When Dr. Jana Roberts presents at the International Leadership Association (ILA) Global Conference this November, she’ll be sharing insight and data from years of collaboration and mentorship. Her presentation explores how virtual communities can support authentic leadership development for women.
“My research is about identity development for women in leadership roles,” said Roberts, Trevecca’s program leader for online doctoral leadership studies. “The seed for the research really came through my time in the doctoral program at Trevecca. That is where my passion for leadership identity really began.”
Her early academic work became the foundation for broader questions, including, ‘how do leaders develop identity over the course of their career?’ That curiosity eventually led Roberts to the ILA, a worldwide network dedicated to advancing leadership research and practice.
“I’ve been so fortunate to be a member of the ILA,” Roberts said. “They have what they call a mastermind circle program for women. I signed up for that a few years ago.”
That decision connected her to Dr. Amy Rutstein-Riley, dean of the Graduate School of Leadership and Change at Antioch University and the mastermind circle’s facilitator.
“She was one of the collaborators of this peer-to-peer mentorship program that I participated in,” Roberts said. “She and I developed a great friendship. We decided to collaborate on some research and ended up writing a book chapter together on professional identity and leadership identity development for women.”
The two became research partners and friends and now facilitate their own mentorship initiative.
“The program is composed of women from around the world. We really have a global presence,” Roberts said. “The sessions that we're in now are focused on women in doctoral programs, and it's been such a great experience.”
It was in this context that Roberts and Rutstein-Riley began to investigate the value of peer-to-peer mentorship and the role of psychological safety in the growth and confidence of a leader’s identity. The result was research that evaluates how virtual environments can foster growth through trust and connection. As they describe in their abstract, “The growth of virtual platforms has reshaped mentoring by removing barriers of geography and traditional structures, creating new opportunities for women leaders across industries to connect and collaborate.”
The pair’s preliminary findings have been impressive. When psychological safety is intentionally cultivated, women leaders develop greater confidence, take more professional risks and form more trusting relationships with peers. These outcomes, Roberts and Rutstein-Riley argue, strengthen their personal development and leadership effectiveness.
The research, entitled “Virtual Connections, Real Trust: Cultivating Psychological Safety in Women’s Peer-to-Peer Mentorship Circles,” will be presented in an online session during the ILA conference held in Prague.
“What an opportunity for me to represent Trevecca on a global stage and really add our voice as part of this broader discussion on leadership identity,” Roberts said.
Her collaboration with Rutstein-Riley has also been uniquely rewarding.
“It is such an interesting partnership because we have very different backgrounds,” Roberts said. “But we really have formed such a strong partnership. We have been working together for years but only met in person last year. It was like we were old friends.”
In addition to her research being originally rooted in her own dissertation as Trevecca, it continues to inform her work with current doctoral students on the Hill, where she is an active professor and dissertation advisor for the Ed.D. and Ph.D. in leadership degree programs.
“I want to help promote that mentorship experience for our students because I’ve seen firsthand and through research how powerful that can be,” Roberts said. “And if I can learn something, if I can impart some knowledge from studies that I do to help somebody else, that’s one of the greatest gifts I feel I can give.”
Roberts and Rutstein-Riley will present virtually at the 27th ILA Global Conference at the beginning of November. The ILA is the largest international and interdisciplinary membership organization dedicated solely to the study and development of leadership.