EdD in Organizational Leadership

Developing Learning Leaders

Organizations around the world in various domains like education, business, civil society, and government are challenged by unprecedented complexity. What is demanded of organizational leaders now is often far beyond their current capabilities. Meridian's Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership has been developed to respond to this capability gap. The curriculum design enables students to cultivate an ecology of competencies in support of their own capabilities as leaders, as well as in coaching other leaders and consulting with teams and organizations. Students in this program work with faculty who are highly skilled practitioners and are deeply engaged in transformative projects.

"Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one identity." —James Baldwin

At A Glance

Concentrations Available

DEVELOPMENTAL COACHING

The Developmental Coaching concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with practice in contexts such as executive coaching, developmental assessment, and management of deliberately developmental organizations.

EXPRESSIVE AND MOVEMENT ARTS

The Expressive and Movement Arts concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with professional practice in contexts such as conventional healthcare settings, coaching practices, employee wellness programs.

HEALTH COACHING

The Health Psychology concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with professional practice in contexts such as conventional healthcare settings, coaching practices, employee wellness programs.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Organizational Development concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with the practice of organizational leadership and development in various institutional domains, like: Business, Non-profits (NGOs); and government including sectors such as education, law, and the arts.

SOCIAL ARTISTRY

The Social Artistry concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with professional commitments entailing arts-based practices that foster community development and societal transformation.

TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP

The Transformative Leadership concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with practice in contexts such as executive coaching, developmental assessment, and management of deliberately developmental organizations.

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

The Transformative Learning concentration emphasizes coursework aligned with professional practice in contexts such as education, organizational leadership, and adult education.

"Meridian University offers a graduate education that is integrative, innovative, and pioneering as an educational model that involves holistic learning and practical application to many diverse professions." —Angeles Arrien, The Four-Fold Way

Academic Structure

Meridian’s academic structure gives students the flexibility to navigate the University’s curricular architecture in ways that match their passions, professional goals, and other life commitments.

The structure is designed to serve a diverse student body, who live around the globe, have varied cultural and clinical visions for their careers, and are at different stages in their professional journey.

Students enroll in a degree program, can elect a concentration, and register for one or multiple courses each quarter. In addition to core courses for the specific degree program and anchor courses that represent the Transformative Learning intent of Meridian’s curriculum, students select elective courses that align with their Meridian concentration, background, and career path.

Learning Formats

Hybrid Format

Meridian’s hybrid learning format combines online courses with onsite weeklong residential intensives. The hybrid learning format is designed to enable students to pursue their graduate education at a flexible pace, combining asynchronous coursework via the University’s custom social learning platform, Pivot, live course video calls with faculty, synchronous student community engagement, and one-week residential intensives. By combining innovative online education methodologies with rich video calls and deep residential connections, the hybrid format enables students to contribute locally and perceive globally.

Each quarter, students take one or multiple seven-week online courses. This schedule provides students with time between quarters to rest, engage, and prepare. Additionally, students attend at least two weeklong onsite residential intensives per academic year. Intensives run Monday through Friday throughout the year, with residential intensives taking place at Meridian’s Bay Area Center and other globally distributed locations.

Online Format

In Meridian's online learning format, students can complete 100% of their coursework degree requirements online. Virtual intensives are also available for students who choose not to travel to residential intensives. Students can select intensive dates, locations, and formats based on their personal circumstances and professional aspirations.

Meridian University is dedicated to enabling human development through wise transformative impact across multiple domains of the public and private sectors with global reach and local value. Meridian’s graduate degree programs in Business, Psychology, Education, and Transformative Leadership enable students to combine passion with a profession in service to larger social, cultural, ecological, and developmental goals.

Each of Meridian’s degrees provides students with an integrated set of skills and capacities that are grounded in the principles and practices of Transformative Learning along with next-practices specific to the degree and concentration, chosen by each student. Meridian’s unique learning model enables students to combine onsite residencies, asynchronous online learning, and engaging video calls to develop an educational path that fits both their life and vision via Meridian’s own integrated technology platform.

Meridian is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission and approved by the US Department of Education for participation in the Federal Student Aid program. WASC is the Department of Education recognized regional accreditor for such schools as the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford University. Meridian’s licensable degrees have been recognized by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and Board of Psychology for over 25 years.

"Meridian University offers programs unique in their ability to bring cognitive and experiential learning together." — Jean Houston, Chancellor

Vision and Mission: An Education that Transforms

The evolution of human beings expresses the earth’s deepest potentials. The term Meridian evokes and symbolizes the earth as inhabited and imagined by humans. The culture that humans have imagined into being is in urgent need of transformation. The professions of Psychology, Business, and Transformative Leadership can serve to make a critical contribution to contemporary possibilities for the transformation of culture. Meridian University’s curriculum takes an integrative approach to both personal and cultural transformation within organizations, communities, and societies.

Guided by an Integral Vision, Meridian University seeks to educate leaders with the capacities, skills, and knowledge essential for transforming the professions of Psychology, Business, and Transformative Leadership. The leadership capacities of courage, compassion, clarity, conscience, and embodied self-awareness, together constitute the wisdom and integrity required for transforming the professions and the wider culture. Transformative learning at Meridian catalyzes the emergence of these capacities which, along with developing creative inquiry skills and acquiring professional knowledge, actualizes Meridian’s commitment to sustaining an education that transforms.

Meridian’s commitment to public and professional engagement is developed through the Center for Transformative Learning.

When you see the earth from the moon, you don't see any divisions there of nations or states.

This might be the symbol, really, for the new mythology to come.

That is the country that we are going to be celebrating.

And those are the people that we are one with. — Joseph Campbell