Across education, nonprofit, and social-impact organizations, leaders must respond to rapid change while sustaining progress that lasts. The ability to guide workplace learning is central to meeting these demands. When leaders and organizations treat learning as an ongoing practice rather than a one-off initiative, it supports employees, aligns teams, and lays the groundwork for long-term success.

For an organization to realize its full potential around employee development, it needs leaders with advanced preparation to lead workplace learning — professionals who study how people develop as individuals, in teams, and across systems. They:

• Listen deeply, framing questions that invite collaboration, and guide colleagues through change with practices of transformational leadership.
• Balance rigor and imagination, blending careful analysis with creative problem-solving to engage complexity.
• Examine assumptions, identifying patterns and designing approaches that foster cooperation and equity, seeing how learning moves across individuals, teams, and wider systems throughout organizational life.

This level of expertise and leadership takes advanced, doctoral-level study. Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) offers a clear path for experienced professionals ready to become these leaders: the online Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Executive Leadership, an interdisciplinary program created to help organizations build sustainable cultures of learning. The program broadens your understanding of talent development and organizational change, preparing you to use learning as a lever for results across your organization.

Explore the Doctorate in Leadership Online

The Case for Doctoral-Level Expertise in Workplace Learning

Organizations across sectors are realizing that sustained progress relies on leaders who understand how learning supports both people and operations. Those with advanced preparation view workplace learning as more than professional training. They see it as a foundation for adaptability, collaboration, and future objectives.

“Organizations today — especially those in education and social impact — face a paradox,” says Nicole Brittingham Furlonge, Ph.D., executive director and Klingenstein Family Chair at the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. “They’re expected to move quickly, yet real progress requires depth and sustained learning.”

That learning may include building talent pipelines, equipping staff with new skills, drafting inclusive policies, or guiding teams through complex organizational changes. Leaders help colleagues connect these efforts to a shared mission and a clarity around core values. In doing so, professional development supports both people and long-term goals.

Doctoral preparation gives leaders the capacity to listen for nuance, notice the structures shaping culture, and apply research to organizational challenges and opportunities. They approach learning at work as an essential framework — not a checklist — enabling them to guide improvement with clear direction and focus.

Completing TC’s Ed.D. in Executive Leadership gives you a clear view of how learning supports an organization’s overall health. Furlonge explains that leaders prepared at the doctoral level “see connections across people, policies, and structures. They recognize how learning moves through an organization and builds the trust needed for lasting progress.”

That trust grows through well-designed feedback loops, storytelling and storylistening that invite voices to shape the narratives that dynamically articulate the shared purpose running throughout the organization, and conditions created and sustained for continual development. This systems-level approach helps professionals in the Executive Leadership program approach talent development, feedback, and organizational change with a broader, agile, and more connected view.

Doctoral programs in leadership connect learning with organizational goals

From corporate education initiatives to nonprofits, independent schools, and international networks, leaders with doctoral-level knowledge know how to align learning with an organization’s direction. Graduates of programs like TC’s Ed.D. in Executive Leadership develop the insight to connect talent development, strategic priorities, and community needs so learning becomes a driving force rather than an isolated or stand-alone task.

Doctoral-level leaders know how to create cultures where learning is shared, scaled, and sustained. They see professional learning as more than an HR function or training calendar — it supports an organization’s long-range goals.

Nicole Brittingham Furlonge, Ph.D., Executive Director and Klingenstein Family Chair at the Klingenstein Center

These leaders build systems and structures that make learning part of everyday work. They may pair new employees with seasoned mentors, facilitate feedback sessions where teams exchange ideas on current initiatives, or launch collaborative groups to explore solutions to pressing challenges. They also apply strategic learning and development skills to help senior leadership and staff create a culture where professional advancement is encouraged and aligned with the organization’s mission, ensuring learning supports both people and organizational priorities.

Taking a systems-level view of workplace learning

Too often, professional learning is limited to isolated workshops or short-term training. Doctoral-level leaders, however, see learning as a network of relationships, policies, practices, and systems that move through an entire organization. They understand how mentoring, coaching, and ongoing feedback build trust, adaptability, and shared purpose across teams.

For example, some schools and nonprofits have reframed professional development as an ongoing, whole-community practice — engaging staff, boards, and families in shared reflection. This shift turns learning into a cultural anchor, strengthening teaching, deepening collaboration, and aligning everyday work with long-term goals.

Graduates put this systems perspective to work as chief learning officers, directors of talent development, heads of schools, heads of divisions, directors of teaching and learning, learning coaches, or consultants for corporate education initiatives. Others step into senior roles in nonprofits or foundations, using what they’ve learned to build equitable learning cultures across whole systems. This approach helps teams — and the institutions you serve — stay aligned and ready for change.

TC's Ed.D. program prepares leaders for learning and development

Once professionals recognize how on-the-job learning supports organizational goals, the question becomes how to build the expertise to lead it well. TC’s online program in Executive Leadership offers an interdisciplinary curriculum designed for working professionals who want to advance their ability to guide organizational learning.

The program blends education leadership, adult learning, and organizational psychology, giving students several lenses for understanding how people and systems evolve. It also emphasizes the human dynamics — motivation, trust, and feedback — that make change possible and sustainable, helping leaders align strategy with empathy. A cohort model anchors the experience, pairing synchronous discussions and asynchronous coursework with immersive sessions that encourage reflection and experimentation.

Mentoring from faculty and TC’s alumni network helps you connect research with practice, while capstone and inquiry projects let you test strategies inside your organization. As you refine research and data-informed approaches, you strengthen feedback practices, build professional networks, and develop habits that help teams move forward together.

Learning in this program isn’t separate from your work. It helps you recognize the opportunities work provides for your learning every day and prepares you to enhance how your organization learns every day — whether by encouraging peers to reflect on recent projects, asking how a policy affects employee development, or examining how well current initiatives align with long-term strategic goals.

Nicole Brittingham Furlonge, Ph.D.

Advancing learning in the workplace through a doctorate in leadership online

Effective workplace learning doesn’t happen by chance — it grows out of steady reflection and purposeful structures. Leaders who reach the doctoral level understand that progress depends on inquiry and careful questioning. As Furlonge explains, “They know how to pause, ask what skills a team truly needs, examine whether policies foster or hinder collaboration, and design mentoring that supports people at every stage of their careers.”

That’s why inquiry is the foundation of TC’s program. At TC, you’ll analyze real cases, use data to evaluate initiatives, and practice giving and receiving feedback that strengthens collaboration. Short, immersive sessions in New York City complement online study, giving you space to test ideas and reflect with your cohort. You also learn to measure the impact of learning initiatives against organizational priorities, helping you demonstrate value and guide projects across teams and global networks.

Why choose TC for your Ed.D. in Executive Leadership

If you’re ready to guide workplace development with insight and skill, TC gives you the preparation to excel. You will learn from faculty who merge research with practical experience, collaborate with a supportive cohort, and test new ideas against the challenges you face every day. Each course, discussion, and mentoring call helps you connect evidence-based insight to the work already underway in your organization.

By graduation, you’ll be ready to lead corporate education, nonprofits, schools, or other organizations committed to ongoing professional learning. Because the program is designed for working professionals, you’ll strengthen your organization even as you complete your degree, applying new insights through capstone projects, immersive sessions in New York City, and mentoring relationships.

Ready to lead workplace learning at a doctoral level? Explore the doctorate in leadership online at TC or start your application today.