Mickey Babcock
Mickey Babcock says she likes to blow on dandelion fluff and see where the seeds land. Finding the joy in bringing a venture to fruition is personally and professionally satisfying. That's why it's not much of a surprise that she started a non-profit as a 50th birthday present to herself. The Equipoise Fund has a mission to energize, enrich, and encourage the vision, voice and visibility of women and girls of Wyoming. Babcock is an entrepreneur at heart and the programs launched by the fund tend to take flight, gather their own momentum, and sustain a diversity of objectives. It’s truly a portfolio of generous initiatives.
The documentary, Don’t Fence Me In, is an Equipoise project that reveals the stories and hardships of Wyoming’s ranching livelihood. Babcock and her team also started Womentum, a legion that pivots on “active philanthropy” in order to support each other as well as the younger girls they mentor. Additionally, the organization spearheaded the bipartisan Wyoming Women’s Legislative Caucus for “building equality in the Equality State, where women hold less than a quarter of state-elected positions. The Caucus focuses on four priorities: regular gatherings, a Speaker’s Bureau, candidate development and an Intern/Aide Program.”
"My opportunities in Wyoming are so much greater and so much more welcoming than what they might have been elsewhere." In other places she’s noticed established ways of doing things, less chance to stick one’s neck out and make a new path forward. And "taking something from nothing is inspiring," she says.
Babcock has noticed that she’s always been a leader. When she wore red high top tennis shoes to her college graduation in 1998, the school turned it into a tradition. The phrase spawned from her lead continues to be: “walk loud”.
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