Lead LA Fellowship
Develop skills to drive innovation across the region
The Lead LA Fellowship is an intensive, part-time leadership development program that equips professionals with the necessary skills to drive transformative impact. Fellows deepen their understanding of the challenges facing our region, gaining a renewed appreciation for Los Angeles’ rich history and complexity. The program offers insights into the region’s neighborhoods and fosters strong connections with the people who shape it, while building a stronger sense of community and advocacy.
Apply to Lead LA
The application cycle has closed.
Submit an Interest Form to receive recruitment updates.
The Lead LA Fellowship includes 90 hours of immersive professional development using Coro’s proprietary curriculum. Fellows convene over 14 sessions from September to May.
Opening Retreat: Fellows are introduced to essential leadership tools and frameworks as they build strong relationships to support their growth throughout the program. This overnight weekend retreat fosters self-reflection and sets the stage for Coro’s approach to learning.
Logic Study: Fellows are challenged to delve into the inner workings of a specific system in Los Angeles — engaging in tours, interviews, and independent research. This exercise hones the cohort’s leadership abilities, sharpening self-awareness and group dynamics.
Leadership Forums: Sessions led by Coro’s expert facilitators, focusing on skills for effective organizational and community leadership. Practice and apply proven strategies:
- navigating diverse perspectives within a team
- asking insightful questions
- inquiry, critical thinking, and evaluation skills
- objective and stakeholder analysis
- systems thinking, and more.
Issue Days: Cohort-led explorations of specific civic challenges promote collaboration, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Fellows work in small teams to design and lead an in-depth exploration of a civic issue, deepening understanding of challenges facing the community.
Learn to navigate change, and quickly adjust to new information and changing environments.
Increase your capacity to address real-world professional challenges through peer coaching, testing solutions in a confidential, empowered environment.
Deepen your understanding of time-tested leadership strategies and skills, including inquiry, feedback, and communication. Fellows enhance self-awareness and emotional intelligence, examining how personal biases and experiences shape their perceptions while practicing thoughtful decision-making.
Build meaningful relationships with other regional change makers. Join Coro’s 15,000-strong network of remarkable leaders.
At Coro, the learning doesn’t stop when your program ends. Coro alumni gain access to:
Alumni-only continuing education sessions.
- Networking events with key decision-makers working to shape the spirit and integrity of our region.
Coro Classifieds, an alumni-only job board.
A Credly by Pearson™ digital badge showcasing your credentials.
Alumni-only digital networking platforms to exchange resources and collaborate with other alumni.
Find the Program Benefits Guide below to learn more.
For decades, Coro leaders have made their way to influential positions in business, public service, and as advocates on behalf of our country’s most pressing issues. Coro values diverse perspectives, identities, experiences, and worldviews in our programs.
Ideal candidates…
- live, work, or serve communities in the Greater Los Angeles Region.
- are eager for professional leadership development.
- are committed to deepening their leadership capacity with a cohort of peers.
- are looking to expand their professional network.
- are interested in learning about regional challenges and how to address them.
- are those currently in, or pursuing, leadership or management roles
- commit to meeting for the scheduled sessions.
There’s nothing like the Coro approach. Coro helps people deepen their innate leadership skills, giving them the tools and a lifelong network to activate tangible change.
It’s not just about finding the right solutions; Coro training is uniquely focused on helping leaders ask the right questions. It’s about equipping leaders to relate across differences rather than simply reacting to them. Coro leaders intentionally engage and collaborate with others across identities, ideologies, sectors, and generations. Participants should be ready to engage productively with different perspectives and in personal reflection.
Coro views leadership as an active practice that requires hands-on experiential learning. Participants are expected to be engaged, mindful, and fully present, minimizing external distractions to maximize their growth and contribution to the cohort.
Coro leaders learn to move from judgment to curiosity, navigate ambiguity, sit in discomfort, and embrace empathy and vulnerability as essential leadership practices, critical for unleashing learning, and building authentic connections. Participants must be willing to embrace vulnerability to foster a psychologically safe environment — a necessary precursor to adaptive, innovative collaboration.
Program Cost
Tuition is $5,750 (subsidized from $9,500 by our generous donors).
Scholarships
Coro provides partial, need-based, scholarships. Applicants seeking a scholarship must complete the relevant questions on the application. Interested in a tuition payment plan? Reach out to our team.
Employer Assistance
Many participants secure financial support from their employers to cover the program fee. Please reference the Program Benefits Guide below to support this conversation with your employer.
Participating Organizations
See Lead LA Fellowship graduates’ organizations
- ACLU of Southern California
- Actors’ Gang Prison Project, The
- Advocates for Human Potential
- Alliance College-Ready Public Schools
- American Jewish Committee
- Animo Pat Brown Charter High School
- Annenberg Foundation
- Arizona State University
- ArtCenter College of Design
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles
- Best Best & Krieger LLP
- Better World Group
- BeyGOOD Foundation
- Bird
- Bridges Intergroup Relations Consulting
- Broad Center, The
- Buchalter
- BuroHappold Engineering
- California Endowment, The
- California Resources Corporation
- California State Assembly, Office of Assemblymember Rudy Salas (AD 32)
- California State Senate, Office of Senator Senator Lena Gonzalez (SD 33)
- California State University, Bakersfield
- California State University, Northridge
- Cause Communications
- Cenergy Consulting, LLC
- Center for Policing Equity
- Central City Association of Los Angeles
- Chrysalis
- Citizens of the World Charter Schools
- City of Glendale, Glendale Library, Arts & Culture
- City of Los Angeles, Board of Public Works
- City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs
- City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation
- City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works
- City of Los Angeles, Harbor Department
- City of Los Angeles, Office of Councilmember Bob Blumenfield (CD 3)
- City of Los Angeles, Office of Councilmember Joe Buscaino (CD 15)
- City of Los Angeles, Office of Councilmember Mike Bonin (CD 11)
- City of Los Angeles, Office of Councilmember Paul Koretz (CD 5)
- City of Los Angeles, Office of Councilmember Paul Krekorian (CD 2)
- City of Los Angeles, Office of District 14
- City of Los Angeles, Office of the Mayor
- City of Los Angeles, Personnel Department
- City of Long Beach
- City of San Fernando
- Civic Innovation Lab
- Children’s Institute
- College Track
- Community Coalition
- Community Partners
- County of Los Angeles, Center for Strategic Public-Private Partnerships
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Arts and Culture
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Health Services, Office of Diversion and Reentry
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Social Services
- County of Los Angeles, Office of Supervisor Holly Mitchell (LA 2)
- County of Los Angeles, Office of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl (LA 3)
- Creative Artists Agency
- Dignity Health
- Discovery Cube Los Angeles
- Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.
- Downtown Women’s Center
- ECMC Foundation, The
- Edgility Consulting
- Empowerment Congress
- Fiducia CP
- FlixBus
- Ford Mobility
- Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP
- Gartner
- Gather Consulting
- Gensler
- Guidehouse
- Hatch Collection
- HIAS
- Hispanas Organized for Political Equality
- Ichor Strategies, Los Angeles
- iMentor
- Jesse Gabriel for Assembly
- J.L. Edmonds Project
- John Wayne Cancer Institute & Pacific Neuroscience Institute, Providence Health System
- Kantara
- KIPP LA Schools
- LA Election Project
- LA Forward
- LA Metro
- LA Promise Fund
- LA’s Best
- LA Coalition for Excellent Public Schools
- Lombard Circle, The
- Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
- Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
- Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation
- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
- Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
- Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
- Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, The
- Los Angeles Unified School District, Office of Boardmember Nick Melvoin (LAUSD 4)
- Lyft
- Manifest Works
- Marathon Communications
- Mariposa Development
- Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- Mirman School
- Morgan Stanley
- Moulton Niguel Water District
- Move LA
- Multicultural Learning Center
- My Friend’s Place
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- National University
- Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
- One Table
- Para Los Niños
- Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
- Pepperdine School of Public Policy
- Phoenix LA, The
- PlantPrefab
- Prism
- Remember Us
- RethinkEd
- River LA
- Sequoyah School
- SidePorch
- Snap, Inc.
- SoCalGas
- Southern California Edison
- Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink)
- State of California, Department of Finance
- Stratiscope
- Students 4 Students
- Student Movement of Justice and Opportunity
- Swipe Out Hunger
- Taft College
- Taproot Foundation
- The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- TreePeople
- Tzunu Strategies
- United Airlines
- University of California, Los Angeles Alumni Affairs/Alumni Association
- University of California, Los Angeles, Hispanic American Periodicals Index
- University of California, Los Angeles, Luskin Center for History and Policy
- University of California, Los Angeles Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
- University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education
- University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
- University of Southern California, Shoah Foundation
- U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
- U.S. Department of Justice
- Verizon
- Walt Disney Company, The
- West LA Community Coalition
- Whittle and Associates
- World Health Organization
Alumni Testimonials
“The connections I made through Coro have provided me with a sense of belonging and ongoing support. This network includes talented and passionate professionals from various fields, giving me valuable opportunities to learn from my peers… [Lead LA] has given me a deeper understanding of Los Angeles, its history, and the factors that have shaped its present. This experience has sparked a greater curiosity about the city and strengthened my connection to its many resources and opportunities.”
Kevin W. Bryant
“My experience in Coro’s Lead LA Fellowship exceeded my expectations in every way. I could not have anticipated the power of professional and personal development paired with experiential and cohort-based learning. With the support of the cohort, I learned to mindfully define problems, examine solutions, understand team dynamics, and practice nuanced inquiry. [Lead LA] is deeply transformative. The analytic skills, self-awareness, and relationships I gained reverberate positively in every aspect of my life.”
Robin Lindsley
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