A statewide academy works to create gender balance in Washington’s local leadership.
By Jennifer Krazit
“We believe that women make terrific leaders.”
– Stephanie Lucash, Kenmore Deputy City Manager & AWC Board member
For decades, women holding leadership positions in local government across the country hovered at 14 percent, a number known as “the sticky 14” that seemingly would not budge. A statewide group is working to change that in Washington.
The Northwest Women’s Leadership Academy (NWWLA), sponsored by the Washington City/County Management Association (WCMA), is working to make local government better by achieving more gender-balanced leadership teams in cities and counties throughout the state.
To make strides toward gender balance, the NWWLA annually hosts a five-month training program for women and nonbinary people working in local government to prepare them for leadership roles. Initially, the group focused on getting graduates into city and county manager and administrator positions.
However, the organization found that many applicants to the academy had their sights set on other types of leadership positions—such as chief of police, deputy city manager, or director of departments like public works or parks and recreation—so the programming was modified to support those career paths as well.
A large part of the education is designed to help participants obtain the skills required to move into local government leadership roles. But even more critical is building confidence to seek out higher-level roles and growing professional networks that can support people throughout their careers.
“We see people who won’t apply for a job if the job description has 17 requirements and the person has done only 16 of them,” says Stephanie Lucash, who is deputy city manager of Kenmore as well as past president of the WCMA and a member of the Association of Washington Cities board of directors. “Until you’ve met someone in a leadership position who looks like you, it can feel really removed from any remote possibility that you might pursue a job like that.”
The most recent curriculum addressed everything from navigating the fundamentals of local government finance and budgeting to gaining practice with public speaking and pitching policies. The academy is open to women and nonbinary individuals with a commitment to service in local government in Washington—from big cities and counties to small, rural communities—whether they are early in their careers or have worked in the public sector for a long time and are looking to take the next step. To make the academy accessible to participants from all over the state, most programming takes place virtually, with a kickoff retreat and graduation ceremony happening in person.
With each cohort of graduates, Lucash says, the academy mints new leaders who reflect the population that local government is working to serve.
“We believe that women make terrific leaders,” she adds. “When you have more women and nonbinary individuals as department heads on leadership teams in cities and counties, we think you’ll see better decisions made because they bring different perspectives. Having different perspectives represented is really important in a successful local government.”
For more information: nwwla.gov