Program Components

Across 60 hours of immersive professional development training, the program runs twice per calendar year (in the Fall, September to December and in the Spring, March to June) for five, two-day paired sessions (see Spring 2024 program calendar for dates and times). The Program is broken into three structural components.

• Leadership Forums – Facilitated professional, management, and leadership development skill-building sessions featuring Coro’s time-tested and unique curriculum with a focus on navigating unique professional challenges through a gender identity lens.

• Coro Conversations – Cohort-curated and -led explorations of a challenge facing women in the workplace or affecting women across Los Angeles to stretch your professional and leadership development in a real-time setting. The teams select the topics to bring learning into the room with their cohort.

• Peer Consultancies – An adaptive leadership peer coaching module to better diagnose professional challenges and determine possible steps to test solutions in an empowered environment with experienced professionals.

Program Outcomes

Women in Leadership provides you with time-tested and immediately applicable professional, leadership, and management skills, tools, and frameworks, as well as deep professional and leadership reflection with the unique leadership contributions and challenges of women in the workplace as the backdrop. Women in Leadership also introduces you to a community of women eager to collaborate with, learn from, and support each other.

Curricular Components

• Adaptive Leadership

• Building Self and Spacial Awareness Through Giving and Receiving Feedback

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging (DEIB) and Intersectionality

• Effective Inquiry

• Interpersonal Leadership Styles™

• Managing Diverse Teams

• Mindfulness Practices

• Negotiation

• Network Building

• Objective Analysis and Evaluation

• Public Speaking and Presentation Frameworks

• Self-Awareness and Self-Management Tools

• Systems Thinking & Stakeholder Analysis

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Coro values the representation of diverse perspectives, identities, experiences, and world views; as such, WIL cohorts reflect the make-up of the region, representing a wide array of backgrounds, beliefs, and identities.

Ideal WIL candidates…

• are committed to deepening their professional leadership capacity alongside a cohort of fellow women leaders

• have been in roles managing staff, projects, and/or budgets

• are looking to expand their professional and personal community

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Multi-Perspective

You should be ready to engage productively with different paradigms and perspectives, ready to participate in personal reflection, and be willing to evaluate and reconsider your worldview given new information. Come prepared to explore new ways to contribute to the larger whole or create more value in your work.

Embracing Ambiguity

A signature characteristic of Coro programming is intentionally using ambiguity as a way to highlight your leadership defaults, ignite your learning, and support you to lead and manage through uncertainty.

Learn by Doing

Coro views leadership as a practice; you should be ready to learn by doing with sessions as opportunities to lay the foundation; you will gain the most by taking the skills, tools, and frameworks and practicing/adapting them in your professional roles.

Vulnerability and Psychological Safety

Coro views vulnerability as a critical leadership attribute essential for unleashing learning, building authentic and meaningful connection, and for holding spaces that are psychologically safe. Coro believes psychological safety is a precursor to adaptive, innovative collaboration. You should be ready to contribute to building a psychological safe cohort environment by engaging, modeling vulnerability, seeking perspectives different than your own, sharing and receiving feedback, and contributing to a culture of gratitude and generosity.

As a leadership and professional development institute, Coro’s programs, including Women in Leadership, aim to expand the leadership and professional capacity of  participants  with professional networks, skills, and knowledge, supporting them as they drive impact in their work and communities.

WIL is…

• A place to explore, experience, and appreciate a diversity of paradigms, experiences, and viewpoints, and engage in productive conflict and discourse.

• A place to identify personal and professional strengths and areas for growth and practice skills-building.

• A space to build a collaborative network of peers eager to work together – both during the program and afterward – to better understand how to address challenges and expand your toolkit of frameworks to enhance your capacity to do so.

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Career Benefits

The program provides opportunities for you to bring your professional work and passion into the program.

• Coro Conversations – Coro Conversations serve as a vehicle for you to exercise leadership and management skills-building in a real-time setting, deepening your understanding of issues that uniquely impact women, while also practicing your professional development in an experiential way.
• Exploring Tough Interpretations – An adaptive leadership module that builds on Coro’s effective inquiry, giving and receiving feedback, and effective communication tools to illuminate your resistance to change.
• Personal Leadership Commitment – You will name a specific area of growth you plan to practice over the course of the program.
• Peer Consultancy – Practice a consulting framework to receive peer coaching in a real-world professional challenge that you bring into the program.
• Sharing Professional Narratives and Vision – Your leadership offers value to your work and Coro wants to make that value visible. Through a concluding activity, you will  synthesize the program’s impact and set commitments to continue your capacity building during and beyond the program.

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Program Impact

Coro’s unique approach to leadership and professional development training delivers both immediate and long-lasting capacity-building benefits by expanding your skills, networks, and knowledge.

• 97% of the three most recent cohorts agreed that their participation in WIL expanded their professional networks.

• 97% of the three most recent cohorts agreed that their participation in WIL increased their leadership skills.

• 97% of the three most recent cohorts agreed that their participation in WIL increased their confidence and resilience to lead through challenges.

• 95% of the three most recent cohorts agreed that their participation in WIL increased their strength gained through cohort solidarity.

Explore the Program Benefits Guide

Benefits for Employers

Coro’s programs deliver deep impact (see more in the “Program Impact & Testimonials” tab above and in the Program Benefits Guide) at a highly subsidized professional development rate. Women professionals face unique challenges in the workplace. Investing in your women team members by expanding their skills, network, and knowledge further builds your capacity to deliver on your organization’s mission.

Supporting team members, either financially and/or with the time and space to participate fully in WIL, yields strong organizational benefits by:

• Demonstrating your commitment to the employee, increasing their feeling of engagement, which often leads to higher productivity, loyalty, and retention

• Increasing the skills of employees in critical positions that can be incorporated departmentally and instilled in their direct reports

• Motivating all employees by signaling that leadership and a commitment to their work is rewarded by the organization.

Connect with Coro to discuss an organizational partnership and nominate a member of your team for WIL.

Our 75-year history gives us one of the most diverse alumni networks in the country — 15,000 graduates and growing — spanning sectors, perspectives, and geography. At Coro, the learning doesn’t stop when your program ends. Coro alumni status gives you access to:

• The Resources – Coro alumni have access to AlumniFire, Coro’s Job Board (Coro Classifieds), & Coro’s alumni-only LinkedIn page, where they can network, find job opportunities, fill roles at their organizations, and learn from one another.

• The Exposure – Coro brings together decision makers across sectors to share perspectives and discuss the future of our region at a number of annual events, many of which are exclusive to Coro alumni. Joining the Coro network ensures that partners stay connected with forward-thinking leaders at all levels and across all sectors, and provides you exposure to key decision makers.

• The Credentials – Coro has partnered with Credly by Pearson™ to issue and maintain digital badges. As authenticated, certified, and individually-awarded badges, you’ll be able to showcase your unique professional, management, and leadership development capacity-building in real-time with colleagues, current and future employers, and your network.

• The Network – Alumni have powerful networks to ignite change and continuous support for tackling professional challenges through their Coro family. Program participants directly engage with numerous leaders over the duration of their experience. This, coupled with the over 15,000 Coro alumni, creates a unique opportunity for alumni to quickly expand their social capital.

WIL Graduates’ Organizations 

• 1st Century Bank

• Abernathy MacGregor

• Accordant

• ACLU of Southern California

• ActiveSGV

• Advanced Sterilization Products

• Adventist Health White Memorial

• AFH Public Affairs

• AltaMed Health Services

• A Place Called Home

• Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS)

• AT&T

• Bain & Company

• Bank of America

• Benenson Strategy Group

• Best Best & Krieger LLP

• Block By Block, Southwest Region

• Brand Knew

• British Consulate – General Los Angeles

• Brentwood School

• California Charter Schools Association

• California Community Foundation

• California Resources Corporation

• California State University, Northridge

• Campaign for College Opportunity

• Capital Group

• Caruso

• CBRE

• Cedars-Sinai

• Century Housing Corporation

• CEO Leadership Alliance

• Cerrell Associates

• Chapman University

• ChargerHelp!

• CHERP, Inc.

• Children’s Health Orange County (CHOC)

• Children’s Institute

• CicLAvia

• City of Alhambra

• City of Costa Mesa

• City of Glendale, Brand Library & Art Center

• City of Houston, Mayor’s Office of Education

• City of Los Angeles

• City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering

• City of Los Angeles Controller’s Office

• City of Los Angeles, Council District 2

• City of Los Angeles, Council District 3

• City of Los Angeles, Council District 7

• City of Los Angeles, Council District 10

• City of Los Angeles, Council District 11

• City of Los Angeles, Council District 12

• City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, Bureau of Contract Administration

• City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation

• City of Los Angeles, Department of Water & Power

• City of Pico Rivera

• City of Santa Monica

• City of Santa Monica, Department of Cultural Affairs

• City of South Gate, City Council

• Clean Power Alliance

• Community Partners

• Comp Sci High School

• Concordia, LLC

• Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

• Converge Strategies LLC

• Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)

• County of Los Angeles, Board of Supervisors District 1

• County of Los Angeles, Board of Supervisors District 2

• County of Los Angeles, Board of Supervisors District 4

• County of Los Angeles, Chief Sustainability Office

• County of Los Angeles, Department of Health Services

• County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Health

• County of Orange

• Curt Pringle and Associates

• Diversity in Leadership Institute

• DHL Corporation

• Dole Sunshine Company

• Downtown Women’s Center

• Elevate Public Affairs

• Encore VFX

• Equitas Academy Charter Schools

• Essential Access Health

• Feed Black Futures

• First 5 LA

• Friends of the LA River

• Gabriella Charter Schools

• Gaffney Austin

• Glaser Weil

• Glendale Unified School District

• Google

• GrassrootsLab

• Groundswell Action Fund

• GSPN

• Heal the Bay

• Heidi Duckler Dance

• Heluna Health

• Herbalife Nutrition

• Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE)

• Holland & Knight LLP

• Homeless Health Care Los Angeles

• Initiate Justice

• Inner City Law Center

• Instructure

• Investing in Place

• Irvine Ranch Water District

• JCI Worldwide

• Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles

• Kheir Clinic

• KIPP SoCal Public Schools

• LA 84 Foundation

• LA Coalition for Excellent Public Schools

• LA Conservation Corps

• LA Promise Fund

• LA’s BEST Afterschool Enrichment Program

• Laguna Playhouse

• Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP)

• Lennar Corporation

• LeSar Development Consultants

• Liberty Hill Foundation

• Los Angeles Education Partnership

• Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator

• Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation

• Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

• Los Angeles LGBT Center

• Los Angeles Metro

• Los Angeles Rams

• Los Angeles Times

• Los Angeles Unified School District

• Loyola Law School

• Loyola Marymount University School of Education Alumni Association

• McDermott + Bull Executive Search

• Media Done Responsibly

• Meta Housing Corporation

• Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

• Michael Baker International

• Mission Lutheran Church

• Moulton Niguel Water District

• Move LA

• National Association of Investment Companies

• National Association of Social Workers California

• National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles

• New Economics for Women

• Orange County Business Council

• Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission

• Orange County United Way

• Orchid Essence, LLC

• Panthera Collective

• Para Los Niños

• Partnership for Los Angeles Schools

• Partnership for Public Service

• Phillips 66

• Port of Long Beach

• Providence St. John’s Health Center

• PUENTE Learning Center

• Purposeful Impact, LLC

• RAND Corporation, Pardee RAND Graduate School

• Realtor

• Rutan & Tucker, LLP

• RxLA, LLC

• Safe Place for Youth

• Safety Respect Equity Network

• San Bernardino Symphony

• San Bernardino Community College District 

• Scripps College

• SDG Housing Partners

• Sentinel Peak Resources CA, LLC

• Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

• Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing

• Southern California Association of Governments

• Southern California Edison

• Southern California Gas Company

• Southern California Grantmakers

• Southern California Health and Rehabilitation Program (SCHARP)

• Special Olympics Southern California

• SS HOPICS

• Stantec

• State of California, Office of Exposition Park Management

• State of California, Office of the Public Defender

• St. Joseph Hospital

• Starbucks

• State Bar of California

• Swarovski

• Tassio Temperature Control, Inc.

• Teach For America

• Team One USA

• The Broad Center

• The California Endowment

• The California Wellness Foundation

• The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation

• The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

• The Education Trust-West

• The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation

• The Giving List

• The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health

• The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

• The Pad Project

• The People Concern

• The Phoenix

• The Riordan Programs at UCLA

• The Walt Disney Company

• Thomas Safran & Associates

• Thrive Scholars

• Townsend Public Affairs

• United Way of Greater Los Angeles

• University of California, Los Angeles, Alumni Affairs

• University of California, Los Angeles, Geffen Academy

• University of California, Los Angeles, Government and Community Relations

• University of Maryland

• University of Redlands

• Union Station Homeless Services

• United States Department of Defense

• United States House of Representative, District 25

• University of California, San Diego

• University of Southern California

• University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine

• University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education

• Vision y Compromiso

• Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services

• Vital Research

• Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation

• WarnerMedia

• Watt Investment Partners

• Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA)

• Westside Family Health Center

• Wide Sky Consulting, Inc.

• WISEPlace

• Ylopo, Inc.

Organizations listed do not constitute an endorsement of the WIL program, or Coro, by the organization.