The Lead Fellowships — Lead Bay Area and Lead LA — train professionals seeking to strengthen their leadership capacity, expand their network, and drive meaningful change. This nine-month, part-time program combines experiential learning, peer coaching, and engagement with regional leaders, deepening understanding of the systems shaping communities. Through immersive leadership practice and professional development, you’ll gain essential skills in adaptive leadership, inquiry-driven decision-making, and collaborative problem-solving. You’ll emerge with practical tools, an expanded network, and the confidence to navigate complexity and accelerate your impact.
This Coro California program is offered in both the Greater Los Angeles Area and San Francisco Bay Area.
Program Overview
Program Benefits
Ideal Candidates & Eligibility
Format & Curriculum
Session Cadence
Ninety hours of immersive professional development from September through May. The program includes a mandatory, overnight off-site, multi-day opening retreat, monthly leadership forums, team-led projects, a Logic Study presentation, ongoing peer coaching, and facilitated leadership modules. Explore the program calendar for more information.
Curriculum Themes
Sessions address essential leadership competencies including adaptive leadership strategies for dynamic environments, effective communication, inquiry-driven decision-making, managing teams and fostering group effectiveness, project management frameworks for successful initiatives, stakeholder analysis and coalition-building, and practices for creating cultures of trust and innovation in workplaces and communities.
Learning Approach
Coro’s experiential methods center active practice over passive listening. You’ll engage in case discussions, leadership simulations, peer exchanges, and reflective exercises. Facilitators create space for mindfulness, vulnerability, and authentic connection, fostering psychological safety for adaptive collaboration and innovation.
Program Philosophy
Coro’s approach emphasizes three core principles: active leadership practice as lifelong learning, relating productively across differences in identities and perspectives, and embracing curiosity and vulnerability as foundations for authentic leadership and meaningful change.
Cost & Financial Support
Tuition
Program tuition is $6,000 (subsidized from $10,500 by generous donor support).
Scholarships
Coro provides partial, need-based scholarships and payment plans to qualified applicants. Complete the relevant scholarship questions in the application to be considered for financial assistance. Payment plan options are available.
Employer Assistance
Organizations benefit substantially when team members develop leadership capabilities and cross-sector networks. Many participants secure employer financial support for tuition. Use the Program Benefits Guide to frame conversations about this strategic professional development investment.
Application Process & Key Dates
How to Apply
Complete the online application sharing your professional experience, leadership goals, and commitment to regional impact. Review the Application Guide for detailed instructions and tips for strong responses. Applications are reviewed holistically with priority for varied perspectives across sectors, organizational types, geographic locations, and lived experiences.
Application Deadlines
Application portal opens: March 12, 2026
Early decision deadline: May 26, 2026
(includes $500 automatic discount and early consideration for scholarship and cohort selection)
Regular decision deadline: July 7, 2026
Selection Timeline
Applications are reviewed following each application deadline and applicants are notified within two weeks of the deadline. Initial program tuition payments will be due typically four to six weeks from your decision notification (payment plans are available).
