WIM Fellowship
A transformational leadership experience across healthcare.
The Women in Medicine Fellowship is a selective, high-impact leadership experience designed for early and mid-career leaders across healthcare.
Through immersive learning, executive coaching, strategic networking, and interdisciplinary community, participants strengthen the leadership capacity, visibility, and relationships that accelerate advancement and expand influence.
Program Overview
The Women in Medicine Fellowship is a high-impact leadership experience designed for early and mid-career women across healthcare. Through two concurrent cohorts, the program brings together physicians and leaders from clinical and non-clinical disciplines to strengthen leadership capacity and expand influence across the healthcare ecosystem.
This Fellowship is intentionally designed to address a critical gap in traditional leadership development. While many programs focus on building skills, this experience centers on what most often determines advancement: visibility, systems thinking, relationships, and sponsorship.
Participants will strengthen leadership communication, executive presence, and leadership identity while building and activating a strategic network of colleagues and allies. The curriculum emphasizes leading effectively across clinical and administrative partnerships and applying influence to advance careers, organizations, and health outcomes.
The experience includes in-person workshops at the Women in Medicine Summits, virtual teaching sessions, individual executive coaching, small-group community engagement, and an immersive systems-thinking simulation.
This is a selective, high-engagement program for leaders at a meaningful inflection point, ready to translate their capability into greater impact.
application process and timeline
Applications open June 1, 2026 and close July 15, 2026.
Applicants must submit:
Online application form
Current curriculum vitae (CV)
Statement of Purpose
Letter of Recommendation from a sponsor or senior leader who can speak to the applicant’s readiness for advancement
Enrollment decisions will be made on a rolling basis, with formal review dates of:
June 16, 2026
July 2, 2026
July 16, 2026
Due to the highly interactive nature of the Fellowship experience, enrollment is limited and applicants must self-submit.
program leadership
Laurie Baedke
Executive in Residence, Women in Medicine® | Founding Faculty Director, WIM Fellowship
Laurie Baedke is a nationally recognized healthcare leadership expert, executive coach, author, and speaker with deep expertise in healthcare leadership development. She has founded and led leadership programs for healthcare organizations, universities, associations, and executive audiences nationwide, and authored three books on healthcare leadership.
continuing education accredidation
This program is accredited for 35 hours of continuing education credit by the below entities. Participants should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their attendance at live sessions.
Physicians (AMA PRA Category 1 Credit)
Nurses (ANCC NCPD contact hours)
Pharmacists (ACPE CPE contact hours)
Physician Associates (AAPA Category 1 Credit)
Dentists (ADA-CERP CME credit)
Social Workers (ASWB-ACE Credit)
Dietitians (CDR CPEUs)
Athletic Trainers (BOC)
Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE)
program objectives
The WIM Fellowship equips participants with the leadership capabilities, strategic relationships, and systems perspective necessary to advance and perform effectively in increasingly complex healthcare environments.
Through the Fellowship experience, participants will:
Strengthen self-awareness and emotional intelligence
Develop leadership communication and executive presence
Enhance negotiation, conflict management, and change leadership skills
Build and activate strategic professional networks
More effectively leverage mentors, sponsors, and allies
Expand systems thinking and interdisciplinary leadership capacity
Clarify leadership identity, values, and long-term career direction
Increase readiness for executive leadership and broader organizational influence
The program emphasizes leadership competencies and relationship dynamics known to accelerate advancement and long-term career performance, including visibility, sponsorship, networking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and contributions to the profession at organizational, regional, national, and international levels.
Participants leave better equipped not only to advance their own careers, but also to influence meaningful change within healthcare systems and improve outcomes for the communities they serve.
Target audience
The WIM Fellowship is designed for women across healthcare who are ready to strengthen their leadership influence, expand their professional network, and prepare for greater impact within their organizations and communities.
Participants represent a broad range of disciplines and professional settings, including:
Physicians across specialties
Nurses and nurse leaders
Advanced practice providers
Interdisciplinary clinicians and clinician leaders
Non-clinical administrators and operational leaders
Industry and healthcare innovation professionals
The Fellowship intentionally cultivates interdisciplinary learning communities that reflect the collaborative nature of modern healthcare teams.
Participants may come from a wide range of organizational environments, including:
Academic medical centers
Community health systems
Private practice
Military healthcare
Rural healthcare
Industry and corporate healthcare settings
While there is no minimum professional experience requirement, the fellowship is ideally suited for individuals approximately 5–15 years into their professional career. Candidates may already hold formal leadership roles or aspire to prepare themselves with the skills, relationships, and leadership capacity necessary to thrive when opportunities arise.
Ideal participants are intellectually curious, growth-oriented, collaborative, and motivated to contribute meaningfully to their organizations, professions, and communities.
program structure
The WIM Fellowship is a one-year intensive leadership experience that begins and concludes at the Women in Medicine Summit in Chicago.
The program includes:
Two full-day, in-person workshops
Five two-hour virtual teaching sessions
Eleven one-hour virtual small-group community sessions
Three individual one-on-one executive coaching sessions
An immersive systems-thinking simulation experience
The Fellowship is intentionally designed to combine structured learning, executive coaching, interdisciplinary collaboration, reflection, and relationship building throughout the year-long experience.
program schedule
In-Person Workshops
Kickoff Workshop
Thursday, September 24, 2026
Women in Medicine Summit | Chicago, Illinois
Closing Workshop
Thursday, September 17, 2027
Women in Medicine Summit 2027 | Chicago, Illinois
Virtual Teaching Sessions
6:00–8:00 PM ET
Physician Leader Fellow Cohort
November 10, 2026
January 12, 2027
March 9, 2027
May 11, 2027
July 13, 2027
Healthcare Leader Fellow Cohort
November 12, 2026
January 14, 2027
March 11, 2027
May 13, 2027
July 8, 2027
Small Group Community Sessions
Monthly, one-hour virtual sessions held throughout the fellowship year.
program cost
The majority of WIM Fellowship program costs are generously subsidized through the support of foundations and individual donors committed to advancing women in healthcare leadership. As a result, participant tuition is limited to $2,750.
Tuition includes all educational programming, executive coaching, small-group community engagement, simulation experience, program materials, and continuing education credit associated with the fellowship.
Participants are encouraged to pursue organizational sponsorship from their employer, institution, department, or professional organization. Many healthcare organizations view leadership development and interdisciplinary relationship-building as strategic investments in workforce retention, succession planning, and leadership pipeline development.