EDD829 Financial Leadership (3 cr.)

Prerequisite(s): EDD 809  
This course explores financial leadership as a central practice of ethical, equity-minded educational leadership. Rather than emphasizing technical accounting or budgeting skills, the course focuses on how leaders make informed financial decisions that advance mission, promote equity, and sustain organizations in complex and changing contexts. The course engages students in applied analysis of real-world financial scenarios and resource allocation decisions. Students examine how financial choices shape power, access, and opportunity, and how leaders navigate competing priorities such as effectiveness and sustainability, access and cost, and innovation and long-term impact. Through case studies, reflective inquiry, and applied decision-making, the course develops leaders’ capacity for transparent, ethical judgment and responsible financial stewardship in service of learners, communities, and institutional mission

Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Exercise sound financial leadership judgment by interpreting financial information and making mission- and equity-aligned resource decisions in authentic organizational contexts.

2. Analyze budgets and financial choices through an equity lens, assessing implications for access, opportunity, and outcomes for diverse populations.

3. Evaluate tradeoffs in financial decision-making, including tensions among quality and efficiency, innovation and sustainability, and short-term needs and long-term mission.

4. Apply ethical, transparent, and mission-driven decision-making practices that demonstrate accountability, responsible stewardship, and commitment to the common good.

5. Connect financial choices to organizational outcomes, including learning environments, organizational culture, community impact, and institutional sustainability.