Women in Leadership
Develop Your Leadership Strengths and Skills
As women across the globe continue to face challenges and obstacles holding them back from leadership roles, Antioch University offers cutting-edge online programs to study and overcome those challenges. Support your professional growth in a time of social change. While these programs focus on addressing challenges commonly faced by women, they are open to individuals of all genders who are committed to advancing equity and inclusivity in leadership.
Hone Your Leadership Skills through Three Different Paths:
The Women in Leadership certificate programs bring together mid-career professionals who are clearly aware of the professional challenges that they face—and provide opportunities to enhance confidence and leadership skills within a social justice framework.
Professional Development Certificate
As women across the globe continue to face challenges and obstacles holding them back from leadership roles, Antioch University is offering this cutting-edge hybrid program that offers in-person and weekly virtual meetings to study and overcome those challenges.
Professional Workshop Badge Series
The Workshop Badge Series are three-hour workshops that focus on cutting-edge topics related to women's leadership.
Graduate Certificate
The Graduate Certificate offers four graduate-level courses to choose from that focus on topics such as self-care, inclusivity, social change, and strategies that empower women both professionally and personally.
These certificate programs are offered by Antioch University Online.
Learn More Today
Professional Development Certificate
This program brings together a cohort of mid-career professionals who are clearly aware of the challenges that they face—and provides opportunities to enhance confidence and leadership skills within an inclusion framework. Explore cutting-edge topics through in-person and virtual learning sessions, one-on-one coaching, and Circle Sessions that explore deeper themes in small groups..
In-Person & Virtual Sessions
This 10-week program will meet in person in Santa Barbara, CA, for the first orientation session and the last culminating session of the program,
or you may join online. The module sessions will be offered once per week for 1.5 hours in a virtual, real-time format.
What You Will Receive
Action Plan
Develop your own personal Action Plan and/or Workplace Team Project Action Plan utilizing the information gleaned from the program for your next steps in leadership.
One to One - Coaching
Receive 2 coaching sessions from one of our expert leadership coaches.
Antioch University Certificate of Completion
Each participant will receive an Antioch University Women in Leadership verifiable Certificate framing the completion of the program.
Explore Topics Such As:
- Self-Knowledge: Understanding and Leveraging Your Strengths
- Values-Driven Leadership
- Negotiation: Leadership Strategies and Intersectionality Lens Application
- Situational Communication Styles
- Leading with Emotional Intelligence
- Branding your Leadership
- Networking for Leadership Growth
- Investing Strategies for Women Leaders
- Operationalizing Empathy in the Workplace
Cost and Registration
- $2000
"The Women in Leadership program was a great experience. I met new people to connect with all over the US while collaborating and discussing topics relevant to today. What I took away from this leadership class was how to negotiate a salary increase with my current job as well as find a new job that met my expectations and saw my potential." -
C.H.
Professional Workshop Badge Series
Students will complete a 3-hour workshop to earn a “badge” that can be “stacked” with other badges over a longer, more flexible time frame that works with a busy schedule.
The 3-hour professional development workshops represent deep-dive explorations into topics that enhance leadership, inclusion, and equity in all professional sectors, such as:
- The Intentional Leader
- Investing Strategies for Women Leaders
- Leadership for Social Change
- The Superpower of Energy and Emotional Intelligence
- Operationalizing Empathy in Your Workplace
- Leadership in Action: Tools and Strategies for Lasting Impact
Cost and Registration
- $125 each for a three-hour workshop.
“Wow, the Women in Leadership program FAR exceeded my expectations!! Dr. Jacqueline Reid orchestrated a rich, engaging, life-changing program including so many panels, lectures, exercises, and discussions led by an inspiring range of women leaders with different backgrounds, positions, skills, and points of view.
J.M.
Graduate Certificate
The Women in Leadership graduate certificate is an opportunity for students to participate in graduate academic-level courses that deeply explore topics that support women’s leadership development by utilizing self-care, inclusivity, social change, defining one’s purpose, and strategies that empower women both professionally and personally.
The Women in Leadership Graduate Certificate can be used as a potential pathway into Antioch University's Graduate Management Programs by applying the coursework completed in this certificate toward our master’s level programs.
Students who complete all three courses for the certificate will be eligible to apply the nine credits earned to the MBA, MA in Nonprofit Management, or Master of Human Administration.
Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Hybrid Courses
Courses may be taken individually or together. Continuing Education students are not required to commit to a graduate program to begin coursework but can do so later if they decide to pursue a master’s degree.
Courses are flexible and can be taken in any order. You will choose 3 courses to complete for this certificate. Take a look at Enhancing Your Leadership Identity to learn more. This is not your typical graduate class.
Enhancing your leadership identity takes strategy and cultivation. This course provides opportunities to foster leadership and professional growth by developing vision, aligning your strengths and capabilities with strategy, and working to build confidence and credibility with others through effective communication. Participants begin by completing a self-assessment designed to report on their strengths and values and then engage with tools and techniques focused on developing skills in the areas of professional identity, business communication, productivity, career planning, and other best practices of effective leadership. Special attention will be given to the unique challenges women face in the workplace, along with their unique values and perspectives.
Upon successful completion of this course. Students will be able to:
- articulate your strengths, values, and areas for professional improvement
- employ strategies for communicating clearly, effectively, and across difference
- demonstrate work behaviors that exhibit leadership and professional integrity
- develop a strategic plan for enhancing leadership identity
This course has been developed into 4 modules that can be completed in any order.
Additional Courses
We live in a world that rewards women for making themselves small. This course uses the bestselling book, “A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space,” to dive deep into the five aspects of claiming space. These include enhanced body language techniques, stopping self-sabotage, thwarting sexual harassment, and embracing intersectionality. It will explore both big ideas and actionable tools that empower women both professionally and personally. Synchronous live weekly meetings.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- utilize their physicality and voice to communicate from a place of confidence and strength.
- build networks using a wholistic approach to community building.
- mitigate negative messages which lead to poor decision making.
- manage their personal safety scale, and know how to optimize their emotional safety in any space.
- identify their own “isms” and use that knowledge to help raise up the women around them.
- lead from a centered place of strength and inclusion.
This course invites you to critically examine the social understanding of gender and the powerful role that gender plays in both our work and personal lives. An emphasis will be placed on how gender interacts with women’s leadership experiences. We will analyze the history of systemic gender prejudice and gender discrimination and its consequences for women (and men). Moreover, we will discuss both individual and collective strategies for social equality and social change. With a focus on the U.S., this course strongly emphasizes the diversity of gendered experiences due to differences in race and ethnicity, sexuality, age, physical abilities, etc.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- employ interdisciplinary approaches to understanding gender power relations
- critically self-reflect on the relation between personal experience and social conditions
- come to an understanding of the intersections of privilege and oppression
- define key terms, such as sexism, feminism, social construction, and gender
- develop reflective writing skills
Effective and strategic leadership can be achieved by living one’s purpose. This course provides you with opportunities to enhance self-awareness and focus on what matters to you. Understanding identity and values helps inform one’s purpose. Students begin by learning about identity formation and completing a personal values assessment designed to help source what is important to them. What’s important to you drives effective leadership and decision-making and empowers you as a leader.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the impact of identity in personal and professional life.
- Articulate how identity and values inform purpose.
- Leverage personal strengths for professional success.
- Align strengths with leadership goals.
- Develop a purpose to impact plan for leadership success.
This course deeply explores the connections between inclusivity, work values, and self-care. Students are exposed to concepts such as oppression, privilege, and intersectionality, and it provides an opportunity to intentionally reflect on how these concepts have influenced their careers and leadership styles thus far. Students will develop a clear strategy and plan for how to utilize their specific experiences and roles to challenge white-centered professional norms and values in their lives and in their work with colleagues and/or supervisees. Finally, this course will walk students through a multidimensional self-care model that can be integrated into a well-rounded self-preservation strategy that bridges personal goals and professional goals.
Course Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of the course, students will demonstrate the ability to:
- Assess how personal identities, values, background, biases, and past experiences have shaped one’s leadership style.
- Formulate aspirational work values that can inform a new approach to work and leadership by reflecting on current actions and values
- Design a multidimensional self-preservation strategy that integrates personal & professional values and draws from relaxation techniques exposed throughout the course.
- Experiment with stress and burnout prevention strategies presented in this course in a way that is identity-sensitive and in line with personal and professional goals.
- Examine potential avenues for organizational culture change around white-centered values and ways to affect such change in one’s role.
Cost and Registration
- Courses are $1,200 each.
- Choose from the four-course offerings listed (see the link below).
- If students register for three courses at once, you will receive a discount of $600 for a total cost of $3,000 for all three courses.
"Antioch University’s Women In Leadership Certificate program was an amazing experience. It pushed and challenged me in ways I needed to be pushed and challenged. It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with accomplished yet approachable women leaders in a way that helped me to see a path forward in my own leadership goals. One outcome of my participation in the program is a little sticky note on my computer, summing up the course in 4 words: Character, Connections, Confidence, and Courage."
S.W.
Additional Information
Dr. Jacqueline Reid, Program Director, explores how the Women in Leadership Program provides opportunities to understand the barriers women face – and shares practical, actionable strategies to overcome these barriers. Read the Story
Clinical Social Worker, Advocate, Writer, and Public Speaker, Kima (Shakima) Tozay, MSW, LICSC, CGCS, shares why she decided to earn a Women's Leadership certification through Antioch University. Read Her Story
“Wow, the Women in Leadership program FAR exceeded my expectations!! Dr. Jacqueline Reed orchestrated a rich, engaging, life-changing program including so many panels, lectures, exercises, and discussions led by an inspiring range of women leaders with different backgrounds, positions, skills, and points of view. I learned through the women leaders in the program that being my authentic self, embracing my vulnerability and all of my feminine traits are not only ok but are my superhero strengths. As with the MAP program overall, I went deep inside during this Women in Leadership program and scrutinized my demons while appreciating my strengths, experience, and inner wisdom. I learned that being centered and clear will lift others up. This robust program focused a great deal on diversity and inclusion, helping me gain a greater knowledge and compassion for the additional layer of discrimination that BIPOC women endure. I feel better prepared to create space for other women to be their authentic selves and nurture their dreams and gifts. I learned negotiation skills, how to be a leader with grace and compassion, and how to take care and be true to myself while navigating the sexism pervasive in our society. I would highly recommend this program to all women!!” - J.M.
I recently completed the Women in Leadership certificate at Antioch University. While there are dozens of leadership experts, articles, videos, and courses available online these days, none of them are quite like the one at Antioch. I think many of us today are dissatisfied with the pace at which companies are working on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it’s hard to figure out how we fit into this, and how we can help accelerate this type of mission-critical business transformation. Taking just another DEI or leadership course isn’t enough. What you need is a program that incorporates the historical with the practical, with deep conversations and personal reflections. Dr. Jackie Reid and her team of facilitators, business coaches, and instructors provide you and the rest of the participants with a community of support, an environment for open, honest dialogue, and a roadmap for the next steps on how you’re going to lead with inclusion and better yourself and the world. ~ M.B.
"The WIL graduate certificate program was the catalyst that allowed me to overcome my doubts about enrolling in a master’s program. Completing the WIL graduate certificate program gave me the courage to pursue my education and reignited my faith in myself to be able to successfully complete a master’s program. The WIL graduate certificate program was an investment in myself that was well worth it! " S.B
When I was chosen by my employer to attend the women in leadership group provided by Antioch University, I didn’t quite know what I was getting into. I am so happy and grateful I was chosen because my passion and my power to bring out my leadership skills and not be afraid to share them with the world happened. So much so that I am going to go back to school and finish the education that I had left behind. - Victoria Alarcon, CommUnifySB
Faculty Spotlights
Deepa Pulipati
Adjunct Faculty
Naomi Nightingale, PhD
Coach, Instructor
Anissa Stewart, PhD
Co-Facilitator
Polly Chandler
Coach, Instructor
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