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.
Change Leadership and Systems Improvement
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 2025 Course Meeting Dates
- Online Sessions:
Friday, Jan. 10, 4:30-7 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 24, 4:30-7 p.m. - In-Person Sessions (UNC-Chapel Hill):
Friday, Jan. 31, 4:30-8 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 1, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 28, 4:30-8 p.m. and Saturday, March 1, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Rapid Prototyping
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 2025 Course Meeting Dates
- Online Launch Session:
Friday, April 4, 4-6 p.m. - In-Person Sessions (UNC-Chapel Hill):
Friday, April 11, 4:30-7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 12, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, May 2, 4:30-7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 3, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, May 16, 4:30-7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 17, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. - Online Closing:
Final Projects Due: Friday, June 13, with final presentations via 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 2025 Course Meeting Dates
- Online Sessions:
Friday, Aug. 22, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 10, 4:30-7:30 p.m. - In-Person Sessions:
Friday, Sept. 5, 4:30-8 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 6, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 5, 4:30-8 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 6, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 pm.