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Dr. de Leon teaches these courses at Columbia’s Master of Science in Nonprofit Management.

DEIA at Work: Leading Inclusive Organizations

Apart from its justice and equity imperative, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) has become a business imperative as organizations become increasingly diverse. Knowledge and experience in the practice of DEIA has become a key requirement for managers and leaders. This course prepares students to manage and lead the practice of DEIA in core business functions, as directors of DEIA offices/initiatives or as DEIA champions within their organizations. It will equip students with an understanding of the advantages and challenges of leading diverse teams and will provide the knowledge, critical analysis, and practical tools required to lead inclusive organizations. It provides a framework and strategic foundation for driving an organization through the stages of gaining awareness about DEIA, practicing DEIA, and amplifying the work of equity and inclusion beyond the workplace. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Nonprofits and Philanthropy

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an increasingly salient practice in the charitable sector. Done well, DEI practice – such as more diverse recruitment policies, more inclusive organizational culture, and greater attention to the equitable distribution of programmatic outcomes – helps nonprofit and foundation managers and leaders attract and retain talent, improve programmatic outcomes, and lend greater credibility to the work of the charitable sector. This course aims to equip students with critical faculties and practical tools to be informed and ethical practitioners of DEI in the charitable sector while remaining alive to the tensions between DEI and current sector practice.

Social Impact & Performance Management

Nonprofit organizations compete for scarce philanthropic and government funding and are expected to account for how these resources are utilized for the greater good. However, understanding how well nonprofit programs and services produce their desired outcomes can be a challenge. This course is designed to provide a broad – yet rigorous – overview of the knowledge and tools available to evaluate the effects of nonprofit and social impact programs and policies.

Capstone Project

Capstone projects afford a group of students the opportunity to undertake complex, real-world, client-based projects for nonprofit organizations, supervised by a Nonprofit Management program faculty member. Through the semester-long capstone project, students will experience the process of organizational assimilation and integration as they tackle a discrete management project of long or short-term benefit to the client organization. The larger theoretical issues that affect nonprofit managers and their relationships with other stakeholders, both internal and external, will also be discussed within the context of this project-based course.