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After wrapping up the inaugural cohort’s year, Syracuse University’s Women in Leadership initiative is accepting applicants for its second annual cohort for the 2023-24 academic year with the goal of helping a new group of women expand their professional skills and explore career opportunities.

Candace Campbell Jackson, the founder and chair for WIL, said that for its second cohort the initiative will continue professional development sessions on topics like university organizational structure, leadership skills, active listening and conflict resolution. It also plans to continue host guest speakers to discuss their career paths.

Jackson first founded the initiative in 2018 to be a program for women’s professional development and mentorship. Now, Jackson — who also serves as SU’s senior vice president and chief of staff to the chancellor — continues to lead the program, along with a steering committee made up of female faculty and staff leaders at SU. The steering committee has specifically emphasized women’s professional concerns on campus for its cohorts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its website.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, WIL hosted guest speaker events focused on digital innovation and strategies for women professionals, including with authors Daphne Jones and Erica Dhawan, as well as Dr. Gloria Somolekae, a former Botswana government official who received her Ph.D. in public administration from SU in 1994. WIL also hosted SU Women’s Basketball Coach Felicia Legette-Jack, who spoke about her experience as a woman leader in athletics during her October talk.

Jackson said the initiative is always looking for ways it can improve its strategies for supporting women on campus. She said the initiative’s leaders are providing cohort participants with the opportunity to complete a program evaluation that will determine future leadership development sessions.

Through these evaluations, Jackson said, the initiative’s leaders saw that cohort participants want to cultivate a community through learning. She said that takeaway was a highlight from the first cohort.

“I credit the cohort for helping us discover that when you bring really smart, diverse leaders together, it provides a valuable experience,” Jackson said. “Everyday someone said something that was amazing.”

Meghan Florkowski, a member of WIL’s steering committee, said that she’s seen overlap between the cohort’s goals and training programs and the work her organization does. Florkowski, the director of the WISE: Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Business Center, works toward the organization’s goal to support women in central New York who are starting and growing businesses.

Florkowski said she’s optimistic that the program will continue to foster relationships and grow over time to reach more women and different groups within the university.

“Ultimately, it’s the ability for more women to be able to take part in it over time,” Florkowski said. “As the program expands, hopefully, there’s more cohorts that we’re able to deliver as well.”

She said that within the initiative, women help each other by sharing learned experiences and working through processes of professional development alongside one another.

“There’s the learning part and then there’s the ability to share and network and continue to learn from those experiences and then eventually, hopefully pay it forward to other women as well and future cohorts,” Florkowski said.

SU faculty and staff with leadership experience can apply to join the second cohort until April 21. WIL plans to announce the new cohort selections on May 12.

Published on April 19, 2023 at 3:48 am

Contact Claire: cksamsta@syr.edu