Leadership, MA

In today’s world, leaders are tasked with managing increasing complexity. As organizations become more distributed and diverse, leaders must be able to effectively guide people and manage systems through innovation, change-acceleration, and globalization. The purpose of Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Master of Arts in Leadership is to develop innovative, relationally perceptive, and reflective professionals skilled at leading with purpose in a changing world. Students who currently work in (or plan to work in) public, private, and nonprofit organizations will benefit from this 33-credit hour degree designed to provide analytical and practical tools for leadership in multiple contexts.

Program Goals

The program is designed to develop four particular leadership capacities in graduate students.

• Leadership Range
  Students are fluent in applying interdisciplinary leadership theory and data to address the challenges and opportunities of an organization or community.
• Relational Leadership Savvy
  Students are perceptive in applying cognitive and emotional skills to lead themselves and diverse others.
• Reflective Practitioners
  Students habitually use a reflective and iterative approach to leading.
• ​Purposeful Leaders
  Students demonstrate confidence in making leadership choices based on clarity of personal and organizational purpose.

Flexible Structure

Designed for working adults, this degree provides flexibility in both the course of study and the sequence and pace of the program. 

• Personal Course of Study
  Drawing on Lenoir-Rhyne’s liberal arts heritage, at the start of the program, students work with their advisor to craft an interdisciplinary course of study that best prepares them for their current or planned leadership contexts. More than a third of the degree credits are electives where students can choose from over 100 courses. In particular, students often choose to pursue elective in business, non-profit, sports organizations, higher education and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
• Degree Sequence and Pace
  Designed for adult students who are working full-time or managing other significant external commitments, this program can be started in any semester and be completed at a full-time, half-time or part-time pace. Additionally, students can pursue this degree remotely since the courses are offered in a Blended Streaming format (which means a portion of the class is synchronously broadcast from an instructor’s computer to students in remote sites in real time and a portion of the class is asynchronous online).

Program Admission Requirements

Visit graduate admission for the most current program admission requirements.

Program Core and Electives