Doctor of Education
Educational Leadership Ed.D.
Help Shape Future Generations
As one of New England’s premier educational leadership programs, JWU Providence’s Educational Leadership Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) will develop your leadership capacity and teach you how to advance change in PK-12 and higher education settings. You’ll build the skills to promote excellence and create positive and necessary change in educational institutions.
Our Educational Leadership program exemplifies the university’s mission of blending academic and work-based learning for career advancement. This program is tailored for those with a master’s degree and several years of experience working in either elementary/secondary or higher education.
As a practice-focused doctoral program, JWU’s Ed.D. experience provides students the opportunity to learn with a cohort of talented practitioners while building research, leadership, and dispositional skills to support career advancement and impactful change.
Choose from two program tracks* beginning each fall: Elementary-Secondary Education and Higher Education.
*Note: Due to the logistics of working in the U.S., the Elementary-Secondary Education track is not open to international students; however, international applicants can apply to the Higher Education track.
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Cohort-Based Learning to Support Your Leadership Growth
No matter which program track you choose, JWU’s Ed.D. program runs on a cohort model, which means that the small group you start with (your “cohort”) stays together through the duration of the program, forming friendships and growing together. This cohort provides a supportive peer network to discuss, analyze, and solve educational challenges collectively.
Together, you’ll focus your investigation and discussion around theory, professional practice and research interests. Our team approach promotes a true network of working scholars who can examine, critique, support and complement one another’s educational practice.
This degree combines experiential, collaborative, project-based and interactive learning opportunities to provide an effective blend of individual and team-based tasks through in-person, synchronous remote, and asynchronous elements.
Advantages of Earning Your Ed.D. at JWU
Innovative Program: Our program is designed to blend the best of all learning environments — you’ll learn through synchronous and asynchronous coursework remotely, accompanied by in-person learning opportunities with your peers in our Providence campus.
Professional Focus: Students travel through the program at the same pace, bonding through shared synchronous experiences, group/partner work, and feedback and guidance from full-time and practitioner faculty. We focus on problems of practice in your professional context.
Accomplished Faculty: Learn from experts — in research as well as connected content. Our practitioner faculty — both full and part-time — work in authentic settings as educational leaders. Their experience enriches the learning in meaningful and authentic ways.
Continuous Support: Our program’s robust personalization and effective dissertation advising supports a consistently high on-time program completion rate..
Personal Connections: Our strong program presence on JWU Providence’s Harborside Campus provides you with access to full-time faculty, program offices, library and other services to augment and support the program. Program administration and faculty have a hands-on and student-focused outlook to speak with and guide students.
Hybrid Schedule: A convenient hybrid weekend schedule provides a mix of remote and twice monthly face-to-face learning.
Network for Life: JWU’s Ed.D. program has had more than 400 successful graduates, most of whom are active and connected members of the program’s alumni network.
First-Year Doctoral Grant
Admitted first-year doctoral students may apply to receive the Educational Leadership Doctoral Grant, which offers up to $15,000 for full-time study. To be considered for the award, students must maintain a 3.25 GPA, file the FAFSA and must not receive any financial assistance from their employer. For more information, contact your JWU financial planner.
Sample Courses
Elementary-Secondary Education
- Strategy & Change in Elementary and Secondary Education
- Organizational Theory, Behavior, and Development in Elementary & Secondary Education
- Teaching and Learning in Elementary & Secondary Education
- Strategic Fiscal Leadership in Elementary & Secondary Education
Higher Education
- The Transformative Learning Environment in Higher Education
- Organizational Theory and Behavior in Higher Education
- Resource Planning and Management in Higher Education
- Leadership in Higher Education
Career Possibilities
Elementary-Secondary Education
- School superintendent or principal
- Curriculum coordinator
- Education policy specialist
- Instructional coordinator
- Education director
Higher Education
- College president or provost
- Postsecondary administrator
- Education policy specialist
- Curriculum specialist
- Academic dean
Featured Doctorate of Education Faculty
Our Ed.D. faculty are recognized leaders in their field, providing personalized advising during the dissertation phase to support on-time completion.
Professor
Professor Billups’ research focuses on collegiate culture/subcultures, qualitative and mixed methods research approaches, organizational effectiveness, and the doctoral student experience.
Associate Professor
Buglione’s experience includes over two decades of teaching, developing First Year Experience programming, outcomes assessment, prior learning assessment, and a center for service-learning and civic engagement.
Professor
Since 2007, Professor Kite’s research has focused on cyberbullying and internet risk, including student and parent perceptions of these topics.
Ed.D. Candidates Share Their Experiences
Luckson Omoaregba '26 Ed.D.
Director of Pathway Programs
Warren Alpert Medical School
Brown University
Providence, R.I.
What helped you decide to enroll here?
The biggest thing for me were the people who I knew, looked up to and considered mentors who had already gone through the program. I’d already interacted with several alumni from the program, which was a huge selling point for me.
What experiences have been most valuable to you?
The interaction with faculty, the courses, and the ability, through our projects, to connect with current higher education professionals where we work is huge. We’ve had multiple projects requiring us to meet with our chief financial officer, our chief H.R. officer, and the person in charge of accreditation. Talking to them about their work, being able to mix the theoretical frameworks, the research and the actual real-life application is a phenomenal thing. Having these networks is crucial.
Deborah Pacheco ’26 Ed.D.
Track Director of Residential Services,
League School for Autism
Walpole, Massachusetts
What helped you decide to come to JWU?
I liked that this program is in person and having that interaction. And because it is a cohort, and we are with the same people throughout the process, that really gravitated me towards the program.
Which experiences that have been most valuable to you?
For most of the projects, you must implement them into your own workplace, and that is where it’s been effective. I’m able to take a lot of what I’m learning into my workplace, and that’s been fruitful.
If you could give advice to someone considering this program, what would it be?
It’s hard but so worth it. I feel so rejuvenated professionally and look forward to how I’ll use what we learned. I say go for it. You will become a better person.
CPED and Program Outcomes
JWU’s Ed.D. program is an active member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), a national effort by more than 100 institutions to reform and strengthen the education doctorate. Read more about our education program outcomes.
Faculty Contact
Victor Mercurio, Ed.D.
Director of the Educational Leadership Program
401-598-2434
Email
