Hello Members,

When I entered the land use industry in 2001 (and originally became a member of ULI), there were few women around, let alone in leadership positions.  But it was around that time that ULI embarked on a strategic and comprehensive effort to increase not only participation but also elevation of women across the industry.   20 years later, this multi-decade and multi-pronged effort is clearly working at both the national and local level.  Within ULI Sacramento, our current Chair (yours truly) is a woman, our current Executive Committee (primarily made up of committee chairs) is 75 percent women, our membership is 35-40 percent female, and we have relied on one female staff member, Mary Clementi, to make this District Council work for the last 21 years.  ULI National deserves recognition for its dedication to women in land use and the positive impact it has created for our Sacramento district council.

I am particularly proud of our current Sacramento Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) committee, chaired by Amanda Frazier, VP Controller at LDK Ventures, and co-chaired by Abbie Wertheim, Development Manager at Panattoni Development Company.  Our WLI leaders are finding thoughtful ways to elevate women through collaboration, promotion, and leadership development.  For example, many women are left out of networking or business development opportunities that occur on the golf course.  In response, the WLI 2021 Golf Academy last Fall provided four afternoons of clinic-based, skill instruction led by golf professionals, complemented by guest speakers who shared insights on business development during golf, roles and responsibilities as a golf tournament host or guest, and critical golf etiquette.  The 2021 Academy was a sell out and we hope to see 20 fledgling female golfers participating in industry tournaments next year.

Our WLI committee has also shown us how to effectively partner with other organizations to support and promote women in our industry.  During October’s Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange Women in Construction Conference, WLI provided volunteers for the conference and hosted a panel on Communication Strategies and Using Your Voice, which was attended by more than 100 conference participants.  Our panelists engaged in the most meaningful Q/A session that I have seen in a long time.

For 2022, WLI is already hard at work, with a women’s goal setting and visioning meetup in January, a partnership effort with Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build Day in honor of Women’s History Month in March, the 2022 Golf Academy, and a building tour in May.  WLI is also soliciting feedback about additional programming that would be of use for women in the land use industry—please feel free to participate (and/or forward) this survey to someone you know.

I salute WLI Sacramento for providing great value to our current members, businesses, and industry as a whole.  If you want to become involved in WLI (or know someone else who would be interested), please don’t hesitate to reach out to Amanda ([email protected]) or Abbie ([email protected]).