Women are on the front lines of driving gender equity in the workplace and face unique barriers to advancement.
Despite an influx of women's leadership development programs, there is little consensus on best practices in design, delivery or desired outcomes.
Let's reimagine women's leadership education together.
Our individual e-learning modules, virtual cohort-based workshops, and custom curriculum educate individuals and organizations on the systemic barriers that impede women's progress and provide evidence-based solutions for navigating bias and influencing systemic change.
Kayla M. Gross is the Inclusion Program Manager for the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, responsible for increasing and improving the enrollment, retention and experiences of female-identified students in the department. The work is funded by a multi-year grant from the Center for Inclusive Computing.
She holds a concurrent appointment in Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory and is earning her Master’s of Science in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the experiences of women in the workplace with a particular focus on the design and delivery of women’s leadership development programs.
In 2020, Gross launched Equity U which provides affordable, accessible women's leadership education and curriculum to advance gender equity. With a focus on the political, social, and organizational barriers that impede women’s progress, Equity U equips women, allies and organizations with data and evidence-based strategies for navigating barriers and influencing systemic change.
Her dedication to advancing and improving the experiences of women in the workplace is driven by her work experiences in the male-centric world of college sports. Gross previously served as the Director of Beyond Football for Oregon State University and as Community Relations Coordinator for the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department. In both roles, she was responsible for creating and implementing a strategic vision and innovative programming to develop the personal and professional competencies of student-athletes.
As Inclusion Program Manager, I am leading an effort to increase and improve the enrollment, retention and experiences of female-identified students in the UW-Madison Department of Computer Science.
Watch Kayla's presentation during University of Wisconsin-Madison's 31 Days of Women & Leadership Learning.
I believe that the best women's leadership programs increase bias literacy while providing opportunities for women to build confidence in a supportive environment.
I offer a variety of workshops, webinars, and presentations including:
Looking to create or improve your women's leadership development program?
I work with organizations looking to infuse strategy, best practices in teaching and learning, and the latest research on women in the workplace to maximize growth and learning outcomes for participants.
From full program plans to hour-long workshops, I also offer custom curriculum and lesson plans that utilize evidence-based strategies and cutting-edge research on teaching and learning, leadership, and women in the workplace. Each session aims to build bias literacy and features interactive capacity and confidence building exercises.