Abstract
Is Sacramento State’s Leadership Initiative well designed? Can the program design be improved? In this thesis, I create a rubric to evaluate the Leadership Initiative program design by extracting approximately 100 program design goals from relevant literature. I condense those goals into roughly 30 themes, and classify the themes by “universe.” I explain that three communities, each a separate universe, care about leadership program design: the profession, the university, and the students. As an outside observer, I compare the program materials to the rubric to determine which goals have and have not been met. The Leadership Initiative is well designed with respect to student and university goals, but could be improved to meet the following professional standards: acknowledge student success, request comments from staff and partners on program development and implementation, and adapt the program based on feedback. I offer recommendations to improve program design, anticipate challenges, and propose future developments.