Women’s Leadership Initiative

Our world benefits from diverse leadership and a myriad of voices seeking to address some of the world’s greatest challenges. Yet, around the world we fail to create the conditions to advance women. The Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) at the University of Delaware (UD) addresses these challenges by building powerful opportunities to advance diversity and inclusion in service of a more just and sustainable world. Our mission is to advance gender equity in leadership. To do so, we provide advocacy, education and research that enable engagement in powerful conversations and build critical skills that can support women and advance equity and inclusion.

Events and Programs

Women’s Leadership Initiative programs and educational events bring together students, faculty, alumni and the executive community to address gender and leadership issues in our society. Women are empowered to have more confidence and competence in achieving their goals and men have greater understanding of how and why to support women.

Signature programs:

• RiseUP
• Women’s Leadership Online Certificate Program
• ASCEND Certificate Program

News: Women’s Leadership Initiative

• Delaware Gov. Meyer, Lt. Gov. Gay sign Women’s History Month proclamation at UD - Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer and Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay signed the Women’s History Month proclamation at UD's Lerner Atrium.
• Lerner’s Wendy Smith Recognized as 2024 Highly Cited Researcher - UD Lerner's Wendy Smith is among three UD professors named Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, for demonstrating “significant and broad influence in their fields of research.”
• UD’s Lerner College Recognized by The Case Centre Impact Index - For the first time, the UD's Lerner College has been ranked No. 45 on The Case Centre Impact Index.
• UD Lerner Professor Wendy Smith Honored - UD Lerner Professor Wendy Smith received the 2024 Academy of Management Review Decade Award and Organization & Environment’s 2024 Best Paper Award at the Academy of Management Annual meeting on August 11.
• Delaware Gov. Carney signs Women’s History Month proclamation at UD - On Monday, March 25, Delaware Gov. John Carney visited the Women’s Hall of Fame Art Exhibition at the University of Delaware for a Women’s History Month proclamation signing.

Advisory Board

Thank you to the Women’s Leadership Initiative Advisory Board for providing governance, advice and support for all of our activities.

Contact

For more information about the initiative or any of its programs, contact:

womensleadership@udel.edu

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