PMI Los Angeles Chapter

🎓 June always feels like a season of next steps.

For some people, that's a diploma.

For others, it looks like:
> Earning a certification
> Applying for a new role
> Taking on a bigger project
> Expanding your network
> Finally investing in your own growth

That's the idea behind this month's PMI-LA programs.

We put together eight events designed to help you build practical skills, meet other project professionals, and gain momentum in your career: whether you're just getting started or figuring out what's next.

From personal branding and leadership to networking, mentorship, AI, and the latest PMP updates, June is packed with opportunities to learn something new and meet people who can help you get where you're going.

What does a PMI-LA strategy day actually look like?

A little bit of planning.
A little bit of problem-solving.
A lot of collaboration.

This weekend, our volunteer leaders came together to review ongoing initiatives, discuss what's working, and prioritize where we want to focus our energy over the next six months.

One of the highlights of the day was stepping away from the whiteboards and spending time on a hands-on social impact activity, assembling kits that will support members of our broader community.

Back in the room, we put our project management skills to work: brainstorming new ideas, evaluating them through an impact-versus-feasibility lens, and identifying the initiatives that can create the greatest value for our members.

Days like this are a good reminder that PMI-LA is powered by volunteers who care deeply about building meaningful experiences, professional growth opportunities, and connections for the project management community.

Thank you to Phoebe Jane Johnson, MBA and the Ops Team for helping to set this up!

Every project manager remembers someone who helped them figure things out a little faster.

Today is the final day to apply for PMI-LA's Summer Mentorship Program.

Whether you're looking to learn from someone who's walked the path before you or share your own experiences with the next generation of project professionals, we'd love to have you join us.

Applications close today.

"The sponsor disappeared after kickoff."

Most project managers have a story that starts something like that.

In this month's PMI-LA article, chapter member Angelo Salazar challenges a common assumption: what if the problem isn't that sponsors are disengaged?

What if nobody ever prepared them for the role in the first place?

We train project managers. We invest in certifications, tools, frameworks, and communities. Sponsors are often expected to figure it out as they go.

It's a perspective that sparked some discussion on our team, and we're curious what you think.

What's the best project sponsor you've worked with done differently?

🎬 Action! … But not on everything.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, PMI-LA is bringing the Kanban board to a place PMs rarely apply it — their own mental bandwidth.

In LA, we know something about navigating chaos. Traffic on the 405. Last-minute pivots. Stakeholders who rewrite the script the day before launch. Sound familiar?

Here's the reframe: not every card belongs on your board.
When you feel overwhelmed, try sorting your stressors:
My Scene - What's truly mine to own and act on?
Cut Scene - What am I holding that I can consciously release?
Off Script - What's simply outside my control, and needs acceptance?

Focusing your energy on your own column isn't giving up — it's the most strategic thing a leader in this city can do.

Your wellbeing isn't a backlog item. It's a critical path dependency. 💛

And speaking of movies + project management.. this is your sign to grab a seat at our next event.
🎬 PMI-LA Book Club
"Projectland Goes to the Movies: 22 Blockbuster Strategies for Project Success"
by Dawn Mahan & Jerry Manas
When - June 13, 2026 · 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM · Virtual · 3 PDUs
Speaker - Asia Bribiesca-Hedin
🔗 Register → https://bit.ly/4fh1iE6

Because yes - you can earn 3 PDUs and learn project strategy through the lens of Hollywood. This one's got our name written all over it. 🌴🎥

PMI-LA and Caltech are teaming up for something a little different this month.

Our next session is called Dad Jokes & Deadlines: Deliverables at Work. Legacy at Home. The speaker is Tim Boyd, a keynote speaker, Caltech instructor, and someone who has spent decades leading large aerospace and engineering programs.

This one goes beyond the usual PM content. Tim's talking about how the skills you build at work (influencing without authority, leading through ambiguity, showing up consistently) connect directly to the kind of person you become outside of it.

If you've ever felt like you're doing all the right things on a project but still struggling to actually move people, this session was made for you.

📅 Thursday, June 18
🕐 5:00 to 6:00 PM
💻 Virtual

Seats fill up. Register early so you don't miss it: https://bit.ly/3Rv10j2

Share this with someone on your team who'd get something out of it.

70% of LinkedIn users have never updated their headline. One update tonight puts you ahead of all of them.

That was the closing stat from David Doan's session with us last night, and it landed because everything he shared before it backed it up.

Thirty-plus project managers showed up to work on something most PMs quietly know they've been avoiding — a LinkedIn profile that actually reflects what they're capable of. David walked us through exactly what to change and why it matters.

The thing that stuck most: your profile is actually a signal to the people you haven't met yet and not a record of where you've been. Recruiters are searching right now. Collaborators are forming opinions before you've said a word. The profile sitting there with your old job title and a generic headline is making an impression whether you intended it to or not.

David's Impact Formula is worth saving somewhere you'll actually use it:
Action Verb + Task → Quantified Result → Business Impact

Not "managed stakeholder communications." More like "Led alignment across four departments, cutting approval time by 30% and keeping a $2M initiative on schedule." Same experience. Completely different signal.

A few numbers from the session worth keeping:
-Profiles with a professional photo get 21x more views
-Weekly posters get 3x more profile views than people who don't post
-Turning on "Open to Work" privately increases recruiter contact by 40%

And the personal piece David closed with: your About section should end with something that empowered you: a passion, a moment, a commitment that connects back to the work you do for others. Not a hobby list. Something that shows who you are and why it shapes how you show up professionally.

If you were there last night, you have your 30-day plan. If you missed it, start with one thing: update your headline using this formula:
Role | Specialty | Impact | Certification.

That's your Week 1.

Thank you to David Doan for bringing real substance to this community. This is exactly what PMI-LA Career Development is built for.

The best project managers I've met learned something important long before they had the title.

Not from a course. Not from a certification. From watching someone else hold a team together when everything was going sideways and deciding to be that person someday.

Memorial Day is a good time to think about that. The people we honor this weekend understood something about the fundamentals that no methodology captures cleanly: when stakes are real, preparation matters. Clarity matters. Taking care of the people next to you matters.

Those aren't advanced PM skills. They're the foundation of all of it.

If you're early in your career and still figuring out what kind of PM you want to be, this is a pretty good place to start. Not with a framework. With the question: what does it look like to actually show up for my team?

Take the long weekend. Rest. Come back ready.

What's one thing a mentor, manager, or teammate showed you about what it means to show up that you still carry with you today?