As many of you know, in 2015 and 2016, ONA and Poynter partnered on the highly successful Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media, which has helped train, mentor and connect 53 women journalists from a range of platforms, backgrounds and organizations.
From the minute we opened the first round of applications, the response was overwhelming. Over the past two years, we’ve seen strong applications from nearly 1,000 women at different stages of their careers. Each year, we were heartbroken that we could only accept up to 28 applicants, turning away so many deserving candidates.
The need for this kind of targeted training became glaringly obvious, so we’re delighted to offer more opportunities for leadership training to more talented women in our industry.
ONA plans to offer a Women’s Leadership Accelerator in early 2017, focusing on leadership skills for women in digital media, while Poynter will continue to offer the Leadership Academy for women journalists.
What will change: Each organization will hold separate trainings, and open separate application and selection periods, screening for potential, need and diversity across ethnicity, age, geography, technology platforms and skill sets.
What will not change: The goal of helping more women gain and polish the skills and knowledge needed to rise to the highest levels of media leadership. All classes will be structured to encourage open, candid discussion and networking, and participants will leave with not only strong skills, but a built-in support system for the future. We’ve seen this phenomena with all of our alumnae; it’s truly the cohort that makes this experience transformational.
And, in both cases, all tuition and some travel expenses will be paid. We say a huge thanks here to the funders who have made past Leadership Academies possible: The Ford Foundation; Knight Foundation; the McClatchy Foundation; Google; Craig Newmark, founder, craigslist and craigconnects; WordPress and Facebook.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on future posts, as well as the smart ladies who make up our 2015 class and 2016 class — you’ll be hearing a lot from them. We’re looking forward to sharing more details on training dates, application period, programming and faculty — and sending out more cohorts into newsrooms across the country!