A New Online Professional Certificate Series
You're navigating shifting priorities, hybrid teams, higher expectations, and you have less room for error. This new series gives leaders, managers, and those interested in these roles practical tools to move through today's workplace with clarity, agility, and confidence for maximum impact.
Learn directly from practitioners and thought leaders working at the forefront of human-centered organizational leadership, change, resource management, and communications.
Earn a Certificate of Participation and gain knowledge and skills you can use immediately.
The Leadership Challenge
Leaders today face unprecedented challenges:
- Rapid technological change
- Hybrid and remote teams
- Intergenerational workplaces
- Rising expectations around equity, inclusion, and purpose
Traditional leadership training often fails to address the human and contextual dimensions of this work.
Our Approach
This three-course professional education series draws directly from social work practice, centering self-awareness, communication, cultural competence, and the person-in-environment perspective as essential leadership tools.
- Human-centered leadership taught by expert practitioners
- Built for AI and hybrid workplace realities
- Organizational challenges understood within social and cultural contexts
- Leadership skills you can use immediately
The Three Course Pathway
Enroll in one, two, or all three courses and receive a Certificate of Participation upon completion of each course. CEUs for social workers in process.
Purpose, cultural competence, and foundational skills for tomorrow
Instructor: Lee Cortez, LMSW, SHRM-SCP, CDE
Description: This course is designed for leaders who want to grow their impact in today’s fast-changing world. Through seven interactive modules, participants will strengthen their self-awareness, sharpen their cultural intelligence, and build the adaptive skills needed to lead people and organizations through transformation. The course blends personal reflection with hands-on tools that can be applied immediately at work. By course completion, participants will be equipped to lead with clarity and confidence, foster inclusive and resilient teams, and shape organizations that are both high-performing and future-ready.
Schedule: September 9-October 21, 2026. Meets synchronously via Zoom weekly on Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00 pm EST. Asynchronous components will be completed on the course website between weekly Zoom sessions.
Practical Strategies and Skills for Everyday Success
Instructor: Colleen Marshall, MA, LMFT
Description: In this foundational course, you will learn to apply the spirit, processes, and methods of Motivational Interviewing as an effective approach for evoking change-readiness among employees. This collaborative and goal-oriented style of social work communication builds on empathy and listening and focuses on the language of change. The course is highly interactive and participants develop effective rapport-building strategies and practice facilitating guided dialogue to elicit and strengthen motivation for behavior change. Leaders and managers gain foundational knowledge and a technical communication skillset applicable across different populations and contexts.
Schedule: September 29-November 10, 2026. Meets synchronously via Zoom weekly on Tuesdays, 6:00-7:00 pm EST. Asynchronous components will be completed on the course website between weekly Zoom sessions.
Self-awareness as the foundation of leadership
Instructor: Jasmine Thomas, EdM, MSW, MBA
Description: Today’s complex and rapidly changing workplace requires leaders who must excel in strategy and operate with self-awareness to achieve business goals. This course is designed to provide leaders and managers with deeper insights into their leadership identities and styles and to illustrate how these can be combined for greater impact. Through self-reflection, group discussions, and exercises, participants explore tools and frameworks to better understand their leadership style, navigate team dynamics, and influence others more effectively—without needing to change who they are. By the end of the course, participants will reflect on their leadership style, insights, strengths, and areas of opportunity to produce a leadership development plan, enabling them to become more effective leaders.
Schedule: October 28-December 9, 2026. Meets synchronously via Zoom weekly on Wednesdays, 6:00-7:00pm EST. Asynchronous components will be completed on the course website between weekly Zoom sessions.
Launch Year Pricing
Apply now to lock in our launch-year pricing. Prices for the certificate series will increase each year after.
Master Human-Centered Leadership
Learn directly from practitioners and thought leaders working at the forefront of human-centered organizational leadership, change, resource management, and communications.
Lee Cortez is a social worker, educator, and senior human resources leader whose work explores the intersection of organizations, work, and human well-being. He has taught at Columbia School of Social Work for more than a decade, including courses on the world of work and nonprofit financial management, and has served as a guest lecturer at Cambridge Judge Business School on topics including organizational behavior, culture, and leadership.
Lee currently serves as a senior HR leader at Kroll and has held leadership roles in the technology sectors, including at Google and Block. He holds an MS in Social Work from Columbia School of Social Work and an Executive MBA (Distinction) from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, where he was the inaugural recipient of the Dean’s Diversity Scholarship. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, where his research explores the changing nature of work and its consequences for people, organizational practice, and social welfare.
Colleen Marshall has been in executive leadership in behavioral health and behavior change service delivery and management for around 20 years. She is currently the Chief Clinical Officer at Two Chairs. Her focus has been on behavior change methodologies, particularly Motivational Interviewing. She has helped multiple start-ups and non profit behavioral health organizations implement MI in clinical care and leadership. She also authored Motivational Interviewing for Leaders in the Helping Professions: Facilitating Change in Organizations.
Jasmine Thomas is the founder and managing partner of Beacon Rowe, a global boutique advisory firm helping executives, civic leaders, and boards align strategy, leadership, and capital to deliver durable, double-bottom-line outcomes at the intersection of private capital, social impact, and institutional leadership. She holds more than two decades of executive experience advancing economic inclusion, community development, and digital transformation across philanthropic, corporate, and public sectors, with initiatives spanning 90+ countries.
At Microsoft, Jasmine served as senior director in the Trusted Technology Group. Prior to Microsoft, Jasmine held executive leadership roles at Citi, mobilizing more than $1 billion in investments and managing global grants portfolios. Jasmine holds an MBA from London Business School; an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MSW from New York University; an EdM from Teachers College, Columbia University; and a BA from University of Maryland, College Park. She serves on the boards of Social Impact Fund in Los Angeles, Pacific Community Ventures in Oakland, and Cheri Chef (a London start-up).