BOLD Women's Leadership Initiative

The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation, with leadership and support from Rutgers University-Newark, will launch an innovative women’s leadership initiative in higher education – The BOLD Scholars Women’s Leadership Network. In the spirit of Helen Gurley Brown, The BOLD Scholars network is an intergenerational women’s leadership initiative across four higher education institutions that have demonstrated their commitment to cross-sector collaboration, innovation, diversity and inclusion. This powerful leadership network is focused on developing courageous leadership among young women within higher education who possess the skills necessary to move discourse forward on some of our most challenging social issues. Rooted within an intergenerational mentoring network of women from all sectors, BOLD Scholars aim to leverage their own identities, strengths, and collective knowledge to positively impact social change and foster inclusive campus environments. The BOLD network is deeply committed to supporting young women from all backgrounds and especially those who have been significantly underrepresented in higher education in terms of socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, and ability. The BOLD Scholars Program will start as a two-year program as it develops into a sustainable and successful national initiative. The inaugural cohort of BOLD Scholars will be chosen in January 2017 at their respective colleges and universities. An additional national cohort of BOLD Scholars will be chosen in the fall of 2017. All BOLD Scholars will be part of a national cohort and of their own college/university cohorts at each BOLD partner institution. These partners include: California State University – Fullerton, Middlebury College, Rutgers University – Newark and Smith College.