Who is Lindsey Petlak?
Lindsey Petlak is a Golden Apple award-winning educator with 20+ years of educational experience, at the classroom, district, national conference speaker, and corporate levels – including work with companies such as Scholastic, Seesaw, Nearpod, hand2mind, and Apple.
Although Lindsey is a southern Illinois native, she has lived in Antioch since 2005 and loves this town and Lake County dearly. Together with her 12 year old son, Grayson, and their Rottweiler pup, Sookie, they enjoy all of the amenities that Antioch and Lake County have to offer, including nature preserves, local small businesses and restaurants, and frequent town events hosted by the Village of Antioch.
Lindsey was crowned with the national title of Ms. USA Prime 2023 (Div. 4) in September 2024. Her platform is “She’s a G.E.M.,” focusing on her passion for Girls Empowerment Mentorship. Through “She’s a G.E.M.” programs and events, Lindsey teaches young women to S.H.I.N.E. in the areas of Self-confidence, Habits for self care, Interpersonal relationships, Navigating emotions, and Expanding leadership.
Currently Lindsey partners with Girls Inc. and A Safe Place of Lake County, impacting more than 32K people each year on state and national levels, and helping raise more than $300,000 in 2023-2024. She hopes to expand her “She’s a G.E.M.” efforts to reach even more schools, organizations, and female youth across Lake County and beyond!
What do want to accomplish during your reign?
As Ms. USA Prime 2023 Div 4, I will expand my leadership within Prime Pageants by leading 2+ group masterminds and Ms. Division monthly sessions of “She’s a G.E.M.” Programming: Prime Queens Edition, focusing on S.H.I.N.E. skills with topics such as personal branding, social media, networking, promotion, authentic confidence, and sisterhood community building.
Additionally, I aim to serve as the organization’s social media and marketing leader through my Prime Pageants strategic marketing plan:
- Teach: Equip and empower Prime state and national queens: 2+ group masterminds and monthly Ms. Division sessions building marketing/social media skills
- Promote: Ms. USA Prime 2023 Div 4 social media page management, content creation/contribution and follower engagement – plus cross-promotion on my personal platforms reaching 6K+ followers nationally
- Network: Create networking opportunities with national pageant organizations, brands, publications and thought leaders to build connections and gain cross-promotion to prospective contestants beyond current Prime followers (and increase Prime’s overall follower numbers).
- Expand: Recruit at least 2 new participants and 2 national sponsors for the 2024 pageant.
I will passionately pursue and diligently work towards these goals as Ms. USA Prime 2023 Div 4, not only to further my “She’s a G.E.M.” programming, but more importantly, to integrate that mentorship into Prime Pageants to best support the development of my sister queens. Furthermore, I will leverage my skills and experience in marketing, social media, and public speaking to evangelize brand awareness of Prime Pageants and expand their reach through active recruitment of contestants and sponsors…because EVERY woman deserves to BE SEEN, BE HEARD, and BE HER BEST SELF.