About the Transformative Leadership Program

The Transformative Leadership master's online program is designed for people who recognize that effective leadership requires specific practical skills in areas ranging from conflict transformation to group dynamics to creative thinking, but also the ability to reflect on why change is needed, how it is conducted, and who is engaged in the process. 

Learners approach leadership from the following four interrelated dimensions: (1) through an immersion in the literature on leadership and change; (2) by exploring their own personal growth, their values, their ethical and spiritual commitment, and their personal capacities to be leaders; (3) through the interaction of a community of learners and the development of the ability to grasp how to learn together; and (4) by grounding their work with an action project, where they can apply their learning on a continuing basis.

Reflection and theory are united with practice by focusing on the development of capacities to envision, initiate, and engage in transformative change processes.

Graduates will have attained the following:

• Explored processes and principles of ongoing personal transformation in order to become the persons and leaders they want to be.
• Developed their philosophy of leadership based on their values, in dialogue with the readings and experience in the program.
• Developed their creative thinking abilities and learn to apply systems and complexity to their leadership initiatives.
• Initiated and followed through on innovative projects, including the skills to plan, manage, and work collaboratively on projects.
• Mastered contemporary research on leadership as well as personal and social transformation.
• Engaged in collaborative creativity and participatory leadership and a range of approaches to cultivating generative collaborative skills.
• Creatively engaged dynamics of power, diversity, and change.

Capstone: Action Project

During their course of study, students will select a site where they will implement a leadership capstone project that reflects their learning and insights as they go through the Transformative Leadership program. The action site may involve a working group, an organization, a community, a classroom, a family group, or any aggregate of people engaged in a system of relationships.

While projects are individual, their conception, design, and assessment are discussed collaboratively with cohort members and faculty. Processes should be pre-tested on a peer group and feedback solicited from them. Throughout the 2-year program, students design, implement, and reflect upon their project. The project culminates in the last semester when the capstone is completed, documented in a written report, and assessed. This project is in lieu of a thesis.