The PhD program in Education and Leadership (PhDEL) is Pacific University’s first interprofessional graduate program, offering a joint-degree creatively designed by the College of Education and the College of Health Professions for the 21st century working professional. With a strong emphasis on evidence-based practice, this program explores themes and issues about the meaning of interprofessional leadership and learning, and strategies to lead in a time of dynamic global change. The curriculum encourages students to explore the role of technology in forming and supporting leaders, and creating new distributed inclusive communities where leaders can gather and learn from each other across temporal and geographic environments.
The PhDEL is designed for experienced educators, practitioners, and administrators from institutions of education and healthcare who are interested in becoming leaders and scholars in the field, given the substantial demand in the ever-changing healthcare and education disciplines. The program has a contemporary approach (as outlined in the research conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools in 2010), offering students a collaborative and applied design to research, which has demonstrated success among adult learners.
The PhDEL program offers:
- An interprofessional approach to research that fosters respect across varied professional domains;
- A learning community that is inclusive, inviting, and collaborative;
- Individualized faculty mentoring and advising;
- Student financial support; and
- Streamlined academic and administrative processes.
Program Model
- Technology-based, low residency cohort model with online synchronous and asynchronous courses offered over Fall, Spring, Summer semesters;
- Required in-person attendance, on the Pacific campus or other designated location, for one week during the third week in January to participate in the Interprofessional Education & Leadership (IPEL) conference;
- Synchronous Virtual Symposium at the start of each academic year [last week in August].
The PhDEL program is best suited for:
- Individuals with Masters or Doctoral degrees in the fields of education, health sciences, allied health professions, or health professions educators or practitioners who desire to enter the community of scholar-professionals and creatively learn the skills to lead change within their field.
- Scholar professionals and scholar-educators with substantial work experience who wish to advance in their fields and who have topic ideas for their dissertation work as well as the ability to conduct research in their setting.
- Learners who have exhibited requisite knowledge and skills within their areas of expertise.
- Scholar educators who seek to contribute to scientific knowledge and who value lifelong learning, while implementing new theories into daily practice.
- Scholar-practitioners who approach their professions with an equity lens, sensitivity to ethical issues and to developmental, cultural, and individual differences within the workplace.
- Learners who embrace and seek to contribute to a racially inclusive inter-professional community of inquiry.
Pacific University Webpage: https://www.pacificu.edu/phd-education-leadership
