Applications are now open for the Online News Association-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media, which will take place on April 12 to April 17 at Poynter in St. Petersburg, Florida. The academy is tuition-free, and 25 women will be chosen.
Teaching at the academy will be Facebook’s Liz Heron, S. Mitra Kalita of Quartz, Google News Lab’s Olivia Ma and Poynter’s Kelly McBride.
Here’s the application.
“I wish I had a program like this available to me early in my career,” said McBride in a press release. “It’s about time that we did something to address to documented barriers women face as they try to climb to the highest levels of leadership in media companies.”
From the press release:
Individual workshops will explore effective management styles, understanding journalism business models, navigating newsroom and digital culture, staying on top of technology trends, building entrepreneurial and collaborative teams, managing across differences, and coaching critical thinking. Each participant in this inaugural class will be matched with an industry mentor. And the class will continue to gather virtually as a cohort group for at least a year following the April seminar.
Because of the small size of the first class, the selection committee will give preference to applicants currently working in digital media who can demonstrate an aptitude for leadership through current job title, project leadership and references. ONA and Poynter both value diversity and are looking for a group that represents need and diversity across ethnicity, age, geography, technology platforms, organization size and skill sets.
