Professional mentorship helps California women and girls build collective power
by Dorsey Griffith
Mentorship is one of the most effective and transformative tools for advancing women’s leadership, confidence, and long-term economic opportunity. When women and girls have access to mentors who understand their experiences and champion their potential, they are better equipped to navigate systems that have not always been designed with their success in mind. For decades, the Commission has worked to ensure that women and girls have the support, guidance, and opportunities they need to thrive.
In 2022, the Commission established the Youth Advisory Council to amplify youth voices in the state’s public policy efforts. Councilmembers are often paired with a Commissioner for mentorship and Commissioners often mentor other youth in their community.
For example, commissioner Joelle Gomez, chief executive officer of the Children’s Home of Stockton, mentors a high school junior in San Joaquin County who is interested in public health policy and medicine.
“It’s a unique opportunity for us to know these young adults and individually help them develop,” Gomez says. “I often feel I am learning more from her than she is from me.”
“It’s a unique opportunity for us to know these young adults and individually help them develop. I often feel I am learning more from her than she is from me.”
Joelle Gomez, Commissioner, California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls
Eucharistia Peter, a Youth Advisory councilmember from San Joaquin County says her work has a broad reach.
“My conversations with my mentor Commissioner Gomez and the Commission’s team, inspired me but also showed me the unique ways I can impact my community,” she says.
The Commission also partners with organizations like California Women Lead and She Shares to share mentorship opportunities.
California Women Lead
The oldest non-partisan organization supporting women’s leadership in the state, California Women Lead (CWL) aims to advance women at all levels of the public and private sector by enhancing and strengthening their leadership contributions through nonpartisan training, education programs and network development opportunities.
“We are non-partisan,” says Myel Thelen, the organization’s executive director. “Our goal is to bring people from the public and private sectors together, knowing they have different viewpoints and ideologies, with the idea that one day they will be leading, whether on a board or commission or as elected representatives in local or state office.”
CWL also hosts monthly online conversations, in which board members teach skills such as building their brand, leading with authenticity, leveling up to the C-suite, and pivoting from the public to the private sector or vice versa.
She Shares
Established after the California Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women ended in 2010, She Shares hosts speakers at large networking events and has since expanded to include a mentorship program that pairs young women with experienced professionals in their fields of interest, along with virtual workshops.
“It’s a matchmaking,” says She Shares Executive Director Tamara Torlakson. “We pair them for the whole year, then it’s fairly self-directed.”
U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller, who is now retired, mentored then law student Olivia Clark, who later wrote in a testimonial: “I learned ways to join a successful law practice—large or small, how to be elected as a public figure, and how to be a proactive member of the judiciary.”
Clark, is now a lawyer with the firm Best, Best & Krieger.
She Shares workshops have included topics such as “Level up your LinkedIn: How to Make the Most of your Profile” by a career coach, and “Asking for What You’re Worth,” presented by a consultant specializing in salary negotiation.
As California continues to invest in mentorship and apprenticeship programs, it is clear that these relationships do far more than support individual growth. When women and girls are encouraged, guided, and given access to networks of support, they step into leadership roles with confidence and purpose.
The Commission’s work, alongside partners like California Women Lead and She Shares, demonstrates that mentorship is not simply a programmatic offering but a powerful strategy for cultivating more leaders and increasing women’s representation at every level. By nurturing the next generation of changemakers, California is ensuring that women and girls are not only prepared to succeed, but ready to lead in shaping the systems, policies, and innovations that will define the decades ahead.
For more information on the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls visit https://women.ca.gov/
