Women’s Leadership Accelerator

Meet The 2024 Cohort

26 leaders in digital journalism selected by the Women’s Leadership Accelerator review committee for a transformative program of leadership training, coaching and support.

Meet The Cohort

The Women’s Leadership Accelerator is a six-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.

Requirements Program FAQ Past Programs News Sponsor

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 receive support and coaching from ONA throughout the year.

Tuition for the 2024 Women’s Leadership Accelerator is $1,000 and all selected participants will receive a full pass to ONA’s annual conference, ONA24. For more information, please refer to the Accelerator’s FAQs.

2024 Program Timeline (Revised)

April-July: Application review period
By July 16, 2024: Notifications of application status
Week of July 15: Participants announced
End of July 2024: Virtual Welcome Workshop (Half-Day)
August 2024: Virtual Learning + Connection Sessions, along with personal coaching and paired cohort discussions
Sept. 18-21: ONA24 in Atlanta (Optional – full conference pass provided)
Sept. 20-22: In-Person Accelerator Workshop directly connected to/following ONA24 in Atlanta
Mid-October 2024: Post-Workshop Reflections & Check-In (Virtual, 2-3 hours)
November & December 2024: Virtual Monthly Learning + Connection Sessions, along with personal coaching and paired cohort discussions
January 2025: Closing Going-Forward Workshop (Virtual, Two-Day) (Date will be determined for best-possible match among all 2024 cohort members)

The 2024 Women’s Leadership Accelerator is supported by lead funder Dow Jones Foundation with additional funding from the Tiffany Shackelford Foundation and Ballard Spahr LLP.

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.

The application period for the 2022 Cohort is now closed.

Once the selection process is complete, 26 women leaders in digital journalism will receive yearlong support to level up their careers.

See Program Requirements

The Women's Leadership program began in 2015 and has evolved to be a year-long cohort experience. Learn about the past programs, including previous cohorts, speakers, sponsors and programming.