Women and Power: Building a Toolbox for Leadership
Class | Registration opens 9/30/2026 12:00 AM CDT
PRE-REQUISITE: COMPLETION OF THE POLK SCHOOL
Click HERE to submit your application.
Application deadline is August 15, 2026
This is a six month advanced women's leadership course for alumni of The Polk School.
This course will be run as a hybrid course with 28 hours taught in person over two weekends (October 2026 and March 2027) and the remaining 20 hours delivered via Zoom in 2-hour classes on Mondays.
Topics Covered:
- Labor History
- Understanding the Global Economy
- Communications and Public Speaking
- Navigating Organizations
- Defining Your Leadership Style
- Skill Building – Lobbying, Roberts Rules of Order, Running a Meeting, and Creating a Curriculum
Emily E. LB. Twarog
Prof. Twarog earned her PhD in American History at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a master’s in Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her book Politics in the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in 20th Century America examines the ways in which housewives in America used food protests as political tools to gain influence both locally and nationally. She is also the author of several articles and book chapters related to the evolution of working class women’s leadership development as well as gender violence in the workplace. She is currently writing a book on the history of sexual harassment resistance in the service sector, “Hands Off: A History of Fighting Back against Sexual Harassment in the American Workplace.” She is co-director of the Regina V. Polk Women's Leadership Programs.
Stephanie Fortado
Prof. Fortado is a social and cultural historian of the modern United States, with a focus on African American working class and social movement history. She is especially interested in Civil Rights and Black Power history, and in labor history, especially as it relates to women’s history, environmental history and urban history. She is co-director of the Regina V. Polk Women's Leadership Programs.