The three-course (9 credit hour) certificate supports the preparation of a pipeline of practitioners and clinicians in organizational learning, collective impact, strategic doing, systems transformation, human-centered and liberatory design, rapid prototyping, implementation practice, and the science of improvement.
Format
Courses are offered in a blended, weekend format to enable full access to students from different professional schools and work settings. Asynchronous on-line content will be complemented with 6-8 project-based weekend sessions. During in-person weekends together, students will engage with faculty from across campus as well as community partners in interprofessional learning opportunities, including panel discussions, interviews, case studies, project-based learning, tool application, and team-based activities.
Three Courses
Because of students’ work in collaboration with community members, students will take three courses in order: Change Leadership and Systems Improvement, Rapid Prototyping, and Implementation and Equity. The courses go live on the Learning Management Platform on the first day of classes for each semester. Students need to have access to a laptop and internet connection to complete the certificate.
EDUC 850 Change Leadership & System Improvement (Dr. Lora Cohen-Vogel)*
In this course, students learn to apply knowledge, tools, and dispositions from improvement science, organizational and management studies, psychology of change, strategic doing, relational leadership, team science, and collective impact that support the development of learning systems (in government, healthcare, education, social services) capable of bringing about their own continuous transformation.
Spring 2026 Course Meeting Dates
| DATES | INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES | FORMAT |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, January 2 | Canvas Site Launches | *Virtual Asynchronous Lessons |
| Friday, January 9 (5:00 pm – 7:30 pm) | Kickoff Session | Zoom |
| Friday, Jan. 23 (5:00 pm – 8:00 pm) Saturday, January 24 (8:30 am – 3:30 pm) |
Weekend Session | In-Person (Chapel Hill) |
| Friday, February 20 (5:00 pm – 8:00 pm) Saturday, February 21 (8:30 am – 3:30 pm) |
Weekend Session | In-Person (Chapel Hill) |
| Friday, March 13 (5:00pm – 7:30pm) | Final Presentation Session | Zoom |
HBEH 658 Rapid Prototyping (Dr. Liz Chen)
In this course, students learn to apply the mindsets, methods, and processes associated with design thinking to solve real-world problems. Design thinking is a creative problem-solving process that prioritizes co-design, convergent and divergent thinking, as well as rapid prototyping. Students will practice equity-advancing design and liberatory co-design, and will collaborate to design a set of prototypes to test with community members for desirability, feasibility, viability, and sustainability.
Spring 2026 Course Meeting Dates
| DATES | INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES | FORMAT |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, March 20 | Canvas Site Launches | *Virtual Asynchronous Lessons |
| Friday, March 27 (5:00 pm – 7:00 pm) | Kickoff Session | Zoom |
| Saturday, March 28 (8:30 am – 2:30 pm) | Weekend Session | In-Person (Chapel Hill) |
| Friday, April 10 (5:00 pm – 7:00 pm) | Virtual Session | Zoom |
| Saturday, April 25 (8:30 am – 2:30 pm) | Weekend Session | In-Person (Chapel Hill) |
| Friday, May 8 (5:00 pm – 7:00 pm) | Virtual Session | Zoom |
| Saturday, May 16 (8:30 am – 2:30 pm) | Weekend Session | In-Person (Chapel Hill) |
| Friday, May 29 (5:00 pm – 7:00 pm) | Final Presentation Session | Zoom |
Implementation and Equity*
Applying lessons from implementation practice and research, students in this course learn the skills and competencies to tailor implementation frameworks and strategies to different settings to meet the unique needs of communities and to improve outcomes reliability and at scale. Equitable implementation occurs when strong equity components (including explicit attention to culture, history, values, and needs) are integrated into principles, tools, and cultures of work to facilitate the implementation of co-designed solutions for scale and sustainability.
Fall 2026 Course Meeting Dates
- Mid-August – December 1 (specific dates TBA)
*Note: Each course includes 6 to 8 virtual lessons. Students should expect to complete approximately one lesson per week asynchronously. Note that, as part of their course assignments, student teams are also required to work together to schedule and complete two Design Sprints alongside a community partner to which they will be matched.