You can complete the MAOL program’s 33-hour requirement in as little as two years. The program includes four phases. First, you will begin your coursework with an introduction to interdisciplinary education. These studies will help you develop a broad understanding of the world, as well as enhance your critical thinking and communication skills. Next, you will complete the program’s core leadership curriculum. These courses develop students’ skills and abilities to lead, as well as provide knowledge about how to build the leadership skills of others. After completing the first two phases of the program, you may select one of three available leadership track options to help you build knowledge and skills related to your desired career path. Finally, you will complete your degree with six hours of credit earned from one of two completion options.
By selecting a leadership track, you can focus your learning in areas that most interest you and that lead you towards your career aspirations. Each track provides specific knowledge and skill-building that will help prepare you for career success.
After completing your coursework in Phases One, Two, and Three, you will finalize your program by selecting a degree completion option. You can choose to either complete a thesis, take six additional course hours with a comprehensive examination, or enroll in the Experiential Leadership Completion Program.
LSTD 5003 Introduction to Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies
Intensive course providing orientation to advanced interdisciplinary study, appreciation for standards of performance and scholarship appropriate to graduate study, development of skills necessary for success in academic research and writing in a graduate interdisciplinary program.
LSTD 5013 Interdisciplinary Foundations
Selected readings designed to reinforce the interdisciplinary approach to graduate studies and to introduce the concept of paradigms as an organizing principle for understanding and interpreting information.
LSAL 5053 Research Methods in Organizations.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing. Theories, techniques, and application of research designed to prepare leadership students to understand and respond to applied research involving organizational leadership and organizational settings. (F, Sp, Su)
LSAL 5113 Theories of Management and Leadership
This course explores and analyzes the concept of leadership including such topics as leadership theory, changing leadership roles, power, decision-making, empowerment, vision, communication, diversity, and ethics
LSAL 5193 Creating, Leading, and Managing Change
An examination of effective leadership skills necessary to create and manage change in a variety of organizational settings. Topics include leadership styles in change management, organizational change strategies, models, frameworks and the potential barriers to change in organizations.
LSAL 5133 Cultures of Organizations
How you understand or explain a phenomenon – whether it be a static thing like a painting or a set of dynamic events such as group behavior in an organization – determines how you act. Your actions are then interpreted by many different people, and each will attach to it a unique explanation or interpretation.
LSAL 5223 Financial Leadership
Introduces foundational accounting principles and financial concepts for non-financial managers. Topics include analysis of financial reports, communication of financial data to organizational leaders and stakeholders and financial planning.
LSAL 5283 Building High Performance Teams
Provides students with the knowledge needed to identify a group’s current functioning and build the necessary conditions to create a high-performance team. Explores components of teams and examines the qualities of one who is capable of leading groups of people effectively.
LSAL 5323 Fundraising and Budgeting
Provides students with an overview of the history, philosophy, and ethics of fundraising and development. Students will learn about building relationships, goal setting, communication and how to build strategic fundraising plans to support a non-profit organization’s vision.
LSAL 5353 Nonprofit Governance
Provides students with an overview of key issues involved in the governance of nonprofit organizations and the role of nonprofit boards. Major governance models are examined and implications of using the different models are discussed.
LSAL 5403 Leadership in History
This course analyzes principles of leadership, using prominent examples drawn from history to discern patterns and test categories of and theoretical generalizations on leadership. The pertinent discussions aim to facilitate the understanding of leadership in different historical contexts. Consideration is given to success and failure, the relative importance of personality vs. circumstances, leadership characteristics and styles.
LSAL 5463 US Military Leadership: Insights and Applications
This is a graduate level course that studies leadership, both uniformed and civilian, in the United States military from 1775 to 2000. It does this within the context of the evolution of American military from a small 18th century army and wooden ship-and-sail navy to the globe-dominating colossus of the late 20th century. This context includes the impact of technology, maturing military theory and the changing position of the United States in the world. All of this produced diverse leadership styles which are illustrated in the careers of military leaders such as George Washington, U. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, David Farragut, John Pershing, Hap Arnold, George C. Marshall and many others.
LSAL 5903 - Experiential Leadership I
The course equips students with skills critical to developing strategy and maximizing their impact in leadership roles, and develops advanced leaders
LSAL 5913 - Experiential Leadership II
Students critique personal leadership skills, abilities, and strategies to build a productive team through effective planning, coaching, and decision making.
LSAL 5153 Ethics in Leadership
An interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of ethics, the relationship between ethics and morals, and the function of ethics in a social context. Major emphasis is on the effect of ethical decision making on successful leadership and the role that ethical behavior plays in the success of organizations.
LSAL 5173 The Individual and Leadership
This course explores the social, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of leadership, personal skills that enhance leadership ability, and strategies for dealing with interpersonal problems in organizations.
LSAL 5203 Leadership Issues in Decision Making
An interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature and attributes of rational and irrational decision making. Content will include research on how decisions must often be made with incomplete evidence, the use of cognitive psychology in decision making from a human intelligence perspective, and how decisions are made from a social and cultural process. Students will learn leadership decision making from individual, small group, and social environment contexts, as well as values of good decisions and the unintended consequences of poor decisions.
LSAL 5223 Financial Leadership in Organizations
Introduces foundational accounting principles and financial concepts for non-financial managers. Topics include analysis of financial reports, communication of financial data to organizational leaders and stakeholders, and financial planning.
LSAL 5243 Project Management
LSAL 5253 Ethics in Organizations
LSAL 5273 Planning in Organizations
LSAL 5313 Organizational Communication
In interdisciplinary inquiry in the role information and knowledge management play in making decisions in organizations, fundamental issues in the management of information, how people in organizations exchange information, and ultimately how effective sharing of information leads to effective problem solving.
LSAL 5333 Motivation and Leadership
Exploration of personal and work motivation, including discussion of relevant theories and their application in leadership and the workplace.
LSAL 5283 Building High-Performance Teams
Provides students with the knowledge needed to identify a group's current functioning and build the necessary conditions to create a high-performance team. Explores components of teams and examines the qualities of one who is capable of leading groups of people effectively.
LSAL 5293 Leadership in Practice
LSAL 5323 Fundraising and Budgeting – for nonprofits
Provides students with an overview of the history, philosophy, and ethics of fundraising and development. Students will learn about building relationships, goal setting, communication, and how to build strategic fundraising plans to support a non-profit organization's vision.
LSAL 5353 Non-profit Governance
Provides students with an overview of key issues involved in the governance of nonprofit organizations and the role of nonprofit boards. Major governance models are examined and implications of using the different models are discussed.
LSAL 5363 Staffing and Talent Management in Organizations
LSAL 5393 Followership
Introduction to the follower and the dynamics that result from followership in various organizational settings. Topics include theories and definitions of followership, categorization of follower types, and discussion of how followers can be a positive influence against ineffective or bad leadership.
LSAL 5403 Leadership in History
Analysis of leadership principles using prominent examples drawn from history to discern patterns and test categories and theoretical generalizations of leadership. Discussions aim to facilitate the understanding of leadership in different historical contexts. Consideration is given to success and failure, the relative importance of personality vs. circumstances, leadership characteristics and styles.
LSAL 5423 Women in Leadership
Exploration of women leaders and their influence on their respective societies, as well as contributions on a broader spectrum. Special attention is focused on how women leaders from different eras became change agents and what particular issues made them transformational leaders.
LSAL 5443 Religious Leaders for Social Justice
LSAL 5483 National Security Leadership
Discussion of leadership within the environment of the U.S. national security system. Course addresses the legislation that created the current national security system and examines the structure of the national security community, how it has evolved, and how it operates in practice.
LSAL 5463 US Military Leadership: Insights and Applications
Studies leadership, both uniformed and civilian, in the United States military from 1775 to present within the context of the evolution of American military from a small 18th-century army and wooden ship-and-sail navy to the globe-dominating colossus of the late 20th-century. Includes the impact of technology, maturing military theory, and the changing position of the United States in the world that produced diverse leadership styles which are illustrated in the careers of military leaders such as George Washington, U.S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, David Farragut, John Pershing, Hap Arnold, George C. Marshall, and many others.
LSAL 5513 Foundations in Coaching
LSAL 5533 Theories of Coaching
LSAL 5553 Assessment-Based Coaching
An examination of best practices for using assessment results to conduct data-driven leadership and executive coaching and to maximize coaching effectiveness.
LSAL 5573 Careers in Coaching
LSAL 5593 Development and Grant Writing
An in-depth exploration of the grant attainment process, including practical exercises in proposal writing and the grant review process.
LSAL 5700 Advanced Topics in Administrative Leadership
LSAL 5700 Financial Leadership
Introduces foundational accounting principles and financial concepts for non-financial managers. Topics include analysis of financial reports, communication of financial data to organizational leaders and stakeholders, and financial planning.
LSAL 5713 Significance of Race in American Society
Advanced studies in various administrative leadership topics, offered under stated titles determined each semester by the instructor involved. Intensive research on a topic related to the student's program of study
LSAL 5733 Overcoming Educational Inequality in America
LSAL 5793 Exploring Race and Gender in Film
LSAL 5920 Internship in Administrative Leadership
LSTD 5700 Advanced Topics in Interdisciplinary Studies
LSTD 5930 Feaver-MacMinn Seminar
LSTD 5940 Research Project in Liberal Studies
LSTD 5960 Directed Readings
LSTD 5970 Special Topics/Seminar
LSTD 5980 Research for Master's Thesis
LSTD 5990 Independent Study
Or other courses as approved by a faculty adviser and graduate liaison
