Multi-week Training Program

Public Media Women in Leadership Presents

Leadership Academy

With public media facing unprecedented challenges, the next chapter depends on courageous leaders like YOU. The PMWL Leadership Academy isn’t just a training series, it’s a movement. Level up, build your skills, expand your influence, and help shape an independent, trusted, and unstoppable public media for the future. Lead boldly. Inspire change. Make it yours.

Lead Boldly

Inspire Change

Make it Yours

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Plan
Career planning, growth, and positioning.
Develop
Learn the tools used by the world's top professionals.
Lead
Lead the way while inspiring others in the public media.

Key Takeaways

  • Chart Your Career Path – Gain strategies for career planning, growth, and positioning to achieve long-term professional goals.
  • Align Mission with Content – Learn how to lead teams and projects that reflect your organization’s purpose and values.
  • Drive Sustainability and Financial Strength – Understand key approaches to resource management, budgeting, and long-term organizational resilience.
  • Engage and Grow Audiences – Explore strategies for audience development, digital outreach, and impactful communication.
  • Lead Through Change and Complexity – Build skills to navigate organizational culture, manage disruption, and inspire teams in evolving environments.

Included With Enrollment

Participants in the PMWL Leadership Academy gain access to a rich bundle of career-boosting resources designed to extend learning beyond the live sessions. This includes recordings of every course, practical tip sheets, planning guides, templates, and actionable tools to help you implement strategies immediately. Plus, curated materials for reflection, goal-setting, and skill-building ensure you leave each session equipped to take bold steps, advance your career, and amplify your impact in public media.

About the Program / Conference

Level Up. Lead Boldly. Make Public Media Unstoppable.

The PMWL Leadership Academy is more than a training series—it’s a call to action. In a world where independent media and a free press are under unprecedented pressure, the future depends on courageous, capable leaders like you. This is your opportunity to sharpen your skills, expand your influence, and become the visionary driving force designing and powering public media’s next chapter.

Through interactive courses, coaching, and hands-on exercises, you’ll chart your career path, align mission with content, and drive organizational sustainability. You’ll learn to engage and grow audiences, navigate complex challenges, and lead through change with confidence. The stakes have never been higher, and the need for bold, capable leaders has never been greater. Your leadership will ensure that public media remains trusted, innovative, and unstoppable—today and for generations to come.

Who is this for?

YOU! You are the leader who will make public media unstoppable. The PMWL Leadership Academy is designed for a wide spectrum of professionals who are ready to grow, lead, and make a real impact in public media and related fields. The ideal target audience includes:
  • Emerging Leaders – Early-career professionals in public media or nonprofit media who want to gain leadership skills, confidence, and strategic insight to advance their careers.
  • Aspiring Executives – Mid-level managers, producers, editors, journalists, and other media professionals preparing for higher leadership roles and seeking guidance on influence, decision-making, and career growth.
  • Seasoned Professionals Seeking Growth – Experienced public media leaders who want to strengthen leadership skills, expand networks, or pivot their careers to remain effective and innovative.
  • Media Professionals in Adjacent Sectors – Nonprofit media staff, journalists, communicators, and creative professionals looking to apply leadership strategies, future-proof their careers, and contribute meaningfully to the mission of independent media.
  • Advocates for Public Media and Free Press – Anyone committed to shaping a strong, resilient, and trusted public media ecosystem, who wants to lead with purpose and impact.

PMWL LEADERSHIP

Your Speakers/Presenters

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Meet Your Presenter

Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch, Career and Leadership Coach

Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch is a career development leader, trainer, and speaker with over 20 years of experience. She has worked with individuals and organizations across various industries and sectors, helping them transform their careers and businesses. Ingrid is also an internationally recognized artist known for giving new life to discarded and common objects. Her work has been published in over 50 publications and collected by museums worldwide. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University and a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Arts and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ingrid is trained in Structural Consulting from Robert Fritz, Inc., and is MBTI-certified. She is the founder of Mosaic Careers, a consulting company providing career and leadership coaching, training, and employee engagement strategy.
Meet Your Presenter

Iris Drayton-Spann, Executive Recruiter, Executive Coach and Consultant

Iris Drayton-Spann, MA, PHR, CDE, SHRM-CP, is a Managing Director at Stanton Chase in Washington, D.C., with extensive experience in executive search across for-profit, nonprofit, and public media sectors. She specializes in executive placements, board appointments, leadership assessments, succession planning, and DEI-focused consulting, as well as executive coaching.

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A PEAK INTO

Program Structure (Modules & Classes)


Module 1: Career Catalyst — Future-Proof Your Leadership

  • Class 1: Future-Proof Your Career
  • Class 2: Purpose to Power: The Leadership Playbook
  • Class 3: Level-Up Your Career with Design Thinking
  • Class 4: Career Reinvention
  • Class 5: Building Relationship Capital
  • Class 5 & 6: Group Mentoring Sessions A & B

Module 1 Learning Goals / Outcomes:

  • Develop Your Career Strategy – Learn to plan, grow, and position your career for long-term success in public media.
  • Lead with Purpose – Gain the skills to guide teams and projects that reflect your organization’s mission and values.
  • Strengthen Organizational Resilience – Understand financial management, resource planning, and strategies to sustain and grow your organization.
  • Expand and Engage Audiences – Explore methods to build meaningful audience connections through digital innovation and effective communication.
  • Navigate Change and Complexity – Build leadership capabilities to manage disruption, foster strong organizational culture, and inspire teams in evolving environments.

Ethical Use of AI

Friday Feb 28, 2:45 pm - 4:00 pm ET

Benjamin Toff, Associate professor, University of Minnesota

Benjamin Toff is an Associate Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota where he is also Director of the Minnesota Journalism Center. He studies the public’s changing relationship with news, public opinion, and political engagement and is co-author of Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism (2024, Columbia University Press). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA in social studies from Harvard University. He also previously worked at the New York Times.

Alex Mahadevan, director of Mediawise, Poynter

Alex Mahadevan is director of MediaWise, Poynter’s digital media literacy initiative, and faculty leading AI initiatives and misinformation research. He's taught thousands of students, older adults and journalists how to verify information online, and co-wrote Poynter’s AI ethics guide. He co-leads the Empowering Diverse Digital Citizens Lab at Stanford University, which studies the impact of media literacy interventions on underserved communities. Alex has also been on the forefront of the study of crowdsourced fact-checking.

Lynn Walsh, Assistant Director, Trusting News

Lynn Walsh (she/her) is the Assistant Director at Trusting News and an Emmy award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative journalism at the national level and locally in California, Ohio, Texas and Florida. She is the former Ethics Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists and a past national president for the organization. Based in San Diego, Lynn is also an adjunct professor and freelance journalist.

Joanna S. Kao, AI Accountability Network Senior Editor, Pulitzer Center

Joanna S. Kao leads the AI Accountability Network at the Pulitzer Center where she oversees a portfolio of AI and machine learning reporting projects and develops resources for other journalists looking to do AI-related reporting. She holds a computer science degree from MIT and an MBA from IE Business School. 

She previously worked at the Financial Times and Al Jazeera America. She also taught data visualization at Columbia Journalism School as well as developed and taught two new accessibility courses for the New School and Parsons School of Design. She champions accessible design and enjoys living at the intersection of computer science, design and journalism.

Sarah Stirland(Moderator)

Sarah Stirland is a writer/radio and podcast producer living in Silicon Valley. She co-teaches, produces, and edits San Francisco Bay Area high school student stories for KALW’s Summer Podcasting Institute. The Institute publishes an award-winning podcast called tbh. 
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Yet we know it’s putting creators out of business and demands earth-destroying levels of energy to run. How do journalists use AI ethically in reporting, storytelling and running a business? If you feel a tinge of ambivalence at letting Otter.ai transcribe interviews or ChatGPT help you write pitch letters, this session is for you! Experts in journalism and ethics will help you frame the questions to ask and find a path that’s right for you to navigate the AI revolution.
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Thanks to

Our Sponsor

CARS: Driving Leadership and Equity in Public Media

CARS (Charitable Adult Rides & Services), a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has been a foundational partner with PMWL, supporting programs like the CEO/COO BootCamp and Brave Talk to advance women into leadership and strengthen a values-driven public media ecosystem.
As a strategic partner, CARS provides resources, expertise, and a commitment to equity, powering PMWL’s Leadership Academy through workshops, mentorship, and professional development to cultivate the next generation of public media leaders.

Public Media Women in Leadership

Since 2015, PMWL has supported the professional growth of hundreds of women in the public media system. Our signature mentorship and leadership development initiatives have created meaningful, structured connections among women nationwide—empowering them to grow, lead, and thrive in their careers.
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