Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development
M.S., University of Wisconsin – Madison, Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
B.S., University of Wisconsin – Madison, Communication Arts, Communication Science and Rhetoric
Leonard is focused on investigating and improving how student success commitments are enacted across the higher education landscape. This involves a close look at how administrators, faculty and staff members use research, data, and promising practices to enhancing students’ post-secondary outcomes. He is especially attentive to the social and discursive phenomena that mediate and sometimes inhibit the successful implementation of student success practices. His research is deeply informed by his previous experiences facilitating High Impact Practices as a practitioner, and his ongoing research projects related to the implementation of student success practices in various institutional and disciplinary contexts. His work has been funded through the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, as well as other national and local entities. Recent examples of his scholarship can be found in the Review of Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, and in a recent volume of New Directions for Higher Education titled Enacting Student Success: Critical and alternative perspectives for practice
