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2010-11 CDWL Class

During this academic year, I have had the privilege of being in the 3rd class of the Career Development for Women Leaders (CDWL) Program. Presented by the Women’s Health Center of Excellence for Research, Leadership, Education (WHCOE), it is modeled after national programs for women in academic medicine. This program is cross-campus and included 6 faculty from the Reynolda Campus. Sessions were held monthly since September. At each session we explored a different topic, each facilitated by a wide range of national and local experts. Those of you who have participated in some of the Women’s Forum programs would recognize Sara King, from the Center for Creative Leadership, Donna Stringer, who works with the Gatekeepers program on this campus and our very own Andrea Ellis, from the WFU PDC.

Over the months we explored communication and leadership styles, career planning, being heard at the leadership table, conflict management, mediation, negotiation, finance, media training and diversity. We completed a 360 assessment and the Myers Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI). The curriculum was challenging and thought provoking. It required a great deal of self-exploration and questioning of long-held assumptions.

If anyone is interested in seeing specific class materials, just stop by my office. There is a wealth of materials and perhaps some ideas for future professional development programs and retreats in ZSR. For instance, at last fall’s RITS retreat, the rope knot exercise was one of the activities I learned in this program! And because it is fresh in my mind from today’s diversity class, I’d like to share two videos: the first is a Ted Talk by Chimamanda Adichie entitled The Danger of a Single Story and the second is call “The Lunch Date.”

My classmates are amazing women. The majority of participants are from the Medical campus and are talented medical professionals both in research and practice. The Reynolda campus members included Mary Dalton, Jacqui Carrasco, Donna Henderson, Sherry Moss and Sarah Raynor. It was wonderful to form a new network of WFU colleagues and I have to say that I learned as much from these accomplished women leaders as I did from the formal curriculum.

This has been a most valuable experience and I know I will continue to benefit from it in both my professional and personal lives.