Chicago Women's Leadership Accelerator

About the CWLA

The Chicago Women's Leadership Accelerator (CWLA) is a targeted leadership development program designed to close the gender leadership gap by empowering and equipping career driven women with essential skills for leading in today’s complex business landscape. The CWLA provides a focused, high quality, and intimate professional development experience that builds emotional intelligence and inclusive leadership skills- valuable leadership competencies that directly enhance team performance, organizational culture, and improve employee retention.

This leadership accelerator is crafted to propel your career to the next leadership echelon. The CWLA offers interactive and actionable professional development, a powerful panel discussion with recognized business leaders, professional headshots, wholesome meals, and a networking happy hour. This conference brings together women of various ages, races, sexual orientations, abilities, and industries, fostering an environment where participants can learn from one another and grow together.

The CWLA is ideal for anyone who is a people leader or who aspires to be one. Over 250 career driven women have developed their leadership competencies through the CWLA . To learn more about the the history and mission of the CWLA, please read this short feature.

The CWLA WHY

Despite extensive efforts to dissolve gender disparities in leadership roles, women still encounter formidable obstacles in attaining such positions. Despite comprising over half of the U.S. population and almost 50% of its workforce, women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership roles, particularly women of color. Surprisingly, recent studies show that the gender leadership gap continues to widen, despite widespread initiatives for parity. The CWLA arises from the imperative to increase representation of women in leadership and equips women with knowledge and tools to become effective, emotionally intelligent, and inclusive leaders.

Special thanks to Lincoln International for hosting the May 2025 CWLA!

Click HERE to visit CWLA"s website to learn more and follow our LinkedIn page for updates!

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Chicago, United States