WHO WE ARE| ORGANIZATION & PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) is a pre-eminent member organization for the development of global leaders. Comprised of more than 800 current and former corporate diverse CEOs, board members and senior executives at Fortune 1000 & Global 500 companies, entrepreneurs leading top-tier firms, and recognized thought leaders, we open channels of opportunity for the development of executives to positively impact business and communities.

We are working to create an organization where the richness of all our unique views, experiences, and backgrounds combine to further our mission of inclusive leadership. The ELC's ENVISION program does just that, by combining hands-on mentorship, professional development, and real-world projects to help launch your career and gain professional experience as a Project Management professional. The Strategic Projects Management Intern will assist the Executive Office team in developing, coordinating, and executing high-impact initiatives, strategies, and events. Our ENVISION internship program is 10-weeks of programming where you will receive full-time, On-the-Job training & education (OTJTE) that will prepare you to be real-world professionals. This internship provides an excellent opportunity to learn essential in project management.

We are currently seeking a detail-oriented Strategic Project Management Intern to join the team in our Washington, DC office for Summer of 2026. The internship requires the ability to work up to 40 hours per week, at minimum 32 hours per week during the summer with 5 hours per week devoted to professional development with opportunities for shadowing, mentoring, and training with successful professionals within the space. The internship will commence on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026 and runs until Friday, August 7th, 2026. This position will report to the Chief of Staff in a hybrid environment requiring you to come into the DC office at least 2 days per week, the rest being remote.

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN | POSITION OVERVIEW

The ELC is seeking a proactive, detail & solution-oriented Strategic Project Management Intern to support key initiatives that streamline operational workflows, improve project visibility, and strengthen data-driven decision making. This role offers hands-on experience in project management best practices, project planning, dashboard/reporting improvement, cross functional collaboration, and executive-level reporting.

This Project Management Intern will support the planning, execution, and delivery of multiple, interrelated projects within the organization. The intern will play a key role in organizing logistics, preparing materials, managing communications, and supporting community-building efforts across platforms and departments. The ideal candidate has strong organizational skills, a proactive mindset, and an interest in business administration, project management, and business operations. They will have a passion for developing innovative solutions, as well as experience in project design and management.

The ideal candidate should be organized, have excellent written and spoken communication skills, attention to detail, ability to meet tight deadlines, and an affinity for ELC's mission.

Learning Outcomes

• Project Support and Execution: You will gain hands-on experience in project coordination and execution by supporting day-to-day team initiatives & task, timelines, deliverables, and workflows that advance team priorities, operational tasks, and organizational goals.
• Communication and Documentation: You will strengthen & refine their written and verbal communication skills by preparing professional correspondence, documenting key discussions, and creating clear, organized materials that support team effectiveness, collaboration, clarity, and follow-through.
• Business Analysis: You will build & strengthen their analytical thinking & problem-solving skills by assessing data, synthesizing information, and identifying insights that inform recommendations, planning, operational improvement, and support decision-making and business goals.
• Stakeholder Management & Coordination: You will how to effectively engage and build collaboration through coordination skills by working cross-functionally, managing follow-ups, and supporting stakeholder.
• Analytic Research Skills: You will strengthen their research and analytical abilities by producing comprehensive outputs such as prospect lists, portfolio analyses, and industry landscape mappings that inform team strategy.
• Quantifying Impact Metrics: You will learn how to translate qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights and recommendations that support the development of reportable impact metrics across partnerships.

WHAT YOU WILL DO | ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS & KEY OUTCOMES

Our interns are encouraged to bring fresh ideas to the table and are quickly entrusted with foundational responsibilities such as:

Strategic Project Administration, Coordination & Support

• Organize project plans and tasks utilizing project management tools (i.e. Asana, Monday.com, or equivalent tools) to monitor progress against KPIs and assist in preparing status reports for executive review.
• Assist the department head and project & program managers in organizing and coordinating various project, initiatives, and programs while monitoring and maintaining detailed project plans to track progress, milestones, and deliverables.
• Support the development and maintenance of detailed project schedules, timelines, and resource plans.
• Support the Executive Office team in identifying process bottlenecks and drafting "post-mortem/lesson learned" reviews to improve the efficiency of future initiatives.
• Help ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget.
• Contribute to the development of project scopes and objectives by collaborating with internal and external stakeholders.
• Create and maintain detailed project plans to track progress, milestones, and deliverables.
• Prepare and present project status updates, key deliverables, and risks to project leadership and executive management.
• Track project risks and issues, and assist with risk mitigation planning while managing project RAID logs (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies).
• Escalate project concerns to management as needed, with clear documentation and recommendations.
• Establish and support weekly project tracking and status meetings, including agendas and meeting notes.
• Support the management of multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.

Data Management & Administration

• Create, organize, and maintain comprehensive project documentation, ensuring all project artifacts meet internal audit and regulatory standards.
• Maintain project documentation, including meeting minutes, action items, and status reports.
• Produce deliverables (e.g., slide decks, reports, spreadsheets, marketing materials, etc.).
• Collaborate with the team on various projects related to data.

Cross Functional Communication

• Help centralize and clarify communications to ensure alignment among internal teams.
• Communicate with program participants, ensuring they have the required information and materials.

General Duties

• Contribute to the achievement of established department goals and objectives and adhere to department policies, procedures, quality standards, and safety standards.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced office environment, demonstrating a flexible approach with short deadlines.
• Promote a culture of high performance and continuous improvement that values learning and a commitment to quality improvement.
• Ability to maintain high project organization, multitask, and a focus on quality of results with attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.
• Support a seamless information sharing workflow within the Member Services Department and the overall organization.
• Perform other duties as needed.

WHO YOU ARE | EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & CREDENTIALS

• Must be a Undergraduate Senior, Graduate student or Recent Graduate enrolled in an accredited College or University with a GPA of 3.00 or above. The student should be pursuing/have pursued a degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Project Management, Non-Profit Leadership, or a relevant academic field. Graduate Students are preferred.
• Prior professional and/or internship experience in business administration, project coordination/management and/or nonprofits are preferred.
• Must be willing to commit at least 32 hours per week during business hours for the 10-week program. Work schedules can be flexed to accommodate classwork and other academic commitments.
• Must be available to work on-site at our downtown D.C. office 2x per week at minimum.
• Passionate about non-profit management/leadership, project management, and organizational growth.
• Proficiency with Excel and other programs in Microsoft 365 Suite (Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint). Experience with CRM databases is strongly preferred, but not required.
• Proficiency with Project Management tools such as Asana, Microsoft Project, Monday.com, Trello, etc.
• Demonstrates initiative, motivation, and solution-oriented mindset who is resourceful and organized.
• Ability to effectively interact with various levels of leadership is necessary.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with a professional demeanor and strong editorial & narrative judgment and grammar.
• Ability to organize and prioritize tasks across multiple projects while navigating constantly changing priorities.
• Ability to make decisions and resolve problems effectively - seek out information and data to evaluate, prioritize, and formulate the best solution or practice.
• Ability to work independently with little supervision with strong follow-through and follow-up.
• Comfortable working with data and translating it into compelling insights.
• Strong analytical mindset that is data and deadline driven, with attention to detail.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively within a hybrid team environment with a variety of personalities and work styles.
• Comfort working in a startup-like environment (i.e. ability to work well under pressure) where it is fast-pace and roles ever evolving and able to embrace the learning process through mistakes.
• Ability to craft persuasive narratives grounded in quantitative and qualitative data.
• Ability to demonstrate professional, positive, and approachable attitude, and discretion, and sensitivity in handling confidential and highly sensitive information.
• Shows a profound desire for continuous learning and improvement.

Even if you don't meet all of the highlighted qualifications, please still apply. This internship is here for you to learn and grow within a professional setting as well as preparing you to take that next step into your career.

WHAT WE STRIVE FOR | CORE COMPETENCIES

• Mission Alignment & Awareness: Has a passion for and commitment to opening channels of opportunity for the development of Black professionals to positively impact business and local communities; contributes to the organization by understanding and aligning actions with the organization's goals, core functions, and values.

• Planning & Results Orientation: Organizes and executes work to meet organizational goals and objectives while meeting quality standards and following organizational processes; ensures individual performance does not negatively impact the performance of others; recommends additional resources that would improve effectiveness and helps others access required resources; identifies opportunities to improve work processes and efficiency; contributes to setting work priorities and direction; identifies in advance when intended results may not be achieved; takes initiative; is not satisfied with the status quo.

• Teamwork & Collaboration: Works well cross functionally and with others on the team to achieve personal goals, team goals, and organizational goals; takes responsibility for individual actions in order to achieve consistent results; fosters team camaraderie, collaboration, and cohesion; understands the impact of one's actions on the ability of their team members to do their jobs; respects the differences other team members bring to the table by openly seeking others' opinions; makes suggestions to improve team engagement and effectiveness; supports implementation of team decisions; professionally gives and seeks feedback in order to achieve common goals.

• Problem Solving & Decision-Making: Identifies problems and uses logical analysis to find information, understand causes, and evaluate and select best possible courses of action; seeks information and input to fully understand the cause of problems; takes action to remove obstacles and address problems before they impact performance and results; initiates the evaluation of possible solutions to problems; assesses risks before making a decision; does not take unnecessary risks; effectively navigates through ambiguity, using multiple data points to analyze issues and identify trends.

• Creativity & Innovation: Thinks beyond the confines of traditional models to recognize opportunities and find new and better ways of doing things; questions common practice and contributes to improvement of processes and outputs; proposes novel ideas; utilizes appropriate brainstorming techniques to generate ideas; researches current thinking and shares ideas; explores different alternatives that would achieve a similar output, with the goal of achieving process simplification or efficiencies.

• Resilience & Managing Uncertainty: Adjusts thinking and behavior in order to adapt to changes in the job and work environment with limited stress; is able to work effectively in an unstructured environment; actively promotes and advocates the advantages of changes when new and credible information emerges; acknowledges uncertainty and shares constructive coping strategies with team members.

• Communication & Interpersonal Effectiveness: Effectively and appropriately interacts and communicates with others to build positive, constructive, professional relationships; tailors communication style and messages based on the audience; seeks to understand others' points of view, observes verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage open and honest discussions; uses clear, precise, and error-free language; invites and encourages others to participate in discussions; identifies and helps to resolve interpersonal conflict between team members; does not jump to conclusions or act on assumptions.

• Customer Focus: Identifies, considers, prioritizes, and takes action on the needs of both internal and external customers; uses knowledge about the customer to inform decision making and problem solving; strives to provide additional value to the customer experience; actively solicits internal and customer feedback in order to improve the relationship; suggests ways to improve the customer experience.

• Technology: Proficient with Microsoft productivity suite, project management software, Learning & Development software, and other functional software relevant to area of responsibility.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Work is performed in an interior office setting which has no adverse environmental conditions expected.
• Hybrid Role requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in office with travel up to 10% of the time in the field and/or for meetings, trainings, or organizational events based on organizational needs.
• Work involves frequently sitting for extended periods of time, frequently talking or hearing, frequently operating a computer, and occasional light physical effort (lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying, etc.) objects weighing up to 25 lbs.
• Work requires frequent ability to comprehend direction and adhere to policies or established procedures, ability to use logic to make sound decisions, ability to interpret and analyze data, ability to gather and organize information for a wide variety of audiences, ability to read and write a variety of materials, and ability to adapt well in the face of workplace stress.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

Please note that at this time, The Executive Leadership Council does not provide financial sponsorship for visas or work permits. You must have documentation of work authorization for the U.S. AND a U.S. Social Security number, as of the start date of the internship, to be employed with the organization.

The Executive Leadership Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is our policy to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment based on an individual's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic as defined by federal, state, and local law