Preparing Leaders Who Shape Education
For more than three decades, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership has prepared leaders who translate research into meaningful change for schools and communities across South Texas.
As the university’s first and longest-running doctoral program, it helped establish a culture of advanced research and scholarship on the Island and played a key role in TAMU-CC achieving the degree-production benchmarks required for eligibility for the Texas University Fund (TUF).
“Our impact and growth have always been felt; it is now just visible to others,” said Dr. Rosie Banda, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Ed.D. Program Coordinator.
Approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in 1992, the program was created to address a shortage of educational leadership in South Texas. Unlike traditional research doctorates, the Ed.D. emphasizes applying scholarship directly to the classroom through scholar-practitioner-focused curriculum. Students, many of whom are already serving as teachers, principals, superintendents, and higher education administrators, examine challenges facing their own organizations while learning alongside peers from across the educational spectrum.
“We help our students connect the dots, ask better questions, and use research to improve the schools and systems they serve,” said Dr. Kevin Bazner, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Program Coordinator of Higher Education Administration.
The program’s flexible hybrid format that can be completed in as few as 10 semesters brings together professionals from across the PK-20 educational spectrum, creating a network that extends well beyond graduation. Those relationships often become one of the program’s most enduring benefits.
“Our scholars yearn for on-campus meetings and discussions — a laboratory of ideas at work removing the silos often found in educational organizations,” Banda said.
The program continues to evolve with the needs of today’s educational leaders. A recently completed multiyear redesign of the curriculum strengthens the scholar-practitioner focus. Students begin the program by identifying a complex problem of practice within their institutions and spend their doctoral studies developing research, data, and collaborations they can apply in their professional environments.
“Over the course of the program, they’re evolving that work while connecting it to the needs of their schools and communities,” Bazner said.
Every graduate is a promise kept. The community recognized there was a need for educational leadership in South Texas, and our graduates continue building that capacity across PK-20 education.”
Dr. Kevin Bazner, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Program Coordinator of Higher Education Administration
Among those applying that approach is recent graduate Dr. Eddie Hesseltine ’97, ’26, superintendent of Orange Grove ISD since 2020, and the 2025 Education Service Center Region 2 Superintendent of the Year. After decades serving in public education as a teacher, coach, and administrator, Hesseltine completed his Ed.D. while leading his district. In a role which requires decisions affecting students, educators, families, and the community, Hesseltine believes the program strengthened his ability to approach changes with curiosity and reflection.
“Good leaders must continue learning,” Hesseltine said. “They must ask the difficult questions and be willing to change directions based on evidence.”
When Orange Grove ISD board members raised the possibility of adopting a four-day school week, Hesseltine turned the question into his dissertation. He examined how four-day instructional calendars affected STAAR reading and mathematics performance among students in grades 3-8, comparing districts operating on four-day schedules with similar districts following traditional five-day schedules.
Rather than relying on opinion alone, Hesseltine used the research to give district leaders a stronger foundation for evaluating the issue while considering student achievement, recruitment, retention, and attendance. The experience reshaped how he approaches leadership.
“I slow down a little bit more, study the problem, and make decisions based on evidence instead of assumptions,” Hesseltine said. “I do that by combining research with district data, my professional experience, and the needs of the community when I make decisions.”
Beyond the coursework, Hesseltine found that the program’s collaborative structure broadened his perspective by bringing together educators from a wide range of institutions and communities. Learning alongside leaders from rural, suburban, and urban districts, as well as those in higher education, exposed him to approaches he could adapt to meet Orange Grove ISD’s needs.
“It just makes you more well-rounded and helps you see there are other ways to do things,” Hesseltine said. “You learn from each other and can apply those ideas a little bit faster.”
For Bazner, graduates like Hesseltine embody the program’s purpose. Each doctoral graduate strengthens leadership capacity across the region while fulfilling the vision that inspired the program’s creation more than three decades ago.
“Every graduate is a promise kept,” Bazner said. “The community recognized there was a need for educational leadership in South Texas, and our graduates continue building that capacity across PK-20 education.”
As TAMU-CC enters this next phase of TUF-era research growth, the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership demonstrates how doctoral education can extend far beyond campus — equipping scholar-practitioners to improve educational institutions, expand opportunity, and help shape the future of communities throughout Texas. The program also demonstrates how sustained doctoral education across disciplines contributes to TAMU-CC’s long-term Research 1 (R1) trajectory.