Twenty-three professionals from a variety of disciplines will receive their doctoral degree and hood this weekend — the first to graduate from Charleston Southern University’s inaugural doctoral program.

The Doctor of Education (EdD) in leadership began in January 2019. The 60-hour program offers courses in traditional on-campus and hybrid formats and is designed to provide current and aspiring leaders with the opportunity to pursue a professional doctoral degree while also balancing a career. Current students represent several fields including education, healthcare, and business.

This is the first graduation of its kind at CSU. The 23 graduates defended dissertations such as intercultural communicative competence, reading intervention strategies, online education, military vs. non-military students in college, screen time and health motivation, mental health crisis intervention training for SROs, inequalities post-COVID on student learning, caring for nurses, and hip-hop pedagogy on the teacher-student relationship.