Graduate School of Leadership & Change

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For over two decades The Graduate School of Leadership and Change has offered a model of innovative, flexible, and progressive education which centers adult learners in their educational experience, a commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion, and a passion for the development and advancement of scholar-practitioners engaged in research to advance the common good. In particular, The PhD in Leadership and Change (PhDLC) has been cultivating socially engaged catalysts of change with curiosity, compassion, and courage to delve into the complex challenges facing our world locally and globally to champion the common good. Designed for mid to senior-level cross-sector practitioners, the low-residency, geographically dispersed, cohort-based program focuses on the interdisciplinary study of the scholarship, research, and practice of leadership and change. The PhDLC combines intensive faculty mentorship and staff support, a unique core curriculum, and a hybrid delivery model with research and practice to inspire leading positive change in workplaces, schools, organizations, and communities, across the globe.

The students’ expanded opportunities to pursue their own intellectual creativity and curiosity are best realized within the context of well-defined program structures, requirements, and learning guidelines. 

The multiyear doctoral journey is framed by the student’s own deep curiosity and sequenced through the lenses of leadership and change, research and inquiry, to develop the knowledge, scholarship and research skills necessary to design and implement their own original research, their dissertation which is designed to inquire into and improve leadership and change practices in their fields of interest. Additionally, the pre-candidacy years are marked by a combination of annual face-to-face and virtual residencies and a robust set of inter-residency elective workshops. There is a balance at play between program requirements and self-empowered learning, between being a member of a peer learning community and an independent scholar-practitioner, and between challenging faculty oversight and empowered student-driven initiative. The flexibility in pacing allows students to align their progress with the ebbs and flows of their professional and personal responsibilities. 

Through this extensive and thorough evaluation process, the PhDLC  is able to assure that every graduate upon completing the program, will have demonstrated both the ability and capability to: 

• Conduct an informed critique of theories, concepts and debates related to leading change in their profession, communities, and/or society at large;

• Engage in and create positive change in an organization, community, and/or the larger society;

• Reflect critically and responsibly on self and society as learners, leaders and scholars in the global context;

• Pursue self-directed and lifelong learning;

• Consider that knowledge is socially constructed and has historically privileged  dominant groups and marginalized others;

• Engage in the critical appraisal of research and other forms of scholarly communication in their fields of leading change;

• Design and execute research that meets scholarly and professional criteria of the candidate’s chosen field or sector and prepares them with the scholar-practitioner potential to inform and improve practice.

To date, the program has close to an 80% graduation rate, which far exceeds the national average. A number of dissertations have won national awards. The diverse student body, by age, race/ethnicity, geography and professional sector, live across the country and internationally. The faculty, all full-time senior scholar-practitioners, are equally diverse. Experience our learning community by discovering impactful alumni dissertations, learning more about our team, and through program highlights within our newsletters.

Amy Rutstein-Riley, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers)

Associate Dean, Director PhD Program in Leadership and Change

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