​About SOLES

Rooted in social justice, led by compassion, inspired by curiosity, driven by a shared vision.

Mother Rosalie Hill Hall on the University of San Diego campus is home to the School of Leadership and Education Sciences' (SOLES) vibrant and vision-driven collective of academic departments, centers and institutes. Here, we combine innovation with introspection, academics with real-world application, and study with social impact.

Our nationally-accredited programs span the realms of leadership, teaching and counseling, both at graduate and undergraduate levels. They're all approached with an emphasis on social justice, multiculturalism and a determination to forge a better world together.

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MRH West PlazaMission

The School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) at the University of San Diego believes in academic excellence, innovation, and a strong commitment to equity and inclusion. We educate, engage, model, mentor, and challenge the campus community to promote social justice and ignite meaningful change in our diverse society.

Vision

SOLES shapes the future by educating and empowering professionals to enact social justice, enhance human dignity, and improve the quality of life of diverse individuals, families, and communities.

Core Values

  • Diversity, inclusion, and social justice
  • Excellence in teaching
  • Care for the whole person and common home
  • Community engagement
  • Excellence in scholarship

Goal 1:

Prepare students to lead purposeful lives with successful careers in leadership, education, counseling, and therapy in the 21st century.

Goal 2:

Expand access and demonstrate inclusive excellence to benefit the learning and success of all students and to advance educational equity and become a first-choice school of education sciences for underrepresented students. 

Goal 3:

Infuse the entire university with a spirit and practice of changemaking, where innovation and entrepreneurship lead to positive change.

Goal 4:

Encourage the integration of knowledge and research (scholarship) to address questions within and across the disciplines of leadership, education and counseling and therapy- impacting communities with local specificity and global implications.

Goal 5:

Engage our communities in deep, democratic and meaningful partnerships, with a shared vision and collaborative effort.

We invite you to review our current and aspirational strategic initiatives within the SOLES 2024 Strategic Plan. 

 CURRENT INITIATIVES ASPIRATIONAL INITIATIVES

Counseling & Marital and Family Therapy

Master of Education (Online) 

PhD in Leadership Studies

  • In 1979, SOLES established the first doctoral program in Leadership Studies in the nation

Teaching Credential Pathways

  • SOLES established the innovative Dual Credential Program to meet all state requirements for becoming a general education and mild-to-moderate special education teacher. 

Rooted in Social Justice

Dr. Joi Spencer Dr. Joi Spencer on Social Justice at SOLES "We are a private Catholic institution with a value and commitment in being rooted in social justice, leading with and by compassion. Over the decades since our founding, protests and movement tactics have evolved but the fight and messaging has not. To be rooted in social justice it takes on a few elements--it involves understanding history--complex history. It involves learning and unpacking stories and narratives untold and ignored, it also involves understanding of how it all overlaps. It also means extending grace. Recognizing your own personal shortcomings and others. Lastly, it involves the will to be committed, committed to learning, committed to challenging, committed to being challenged and committed to the conversation and fight." - Dr. Joi Spencer
Sean Green Sean Green on Privilege, Leadership, and Visibility "I consider myself to be someone that is incredibly privileged, even within my own community having come from a very well educated family. I actually think I am part of privileged Black because I've had the opportunity to get an education to be at USD. I do believe that social justice is rooted in the opportunity for education. So if i think about the opportunities that I have been provided and my family they have been rooted in education and thus has allowed us to accomplish things and provide justice for my family. I was drawn to USD because I have seen the change and effort at the institution for true social justice. I was part of the Plan to Action Committee. We were tasked with making recommendations to the faculty on changes we can make and I haven't seen that at other private institutions." - Sean Green, PhD Candidate
Suzanne Stolz Dr. Suzanne Stolz on Social Justice in Education "To be rooted in social justice I think means to be willing to and to be purposeful about looking at issues of inequities, in the work that we do specifically is looking at inequities that happen in schools. It means that we examine what is happening to various groups that have been marginalized, but we also start to make plans for making changes and we work to influence people to make changes... There are a lot of different ways to influence change… the work that you create and the programs you develop are ways to influence change. " - Dr. Suzanne Stolz
Dr. Kristopher Hall Dr. Kristopher G. Hall on Advocacy and Change "One of the things that I've been kinda pushing in classes and trying to re-initiate is advocacy. And in our multicultural standards now, over the last several years, [we’ve] added advocacy in addition to knowledge, skills, and awareness, and the way I interpret that is as a counselor you need to do whatever you can to make sure that certain problems are not problems in your clients life. We know that we live in a society that is extremely unequal.... and a lot of that is the source of a lot of our clients' current distresses. As counselors we have a responsibility to advocate in whatever way is necessary, to make sure that their basic needs are already taken care of so that you can focus on taking care of their higher level needs." - Dr. Kristopher Hall
Novien Yarber Novien Yarber on Critical Compassion and Leadership "I’ve learned that social justice takes different shapes based on different contexts and based on the student, like if you want to take that up, it’s there for you, but “it” (meaning social justice work) can also be easily ignored-- There are so many opportunities within SOLES and leadership studies that grant you the space and authority to do that work. A lot of our faculty at SOLES are beginning to and continue to look at the ways in which they’re teaching and what they’re teaching, and their willingness to step into that space has grown ever since 2019, but even before then I have been able to work with amazing faculty where DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) are at the forefront of everything they do. Even beyond the classroom there are opportunities for students to get involved and be invested in the work, even beyond USD and into local communities." - Novien Yarber, PhD Candidate
L'Tomay Douglas L'Tomay Douglas on Restorative Justice "[Social Justice in education] starts with self. Everyone says it’s systemic, but if we keep bringing it down to its minor part it’s always going to root back to a person. A person that wrote a policy, that implemented a procedure, that created a behavior that turned into a culture. It’s beginning with a person and then it becomes systemic, but it always goes back to a person. So, I don't think we’re going to do restorative justice with computers, they didn't do this, they’re not maintaining the status quo, it’s people." - L'Tomay Douglas, PhD Student