Ed.D. in Leadership

The Ed.D. in Leadership is a 48-hour, 36-month program available online or face-to-face. The program is designed for mid-career working professionals and uses a cohort structure for accountability and community. Applicants should have at least four years of professional experience and three years of leadership experience.

We centre diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in collaborative, team-based projects to improve education and education-adjacent organizations. The curriculum includes action-oriented andragogy, the application of theory and research to practice, and focuses on addressing problems of practice in real-world contexts. The program concludes with a unique, year-long Capstone project, or dissertation-in-practice, in which a team of students work with a partner organization to address a problem of practice.

The Department of Educational Leadership is a founding Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) member.

Please note that all students must attend required summer in-person residencies (more info below). The Ed.D. program offers engaging and collaborative learning designed to accommodate the lives of our students, who are working professionals leading in a variety of organizations.

Coursework includes key topic areas such as teaming skills, professional writing, organizational analysis, systems and culture change, leadership for equity, research methods for practitioners, policy, ethics, legal issues, and crisis leadership.

In the first year, to build relationships and provide support for success in the program, regardless of the course modality, students must attend an in-person residency. Refer to the application checklist and online application for specific dates based on the year you apply. LC 28 (students starting the program in Summer 2025) has a residency June 6-7, 2025 in Richmond, VA.

In the second year of the program, students complete a Formative Assessment to evaluate their progress relative to program student outcomes. The assessment requires additional time and work outside of classes to complete during summer two and the first month of the fall semester. Students also attend a required in-person residency July 24-25, 2026 in Richmond, VA.

In the third year of the program, students work under the supervision of a faculty chair in collaborative groups and with a community-based partner organization to develop a Capstone Project, or dissertation-in-practice, which includes an academic document and attendant presentations (prospectus hearing and final defence), as well as deliverables for the partner organization. There is no traditional individual dissertation option.

Program Basics

How to apply: Graduate application
Semester of entry: Summer
Course Modality: Online or face-to-face/hybrid
Applications open: Sep. 15
Application deadline: Feb. 1
Faculty listing: Educational Leadership
Faculty areas of interest: Research areas