Michael Gleason

Michael Gleason

Wartburg College will offer a new, completely online graduate-level academic program beginning in summer 2021.

The Master of Arts in leadership is designed for working professionals and provides a deep foundation of problem-based learning about leadership from different perspectives.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to work with graduate students who want to learn how they can fully leverage their authentic leadership to make communities better,” said Michael Gleason, director of Wartburg’s Institute for Leadership Education.

The program builds on the college’s longstanding commitment to leadership education. One of the four pillars of the college’s mission statement, the leadership concept was formalized in the late 1980s with the formation of the Irving R. Burling Chair in Leadership and the Institute for Leadership Education. In 2001, faculty approved a leadership minor, and in 2019, the college began offering a Graduate Leadership Certificate. The new master’s program joins the Master of Arts in Music Therapy as the second graduate degree offered by the college.

“The fact that leadership is one of the four pillars of the college says so much. Wartburg has always been on the cutting edge of leadership education,” Gleason said. “We have the ability to make leadership development even more pervasive at Wartburg, which makes this a very exciting time.”

The master’s program is entirely online, with two brief online intensive experiences (three days each) at the start and end of the first year of the two-year program. The Master of Arts can be applied to any field and is designed to help individuals explore how they are called to lead and navigate personal leadership challenges.

All participants will be mentored and will receive a high level of faculty support as they progress through the program. Graduates will have the opportunity to enhance their leadership portfolios; implement (or further implement) a project within their business, organization or community; and demonstrate learning through a written product that integrates knowledge with the course.

“This program is structured so that students have the opportunity to apply theory to practice. Throughout the program students will use concepts they are learning in classes to develop a leadership project to be implemented in their workplace or community. They will then reflect on how the project went and consider how to improve in the future,” Gleason said.

To learn more about Wartburg’s Master of Arts in leadership, visit www.wartburg.edu/leadership-masters.