The Leading Women in the Arts series is a collaboration between the Weissman Center for Leadership and the InterArts Council. This engaging program reflects the center's support of public presentations by scholars, artists, writers, and practitioners that engage the academic work of the college with the public sphere. Invited guest artists are featured in public campus discussions about the interconnections between creative expression of all forms and cultural transformations.

This year, Leading Women in the Arts honors Okwui Okpokwasili. Okwui is an American artist, performer, choreographer, and writer. Her multidisciplinary performances draw upon her training in theatre, and she describes her work as at "the intersection of theatre, dance, and the installation."