About

The Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) was founded in 2006 by several Yale women who wanted to create an organization that prioritized mentorship and support for female leaders on campus. Each year, the Board changes, but the fundamentals of our vision remain: WLI fosters relationships across the undergraduate student body, graduate students, Yale alumnae, and professionals from around the world. Since its inception, WLI has grown to support both small and large forums of discussion, from our mentorship families to our Job Shadowing Days to our annual Women in Leadership Conference. Our vibrant, diverse community has helped our members found other student organizations, companies, and last friendships with one another.

WLI aims to create a campus culture that encourages and empowers aspiring female leaders at Yale. We simultaneously embrace diverse styles of leadership and emphasize the ethic of an assertive woman who finds strength in principle and magnanimity toward others. We seek to achieve our mission by providing a community within which women may support one another’s endeavors; by extending that community to professors, administrators, graduate students, alumnae, and professionals; by presenting speakers who may serve as role models for our members; and by finding ways to cooperate with other institutions on campus so as to facilitate institutional change at Yale. This group does not espouse any particular type of political, ideological, or religious beliefs and, therefore, welcomes members of all backgrounds.