PSU’s Center for Women’s Leadership is training the next generation of leaders

Portland State University’s Center for Women’s Leadership (CWL) supports women and gender expansive people across Oregon and helps prepare them for leadership positions across the state. 

Building on a storied history of providing thousands of women community support and resources for career growth and transformation, the center is looking to expand the ways it supports women and gender expansive people as they face challenges in their pursuit of leadership.

Some of Oregon’s most distinguished leaders have been associated with CWL, including its founders former PSU vice provost Melody Rose, Oregon State Representative Gretchen Kafoury, Oregon Supreme Court Judge Honorable Betty Roberts and Gov. Barbara Roberts as well as past board members Gov. Kate Brown and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. 

“The founding of the Center for Women’s Leadership on the Portland State campus brought excitement, new programs and expanded thinking about women’s roles in both leadership and political opportunity,” says former Governor Barbara Roberts. “CWL has changed the university and changed Oregon.”

Thanks to efforts by Roberts and other leaders, CWL received $1 million in state funding last June to support a sustainable future for the center and allow it to expand its reach.

“Over the past two years, many emerging women leaders have missed out on educational and career advancement opportunities or stepped away from the workforce altogether,” says Jessica Mole Heilman, director of the Center for Women’s Leadership. “This $1 million investment in the Center for Women’s Leadership will support a sustainable and expanded long-term future for CWL so that it can provide women and gender expansive people the resources and networks needed to succeed in leadership roles throughout Oregon.”

Increased financial support will allow CWL to expand its programming, which includes intersectional leadership training, community-building activities and speaker series events.

The investment will also support expansion of NEW Leadership Oregon, an annual six-day residential leadership and civic engagement program for female and non-binary students enrolled in any college or university in Oregon. 

For nearly 20 years, NEW Leadership Oregon has been dedicated to training diverse leaders across the state. Last year’s cohort came from 11 different schools and 13 different counties; 61% identified as people of color and 63% were first-generation college students. The cohort included students with 22 different majors and included students earning associate’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. 

By focusing on college students and teaching them leadership and negotiation skills, NEW Leadership Oregon plays a pivotal role in supporting gender equity in pay and leadership positions. 

“We know that when people start their careers and they go for that first promotion that's often where pay inequity starts and that sets them up long term for less earning potential,” says Mole Heilman. 

Expansion of the program will allow even more female and gender expansive students to learn these skills and be ready to use them during their first job out of college.

Building connections and confidence

Sentilla Hawley is CWL’s communications and marketing associate and participated in the NEW Leadership Oregon program last year. She says the program taught her a lot about what it means to be a leader, how to lead with empathy and the importance of taking healthy risks.

Hawley also benefited from discussions with mentors and other participants, another key component of the six-day training.

“We really got to open up with each other and to talk about our own life experiences, and it did become very vulnerable,” she says. “That was really comforting, in a way, knowing that I can be in a professional setting and that doesn't mean I have to be a robot.”

Participants in NEW Leadership Oregon also learn from speakers in leadership positions who share their career journeys. 

“That was really helpful for me because sometimes I think about a leadership role that I would like to be in, but it's hard to imagine how to get from point A to B, and they described that,” says Hawley. 

Hawley is currently a senior at PSU and also the Executive Staff Director for ASPSU, PSU’s student government, where her work sometimes involves confrontation. 

“I had always been someone who’s been very scared of confrontation, but NEW Leadership Oregon taught me that it doesn’t have to be scary,” Hawley says. “As long as what I’m doing is for the greater good then I can feel confident in whatever situation I’m in.”

Hawley says the skills she developed with NEW Leadership Oregon have also had benefits in the classroom where she now feels more confident and comfortable speaking up and taking the lead on group projects. 

“Being a part of NEW Leadership Oregon and working for the Center for Women's Leadership, I can confidently say completely shaped my whole university experience in the best way possible,” says Hawley. “It is something that has forever made a stamp on my life.”

Preparing for public service 

Emily Baker ‘18, a master’s student at PSU studying political science, also participated in NEW Leadership Oregon last year. 

Like Hawley, Baker says she gained a lot from conversations with other cohort members. 

“There was one girl who was from a different part of the state, a different political affiliation and had a very different view on the subject [we were discussing],” says Baker. “She and I were able to have a very open and honest and respectful conversation that I think outside of that context would have been hard to have.”

One of Baker’s favorite experiences was the program’s Day at the Capitol, an event where Gov. Roberts gave a tour of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem and shared her leadership experiences. 

“The biggest thing I got out of it was reaffirming my passion for public service,” says Baker. “I left there with the confidence that I am on the right track and I am doing what I love.”

Baker is well on her way to a career in public service. She is in the middle of an internship with the State Department’s Office of the Historian and last term interned for Congressman Earl Blumenauer. She’s also a finalist for the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship. Once she graduates this spring term, Baker plans to pursue a career in international relations or foreign affairs. 

More than 550 people have gone through NEW Leadership Oregon since the program began in 2003, providing a robust alumni network that helps launch the careers of new graduates and supports the career advancement of fellow alums. Program alumni currently serve in leadership positions across the state as business owners, nonprofit executives and community leaders. 

Evidence suggests that the program is also helping to increase the number of women in the Oregon legislature. Last year, Representative Wlnsvey Campos was sworn in as the youngest female state legislator in state history and, in January, Rachel Armitage was appointed to fill ​​Betsy Johnson’s Senate seat when Johnson resigned to run for governor. Both Campos and Armitage are NEW Leadership alumni. 

“The Center for Women’s Leadership holds a special place in my heart,” says Representative Campos. “There are so many opportunities, connections and friendships I can trace directly back to the investments that the CWL has made in our communities and in women across Oregon. The Center has created a space that empowers women to lead with heart, with creativity, with tenacity, with conviction and with integrity, and I’m eternally grateful to have been a part of it.”

An evolving mission 

While its core mission has stayed the same since it was founded in 2009, CWL has continued to evolve its focus and programming over the years. While it once ran leadership programming for high school students, other organizations have taken on that work, leaving the center to focus on college students and emerging leaders. 

One of the current goals of the center is to increase its focus on intersectional feminist leadership, which has involved opening up a dialogue with CWL alumni, current students and community stakeholders about the future of the center and how it can better support its members. 

“​​How do we expand and acknowledge that there's intersecting oppression that we need to address in order to have better representation and leadership?” asks Mole Heilman. “How do we build spaces that really allow people to safely show up and belong as their full selves?”

While these conversations are underway, the center is also expanding its programming while keeping intersectionality top of mind. In her role as CWL’s communications and marketing associate Hawley is involved in developing and advertising the center’s programs, including CWL’s lunch with the leader series, which is open to anyone. “I'm really excited for the programming this year,” says Hawley. 

Center events include a special Women’s History event called Intersectionality & Resilience: Healing in the Midst of the Storm on March 16, a reception for the release of Gov. Barbara Roberts’ new book, a conversation on climate justice and an event in May focused on tribal leadership, tribal sovereignty and other issues affecting Indigenous people in Oregon. The next session of NEW Leadership Oregon will be held in June 2022. To learn more about events and the Center for Women’s Leadership’s metamorphosis, visit the CWL website.