Women’s Leadership Accelerator

The Women’s Leadership Accelerator 2025 is a four-month intensive program that supercharges the leadership and management skills of leaders who are pushing digital innovation. Each year we welcome a cohort of women and non-binary individuals representing a range of backgrounds, expertise and newsrooms around the globe.

The Women’s Leadership Accelerator offers an intensive program of mentoring, discussion and learning from some of the top minds in digital media. Participants work closely with mentors on challenges unique to their careers and also will receive support and coaching from ONA.

Tuition for the 2025 Women’s Leadership Accelerator is $1,000 and all selected participants will receive a full pass to ONA’s annual conference, ONA26. For more information, please refer to the Accelerator’s FAQs. You can apply here.

2025 Program Timeline 

• September 10-October 3, 2025: Application period
• By November 5, 2025: Notifications of application status
• Week of November 17, 2025: Announcement of cohort
• December 3, 2025: Virtual welcome workshop (2-3 hours)
• December 2025-March 2026: Virtual learning & connection sessions (60-90 minutes, about every two weeks), along with personal coaching and cohort discussions
• March 28-29, 2026: In-person workshop
• April 2026: Virtual post-workshop reflection & closing session (2-3 hours) (Date to be determined for best possible match among cohort members)

We seek funders for each new program and have several opportunities to support this program as well as our other year-round programs for women in digital news leadership. To learn more about supporting the programs, contact Hanaa Rifaey, Head of Strategic Partnerships, at hanaa@journalists.org.