Organizations Hope these Opportunities will Contribute to Increasing Diversity in Pittsburgh Legal Community
The Pittsburgh Legal Diversity & Inclusion Coalition (PLDIC) and The Advanced Leadership Institute (TALI) have created two annual scholarship opportunities for employees of the PLDIC’s member organizations: one $12,000 scholarship for the Executive Leadership Academy, and one $6,000 scholarship for the Emerging Leaders Program.
TALI’s Executive Leadership Academy is for Black leaders with at least 10 years of work experience and with demonstrated leadership and a desire to achieve professional excellence. The Emerging Leaders Program is for future Black leaders with a minimum of 3-5 years of professional work experience, and can be either strong individual contributors with supervisory aspirations or those in managerial positions who are growing in the leadership phase of their career. Scholarship recipients must be admitted to either TALI program and be employed by a PLDIC member organization.
“We are pleased to offer these opportunities to our members, and hope that they will contribute to fulfilling our mission of increasing the number of diverse professionals in the Pittsburgh legal community,” said PLDIC Executive Director Ena Lebel.
Scholarship recipient preference shall be given to individuals from PLDIC member organizations who are unable to financially sponsor their employees’ TALI tuition. In addition, PDLIC TALI Scholars will be introduced in the PLDIC’s newsletter, social media, and at its annual members meeting. As more Black leaders are named PLDIC TALI Scholars, an alumni network for recipients will be created by the Coalition.
The American Bar Association’s recent Profile of the Legal Profession named Pittsburgh as having the lowest percentage of shareholders of color – less than 3% of partners are lawyers of color. Both the PLDIC and TALI recognize the need to promote and retain more Black leaders in Pittsburgh law firms and legal departments.
The PLDIC’s mission is to promote regional economic growth by assisting employers in the greater Pittsburgh area to increase the hiring, retention and inclusion of legal professionals from a variety of diverse backgrounds. TALI started in 2016 in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to create an executive leadership academy to educate, develop, and position Black leaders for meaningful advancement in corporate and community roles to address the lack of Black executive management in Pittsburgh’s corporations. Its mission is to cultivate Black executive leaders to strengthen companies, institutions, and communities.
For more information about the TALI programs, applications, and deadlines, visit: https://taliinstitute.org/leadership-programs/. Interested PLDIC applicants should indicate their interest in the scholarship on the TALI application. Recipients will be notified after being accepted into a TALI program.
For questions about the scholarship, please contact ena.lebel@pghlegaldiversiity.org.