From the director
Transformation for liberation
Educational systems, from early childhood through university, have been complicit in producing widely inequitable outcomes with far-reaching implications for American democracy. With the stakes now higher than ever, it takes a particular person to serve in the senior-most roles of such systems, and a very special individual indeed to do so with an unflinching focus on transformation for liberation.
It is for leaders like these that UC Berkeley’s Leaders for Equity and Democracy (LEAD) EdD program was designed. LEAD seeks out bold and courageous leaders with a proven track record of transformational change. Once students are identified, the program and their faculty advisors commit to supporting them through each milestone of their doctoral journeys so that they can complete their dissertations and graduate in three years’ time.
To do so, LEAD relies on cohort-based learning that blends theory and practice in key areas of system leadership, including governance, personnel, resource management, scaling change, and crisis leadership. In addition, students participate in innovative experiences such as domestic or international field visit opportunities, system leadership simulations (assessment centers), and cross-disciplinary electives across Berkeley and at peer institutions. At all points along the way are robust, responsive supports to help ensure all students’ success.
Do you hear the call to lead educational systems toward justice and joy? Join us.
Lihi Rosenthal DIRECTOR, LEADERS FOR EQUITY AND DEMOCRACY, BERKELEY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Who is LEAD for?
LEAD is designed for practicing leaders who are interested in leading complex educational systems, such as school districts, institutes of higher learning, missionaligned nonprofit organizations, and community-based organizations. Interested students usually include principals, policy or advocacy leads, nonprofit directors, higher education administrators, or others whose work necessarily intersects with the public education system.
LEAD Cohort 2 at a Theatre of the Oppressed retreat at the UC Botanical Garden
Our program
What is LEAD?
Leaders for Equity and Democracy (LEAD) is UC Berkeley’s reimagined educational doctorate program, priding itself on exposing experienced practitioners in education to intellectually stimulating content and assignments while ensuring they have the resources they need to complete their research and graduate on time.
A rigorous yet supportive EdD program
• Emphasis on transformational systems leadership from early childhood through university
• An intentional cohort model, with opportunities for personalization in electives and field visit experiences
• Courses and milestones co-designed and taught by leading scholars and exceptional practitioners
• Signature pedagogical practices, including an emphasis on embodiment and reflection
• Access to state-wide leadership activities and the resources of the Berkeley campus
For more info and to apply
LEAD hosts info sessions regularly and admits students every other year. Visit bse.berkeley.edu/lead to learn more.
Big ideas
To lead the system, you must see the system.
You can’t solve cross-sector problems with single-sector solutions.
You either design for equity or you perpetuate inequity.
A leader is a steward of the public good.
System leaders think slowly.
Leadership is an embodied practice.
Faculty teaching, advising, and examining students in LEAD include Berkeley School of Education’s Bruce Fuller, Cati V. de los Ríos, Chunyan Yang, Dana Miller-Cotto, Derek Van Rheenen, Erin Murphy-Graham, Frank Worrell, Gina Garcia, Glynda Hull, Jabari Mahiri, Jose Eos Trinidad, Judith Warren-Little, Larry Nucci, Lisa García Bedolla, Michelle Wilkerson, Michelle D. Young, Özge Hacıfazlıoğlu, Rebecca Cheung, Tesha Sengupta-Irving, Tolani Britton, and Travis Bristol, along with Goldman School of Public Policy’s Amy Lerman, Jesse Rothstein, and Rucker Johnson.
Dr. nives wetzel de cediel, LEAD Cohort 1, at the Berkeley School of Education
86 percent of LEAD students identify as leaders of color
76% OF LEAD STUDENTS HAVE MORE THAN 20 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATION
48% OF LEAD STUDENTS ARE MULTILINGUAL
62% OF LEAD STUDENTS ARE PARENTS
100% OF LEAD STUDENTS ARE DEDICATED TO LEADING LIKE DEMOCRACY DEPENDS ON IT
Our commitment
Realizing our potential
The success of our democracy relies on equitable schools, which in turn rely on transformational system leaders. To this end, LEAD engages passionate, equity-conscious, practicing leaders with the theories, research design principles, operational capacities, and networks they need to effect large-scale change in education. Importantly, at the end of the threeyear, transdisciplinary program, graduates leave exceptionally prepared to design liberatory educational systems. Such leaders are committed to and capable of realizing our potential as a nation—an inclusive America focused on uplifting the brilliance of its vibrant, diverse communities.
Our leaders are . . .
Word of mouth
Coming to class with our beloved community of the LEAD cohort felt like coming home to me. I’ve never felt more capable of bringing my whole authentic self to a setting, nor more inspired by the people around me. LEAD has pushed my thinking as a leader and a scholar.
—FRANCIS ROJAS, LEAD COHORT 1
Simply put, there is no single doctoral program that is more sorely needed in this country right now than Berkeley’s Leaders for Equity and Democracy. It will take exceptional LEADers to take inventory of the current failures written into the very code of educational systems and transcend these. We must educate like democracy depends on it, because it does.
—CHRISTOPHER EDLEY JR. (1953-2024), BERKELEY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION INTERIM DEAN, 2021–2023
Being a graduate student again initially felt like an impossibility to me as a single mom of three and working professional. LEAD was beyond a doubt the hardest educational experience of my life, and also the very best. You have designed a program filled with love and hope. I am a changed human because of it.
—KESSA EARLY, LEAD COHORT 1
Our future depends on leaders like those that graduate from Berkeley’s LEAD program. We don’t just prepare leaders to ensure that every student has access to an equitable and excellent education—we are preparing leaders who are able to safeguard democracy by transforming educational systems into inclusive laboratories of learning and discovery, where all students can reach their fullest potential and become self-actualized contributors to the greater good.
—MICHELLE D. YOUNG, BERKELEY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION DEAN AND PROFESSOR
Join us in transforming public education. LEAD hosts info sessions regularly and admits students every other year. Visit bse.berkeley.edu/lead
Leaders for Equity and Democracy
Berkeley School of Education
University of California, Berkeley 2121 Berkeley Way Berkeley, CA 94720-1670
bse-lead@berkeley.edu
Copyright © 2024 UC Regents.
PHOTO CREDITS cover Micholiano Photography. 10 Bryan Gibel (Young). back cover Keegan Houser. This publication is for educational purposes only and may contain material as allowed by the United States copyright fair use doctrine.
LEAD Cohort 2 at UC Berkeley’s Black History Walking Tour
