NEW Leadership Oregon 2025

Our 2025 NEW Leadership Oregon program launched on Thursday, June 19 in Salem Oregon. We are thrilled to be engaging 17 rising women and gender-expansive leaders from across the state in meaningful, leadership development programming. 

In our 2025 program, we’ll explore approaches that catalyze learning and growth around leadership practices that are explicitly anti-racist; grounded in intersectional feminist and queer ways of thinking, feeling, and doing; embracing of radical imagination; and dedicated to creating a culture of relationality and care among participants and in our communities. Participants will be supported to do the radical work of practicing critical self-reflection for transformational leadership as they become and build community together, for the good of us all.

Key Themes:

  • Understanding Systems Change – understanding who holds power, how decisions are made, and what barriers prevent progress.
  • Equity & Intersectionality in Policymaking – Integrating diverse perspectives into leadership and decision-making.
  • Career Development & Transitions – Navigating the shift from academia to full-time professional work.
  • Networking, Interdependence & Collaboration – Building strategic relationships and collective power.
  • Leadership Skills & Tools – Cultivating human-centered leadership approaches.
  • Reflection & Learning Practices – Encouraging personal growth through art, journaling, and mindfulness.

Meet the 2025 NLO Coaches

CWL is sponsoring one on one coaching for cohort members in our 2025 NEW Leadership Oregon (NLO) program. Over the next 5 months, participants will work with coaches to define how to best support them in their leadership development goals. We a thrilled to be working with 3 dynamic, certified leadership coaches whose experiences meet the learning needs of our cohort members.

We are also excited to continue growing this model to offer additional leadership and career coaching to our broader NLO alumni network. 

Kalpana

Kalpana Krishnamurthy works at the individual and systems levels to support change. At the systems level, she works as a consultant working with social justice nonprofits around organizational growth and health. Her work includes executive leadership coaching, meeting facilitation, organizational planning and change management. Kalpana works at the individual level as a licensed associate counselor, primarily working with BIPOC individuals and relationships.

Prior to becoming a therapist and consultant, Kalpana spent 20+ years in community organizing and policy change work on reproductive justice, health and rights. From 2013-2022, she served as the National Field and Policy Director at Forward Together, running the Oregon and New Mexico state based programs as well as national policy work. Prior to Forward Together, Kalpana was the RACE and Gender Justice Program Director at Western States Center focused on capacity building and technical assistance for grassroots organizing groups in the Pacific Northwest. Kalpana got her start in youth and college campus organizing.

Kalpana serves on the board of directors for the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity. She is a Mom to two teenagers, a knitter, cook, and avid romance novel reader.

 

 

Berri Leslie is a seasoned public sector executive with more than two decades of leadership experience in Oregon state government. In September 2025,

Leslie Berry

 she will begin serving as Chief Operating Officer for the Oregon Department of Justice. She most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for the State of Oregon, where she led statewide operations, cross-agency initiatives, and enterprise performance efforts.

Previously, Berri spent six years as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Kate Brown, playing a central role in policy development and intergovernmental coordination. She also led the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace, advancing access to affordable health coverage across the state.

Her leadership career spans key roles at the Department of Consumer and Business Services, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the Construction Contractors Board. Berri is known for her collaborative leadership, strategic insight, and commitment to transparency and equity in public service.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Oregon, a Master’s in Public Administration from Portland State University, and is a certified executive coach. Berri lives in Oregon with her spouse, their two children, and their dog, Noodle. In her free time, she volunteers walking dogs at the Oregon Humane Society.

Andrea Cooper

Andrea Cooper, whom her friends and colleagues call "Coop," brings two decades of experience leading at the intersection of politics, government, and organizational management. Coop has held several leadership roles across Oregon’s public sector, where she built and managed teams and coalitions to help find solutions to some of the state's biggest challenges. 
Most recently, she served as Chief of Staff to Governor Tina Kotek and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Kate Brown, where she played a pivotal role as a strategist, problem solver, and crisis manager. In these capacities, she provided visionary leadership, ensuring the seamless operation of the governor’s office while driving the implementation of the state’s most pressing priorities. 
Coop's legislative experience has been as a staff person and advocate. She served as the Government Relations Director for the Oregon Education Association and the Political Director at SEIU Local 503. During her tenure, she was instrumental in leading coalitions that successfully passed the nation's strongest paid family leave law, raised billions for school funding, and secured millions in additional funding for child welfare services. During the 2016 and 2017 Legislative Sessions, Andrea served as the Chief of Staff to House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson. In this role, she helped the Oregon House Democrats pass innovative economic and social reforms that elevated Oregon's profile as one of the nation's strongest progressive leaders. She also developed organizational processes and management systems for the office that subsequent Majority Leaders and their staff used for years following her tenure. 

About NEW Leadership Oregon

NEW Leadership Oregon 2023 Cohort

NEW Leadership® Oregon (NLO) is an annual multi-session, six month program curated for Oregon college students. NLO is open to any student enrolled at a college or university in Oregon. NLO is an inclusive, intersectional feminist leadership program designed to inspire participants to identify and hone the skills they need to lead in any context — in their community, within the nonprofit sector, in the boardroom, in politics, at home, as activists, and anywhere else their leadership is needed (which is everywhere!)

At NLO we believe there are many different paths toward leadership, and we collaborate with facilitators, speakers, and mentors with a wide range of lived leadership experiences. NEW Leadership® Oregon is modeled after National Education for Women’s Leadership®, the award-winning leadership program designed by the renowned Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

2025 Programming Information

2025 Program Dates:

Opening Retreat: June 19-22 2025 (in-person, Salem Oregon)

Leadership Coaching: one-on-one or group (Virtual, TBD)

Mid-Way Retreat: October 16-18 (in-person, location TBD)

Leadership Coaching: one-on-one or group (Virtual, TBD)

Closing Retreat: December 12-13  (in-person, location TBD)

Location: Hybrid (Virtual & In Person sessions in Salem, Oregon & Portland, Oregon)

2025 Application Dates:

Application Opens: February 14, 2025

Application Deadline: April 13, 2025

Cohort Announced:  May 2, 2025

Eligibility: NLO is open to students at all higher education institutions in Oregon. Eligible applicants must be registered for the 2024-2025 academic year at a two-year or four-year institution.   

CWL welcomes participants of diverse gender, racial and ethnic identities, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We strongly encourage students who are BIPOC, first-in-family college-educated, and transgender and gender nonbinary to apply, along with students from any and every major.

Accessibility: The Center for Women’s Leadership’s top priority is to ensure that NLO is an equitable and inclusive space for all cohort members. We invite you to share your needs and desires around accessibility in the application, and we will actively engage with participants to ensure the accessibility of the platforms and spaces we’ll use in the program. 

 

Meet Our Featured Alumni

Rachel Biscoe

Rachel Biscoe

Biscoe recently took the next step in her leadership journey by filing to run for a Linn Benton Community College (LBCC) Board of Education position.“I’m still close to the struggle,” she explains. “Sometimes politicians and board members either don’t come from that struggle or they’ve forgotten it. I want to

 

Our Sponsors:

 

Oregon State Capitol Foundation Logo

 

Are you interested in sponsoring NEW Leadership Oregon 2025?

Contact Jessica Mole Heilman, CWL Co-Director at jmole@pdx.edu