by Carol Sowers

ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education has launched a three-year Doctor of Education degree program for "Changing Times," which prepares candidates for top administrative positions in two- and four-year colleges and universities, focuses on serving diverse communities, and offers a creative approach to completing dissertations.

The Leadership for Changing Times (LCT) EdD degree program prepares intellectual leaders for a range of careers in higher and postsecondary education, with a unique emphasis on innovative practices that serve diverse communities within various institutional types. Using a researcher/practitioner model, the program debuted this fall with 25 students selected from 40 applicants, with extensive experience as administrators and faculty in higher education.

"The changing face of education, which includes enduring budget cuts, more diverse students, and advancing technologies will require administrators to be flexible," said Caroline Turner, Lincoln Professor of Ethics and Education, Professor of Policy, Leadership, and Curriculum, and Director of the LCT program.

Turner said the delivery method and format of this rigorous program recognizes the unique needs of working professionals with full-time responsibilities. Program hallmarks include, delivery of courses in a hybrid format (a blend of in-person and on-line instruction), hosting a distinguished lecture series featuring nationally recognized scholars and practitioners, and a culminating applied dissertation grounded in research and professional practice. In addition, LCT cohorts will participate in local and out of state site visits to observe innovative practices. Next year, LCT plans to travel to Dillard University, a historically black college in New Orleans.

Turner understands the demands on doctoral students with families and jobs. She was a single mother of two in 1983 when she left her job as director of a reading program at the University of California, Davis to pursue her doctorate at Stanford University.

"It took me five years," she said, adding that her goal in the new program is to "open up pathways" to finish the degree and dissertation in three years.

"In the traditional model, students take five years or more to finish," Turner said, noting that many students "working alone may feel isolated and get lost in the process."

Several program features are designed to mitigate student isolation and attrition in the "changing times" program.

Students who have similar themes for their dissertations will work in teams of four or five, collaborating, critiquing , and supporting each other on their progress, including the development of their research questions and their literature review. Each team will have an assigned faculty advisor who will oversee the dissertation process with the assistance of a dissertation coach. A large part of the program's $3,000 per year fee supports dissertation coaches who have doctorate degrees and who will spend approximately 18 months working with faculty to assist candidates in the completion of their dissertations.

"We want them to realize that they are not alone," she said.

"That is a plus for me," said Ronald Briggs, Jr., coordinator for Residential Community Education and Student Engagement at ASU's downtown campus.

He enrolled in the new program to ascend the administrative ladder to be vice president of student affairs or vice president of a university, where he could influence policies to keep minority students in college.

"Retention has always been near and dear to me," said Briggs, who watched the exodus of minority students from the University of Toledo, where he earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering.

Of the 17 African-American males who started the mechanical engineering degree, "after our fifth year only four were left," he said. Some, he believes, left school for lack of support.

Turner knows the sting of isolation, but said there was always someone to support her. In high school it was an advisor who took her to a college preparatory class even though the teacher told her she "didn't belong there."

"I was told that coming from a farm labor background that I had a one in a million chance of finishing college," she said. Clearly, she did the impossible.

An overarching goal of the LCT program, Turner said, is to develop leaders with the knowledge, skills, and understanding necessary to lead innovation and change in higher education, with an emphasis on serving diverse communities at two- and four-year colleges and universities.

Turner praises Carlos Castillo-Chavez, ASU Regents Professor and Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology, for "doing the impossible." As Executive Director of ASU's Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute, Castillo-Chavez has successfully recruited minority and low-income students to his eight-week graduate student summer course which prepares them for doctoral degrees in mathematics at ASU or other well-respected universities around the country, including Cornell and Harvard universities.

"They didn't think they belonged," he said. "Most of them were not thinking about a PhD in mathematics. They don't know that of the 1,200 PhDs awarded in mathematics each year only 40 go to Latinos. There used to be only 20. We have contributed a lot to that growth," he said, adding, "People are saying this cannot be done. These students come back to our program year after year."

Turner is planning to partner with Castillo-Chavez to arrange internships for her students with the Regents' Professor, as part of their doctoral program.

Rufus Glasper, Chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges District, teaches a course on higher education budgeting and finance in the LCT program. He said the program demonstrates ASU's commitment to access and impact within diverse communities.

Candidates like Kristen Nielsen-Hermann, Assistant Dean for Student Services in ASU's Barrett: The Honors College said they were drawn to the program by its depth of expert faculty and innovative course delivery methods including, a blend of on-campus, off-site and online learning experiences that dovetail with the schedules of busy professionals.

The online and hybrid classes, Nielsen-Hermann said, encourage doctoral students "to stay savvy in ways that we can communicate with college students who are ahead of everybody. They have been on computers since they were five. Changing times are happening so fast, we have to be able to respond very quickly and keep up our knowledge base."

The curriculum for these prospective top-tier administrators delves into the inner workings of universities nationwide, detailing how they are financed and organized; the role of governing bodies in making decisions; and insights into how policies are drawn.

"This curriculum is very practical for me," Nielsen-Hermann said, adding that she is getting a taste of "what it is to be a (university) president or vice president."

The courses, she said, "validate a lot of the professional experience that I already have in 18 years in academic and student affairs administration. I think the program is really a ticket to opening up other opportunities in senior administration at the university." Richard D. Fisher is Director of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School's Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives, which focuses on STEM education, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) university-wide, and is a student in the new EdD program.

Despite two nearly 20-year-old masters' degrees in education and Earth Science, Fisher said "my career options have been very limited without a doctorate degree."

But with a 60-hour a week workload, and raising a family, he said the "timing wasn't right" to immerse himself into a doctorate program." The new EdD format has changed that.

"It is optimal for me as a full-time working professional to complete a program in a cohort model for the benefit of the collegiality with other working professionals," he said.

He also is encouraged by "changing times" projections that retirement of educational leaders will open up senior administrative positions for newly minted applicants with EdDs.

Vivian Miranda, Director of Early Outreach at Estella Mountain Community College, said she was attracted to the EdD's "leadership for changing times" brand.

"It kind of gave me some hope that we are to expect more from the education system, to take risks and be creative with our solutions," she said, adding that other doctoral programs "don't mention change."

Like other candidates, Miranda says she is thriving in the cohort setting.

"We are learning from each other," she said. "I can see the dynamic of knowledge in the classroom. It almost overwhelms. It is like being with 25 volumes of encyclopedias."

Applications currently are being accepted for fall 2010 enrollment in the LCT doctoral program. For more information and to apply, please visit: http://education.asu.edu/highed_edd.