something bigger than what we ever expected. We went through the process of becoming a nonprofit… and we worked through ‘What are we really about?’... Evolution is part of it and empowerment is part of it and education… and we just started refining everything into these 5 E’s...”

Without even realizing it, Holly created something that is rare and unique—a confidential safe space for professional women to be supported—some may call her a trailblazer.

“I never would have, in a million years, imagined that was going to happen. I never thought I was going to be a trailblazer, but I knew I had needs that needed to be met and there wasn’t anything to meet those needs, so why not create it…”

Also, during this time, Holly began writing another book.

“By the end of that year, my family had experienced so many moments of extreme grief—but also extreme care—that I began writing again. I started writing a book called For She Who Grieves: Practical Wisdom from Living Hope…”

Today, BWP has numerous virtual and in-person events and meetings including Come-As-You-Are (CAYA) sessions and the Diamond Dinners—another major event along with the Pillar Awards. 

“Every table has a facilitator… everyone gets to speak and lives are changed at these tables…”

Through these events, the BWP community has a strong connection and they are expanding and diversifying more rapidly than ever before.

“Electrifying…I think when you find a place where you belong, you know it… I am so grateful that I got to be a part of a creation like this…”

At the heart of sustaining the BWP and their movement are both their individual and corporate memberships.

“At our website—bwp.life—there is an application process… We have corporate memberships… and it allows the women of an organization to know that they are supported by their leadership in pursuing professional development, psychological safety, and unprecedented support…”

Holly’s goal is to grow the BWP and make sure its impact is one that lasts.

“I can imagine that we will… have chapters in different parts of the country… That’s an idea that my Board is very open to as well…”

The Pillar Awards, an annual event that celebrates women of service and influence within the community, are currently accepting nominations.

“We are now actively accepting nominations for the Pillar Awards, so if you are on bwp.life and there is a woman… or several brave women that you know, we are in active nomination mode… it closes soon… We received three proclamations from the city last year—one was from the City of Pittsburgh, one was from Allegheny County, and one was from the County Executive…”

When asked what makes this work so special, Holly returns to the people who shared her vision and helped make it a reality.

“I just went through the list of everything I needed back in 2020 to keep me together and found people who wanted to align and that is how we built this….”

Holly believes her work is so meaningful—from her firm and books to narrowspaces.com and the BWP, Holly always goes back to freedom and being purposeful with it.

“Everything that I do, personally and professionally, is aimed towards helping people live in freedom. Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want, it is the ability to choose what is best without letting anything hold you back… That was something that I received from the University not only as a student in the master’s program, but also… to work at the University and have leaders like Michelle Patrick and Lisa Hernandez around me… I was able to see these strong, powerful, intelligent, compassionate women leverage their freedom… to shift an entire culture. It was one of the best places I ever had the privilege of working…”

Holly’s former position at RMU makes her think a lot about the next generation of students graduating from college as well as the next generation of leaders these students will encounter.

“I think about students graduating… What kind of leaders are going to be caring for them? Mentoring them? Managing them? Teaching them how to work… What will happen to that workforce?”

One brave woman at a time, Holly is answering those questions through her story, vision, and voice.