VISION & MISSION
The Center for Women’s Leadership works in collaboration with seasoned and emerging women and gender-expansive leaders to advance the individual and collective practice of transformative leadership in Oregon and beyond.
We are excited to engage with a wide range of campus and community partners to co-create spaces in which we examine the practice of leadership at the intersections of race, gender, and other categories of difference, in order to enact systems-level change.
OUR APPROACH
We believe that learning as leaders, practicing leadership, and reflecting on our leadership gifts and challenges are lifelong processes. We approach our work and each other with empathy, understanding that the tapestry of our identities impacts the ways we experience and navigate the world. We prioritize connection, accountability and joy as we support each other on our leadership journeys.
VALUES
Learning. We are lifelong learners. We embrace a growth mindset, and approach differences and new ideas with curiosity. We believe the popular education maxim that everyone is both a learner and a teacher.
Accountability. We also learn from our mistakes—when we cause harm, we strive to hold ourselves accountable, repair the harm, and change our behavior moving forward.
Intersectionality. We recognize that the identities we each hold—rather, the way our culture treats those identities—overlap and compound. They cannot be separated. This means that gender justice is racial justice is immigrant justice is disability justice and beyond. We credit Kimberlé Crenshaw with coining intersectionality.
Joy. We believe everyone deserves joy, and we bring joy into our own lives and work by encouraging and celebrating each other, and by making time for rest and self-care.
Belonging. We want a world where everyone belongs, so we practice cultivating belonging in our programs. Belonging is both cultural and structural. It is a felt sense–either experienced or not, based on how we treat each other—and it is how we structure…everything. Which comes down to how we share power in decision-making. We credit john a. powell with popularizing the framework of belonging.
Empathy. We know that good leadership involves seeing the humanity in all people, and that requires empathy. Empathy means being present with someone and staying out of judgment so they feel seen, heard, and understood. Empathy creates connection, and when people experience empathy, dialogue and change are possible.
Community. We exist to serve the people of Oregon by preparing the leaders of today and tomorrow. This means building reciprocal, collaborative relationships with communities, as well as being responsive to community needs, and co-creating with our rising leaders.