Strategic Plan

An Invitation to a Collective Reorientation

“An Invitation to a Collective Reorientation” is a two-year strategic plan developed by 23rd Association President, Jessica N. Pabón that launched in March 2026. She writes:

"As members of the National Women’s Studies Association, we are connected to one another and to the feminist movements we know birthed and sustain our field of inquiry. We know that one of the chief winning strategies for those looking to acquire or sustain repressive power is to divide and conquer. They understand that connections among the people matter: how and why they are made, how and why they are sustained, and how and why they are dissolved or destroyed. Examining our connections, and the effects of those connections, reveals how we have enacted our feminisms as a collective and for the liberation of the collective. Similarly, holding our disconnections in the light reveals where, when, and how we have not moved collectively or for the collective. 

Owing to the reparative vision and restabilization labors of immediate Past President Lewis, we are now positioned to be evermore intentional in how our initiatives, communications, visibility, and events orient our membership and inform our organization’s culture."

Download the 2026-2027 Strategic Plan

Reconnect | Repair | Restore 

“Reconnect, Repair, Restore: A More Thoughtful, Transparent, and Trustworthy NWSA” was a two-year strategic plan President Heidi R. Lewis developed after conducting one-on-one meetings with each member of the Governing Council and the Interim Director during the first two months of her presidency in November and December of 2023.  

As she noted during the post-conference Governing Council meeting (fall 2023), NWSA is a progressive nonprofit organization, but it is also “an institution that deserves to be resisted.” Even when the Association does excellent work, its members and especially its leadership should welcome questions and concerns that aid us in thinking carefully about who we claim to be and what we claim to do. Since the President has ex officio status on all NWSA committees and chairs the Governing Council, Executive Committee, Membership Assembly, and national conference, she understood that absolutely started with her. Since her leadership will be as collaborative as it is transformative, this reinvigoration will also be guided and advanced by the Governing Council and NWSA staff.

The strategic plan is meant to be a living document that outlines some of the main ways President Lewis aimed to galvanize a recommitment to the multivocal and multidirectional intellectual traditions central to our field in thoughtful, transparent, and trustworthy ways. While the plan did not aim to be exhaustive, it remains collective and comprehensive. Hence, President Lewis asked us all to do our best to understand and rally behind its invitations.

It’s time for NWSA to reconnect, repair, and restore.

Download the 2024-2025 Strategic Plan