This is the second in a series of profiles about the Nareit Foundation’s DTD 2025 grantees and grant program. The grant program falls under the Foundation’s DTD initiative, which focuses on increasing the visibility, awareness, and appeal of the REIT industry to more businesses, workforce talent, and communities. There are three priority areas: supporting pipeline/talent development, expanding procurement and business development, and helping everyday investors understand REITs and how to invest in them.
In 2025, The Nareit Foundation awarded grants to nine nonprofit organizations. This article profiles Rutgers Business School Center for Women in Business (CWIB), and how its work addresses the DTD initiative’s priority of supporting pipeline/talent development.
In today’s competitive talent landscape, retaining experienced women in the workforce isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s a smart business strategy. Companies that focus on retaining and promoting mid-career women to leadership roles benefit from stronger succession pipelines, better financial performance, improved business decisions, and lower turnover costs, according to numerous studies.
Yet it’s clear that corporate America still has a long way to go in taking these findings to heart. A McKinsey & Company report shows that although women comprise nearly half of the workforce in the United States only 29% hold senior leadership roles. In addition, women represent just 11% of CEOs on the 2025 Fortune 500 list. Furthermore, women are less likely than their male counterparts to receive the mentorship and sponsorship needed to propel them to these executive positions.
Lisa Kaplowitz, co-founder and executive director of the Rutgers Business School Center for Women in Business (CWIB)—a Nareit Foundation 2025 grantee—has built her career around addressing this dichotomy.
After more than two decades in finance as an investment banker and CFO, she understands the challenges women face not just in entering the industry, but in staying and advancing.
“I was the only woman at the table throughout my career,” Kaplowitz notes. “I was told that I don’t look like a CFO and my career aspirations and timelines would change after having a baby.”
Now, Kaplowitz is leading efforts to “keep talented and qualified women, especially mid-career women, in the workplace longer, more competitively, and on track for senior leadership,” she says. “We’re building communities to help level the playing field and create a workplace that works for everyone.”
CWIB’s latest initiative, G.R.O.W. (Gaining and Retaining Outstanding Women), focuses on helping companies, including REITs, keep high-potential women engaged, supported, and prepared to lead.
Time to Take Action
When Kaplowitz left the corporate world and entered academia as a finance professor at Rutgers Business School, she recognized a gap in programming.
“I looked around and noticed that there were pockets of programming for women at the business school, but there wasn’t anything comprehensive and cohesive, so I said, “Let’s create it.’”
In 2019, the CWIB was launched. The initiative helps women overcome barriers to achieve success by navigating the challenges women face through trailblazing research, programming, and mentoring.
“Our mission is threefold: remove barriers, build community, and empower women because we know from the research, from our lived experiences, that it doesn’t matter how qualified and skilled she is, there are structural and institutional barriers that hold her back,” Kaplowitz explains.
CWIB Delivers Actionable Data and Strategies
The CWIB, located in the heart of Rutgers Business School (RBS), is a powerful community of academic leaders, industry experts, and accomplished alumni uniquely positioned to advance women in the workplace.
CWIB distinguishes itself by actively integrating academic research with industry best practices to address the underrepresentation of women in business leadership roles. It leverages its unique position within the RBS to offer research-backed insights and practical solutions to individuals, corporations, and organizations.
“We’re a research center,” Kaplowitz says, “so everything we do is grounded in research-backed insights.” For example, we know from prior research that having gender-diverse executive teams can increase company profits by as much as 39%.
With such compelling statistical evidence, Kaplowitz says organizations can see the direct business value of investing in women’s professional development and creating more inclusive workplace environments.
The CWIB’s research aims to deliver real-world, actionable strategies that business leaders can use to create more inclusive and effective workplaces. In addition to being a research center, the CWIB is “run by seasoned business executives, so we’re in a unique position to turn cutting-edge research into real organizational impact,” Kaplowitz says.
Nareit Foundation Grant Fosters Career G.R.O.W.TH
The grant will help the CWIB accelerate its G.R.O.W. virtual group mentoring program to provide tailored mentoring and expand opportunities specifically for real estate and REIT professionals.
In turn, the G.R.O.W. program will help REITs develop leadership pipelines and improve talent retention. The CWIB will do this by creating REIT-specific mentoring cohorts to target mid-career women and help keep them in the workplace and on track for senior leadership. The program pairs seasoned professionals with aspiring women leaders. Opportunities exist for both mentees and mentors in the REIT sector.
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