Doctor of Education in Transformational Leadership

A New Kind of Leadership Journey

Moravian’s hybrid Ed.D. in Transformational Leadership is a 26-month doctoral program for K–12, higher ed, and workplace learning changemakers who want to redesign systems where they lead. You’ll learn through a small cohort, annual 10-day summer residencies, and an action-research dissertation of practice grounded in your day-to-day work.

This program is for you if…

You are a leader in K–12 education, higher education, or workplace learning who wants to move beyond managing systems and toward transforming them.

You might be a:

  • Teacher
  • Principal, assistant principal, or district leader
  • Higher education administrator, faculty leader, or dean
  • Director of learning, professional development, or organizational change
  • Consultant or learning designer ready to lead from where you are

You’re grappling with challenges like:

  • Equity, access, and belonging in complex systems
  • Leading through uncertainty, resistance, or rapid change
  • Reimagining learning, leadership, or assessment in the age of AI
  • Navigating policy, culture, and power while staying human-centered

And you’re looking for:

  • A doctoral experience grounded in your real work, not solely abstract theory
  • A cohort community that learns with you, not above you
  • A dissertation that creates change, not just pages

At a Glance

If this resonates, the sections below explain how the program is designed to support that kind of leadership.

For too long, leadership has meant staying on the map. Someone else draws the lines. Someone else sets the pace. Your job is to keep things running—manage the system, protect the routines, hit the targets.

But the map is fading.

The challenges leaders face now don’t fit inside yesterday’s playbook. In education, organizations, and communities, the systems we’ve relied on are straining under complexity, speed, and rising human needs. The old moves—more control, tighter compliance, better “implementation”—can keep the machine going for a while. They don’t create the kind of change people can feel and trust.

Today’s world doesn’t need better followers of directions. It needs leaders who can step off the map—who can listen deeply, see patterns, and move with imagination, empathy, and courage when there are no clear signs.

That’s the frontier of transformational leadership.

This is a call to the changemakers—the ones who feel that quiet, restless pulse: we can do better than this.

In Moravian’s Ed.D. in Transformational Leadership, you won’t memorize a single model of leadership and try to apply it everywhere. You’ll learn to lead from within your own context—K–12, higher education, or workplace learning—using your day-to-day reality as the curriculum. You’ll learn how change actually happens in complex systems, and you’ll build the capacity to shift culture, redesign learning, and reconfigure power in ways that serve people—not just process.

What you’ll do

  • Work in a small cohort community that learns with you (and challenges you)
  • Lead cycles of action research in your own setting—try, study, refine, repeat
  • Co-create practical strategies you can use immediately with the people you lead
  • Build a dissertation of practice that produces evidence, learning, and real-world impact

What you’ll leave with

  • A completed doctorate grounded in what you changed and what you learned
  • A portfolio of tools, protocols, and leadership routines you can keep using
  • A clear leadership stance—rooted in awareness, not authority
  • A network of fellow leaders you’ll keep calling on long after graduation

This isn’t just a degree. It’s a decision.

To stop managing what no longer works.

To start building what’s needed next.

To become a leader who doesn’t just follow the map—who becomes the compass.

Welcome to the work of your lifetime.

What Sets Us Apart

Moravian’s Ed.D. in Transformational Leadership isn’t designed to help leaders manage institutions more efficiently. It’s built for changemakers who want to redesign the systems they lead—ethically, equitably, and with evidence. Here, learning isn’t something you receive; it’s something you do through theory-informed, community-based inquiry that generates knowledge rooted in real people and real places. In a world changing at extraordinary speed, transformational leadership isn’t about moving faster. It’s about thinking deeper, learning from evidence, and rebuilding systems that no longer serve.

In many doctoral programs, you’re positioned as a consumer of expert knowledge. In this program, you’re expected to be a changemaker from day one. You’ll bring live problems of practice from your professional world, test real interventions, learn from what happens, and refine your approach over time. This is not leadership in theory—it’s leadership in motion.

This is a cohort experience that is co-designed with you, not delivered to you. You’ll help shape the questions the cohort explores, the themes that guide inquiry, and the protocols you use to learn together. That shared direction isn’t a “nice add-on”—it’s practice for the kind of leadership the world needs: leadership that builds trust, distributes agency, and makes room for many voices.

Your dissertation is not a detached academic exercise. It is an action-research dissertation of practice focused on a complex problem with real stakes in your professional setting. Your research site is your workplace or community—not a hypothetical case. You’ll study the problem in its organizational and historical context, use theory and evidence to sharpen the right questions, and run iterative cycles of inquiry: plan, intervene, gather data, analyze, learn, and adjust. The result is a dissertation that produces locally rooted insight and practical recommendations—grounded in what you tried, what you learned, and what actually changed.

Each year, you’ll join your cohort for an immersive 10-day summer residency designed to deepen learning in ways that online-only programs can’t. Residencies create space for intensive collaboration, dissertation workshopping, inquiry sprints, and community-building—alongside contextual learning in Bethlehem’s historic setting. These are not “extra days on campus.” They are catalytic moments where relationships deepen and the work accelerates.

We don’t just teach transformational leadership—we build a learning environment that mirrors it. Your cohort becomes a living practice space where the way you learn reflects the kind of systems you’re trying to create: human-centered, inquiry-driven, collaborative, and courageous. The patterns you practice here—how you listen, question, share power, and learn from evidence—carry forward into your leadership long after the program ends.

This program doesn’t stop at solving today’s problems. It helps you build the capacity to lead into what’s next. You’ll learn to anticipate emerging challenges, notice early signals, and design restorative possibilities—not just reactive fixes. The goal is not simply to cope with change, but to shape it with clarity, imagination, and a deep commitment to people.

Curriculum

Our Ed.D. degree in Transformational Leadership is a 56-credit, 26-month program that kicks off each year with a 10-day summer residency on the Moravian campus in the heart of historic Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The final summer residency will provide learners the opportunity to showcase their dissertation of practice.  

Fast Facts

  1. You will be a valuable member of a cohort of 15 learners with diverse backgrounds and experiences, providing you with a strong sense of community. Classes will be offered at night and on select weekend days.
  2. Many Doctor of Education programs require 60 credits and 36 months to complete your degree. Here at Moravian, we provide an intensive 56 credit, 26-month course to fit your lifestyle and needs.
  3. Potential outcomes and careers after completion include superintendents and other central office roles, principals for public schools PK-12, teacher leaders, and chief learning officers in non-profit and corporate learning environments.

Term 1 Summer
EDD 800 Becoming a Transformational Leader: The Building Blocks (6 credits)
   
Term 2 Fall
EDD 801 Becoming an Objector (4 credits)
EDD 802 Transforming the Dissertation Process (4 credits) 
   
Term 3 Winter
EDD 803 Reflecting on Myself as a Transformational Leader (2 credits)
   
Term 4  Spring
EDD 804 Becoming an Inventor (4 credits)
EDD 805 Understanding Action Research Traditions (4 credits)

Term 5 Summer
EDD 806 Becoming a Curator (4 credits)
EDD 807 Establishing my Dissertation of Practice Plan (4 credits)
   
Term 6 Fall
EDD 808 Becoming a Storyteller (4 credits)
EDD 809 Implementing my Dissertation of Practice Plan (4 credits)
   
Term 7 Winter
EDD 810 Reflecting on My Transformational Journey (2 credits)
   
Term 8 Spring
EDD 811 Becoming a Stronger Practitioner/Researcher (4 credits)
EDD 812 Concluding my Dissertation of Practice Plan (4 credits)

Term 9 Summer
EDD 813 Sharing our Story: Transforming Ourselves, Our Practice and Our Communities (6 credits)

Program Costs

Tuition for our 56-credit program is $55,832. Here’s how we break it down.

  • $997 per credit
  • Four-credit content course is $3,988
  • First year tuition is 24 credits or $23,928

To preserve the integrity of the cohort experience and the intentional sequencing of learning, transfer credits are not accepted. Each course is designed to build toward the dissertation of practice as part of a shared learning journey. 

July 2026 Residency
Dates: July 10-19, 2026
Residential fees: $1250 (includes single-room accommodations, meals, and activities)
Commuting fees: $950 (includes meals and activities)

Admissions Process

Rolling Admissions - Accepting applications now through April 1
Notification of Acceptance: Rolling until the cohort is full

Admissions Requirements

  • You must hold employment or be engaged with an educational community as part of your practice.
  • Have a Master's Degree in education or a related field with a minimum 3.0 GPA.
  • Complete the online application.
  • Complete a statement (approximately 200 words per answer) including the following:
    Your responses will be utilized during the first term in Summer 2026
    • Describe yourself as a learner and a leader, including gifts and assets you will bring to our cohort learning community.
    • Describe your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and how your commitment will contribute to the growth of our cohort learning community.
    • What are you most curious about? What questions are in the forefront of your mind these days?
    • Why a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) and what excites you about the Moravian University Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) Program?
    • Describe your current educational community/learning environment. How are the values of that environment aligned and misaligned with your own? What do you want to do to build greater alignment?
  • Submit a current resume or CV.
  • Submit two letters of recommendation.

Mission

Built on Moravian University’s mission to prepare individuals for a reflective life, fulfilling careers, and transformative leadership in a world of change, our new Doctor of Education degree in Transformational Leadership encourages scholar-practitioners to bridge current contexts with a future of equitable educational systems.

Equity Statement

In Moravian University’s Ed.D. program, we are deeply committed to advancing educational equity. We recognize the diverse nature of learners, leaders, and contexts, and we prioritize human-centered, inclusive approaches that uplift every voice. We embrace the unique assets each member brings to the table, actively dismantling barriers while co-creating opportunities for all. Our vision of transformation is rooted in fairness, collaboration, and a profound belief that equitable education is not just an aspiration but an achievable reality. 

Ziegenfuss

Learn More

For more information on our Doctor of Education Degree in Transformational Leadership please contact:

Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss
Professor of Practice
ziegenfussr@moravian.edu