I love the way you trumpet women: their grand showing in the arts and our resilience in every dimension of life!! Keep on keepin’ on, Monique!!
~Mildred M. Stokes, Published Author
The Wells International Foundation believes that the power to change the world lies in the hearts, minds, and hands of women. Entrepreneurship and woman-based leadership in corporations, governments, and community service organizations are effective means of engendering this empowerment.
Through our Women’s Empowerment initiatives, which we operate under the umbrella of the L³ Alliance, we facilitate the ability of professional women to achieve their greatest accomplishments through productivity and life balance.
“L³” stands for lifestyle, legacy, and leading by example.
Through the Alliance, we provide opportunities for women to:
- Adopt the mindset and learn the skills they need to succeed professionally and personally
- Receive emotional and logistical support to bolster their success
- Cultivate a culture of philanthropy
LCC Workshops
WIF began its work supporting women leaders with Leadership, Communication, and Creativity (LCC) workshops held in Paris, France in 2016 and 2017. These intimate working retreats provided tools to increase the participants’ ability to manage change and get the best from their teams in a cohesive and holistic manner.
Through scenario-based exercises presented using the greytogreen approach, attendees learned the importance of 1) becoming conscious of how their attitude influences their environment and relationships at work, and 2) enhancing self-leadership skills to facilitate keeping an open mind during stressful situations.
The goal of the LCC workshops is to teach attendees how to manage unforeseen challenges more easily and harmoniously so they can provide better results for the end user of their product or service.
2016 Leadership, Communication, and Creativity Workshop
The Successful Woman
Our inaugural International Women’s Day event, The Successful Woman: Lifestyle, Legacy, and Leading by Example, took place at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme hotel on March 7-8, 2019. It was an exclusive and unusual professional and personal development opportunity for senior women leaders in multiple sectors of the global economy to come together for powerful, intimate sessions to explore
- How they view themselves / others view them as leaders
- How their current lifestyle compares to their ideal lifestyle
- How they view the (personal, financial, and philanthropic) legacy they are building.
Morning sessions were devoted to interactive learning (leadership and legacy) and afternoon sessions were devoted to masterminding to address the personal or professional challenges that attendees brought to the conference/retreat.
Day 2 of The Successful Woman – Panel Discussion on Legacy
Thirty participants prepared a professional and personal “Image Roadmap” designed to optimize the first impression they make on supervisors, project stakeholders, direct reports, and others so they can maximize their influence as a leader. Industries represented at event included:
- Tech
- Real estate
- Energy
- Fine arts / graphic arts / photography
- Law
- Journalism
- Nonprofit development
- Quality operations and program management
- Communications
Each participant was introduced to / expanded her knowledge about sustainable giving during the legacy panel discussion on personal, financial, and philanthropic legacy.
The Successful Woman – Success Stories
Three attendees committed to providing accountability for each other regarding book projects. One of these women, L³ Alliance Charter Ambassador Michele L. Turner, published her book entitled Lessons Learned: Short Stories of Continuity and Resilience in March 2021. It is a #1 Amazon bestseller!
Shelley Bradford-Bell took steps to sever ties with a major U.S. city and move to Paris, France. She established her new home base in Paris in September 2021. WIF recently welcomed Shelley to its board of directors.
Lindsay Lee Long decided to go back to graduate school while continuing to operate her business. She is now pursuing a Master’s degree in art history at the Pratt Institute in NYC.
Mentoring Matters
WIF believes that mentoring is one of the premier ways successful women can give back to the world. It is a fundamental part of the legacy that we encourage our members and like-minded women to build. We feature stories about women and mentoring in the LinkedIn Pulse article series called Mentoring Matters. We have published 26 articles since November 2018.
L³ Alliance Charter Ambassador Vada Kornegay mentored twelve young women at an alternative high school in the Chicago area in 2017. She created a year-long program that took place during the school day through which she is encouraged each girl to establish a career goal and explore the various routes that are possible to achieve it. Her mission was to have each girl take a positive step toward achieving a career goal prior to graduation.
L³ Alliance Charter Ambassador Vada Kornegay with her mentees
WIF’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Monique Y. Wells, currently mentors seven women at the undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and professional level. Among them is Josephine Maina, CEO and Founder of the nonprofit Hadassah Initiative in Kenya. Dr. Wells also mentors an African-American man, Anthony Fleet, who spent a semester in Paris as part of his graduate study at Northwestern University. Dr. Wells serves on the advisory board of Pawsibilities VetMed, a start-up nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide mentoring for BIPOC and other minorities who wish to enter the field of veterinary medicine. (Dr. Wells is a veterinary pathologist and toxicologist.)
L³ Alliance Membership Program
The L³ Alliance Membership Program is designed for high-achieving women leaders. It offers a confidential space for members to support each other personally, network, and mastermind on the important and sometimes delicate questions and challenges that successful women face in the workplace and at home.
One of the ways we emphasize the importance of legacy is to invite members and potential members to express their thoughts and feelings about this topic in our Thrive Global Legacy article series entitled What Does Legacy Mean to You?
As of October 1, 2021, we have published 12 articles in this series.
The Alliance currently has five Charter Ambassadors who are charged with reaching out to their networks to share information about the organization and encourage people to consider joining. Membership is by invitation only and is granted after an interview process has been completed and appropriate references have been consulted.
The wisdom, experience, and compassion of the Alliance membership will be used to:
- Create a “safe haven” for members who wish to acknowledge and explore their personal and professional challenges with like-minded women.
- Provide the tools, connections, and learning opportunities to further enhance members’ leadership skills.
- Support projects across various WIF Strategic Focus Areas.
- Mentor young women entrepreneurs and corporate executives to achieve their goals.
A portion of L³ Alliance membership fees are designated to support WIF’s philanthropic activities.
The Arts and Travel/Study Abroad
Over the years, our Women’s Empowerment initiatives intersect with our Arts and Travel/Study Abroad initiatives in powerful ways. Visit the links below to find examples of these intersections:
COVID-19 PAGES: Art & Conversation
COVID-19 PAGES: The Influence & Inspiration of Women
Intergenerational Mentoring at the American University of Paris
