Strategic Leadership (Ph.D.) Overview

The strategic leadership program emphasizes business principles, accountability, and leadership theory and applications, which are all areas of reform that national groups have touted as important for new educational, nonprofit and higher education administrators. Students will be instructed in management principles and in the broader visionary perspectives necessary for effective leadership. The program emphasizes practical applications grounded in sophisticated research skills needed for data-based, innovative decision-making in current and future practice.

The leadership course work encompasses models, theories and processes, as well as applications. The capstone leadership course requires an externship. In addition to leadership course work, students enroll in clusters of courses centered on research methodology including measurement, statistics, and accountability; business administration such as managerial finance, accounting for decision-making and control, and other management courses. Students choose a specialty concentration of nonprofit and community leadership, organizational science and leadership, or postsecondary analysis and leadership. Students in all concentrations study strategic management, advocacy and volunteerism strategies and principles, and advanced leadership dynamics.