School of Education

Ed.D. in Leadership Program Capstone Partnerships

Our 3rd year Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership students fulfill their degree requirements by completing team-based capstones. Capstones are Dissertations in Practice that address actionable problems of practice to advance organizational improvement for selected partner organizations.

Real World Problems

Capstones impact the work of partner organizations (and/or a specific office, department or unit within the organization) by offering improvements to address specific challenges and contexts. Doctoral teams conduct interactive analyses of problems, documents, and literature as well as field-based inquiry specific to the organization. Partners receive a culminating product, with findings and recommendations targeted to meet the needs of the organization. For their degree requirements, the capstone teams also produce a Dissertation in Practice that they defend to an academic committee. 

Real World Impact

Ed.D. capstone teams have fulfilled many different needs for over 110 organizations from a variety of sectors. Here are a few examples:

• Increasing Doctoral Student Completion Rates within a College
• Teacher and Leadership Recruitment in a Fiscally Distressed Urban District
• The Intersection of Diversity, Inclusion, and Audience Building in Performing Arts
• A Case Study about Increasing Equity in the Capacity Building Grant Funding Process

For an additional sense of the impact of this work, this VCU article profiles a past partnership.

Who can be a Capstone Partner?

Partner organizations can be located anywhere (or have multiple sites) and capstones may be completed by distance (i.e., online/virtual). Past partners have included organizations from the K12, Higher Education, Nonprofit, Private, and Public Service sectors. 

What are Capstone Partner responsibilities?

If selected, partner organizations:

• Designate a point of contact for communications and four primary meetings during a 13-month timeline (below) with a faculty chair and a doctoral student team of 2-5 members,
• Inform and approve the work plan (plan is also approved by an academic committee), and 
• Help facilitate agreed-upon field work/data collection that the team will undertake within the organization.
  
  

How do I learn more about Capstone Partnerships? 

• We typically post an application form in February each year. 
• Contact Dr. Kim Bridges, Coordinator of Capstone Experiences, at bridgeskm@vcu.edu
  
  

How can I submit my organization’s problem of practice for consideration?

Your organization’s identified problem of practice may be submitted via this Request for Partnership form. Please be as detailed as possible to help us better gauge how a Capstone team can best serve your needs. Requests for Partnership forms must be submitted no later than March 13, 2026 for consideration for the 2026-2027 capstone cycle.  

Note: Many factors contribute to which projects are selected for partnership with the EdD capstone teams; thus, there is no guarantee of an organization’s selection for a capstone partnership.

2026/2027 Timeline

Teams work with selected partners over this timeframe:

• February 3 - Information session for those interested in Capstone partnerships; RFP application open
  • RSVP to attend info session HERE.
    
    
• March 13 - Deadline for organizations to submit Requests for Partnership (RFPs)
  
  
• March to April - Faculty review of RFPs and student matching process
  
  
• End of April - Organizations informed of selection status for Capstone work in the 2026-2027 academic year
  
  
• May to June - Partner/Capstone team introductory meeting
  
  
• June to August - Teams gather additional background on the organization, context, and issues related to the Problem of Practice. Teams conduct problem analysis and explore relevant literature to understand the PoP.
  
  
• August to September - Teams present problem analysis to partners on the actionable Capstone PoP as well as proposed work to help address the actionable problem identified. All parties sign agreement to proceed with the work.
  
  
• October to March - Teams interact with organizations/do agreed-upon work to collect, interpret, and analyze data relevant to the Problem of Practice. Teams develop findings and recommendations for improvement.
  
  
• April to May - Teams present data-informed recommendations, final deliverable(s), and results to the partner and defend scholarly documents to their academic committee as part of their graduation requirement.