The North America Leadership Journey

The North America Leadership Journey

In this fully-funded, 12-month Leadership Journey, we provide mid-career women the safe space to explore their authentic leadership through vulnerability and reflection, an inclusive and diverse network which fosters a strong sense of belonging, tools and strategies for enhancing their voice, presence, and influence – all the while being supported by a powerful group of peers, mentors, and coaches.

You’ll engage in two in-person experiential learning residencies (Immersion and Lift-Off) in addition to virtual learning touchpoints, virtual group mentoring, virtual one-on-one coaching sessions, and, importantly, a self-directed Leadership Project. Throughout, you’ll be supported by your Leadership Journey community and experts in the global health sector.

Alumnae are part of a lifelong network of allies at local, regional, and global levels who continue to support each other and new cohort members and to advocate for women’s leadership.

Our aim is to create a network of talented women leaders around the world beginning with North America, East Africa, and India and provide them with a safe space for independent and collaborative learning to deepen and elevate their leadership impact.


“The Leadership Journey has just been so transformative for me - I learned more about myself, my environment, and the influence and power that I could unlock. I was equipped with a support group of other women leaders who helped push me forward. I'm still on a journey, but I feel I have the tools, the skills, the attitude, and the authenticity to bring out my best self. Having been thrown into one of the most complex public health issues around Covid-19, I'm deploying those skills every day.” — FOLAKE OLAYINKA, Immunization Team Lead at USAID


“I want to thank the Leadership Journey for giving me the time and the space to really think about leadership and what my leadership style and role might be. I think perhaps most important to me, has been the fact that I had the opportunity to have 22 beloved colleagues, plus a mentor, a coach, and all the WomenLift Health folks holding up this beautiful little mirror so that I could see the things that they saw that I often have a really tough time seeing myself.” — CHERYL MOYER, Associate Professor at University of Michigan Medical School

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Learn about the 2024 North America Journey

The deadline to apply is September 13, 2023. 

Connect with inspiring peers driving change in Global Health leadership.

Unlock your leadership potential guided by experienced mentors and coaches.

Connect with inspiring peers driving change in Global Health leadership.

Unlock your leadership potential guided by experienced mentors and coaches.

The Framework

The culturally contextualized Journey is uniquely designed to cultivate competencies that bolster four leadership styles: Authentic, Inclusive, Strategic, and Impactful.

Authentic Leadership

Discovered through a lifelong exploration of yourself and your purpose while building on the awareness of and trust in your abilities. This exploration enhances the insight, energy, and resilience that is key to leading as the truest and most impactful version of yourself.

Inclusive Leadership

Encourages an intentional exploration of power and privilege and how they manifest in interpersonal and institutional dynamics. It builds trusting, sustainable connections with colleagues and community by including and giving voice to individuals of diverse identities at all levels of decision-making.

Strategic Leadership

Rooted in an understanding of your influence and how to leverage it to capture collective energy and facilitate change within institutions and the global health community. Crucial to this is building an inclusive cultural dynamic that is based on trust that inspires action toward a better future.

Impactful Leadership

Inspires gender equality and leads to better health through a crystalized understanding of the power of your leadership and the critical importance of developing others for greater impact.

As a result of this Leadership Journey, participants will be effectively positioned and equipped to:

Confidently rise as a strong purposeful leader, enhance their influence and increase their impact

Build trusting relationships and collaborate with a diverse network of allies to dismantle barriers for women leaders within organizations

Cultivate the next generation of authentic, inclusive, strategic, and impactful leaders

Internalize that change will only come when those in positions of power expand & diversify the circle of leadership, and learn from those whom they wish to serve​

Leverage the collective power of champions and institutional partners to advance gender equality and better health

Cultivating Leadership Excellence in Every Region

Explore Our Culturally Contextualized Journeys