2022 Program
The 2022 Women’s Leadership Accelerator featured a year of practical, targeted guidance and personal coaching on individual challenges for a cohort of women in digital journalism. The participating 26 women leaders were selected from a pool of more than 200 applicants. The program kicked off with a virtual three-day intensive workshop in March and then cohort members gathered for a four-day in-person workshop in Los Angeles in June. Members of the cohort also received free registration to ONA’s annual conference, ONA22, and the program culminated with a closing workshop to coincide with the conference at the end of September. All of the workshops featured hands-on personal and professional work; candid discussions about leadership, work-life balance and problem-solving in the newsroom.
Learn more about the 2022 program Meet the 2022 Class
2021 Program
The 2021 Women’s Leadership Accelerator featured a year of practical, targeted guidance and personal coaching on individual challenges for a cohort of women in digital journalism. The participating 26 women leaders were selected from a pool of nearly 300 applicants. The program kicked off with a virtual week of hands-on personal and professional work; candid discussions about leadership, work-life balance and problem-solving in the newsroom. Members of the cohort also received free registration to ONA’s annual conference, ONA21, and the program culminated with a closing workshop in October.
Learn more about the 2021 program Meet the 2021 Class
2020 Program
The 2020 Accelerator featured a year of practical, targeted guidance and personal coaching on individual challenges for a cohort of women in digital journalism. The participating 26 women leaders were selected from a pool of more than 300 applicants. The program kicked off with a week of hands-on personal and professional work; candid discussions about leadership, work-life balance and problem-solving in the newsroom; and inspiring visits with leaders at Disney Parks and Experiences, Flower Child, Netflix and Microsoft. Throughout the year, the cohort did four online workshops and the program culminated with a closing workshop and free registration to ONA’s annual conference, ONA20 Everywhere.
Learn more about the 2020 program Meet the 2020 Class
2019 Program
The 2019 Accelerator featured a year of practical, targeted guidance and personal coaching on individual challenges for women in digital journalism. The participating 26 women leaders were selected from a pool of more than 400 applicants. The program kicked off with a week of hands-on personal and professional work; candid discussions about leadership, work-life balance and problem-solving in the newsroom; and inspiring visits with leaders at Netflix and The Getty Museum. The cohort received an all expenses paid trip to ONA’s annual conference, ONA19, where they had their final workshop.
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2018 Program
In 2018, the Accelerator was extended to offer check-ins throughout the year, which culminated with a workshop at ONA17 in Washington D.C. on Oct. 7, 2017. The initial program was held Feb. 25-March 2, 2018, at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles. The participating 25 women leaders were selected from a pool of more than 400 applicants.
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2017 Program
In 2017, offerings were expanded to meet demand, as both academies received hundreds of qualified applicants. Poynter and ONA are each offering trainings. ONA’s version became the Women’s Leadership Accelerator. It was held Feb. 5-10, 2017, at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles. The participating 25 women leaders were selected from a pool of nearly 350 applicants.
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2016 Program
Prior to 2017, the program combined the resources of the world’s leading digital media organization, ONA, with the global leader in professional journalism education, The Poynter Institute. It operated as the ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media.
Our second class was held May 1-6, 2016, and focused on developing emerging leaders. The class consisted of 28 selected participants. The jointly-led academy was hosted for two years at Poynter’s campus in St. Petersburg, Fla.
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2015 Program
The inaugural Academy, held April 12-17, 2015, focused on critical skills for women moving up the ladder in digital journalism and technology organizations and documented the challenges they face on the path to leadership. The inaugural class consisted of 25 selected applicants and 16 leaders who provided training, mentoring and advice throughout the week.
The women were selected from a pool of nearly 500 applicants. You can learn more about the selection process here.
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