
Wurtele Center for Leadership
In our work with students, faculty, and staff, the Wurtele Center for Leadership embraces and advocates for a collaborative approach to leadership. We strive to empower members of the Smith community with an understanding that they can lead from any vantage point, whether they hold positional power or not. At the same time, we recognize and seek to dismantle the power structures that produce inequities in leadership. We design workshops, programs, talks, partnerships with other campus units, and other learning experiences that encourage participants to understand themselves (ME) and collaborate productively with others (WE) in order to apply their knowledge and lead change (IMPACT).
The Wurtele Center is also the institutional home of the Collaborative Innovation Concentration (CIX).
Our mission is to equip all members of the Smith community with the creativity, courage, and collaborative capacity to lead positive change at scales both large and small.
Explore the Wurtele Center
A Center for Women’s Leadership
A visionary gift from Margaret Wurtele ’67 and her late husband, Angus Wurtele, has enabled Smith to further distinguish itself as the preeminent college for women’s leadership.

Our Core Values
Meet the Team
Strategic Plan
Our mission is to equip all members of the Smith community with the creativity, courage and collaborative capacity to lead positive change at scales both large and small. During the 2019–20 academic year, the Wurtele Center for Leadership undertook a comprehensive strategic planning project using an approach inspired by Human-Centered Design.
Annual Report, 2022–23
“Leading well means recognizing the role we as individuals can courageously play in galvanizing those around us, and facilitating work towards collective impact in the midst of precarious and ever-changing circumstances.”
—Erin Park Cohn, Director of the Wurtele Center
Contact Wurtele Center for Leadership
146 Elm Street
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01060