The Pride Chamber President and CEO Gina Duncan (pictured at the chamber’s Business Expo & Job Fair) says the Emerge Business Leadership Academy is a part to the chamber’s holistic approach to business. (Photo from The Pride Chamber’s Facebook)
ORLANDO | The Pride Chamber, Central Florida’s LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce, has created a new leadership academy to help build future business leaders in Central Florida.
The Emerge Business Leadership Academy will provide a comprehensive, hands-on educational program for future business leaders of large corporations or aspiring entrepreneurs with an intentional focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Gina Duncan, the Pride Chamber’s president and CEO, says the new leadership academy is an important part to the chamber’s holistic approach to business.
“We have launched programs such as the Corporate Equality Council, our [Employee Resource Group] platform that supports affinity groups with our major corporate partners, RED Groups, our Ambassador Program and more,” Duncan says. “One of the things that we were missing and wanted to focus on is how do we support our up-and-coming business professionals.”
The academy is designed for what Duncan calls “young in business,” saying that they didn’t want to focus on a specific age bracket when recruiting into the program’s courses.
“It’s really designed for a plethora of people in that it could be someone who has been a senior leader and they retire and they want to start their own business. It could be someone who is an up-and-coming leader at a major corporation and they want to be more of a voice and more of a leader in their organization. Or it could be a young entrepreneur who’s just wanting to get started and they want information on how to file an LLC or how to improve their elevator pitch,” Duncan says.
Starting in January, the chamber will launch a cohort each quarter consisting of 12 in-person courses, one each week. Each course will take place Tuesday evening from 6-9 p.m. inside the National Entrepreneur Center at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando.
“We will have subject matter experts teaching everything from marketing to developing your personal brand to accounting, everything and anything you might need to take your personal business skills to the next level,” Duncan says.
The chamber packed a lot of information into each 12-week program including management skills, DEI programing, public speaking, creating an inclusive workspace and more.
“Our mission is to ensure that everyone is seen, safe and treated with dignity and respect in the workplace,” Duncan says. “I can’t think of a better way to start than to be educating future business leaders to be the next voices of our community in public policy and social change.”
The Pride Chamber’s Emerge Business Leadership Academy is $199 per person and includes a free membership to the chamber at the Small Business level for the first year. For more information or to register for one of the chamber’s 2025 cohorts, visit ThePrideChamber.org/Emerge or email Emerge@ThePrideChamber.org.
