Meet our New Board Chair: Laura Belmont
As we approach our 50th Anniversary, WOMEN’S WAY is gearing up to honor a half century of transformative work while leaning into the challenges and opportunities ahead. Helping guide this work from our Board of Directors is our newly appointed Board Chair, Laura Belmont.
With a career spanning technology, law, and disability rights advocacy, and recognition as one of Attorney Intel’s Top 25 Attorneys of Pennsylvania (2024), Laura brings both professional expertise and a lifelong commitment to civic engagement and equity to this work. Read on to learn more from Laura about her vision as Board Chair at WOMEN’S WAY and what excites her most about stepping into this role.
What inspired you to get involved with WOMEN’S WAY, and what excites you most about stepping into the role of Board Chair?
WOMEN’S WAY is charting a roadmap for what equity, justice, and true belonging can and should look like. For me, joining this organization was about becoming part of a community courageous enough to envision and build a better future for every woman, girl, and gender-expansive person, not only for today, but for generations to come.
What inspires me most is WOMEN’S WAY’s unwavering commitment to addressing the root causes of inequity, through an intersectional lens, by tackling the systems and structures that keep it in place. Rather than telling people to “work harder” within systems designed to fail them, WOMEN’S WAY is focused on transforming those systems so that dignity, security, and opportunity are not privileges, but rights accessible to all.
What excites me most about the Board Chair role is stepping into this leadership position as we approach WOMEN’S WAY’s 50th Anniversary. This is an incredible moment to both celebrate our legacy of nearly five decades of transformative work while recognizing there’s still so much to do. With our new 2025–2028 Strategic Plan positioning us to create systems-level change that centers love, dignity, and liberation, I’m energized by the opportunity to help scale our impact during this pivotal time.
“What inspires me most is WOMEN’S WAY’s unwavering commitment to addressing the root causes of inequity, through an intersectional lens, by tackling the systems and structures that keep it in place.”
As you begin your term as Board Chair, what is your vision for WOMEN’S WAY’s future?
Building on our nearly 50-year legacy, I envision WOMEN’S WAY as the catalyst that unites our region around a shared commitment to gender equity. My vision includes deepening our research and advocacy work, expanding our grantmaking to support community-led solutions, and strengthening our role as a convener that builds collective power. I want us to be the organization that doesn’t just fund change, but creates the conditions for sustainable, transformative change across the Greater Philadelphia region.
I want WOMEN’S WAY to be the organization that makes gender equity impossible to ignore, using our research grounded in lived experience to change minds and influence the people with power to create systemic change. We must ensure that the voices of women and all gender-marginalized individuals who are most impacted by these systems are leading the conversation, not just being talked about.
We’ll be a leader that doesn’t shy away from the hardest challenges but embraces them head-on, while also recognizing how demanding this work can be and the critical need for self-care and mutual support among all of us doing this vital work.
“I want WOMEN’S WAY to be the organization that makes gender equity impossible to ignore, using our research grounded in lived experience to change minds and influence the people with power to create systemic change.”
What do you see as the biggest opportunity for advancing gender equity right now?
Right now, one of the biggest opportunities for advancing gender equity lies in the unfortunate reality that the inequities women, girls, and gender-expansive people face are more visible than ever. The pandemic, economic instability, dismantling of social safety nets, and attacks on reproductive and gender rights have exposed how fragile our systems are and how deeply they depend on undervalued and unpaid labor, particularly from women and caregivers. This visibility gives us the chance to shift the narrative from individual responsibility to collective accountability, and to demand structural change.
Another opportunity is the growing recognition of intersectionality. More and more people understand that gender equity cannot be achieved without also addressing race, class, ability, and other identities. That broader lens allows us to build coalitions across movements and communities, which we need because dismantling systemic inequities takes collective power.
Finally, technology gives us new tools to engage, organize, and amplify voices that have historically been marginalized. If we leverage these tools thoughtfully, we can expand access to information, build stronger networks of solidarity, and ensure that lived experiences shape the solutions.
“Right now, one of the biggest opportunities for advancing gender equity lies in the unfortunate reality that the inequities women, girls, and gender-expansive people face are more visible than ever.”
How do you hope to engage with the WOMEN’S WAY community during your tenure?
I hope to cultivate a spirit of shared ownership across our community. That means donors, volunteers, advocates, community organizations, and program participants all see themselves not as bystanders, but as essential partners in creating change. This work requires collective power, and I want every person who engages with WOMEN’S WAY to walk away feeling that their voice matters, their role is vital, and that they are part of something bigger than themselves.
For our grantees, that means ensuring they feel truly heard and supported, not just funded. I want to create spaces for ongoing dialogue where their expertise and lived experience guide our collective priorities. For our partners on the ground doing this challenging work every day, I want to help build platforms where we can talk with one another, share learnings, and feel sustained by community.
I also see this as a moment to revisit and re-energize our relationships with donors, funders, and volunteers who have stood with WOMEN’S WAY over the decades. It’s important that they understand who WOMEN’S WAY is today, how our mission has evolved for this moment, and the many ways they can meaningfully engage in shaping what comes next.
Ultimately, my goal is to strengthen the connective tissue of this community by weaving spaces of trust, collaboration, and joy where we support one another in facing today’s challenges while imagining together the systems we want to build for tomorrow.
“Ultimately, my goal is to strengthen the connective tissue of this community by weaving spaces of trust, collaboration, and joy where we support one another in facing today’s challenges while imagining together the systems we want to build for tomorrow.”
On a personal note, what motivates your passion for this work?
I grew up in West Philadelphia with a younger sister who has profound disabilities, so I understood early on how the systems around us decide who belongs and who is left behind. I’ve watched how society boxes people in, builds structures that magnify inequity, and then points at the results as proof of supposed inferiority. That pattern plays out across gender, race, ability, and identity, which is precisely why I’m committed to WOMEN’S WAY’S intersectional approach, one that sees how these systems of oppression are woven together.
But what drives me even more now is the urgency of this moment. We are seeing the social safety net unravel: vital supports that many depend upon are being stripped away or undermined. Economic inequality is deepening, and people’s livelihoods and lives are under attack. Trans people, queer people, and those with gender-expansive identities are under relentless assault — legislatively, socially, and even physically. And in this climate, telling historically oppressed communities to “tough it out” is not just tone-deaf, it’s dangerous.
What motivates me is that WOMEN’S WAY is not just about helping individuals survive. It’s about changing systems so that survival is no longer the default goal and thriving becomes possible. That is the work of collective power, not isolated grit. To me, serving as Board Chair is a commitment to ensuring that the organization is strong, resilient, responsive, and anchored in a vision of dignity and liberation for all, including those whose rights are being stripped away.
This moment matters. We are called to defend what is under threat and to push harder for the kind of deep change our communities need. My passion is sparked by the people I love, by the futures I want for my children, and by a fierce insistence that no identity be excluded from justice and belonging.
“To me, serving as Board Chair is a commitment to ensuring that the organization is strong, resilient, responsive, and anchored in a vision of dignity and liberation for all, including those whose rights are being stripped away.”
