The UC Women’s Initiative for Professional Development is an experiential program designed to cultivate connections across the UC

The UC Women’s Initiative for Professional Development (UC WI) is a unique, experiential, systemwide professional development program to support the success and advancement of mid-career, woman-identified professionals and is open to all employees who support and are committed to this mission. The program brings together participants from every UC location. Participants represent faculty, academic personnel and staff, people managers and non-people managers.

The Ideal Participant:

• Is mid-career faculty, academic personnel and staff from UC Davis or UC Davis Health.
• Has demonstrated potential for advancement or career growth.
• Supports woman-identified professionals and seeks to learn concepts that improve their effectiveness at work and hear about the career journeys of established UC leaders.

Outcomes:

Participants will strengthen skills and confidence through hands-on practice with a range of tools, that could be applied to leadership roles, including:

• Strategic Relationship Building 
• Advocate for their own needs in the workplace
• Coach others to demonstrate their value to the organization 
• Actively communicate their value to the organization 
• Increase awareness of diverse UC career paths

Selection Process:

Participants are selected from across UC Davis and UC Davis Health through a nomination process which uses ideal participant criteria (set by UCOP) to evaluate the nominations. You are encouraged to review the rubric used to evaluate nominations.  The finalist will then select and attend one of the cohorts (see the 4th page of this document). Scheduling of the selected participants into cohorts will be coordinated by UC Office of the President. 

• The $1,287.50 registration fee for each participant will be paid by the Office of the Chancellor.
• Time Commitment: Each cohort is made up of four sessions. The first and last sessions are each one and a half days, the remaining sessions are one day each. There is about 2 hours of prep work before each session.
• Timeline: Multiple cohorts will be scheduled during the 2025-26 academic year to accommodate participants' schedules.  

About UCWI:

The program is sponsored by the President’s office and the Systemwide Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (SACSW) and offered by Systemwide Human Resources in partnership with Coro Northern California and SACSW.

• More information about the program can be found here. 

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