Based on the Jesuit tradition of educating the whole person, the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies (DPLS) creates a space where critical thought and moral conviction meet the questions of humanity. For more than twenty years the program has promoted academic excellence and facilitated the strengthening of conceptual, scholarly, and professional competencies for use in leadership roles that serve others.

The interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree program is designed for working professionals and welcomes students across a broad range of professions, including education, health care, social services, church, government, law enforcement, and business.

Faculty, staff, and students work together to develop and sustain a learning community in which all members can nurture the personal qualities of self-knowledge, self-acceptance, a restless curiosity, a desire for truth, a mature concern for others, respect for human diversity and individuality, as well as a thirst for justice. 

Gonzaga's Doctoral Program  in Leadership Studies Achieves International Reach

With well over three-hundred graduates, the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies has achieved national stature and international reach. 

The faculty come from diverse backgrounds and lend the program a rich experience base.

Students of the program also represent a broad range of professions and cultures. Most recently the program has welcomed students from Afghanistan, Canada, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe as well as from the Spokane Native American Nation and several other indigenous nations of the Pacific Northwest.