The 2023-2024 Leadership Fellows class includes 40 diverse, highly accomplished women who represent the highest caliber of next-generation women leaders from 13 countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Ukraine, the United States, and for the first time, Pakistan.
This year’s class represents numerous “firsts” including for the first time an Olympian, a senior leader of a symphony, and a participant of Australian First Nations descent.
Our Leadership Fellows Program is one of the most powerful ways we deliver on our mission of advancing women’s leadership. Our best-in-class program helps high-potential women hone the skills to fulfill their full potential through week long leadership training sessions with Harvard and INSEAD and importantly through the one-on-one mentoring from IWF members and the global networking opportunities provided by our World Leadership Conferences. Finally, we put our mission at the heart of every Fellow through their commitment to Legacy Leadership Projects that advance our mission. It’s no surprise that our program consistently breaks records in net promoter scores from all participants.
Our goal is to double the size of our Leadership Fellows Program over the next five years – which means we’d like every Forum to find their way to participate – by recruiting sponsors or even sponsoring a Fellow as a Forum. This year, 11 IWF Forums recruited or sponsored successful candidates for the 2023-2024 class. Thank you, IWF Australia, Bahamas, British Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Jamaica, Mexico, New Jersey, New York, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Building and sustaining a program with standards that reflect the excellence of our members truly “takes a village”. Thanks go to our selection committee who thoughtfully reviewed 89 applications to finalize our class of 40 and to all the members who volunteer to mentor, interview candidates, speak to Fellows groups and contribute financially. And special thanks to our dedicated HQ program director, Lynne Manrique who is always looking for ways to make our program even better.
To find out how you can play a role as a part of the upcoming program year, or provide funding to support a Fellow in the future, please reach out to Lynne at iwf@iwforum.org. And when you see someone with a badge that says “Fellow” at our upcoming 2023 World Leadership Conference and Gala in Detroit, Michigan, please join me in offering a warm welcome to the world of IWF.