Community College Leadership and Change Concentration

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Community College Leadership and Change Concentration back to list of concentrations

About the Concentration
Why Choose Fielding Graduate University’s Community College Leadership and Change Concentration?
Flexibility
Excellence
Community
Outstanding Faculty Support
Individually Tailored Curriculum
Outstanding Program Leadership

About the Concentration [back to top]

What leadership role will you play in advancing the mission of today's community colleges and ensuring that changes vital to the needs of an ever-evolving student population are met?

Community Colleges are more than just another form of higher education. Community Colleges have been termed "democracy's college." They are inclusive institutions of higher education with diverse student bodies and multiple learning entry points.

Communities Colleges: The Education Gateway for Economic Development, a Productive Citizenry, and Social Equity
Community colleges are at the forefront of offering educational opportunity to all people to acquire new skills and knowledge to enhance their personal and professional development. With close to twelve hundred public and independent community colleges in the United States alone, lives are being changed on a daily basis. Millions of individuals have benefited by community college attendance and this has lead to improved individual lives, more effective organizations, and changed communities. You, too, can become a part of this important and innovative movement as you complete a doctoral degree at Fielding Graduate University.

How will you ensure that you have the knowledge, expertise and professional competencies to be an effective leader and change agent in today's community college?

The Community College Leadership and Change (CCLC) Concentration is designed to prepare individuals for the various administrative, instructional and student support leadership roles in a community college setting in our ever changing global community. CCLC offers you the opportunity to develop and enhance the various competencies that are needed to be a successful community college leader, while also mastering the doctoral-level competencies of a scholar-practitioner. Aligned with the competencies for community college leaders as delineated by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), CCLC is designed to allow you and your faculty colleagues to work together in order that you can develop and enhance your leadership skills in the areas of organizational strategy, resource management, communication, collaboration, community college advocacy and professionalism.

Why Choose Fielding Graduate University’s Community College Leadership and Change Concentration? [back to top]

The hallmarks of programs at Fielding Graduate University are Flexibility, Excellence and Community. These aspects are purposely designed into the fabric of CCLC.

Flexibility
CCLC is designed with the 21st Century learner in mind and is able to meet the ever-changing needs of busy, mid-career professionals who are time and location bound in their doctoral studies. Upon completion of the required 4-day New Student Orientation (NSO), students are individually guided through the learning process with the support of faculty mentors. Faculty mentors support various learning options such as: local student cluster learning groups; the Fielding electronic network learning forums; educational seminars and workshops at semi-annual national sessions and research sessions in various locations in the U.S. This unique distributed learning environment allows the working professional to maintain personal and professional commitments, while advancing toward the doctoral degree.

"I am thrilled to be part of a community of learning professionals who are each playing a critical role in leading community colleges throughout the nation. During my very first Fielding Orientation & Planning session, I was convinced that I was in the right doctoral program. As a mother of two young children and a busy working professional, I knew the network of Fielding student colleagues would be a great source of support and provide the opportunity for collaborative learning."
~Arleen Satele, current student, Fielding Graduate University, Community College Leadership and Change (CCLC) Concentration

Excellence
The learning model at Fielding Graduate University encourages scholar-practitioners to tailor an instructional program to meet their personal learning interests. Students in CCLC are encouraged to develop innovative and novel ways to address challenges at their community college, while enhancing individual doctoral-level competencies. This personalized learning approach allows students to be actively engaged in their professional working environment while exploring theories, applications, and new models in community college leadership and change.

"The Fielding Graduate University model afforded me the opportunity to develop and pilot new and innovative student retention strategies in my community college work setting. It was a win-win situation for the institution and for me as I honed my leadership skills and acquired new competencies."
~ Dr. Harriet Robles, Interim President, Mission College, CA, and Fielding Graduate University Alum

Community
CCLC offers you the opportunity to join a rich and diverse community of professionals who are the many faces of leadership in today's community college. Joining this learning community of scholar-practitioners, serves to enrich the learning process and offers endless possibilities for focused dialogue, personalized interaction, critical thinking, collaboration, networking, peer support, and the development and enhancement of professional skills and competencies, leading to innovative strategies and models to effectively transform community colleges.

"As the Director of and a faculty mentor in CCLC at Fielding, I highly value and respect the knowledge, experience and skills that our students bring to the program. My focus is on developing long lasting collaborative professional relationships with our student colleagues. As a current community college trustee and past community college administrator and faculty member, I strive to work with students in a meaningful way that not only leads to the completion of a doctoral degree, but also facilitates the opportunity of our students to fulfill their dreams of leading community colleges and changing lives and communities."
~ Dr. Barbara Mink, Director, CCLC, Fielding Graduate University and Board of Trustee Member, Austin Community College District, Austin, TX

Outstanding Faculty Support [back to top]
The faculty in CCLC bring a wide range of scholarship and research, rich professional experiences and expertise in various aspects of community college leadership. They have served and currently serve in various administrative, instructional and student support leadership roles, including such positions as community college board of trustee member, president, vice president, dean, and instructor. These dedicated faculty bring years of practical hands-on experience in successfully leading and transforming community colleges to their work as faculty in CCLC. They have been active on the global, national and state levels in advocating for and guiding the policy directions of community colleges through their service on various boards, associations, and professional committees and councils.

CCLC faculty will work closely with you to facilitate you achieving your unique learning goals. Through innovative learning opportunities, faculty collaborative with you to design a process of applying theories and research to your practice as a community college professional. This experience will position you to be more effective and will lead to positive changes at your institution and in your community.

"The community college program at Fielding Graduate University is your gateway to professional development and personal advancement. As a graduate of a community college leadership program that changed my life, I am enthusiastic about your Fielding opportunity. Fielding is special because we encourage you to blend your professional work and your doctoral studies so that you may progress professionally. Fielding is your gateway for access to an extraordinary future in community college work."
~ Dr. Bernie Luskin, CCLC Faculty Member and past Chair of the Board of Directors of AACC.

Individually Tailored Curriculum [back to top]
CCLC has five major components: an overall Learning Plan for your doctoral studies; required study areas; elective study areas; a comprehensive assessment; and a dissertation.
At Fielding, study areas are termed Knowledge Areas (KAs). For each of the KAs, you will negotiate with various members of the faculty to formulate an assessment contract which details how you will demonstrate your competency in each of these areas. Your KA assessment contract in each of the eight KAs will be an individualized negotiated learning statement that reflects your prior learning and experiences and your plans for development of new knowledge and skills.

Component One: An Overall Learning Plan (3 units)

In collaboration with your faculty mentor, you will design an overall learning plan detailing which of the Knowledge Areas (KAs) you intend to complete, the doctoral level competencies you are interested in further developing, and the AACC community college leadership competencies you wish to further develop.

Component Two: Five Required Knowledge Areas (KAs) (50 units)

ELC 751 Action-Oriented Research (10 units)
ELC 752 Leadership and Change (10 units)
ELC 753 Systems Thinking and Intervention (10 units)
ELC 769 Structural Inequality and Diversity (10 units)
ELC 780: The Community College (10 units)

Component Three: Three elective Knowledge Areas (KAs) (30 units)

In consultation with your faculty mentor, you select three other knowledge areas from the listing of Knowledge Areas in the School of Education and Change. Each of these three KAs will be completed with a special focus on topics relating to community college leadership and change.

Component Four: Comprehensive Assessment (credit only)

After completing at least five KAs, you will write responses to two broad questions designed to demonstrate your ability to integrate knowledge across disciplines. This comprehensive assessment is evaluated and when approved, allows you to actively move into the dissertation phase of your doctoral program.

Component Five: Dissertation (18 units)

An action research dissertation study is required to be proposed, conducted, and written (in standard APA format). The topic of this major research work depends on the interests and goals of the individual student.

Therefore, Total Units for the EdD Degree in Educational Leadership and Change with a concentration in Community College Leadership: 101 units

Outstanding Program Leadership [back to top]

Program Director: Barbara P. Mink, EdD

Faculty:
Rodney Beaulieu, PhD
Sheila Gregory, PhD
Cynthia Heelan, PhD
Lenneal Henderson, PhD
Bernard Luskin, EdD
Lee Mahon, EdD
Barbara Mink, EdD
Geraldine Perri, PhD
Harriet Robles, EdD
Mark Scanlon-Green, PhD

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Alumni

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