June 18, 2026
Leading with Strengths and Confidence
Advance 2026 opened with a day of insight from regional women leaders, centered on one unifying theme: breaking down old ways of thinking to build new ones, not only about ourselves, but about how we show up in our leadership roles.
The Advance program is hosted at the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business, a partnership that brings both beautiful surroundings and meaningful resources to the cohort. Grace Williamson, Senior Director of Industry and Employer Relations, welcomed the group with an overview of the connections and community the Knauss School makes available to participants.
LEAD’s Executive Director Veronica Perondi gave the cohort a look at Advance’s roots, honoring the team of leaders who came together to build the program in 2017. Their work was driven by a striking reality: San Diego ranked among the lowest cities in the country for women in the workforce, at just 44%. The growth Advance alums have seen since then speaks to why that work mattered.
The first session featured a Herstory presentation from Lucy Romero (22 & 25), Vice President at Enterprise Bank & Trust. Lucy spoke to her own Advance experience and how she made the most of it, including using the connections she built to strengthen both her career and her leadership approach. She emphasized the value of mentorship and the unique 1:1 mentor pairing Advance offers, encouraging the cohort to invest in the relationships they form inside the program and carry them forward beyond it.
Next, Executive Leadership Coach Amanda Flisher (21) built on that foundation, guiding the cohort through an exploration of their individual strengths and how leveraging them leads to greater confidence, more effective leadership, and a fuller life. The session centered on CliftonStrengths, including the history behind it: research originally developed to support returning military personnel dealing with PTSD, which evolved over more than 50 years and two million interviews into the Top 5 Strengths Assessment. Each participant had the opportunity to take the assessment and work through their results with Amanda, learning first how to understand their strengths and then how to put them to work.
The day closed with a presentation from Idara Ogunsaju, MHA (17), Founder of the Antorge Group LLC and past LEAD Board Chair, on the practice of finding and sustaining confidence. Idara introduced the I SAID SOAR framework, a structured approach to pausing, grounding yourself, and showing up fully for both your team and yourself. Her message struck a chord: hold yourself accountable, but with grace. As she put it, if you must be hard on yourself, make sure it’s with a feather, not a brick.
The cohort wrapped up the day with paired reflections and worksheet activities, designed to help participants first get to know themselves, then get to know one another. These sessions drew intentionally on the diversity in the room, treating different cultures, organizations, backgrounds, and experiences not as variables to navigate, but as sources of shared strength.
Seminar 1 gave the cohort a solid foundation for the program, showing them how interconnected they all truly are and how leading with their strengths can bring purpose and confidence into their leadership.
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