AAUW names Jacki Maethner 2026 Woman of the Year in Fergus Falls

Jacki Maethner received a local honor that reaches well beyond a banquet room. The Fergus Falls branch of the American Association of University Women named her its 2026 Woman of the Year, recognizing a civic leader whose work is tied to student support, fundraising and the health of one of the city’s most important institutions.

Maethner is listed by M State as executive director of the Fergus Area College Foundation on the Fergus Falls campus. That position puts her at the center of a network that connects the campus, donors and students in Otter Tail County’s county seat, where college access often depends on local institutions working together.

The foundation says it supports the Fergus Falls campus of Minnesota State Community and Technical College and provides resources that enrich learning, living, working and serving. It also says about 100 students receive scholarship funding each year, a measurable sign of how much the foundation’s work reaches into everyday life for students and families trying to make higher education affordable.

The AAUW branch’s recognition also fits its own long-running community role. The local group says it meets monthly from September through May, hosts a bi-annual Tour of Homes to raise scholarship funds and awards scholarships each year to local women and girls seeking higher education. Its 2026 scholarship announcement offered three $2,000 scholarships, with applications due March 15, 2026 and banquet honors held April 20, 2026. One award was the Georgia Nagatomo Dieseth scholarship for a woman with an interest in the arts.

AAUW says its mission is to empower women and girls by championing success in higher education and pushing for bold policy solutions for lasting change. In Fergus Falls, that mission shows up less as a slogan than as a practical ledger of support: scholarship checks, campus backing and local fundraising that help students stay on track.

Maethner’s selection points to the kind of behind-the-scenes work that keeps institutions functioning in a community of this size. For Fergus Falls and the wider Otter Tail County area, the honor singled out a leader whose work is visible in classrooms, scholarship lists and the steady flow of support that keeps the campus and its students connected to the town around them.