Certificate Program for Women

Strategic Leadership Accelerator

Accelerate Your Career

• Manage the overwhelm of stress and triggers
• Navigate the complexities of gender and other social identities
• Negotiate more effectively
• Build a strategic network

vector of diverse group of women faces without features

The Essentials for Women Leaders

Navigating the complexities of leadership today requires tools, critical skills, and strategies so you can tackle the challenges faced by women professionals, and lead from your best self with confidence and intention. The Strategic Leadership Accelerator program has been equipping women to do just that for more than 20 years.

Who Should Attend

This impactful virtual program — informed by the latest research and current workforce trends — is ideal for professional women leaders who wish to better understand their leadership identity so they can strategically and authentically accelerate their careers.

Program Features & Pricing

8  Expertly facilitated, engaging live sessions
2  Private executive coaching sessions
Reflected Best Self 360 Assessment Report
Independent and group work between sessions
Networking and peer group support

$4,999 per person

Inclusive Leadership in Action

FORMAT

DATES
TIME
COMMITMENT

CREDENTIALS

COST
Live Online
Sessions
April 16 –
June 25, 2024
22.5 hours live sessions
6 hours self-paced work
Simmons University
Certificate
$4999


Impact and Outcomes

  • Identify and activate the strengths that enable you to lead from your best self.
  • Acquire strategies to manage stress and triggers that can interfere with how we engage as leaders.
  • Understand how gender and other social identities influence and impact your leadership style and journey.
  • Establish a comprehensive professional network with integrity to strategically support your career aspirations.
  • Gain skills to negotiate more effectively and comfortably.  
  • Receive personal executive coaching on your specific leadership issues, challenges, and career aspirations.
  • Engage with a diverse group of successful women eager to accelerate in their careers and make an impact.

Praise for Our Program

I cannot say enough about the Strategic Leadership Accelerator program. The diverse cohort was filled with smart, strong, engaging women representing a wide variety of backgrounds, professional experiences, and ages. The sessions were taught by subject matter experts who have lived experience. This made the teaching not just theoretical but applicable as each one was able to translate their real-world experience into concrete, actionable wisdom.

Heather Case

Vice President, Education, Hemophilia Federation of America

The Strategic Leadership Accelerator Certificate Program fundamentally changed the way I think about leadership presence and practice. The combination of programming content, peer interaction, and networking opportunities delivered an experience unlike any program I have attended. I firmly believe that completing this program contributed to my promotion into a senior strategy role.

Michele Hentges

Cisco Systems, Global Strategy and Planning

If you are wondering what differentiates the Strategic Leadership Accelerator program from others out there — it’s this — you will leave the program with the enviable ability to tell your story with a strong sense of self and a clear agenda about how to make an impact not only in your own career but in the careers of the women who surround you.

Heather Case

Vice President, Education, Hemophilia Federation of America

I feel very privileged to have completed the Strategic Leadership Accelerator course through the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership. It was an amazing opportunity to learn from some of the top female minds in the business, I would highly recommend this course!

Sara Keane

Head of Ecosystems GTM and Partnerships at Analog Devices

Participating in the Strategic Leadership Accelerator was like getting permission to take the time I needed to foster my own personal growth. This program provided community and an opportunity for reflection on my leadership journey and potential. The coaching sessions gave me the perspective and permission I was seeking to know that it is ok to want more as a woman in leadership.

Naila Russell DNP, FNP-BC

Director of Advanced Practice - FNP Program Assistant Professor of Practice Simmons University College of Natural, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

I had the opportunity to participate in the Strategic Leadership Accelerator, and I found the program to be a great addition to my professional development plan. I was so happy with the diversity of participants and the skill and talent of the facilitators. I would recommend this program for any woman leader who wants to build skills and tools for developing as a strategic leader.

Jill Parker

Senior Director, Capital One Trade Credit Operations

Early on in the Strategic Leadership Accelerator, I was promoted at my work. I reached out to see if I could receive any input on how to negotiate salary and skills to match my new role. I was placed early with my executive coach, the renowned Elisa van Dam. Her breadth of knowledge and insight was instantly impressive as was her willingness to share her time and expertise.

Heather Case

Vice President, Education, Hemophilia Federation of America

As a faculty member of the Strategic Leadership Accelerator program, facilitating diversity and inclusion conversations with women across sectors has been robust and engaging. You know you are on the right track when participants are authentic, thought-provoking, and impactful on issues that address current-day realities for organizations and women leaders.

Darlene Slaughter

Vice President, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)

Curriculum Overview

Session Details
Live Session 1

Program Kickoff

Join a Zoom session for a live virtual orientation to the program, when you will meet the cohort and learn more about what to expect from the program.

Live Session 2

Activating Your Best Self

This session provides an opportunity for participants to understand the specifics about when they are at their best. This view includes clarity of strengths, core values, and public persona.  

Live Session 3

Cultivating Resilience

How important is cultivating resilience as a leader? Very! In this session you will explore strengthening your emotional resilience to better understand why effective leadership includes emotional self awareness. You will be given tools and practices that allow you to immediately put into action techniques to manage and release emotional stress.

Live Session 4

Returning to Your Best Self

In this action-oriented and reflective session, you will learn strategies for returning to your Best Self to close the gap between intent and impact. You will cultivate a foundation of confidence that will allow you to respond to situations and people with curiosity and calm so you can maximize your effectiveness. 

Live Session 5

Gender & Leadership

This highly interactive session uses role play, research, and group discussions to explore work practices and norms that look gender neutral, but can have a differential impact on women. 

Live Session 6

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as Leadership Competencies

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words that we hear often, but what do they truly mean? In this foundational session, we will develop a shared understanding of key concepts and the historical systems that have led to where we are today. 

Live Session 7

Intentional Networking

This session empowers and inspires participants to view networking as an integral part of their career management strategy. It gives them a practical roadmap for how to effectively curate and communicate with their network to accomplish their individual leadership goals.

Live Session 8

Negotiating Conditions for Success

This session introduces the fundamentals of successful workplace negotiation, with a particular focus on women and negotiation. Learn the basic elements of mutual gains problem-solving. 

Program Schedule

Join Us for the Spring 2024 Program

This certificate program is delivered in a dynamic virtual format, featuring highly interactive live sessions along with coaching, peer group work, and exercises done at your own pace between sessions.

Live Session Dates Eastern Times Session
April 16, 2024 1:30pm – 3:00pm Welcome Webinar
May 14, 2024 10:00am – 2:30pm Building the Foundation + Activating Your Best Self
May 21, 2024 1:00pm – 3:45pm Cultivating Resilience
May 28, 2024 1:00pm – 3:45pm Returning to Your Best Self
June 4, 2024 1:00pm – 3:45pm Leading in a Gendered World
June 11, 2024 1:00pm – 3:45pm DEI as Leadership Competencies
June 18, 2024 1:00pm – 3:45pm Intentional Networking
June 25, 2024 1:00pm – 3:45pm Negotiating Conditions for Success & Celebratory Closing

Our Faculty

Our Faculty

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Audra Bohannon

Founder, Bohannon Advisory

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Audra Bohannon

Founder, Bohannon Advisory

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As a thought leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for over 35 years, Audra has helped individuals and organizations see the possibilities for a better tomorrow. Appreciating differences comes with challenges. Inclusion and equity provides strategic solutions to that challenge by creating cultures where everyone can do well. Audra has served in very focused roles such as trusted advisor, coach, facilitator, guide and, of course, thought leader. It is her deep dedication to those individuals and organizations who want to be better and do better, that keeps her passionate about this important work. It is her transformative power to engage hearts and minds that confirms her commitment to the “potential of all, not just a few.”

Background and Experience

Audra is a publisher and highly sought-after keynote speaker. Drawing on her life and career experiences to stimulate thoughtful conversation, she is fluent in topics related to the empowerment of people with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and race matters.  Whether engaging an industry audience or a global summit, her message that “all people have potential” touches emotional buttons to connect people and creates a lasting, often life-changing, impact.

Prior to founding Bohannon Advisory, Audra was a senior client partner at Korn Ferry. Audra also served as principal at Global Novations, senior vice president of Novations Group, and as partner and business architect of J. Howard & Associates, one of the leading consulting and training firms that established the diversity and inclusion industry.

Susan MacKenty Brady Chair for Women and Leadership and CEO of Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Susan MacKenty Brady

CEO, Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Susan MacKenty Brady Chair for Women and Leadership and CEO of Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Susan MacKenty Brady

CEO, Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Susan MacKenty Brady Chair for Women and Leadership and CEO of Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Susan is the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair for Women and Leadership at Simmons University and the first Chief Executive Officer of The Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Susan has previously published two books on leadership. Her third, co-authored by Executive Chair of the Board of Deloitte US Janet Foutty and Simmons University President Dr. Lynn Perry Wooten,  Arrive & Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw-Hill), debuted in April 2022 and landed on the best-seller list in the Wall Street JournalPublishers Weekly, and USA Today.

Susan also serves as emeritus board member for Strong Women, Strong Girls and as a Strategic Advisor for the relationship technology company, Our.Love.

Susan resides in the Boston area and is the proud Mom of two awesome daughters and two rambunctious Portuguese Water Dogs.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Simmons, Susan was Executive Vice President at Linkage, Inc. a global leadership development consulting and training firm. She founded Linkage’s Women in Leadership Institute™ and launched Linkage’s global practice on Advancing Women Leaders and Inclusive Leadership, and led the field research behind the 7 Leadership Hurdles Women Leaders Face in the Workforce™.

Publications

Featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, Susan is the author of Mastering Your Inner Critic and 7 Other High Hurdles to Advancement: How the Best Women Leaders Practice Self-Awareness to Change What Really Matters (McGraw-Hill, 2018), The 30-Second Guide to Coaching Your Inner Critic (Linkage, 2014), and co-author of Arrive & Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw-Hill, 2022).

See Susan’s Insights below for more details.

Public Speaking & Consulting

A celebrated speaker, Susan has keynoted or consulted at over 500 organizations around the world. She is host of the popular “Better Understanding” podcast series and a sought-after guest expert on leadership across media platforms, including The Gallup Podcast with Mohammand Younis on The Most Important Leadership Skill? Listening.

Download Susan’s speaker kit to learn more about her work and impact and book her as a keynote speaker at your next event.

Bryn Burkhart Headshot

Bryn Panee Burkhart

Founder & Principal, Bright Evolution Leadership Coaching & Career Management

Bryn Burkhart Headshot

Bryn Panee Burkhart

Founder & Principal, Bright Evolution Leadership Coaching & Career Management

Bryn Burkhart Headshot

As Founder & Principal of Bright Evolution Leadership Coaching & Career Management, Bryn Panee Burkhart empowers her clients to move forward in their lives and careers with clarity and confidence.

We are all works-in-progress, and Bryn’s philosophy is that we should seek to evolve and grow in ways that leverage our natural strengths and gives us a sense of purpose. She guides her clients to be intentional about their leadership strategy and to be authentic to who they are – helping them evolve into the next, better version of themselves.

Background and Experience

Bryn also serves as an Executive Coach at Landit, a personalized career platform created to increase the success and engagement of women and diverse groups in the workplace. She is an Executive Coach for IRelaunch, an organization focused on helping people return to work after a career break. In addition, she is a recommended coach at MIT and the MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Bryn holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an Ed.M from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She completed her Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) training through the Co-Active Training Institute and is a PCC with the International Coaching Federation.  She is certified in Gallup Clifton Strengths, MBTI, and Positive Intelligence.

Bryn recently relocated from Boston to Honolulu with her husband, two sons, and sweet mini goldendoodle. As part-Native Hawaiian, she is thrilled to return home to live near her ohana and immerse herself in the aloha spirit.

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Suzanne Frazier Wilkins

Coach & Organizational Consultant

Suzanne Wilkins headshot

Suzanne Frazier Wilkins

Coach & Organizational Consultant

Suzanne Wilkins headshot

 

Suzanne Wilkins is a coach and consultant with over twenty-five years of experience working with organizations and individuals to develop leaders in health care, higher education, retail, financial services and the nonprofit sector. She is also a sought-after conference presenter on leadership development and personal transformation.

Suzanne coaches leaders to enhance their own performance and to create inclusive environments in which organizational goals can be achieved. As a registered drama therapist, Suzanne uses traditional coaching approaches and invites her clients to utilize embodied techniques and tools from the arts to develop critical insights into the myths, meanings, metaphors and memes that drive each leader’s behavior and effectiveness.

As a consultant, she helps organizations develop and fully leverage the talents of their valued employees through coaching, creation, and facilitation of long-term developmental experiences, training, and building inclusive environments.

A playwright and actress, Suzanne performs “Undiscovered” a one-act play on a woman’s journey through mid-life.

Professional Experience

In her former role as Director of Program Services at The Partnership, a Boston-based firm specializing in talent development for professionals of color, Suzanne led the organization’s flagship leadership development programs and guided the firm through a six-month transition period as Interim President and CEO. She has served on several nonprofit boards.

Public Speaking

Suzanne has presented at the Linkage Women in Leadership Institute, the North American Drama Therapy Association and the Association for Group Psychology and Psychotherapy conferences, and keynoted at the American School Counselors Association. A coach through the Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Wilkins has been on the faculty of Cambridge College, a guest lecturer at Babson College and Bentley University and The Institute for Nonprofit Management & Leadership.

 

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Kerry Seitz

Vice President, Women’s Leadership, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

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Kerry Seitz

Vice President, Women’s Leadership, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

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Kerry Seitz heads the development of Women’s Leadership programming at Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership. She brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to produce innovative, research-based learning journeys that foster gender parity in organizational leadership worldwide. As a member of the Institute’s leadership team, Kerry is deeply committed to establishing the Institute as a global authority on the intersection of leadership, equity, and inclusion. A Certified Career Coach, Kerry began her work in leadership development as Principal of her own coaching business where she worked predominantly with women relaunching and redefining their career journey.

Outside of work, Kerry enjoys running, yoga, and spending time with her husband, three sons, and (female!) Labrador Retriever.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Simmons, Kerry was Vice President of Learning and Development at Landit, a career development tech startup aimed at democratizing career success. Prior to that role, Kerry was the Director of Advancing Women and Inclusive Leadership solutions and Executive Director of the Women in Leadership Institute at Linkage, a global leadership consulting firm.

Kerry spent the first ten years of her career in the mental health field. She has served as a clinician at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; a researcher at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College; a coalition and program manager for the Support to End Exploitation Now coalition at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County; and an adjunct faculty member in the criminal justice department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Mary Shapiro Professor of Practice, School of Business, Simmons University | Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Mary Shapiro

Professor of Practice, School of Business, Simmons University

Mary Shapiro Professor of Practice, School of Business, Simmons University | Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Mary Shapiro

Professor of Practice, School of Business, Simmons University

Mary Shapiro Professor of Practice, School of Business, Simmons University | Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

For more than 25 years, Mary has served as an Organization Behavior faculty at Simmons University. She is also an executive trainer and a consultant to public and private companies.

She teaches in Simmons’ M.B.A., undergraduate and corporate programs, where specializes in three areas: team building and leadership, influential communication across diverse stakeholders, and strategic career management.

Throughout her career, Mary has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, private institutions, and nonprofits to create vision, mission, and strategic plans; launch teams with operational infrastructure and project plans, and intervene in teams in crises. She also works with numerous boards of directors in strategic planning and She continues to create and deliver an inventory of leadership development seminars.

Professional Experience

Mary joined the Simmons MBA. faculty in 1993. In 2014, she was appointed to the inaugural endowed position of the Kagen Trust Professorship for Leadership Development where she steered the University in developing a leadership platform to be infused throughout the undergraduate program. She developed “The Communication Styles Diagnostic,” an online tool that has been used by thousands of managers to improve their effectiveness with individuals and teams.

Research & Publications

Mary researches and publishes in the areas of women and their careers, and organizations, and their use of male allies as gender-equity initiatives. Her most recent publication is “The HBS Guide to Leading Teams” (Harvard Business School Press, 2014). She has also co-authored two books, Your Job Interview: An Easy, Smart Guide to Interview Success (Silver Lining Books, 2003); and Take Charge of Your Career (Barnes and Noble Publishing Inc., 2004), which extend an understanding of interviewing and career strategies to include the nuances of gender and many dimensions of diversity.

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Darlene Slaughter

Chief Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement Officer, March of Dimes

Darlene Slaughter headshot

Darlene Slaughter

Chief Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement Officer, March of Dimes

Darlene Slaughter headshot

 

Darlene is a visionary with a passion to remove barriers and provide equal opportunities for all. At the March of Dimes, Darlene is leading a culture of engagement, innovation, accountability, trust, diversity and inclusion.

Darlene’s work in diversity and inclusion has received many awards and honors, including SAVOY’s 2012 Top 100 Influential Women in Corporate America, Profiles in Diversity Journal’s list of Women Worth Watching, Black Enterprise’s Top Executives in Diversity, and Heart & Soul’s Women of Substance in Finance. She has also graced the cover of Inclusion Magazine.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining March of Dimes, Darlene served as the Chief Diversity Officer for United Way Worldwide. Her efforts expedited and advanced diversity and inclusion strategies, partnerships and initiatives throughout United Way’s footprint. She also served as the Principal Consultant and Chair of Linkage Institute for Leading Diversity and Inclusion where she trained corporate leaders on developing and leading D&I initiatives in the workplace.

Before Linkage, she led an integrated strategy to utilize and support the talents at Fannie Mae and designed the first Executive Diversity Council as its Chief Diversity Officer.

 

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Samantha Tan

Consultant & Executive Coach

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Samantha Tan

Consultant & Executive Coach

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Samantha Tan is a consultant and executive coach in leadership, culture, and group dynamics. She is passionate about women’s leadership and enjoys working across generations and cultures. She helps leaders tap into emerging voices to inform and shape their organizations into the future. She uses the integration of body, emotions, and language to support effective decision-making and sustainable change.

In addition to her coaching practice, Samantha designs and facilitates local, national, and international retreats and off-sites.

Samantha’s work has been published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and she is a chapter contributor to The World Cafe: Shaping the Future Through Conversations That Matter (Berrett-Koehler) where she wrote about creating a culture of learning and care in her birth country, Singapore. Her first career was in strategy and policy development with the Singapore government where she worked on national reform projects in the manpower, arts, and education sectors.

Samantha has a BA in Philosophy from Bristol University in the United Kingdom, a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was a Research Fellow in Leadership at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a graduate of the Newfield Network Certified Coach Training Program.

Samantha lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her family. She loves painting, gardening and yoga.

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Lynn Tetrault

Founder, Anahata Leadership

Lynn Tetrault headshot

Lynn Tetrault

Founder, Anahata Leadership

Lynn Tetrault headshot

Lynn is an experienced global business leader and board director who is passionate about healthcare, leadership development and the advancement of women. She is the founder of Anahata Leadership, an advisory firm focused on supporting the leadership effectiveness and development of women. A longstanding executive in the pharmaceutical industry, Lynn is currently Lead Independent Director of Neo Genomics Clinical Laboratories and Non-Executive Director of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. She is also a Director of Paradigm for Parit

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Elisa van Dam

Vice President, Allyship & Inclusion, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

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Elisa van Dam

Vice President, Allyship & Inclusion, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

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Elisa van Dam brings a wealth of experience in gender equity and inclusion to her role as head of the Allyship and Inclusion practice area. Elisa works with organizations and individual leaders to increase their understanding and practice of inclusive leadership behaviors. In collaboration with other Institute Fellows, she creates and delivers research-based content and programming, based on our proprietary framework that demystifies the Work of the Inclusive Leader™. She is also responsible for developing and delivering engaging learning experiences for women leaders, including leading the development of the Arrive and Thrive Certificate Program for Women, launching in May 2023.

She recently published The Inclusive Leader’s Playbook: The Work of the Inclusive Leader with co-author Susan MacKenty Brady.

Elisa also maintains a private coaching practice, working with women on how to successfully navigate maternity leave.

Elisa lives in the Boston area with her choreographer husband, their young adult son, and a willful rescue cat.

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