In space, no one can hear you laugh. Yet naturalness, warmth, and collaboration—over power and control—can be exactly the way to lead a high-stakes team to success.
This and other leadership lessons were shared with nearly 1,500 women at the 36th Annual Women in the Forefront luncheon, hosted by The Chicago Network. The annual event is a celebration of women’s accomplishments as leaders in business, civic affairs, philanthropy, and more in Chicago and beyond. This year’s luncheon took place on June 12, 2025, and filled the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago to capacity.
The event featured former NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cady Coleman in conversation with Michelle Miller, award-winning journalist and co-host of CBS Saturday Morning plus regular contributor to and reporter for CBS Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, 48 Hours, and Eye on America. Their dialogue offered insight into Coleman’s successful career as an astronaut and her reflections on leadership, teamwork, and resilience.
“Space is a joyous, amazing place,” said Coleman as she shared images from different expeditions in which she served. Coleman logged more than 180 days in space over two space shuttle missions and a six-month tour of duty on the International Space Station (ISS). One of her missions included launching the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the world’s most powerful x-ray telescope and source of most of our knowledge about black holes, including the huge one at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Yet her years as an astronaut were not easy. Coleman entered NASA’s space program when women were still relative newcomers. A myth about these missions, she said, is that the crews are carefully assembled to ensure compatibility. The truth is more complex. Any given flight on the ISS includes astronauts from multiple countries and cultures as well as different military traditions. When the success of the mission—and your very life—depend on the crew’s ability to work together, lessons in leadership abound.
“That was really important for me as a woman,” said Coleman, “to see that leadership can take many forms.” Coleman recounted how the Mercury 13—a group of 13 American women who trained in a privately funded research program from 1959-1960 to assess women’s fitness to become astronauts—were denied the opportunity to apply despite passing (and in some cases surpassing) the same mental and psychological tests as men. It was not until 1983 that Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. Meeting Ride while Coleman was still a student at MIT is what inspired her to apply for the astronaut program.
In addition to the social-emotional challenges of leadership, there were also physical obstacles. Cady found her own opportunities as an astronaut curtailed after NASA decided in the 1990s to eliminate the smallest size spacesuit as a cost-cutting measure. It was a decision that disproportionately affected female astronauts trying to rise in the program.
“I think the situation is urgent these days,” said Coleman. “Even though there are fewer women’s voices to hear and faces to see up on the wall, we need to make sure the next generation is ready. If we stay with our traditional ways of doing things and what we’re only allowed to do, we’re not going to make it. We’re not going to be able to deal with all the issues that we face.”
“My mom convinced me I could be anything I wanted to be,” she added. “For me, meeting Sally Ride was what changed my life. But any of us can be that person who inspires someone else. Decide to be one of those people who helps move the needle.” In support of The Chicago Network’s mission to empower women to lead, Lincoln Road Enterprises and the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay were premier sponsors of the 2025 Women in the Forefront Luncheon and assisted with the coordination of autographed copies of Coleman’s new book, Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change to attendees following the event.