Recently designated as the national flagship program of The Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future, Leadership America continues to be committed to fulfilling its mission to

Recognize, educate and connect accomplished and diverse
women to increase their global impacts both individually and collectively.

In recognition of 20 years of contributions and advancement, the Leadership America program, is charting a new course in 2008. The goal of the program is to define what women leaders need to be successful in the 21st century.

A diverse group of women from across the United States are being invited to participate in a comprehensive exploration of their leadership experiences and professional development.

Focus areas for the program include looking at what has changed in the professional environment over the past 25 years and what tomorrow's women leaders need to do in order to successfully leverage their power and influence in their organizations - locally and globally.

Highlighting the yearlong process is a series of regional Leadership Summits - invitation only to the women graduates of the collaborating organizations and their mentees - that will feature the following program activities:

• Discussion with a high profile panel of leadership program executives
• State of the art audience response system technology delivering real-time feedback of participant survey activity
• Participation by both accomplished and up-and-coming women leaders that represent a wide diversity of ages and professional industries including Fortune 100 corporations, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, education, public service, volunteerism and government
• In addition to the regional summit events, an online survey will be made available to Human Resource, Diversity and Training professionals that are at the forefront of today's professional development agenda.

Outcomes for the 2008 program activities will be:

• Identification of the "Next Big Thing" needed in women's leadership for the future
• Innovative program models for 2009 program participants
• New connections formed among various local, regional and national leadership organizations that focus on educating and advancing women leaders
• Resources that will aid professional organizations in harnessing the power of their women leaders