An Ed.D. in organizational leadership is one way to keep up with a new business landscape. Leaders need to be able to quickly readjust and re-strategize, all while making sure their teams and organizations are on the same page. As head of product for companywide employee experience at JPMorgan Chase, Jackson’s goal is to support and foster a positive experience and ease communication among the bank’s 250,000-plus global employees and retirees.  

Despite its name, the usefulness of the Ed.D. degree extends beyond education—and attracts candidates like Jackson. He enrolled in the 42-credit hour Ed.D. program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development to acquire some new skills and learn to navigate innovative digital processes.

“Whether you’re commercial sector or nonprofit, organizations are going to be driven by innovation, cross-sector engagement, and effective leaders that can navigate these choppy waters,” he says. 

To learn how an Ed.D. in organizational leadership can boost the careers of professionals, Fortune spoke with Jackson and two other graduates of these programs. Collectively, they point to advantages of pursuing this degree that include an expanded professional network, an increased appreciation for being a lifelong learner, time and resources to address real institutional issues, and an emphasis on cross-sector collaboration. 

An Ed.D. program highlights “the importance of stepping outside the echo chamber”

When Jackson decided to pursue his doctorate, he already had an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in economics from New York University, as well as more than 20 years of experience with JPMorgan Chase.

Jackson believed economic capital was the driver of growth and economic expansion when he was an undergraduate and master’s student, but his paradigm shifted while at JPMorgan. 

“It really is human capital, and our ability to innovate, lead, and adapt that creates economic capital,” he says. “If you provide someone significant human capital advantages by virtue of education or innovation, they create economic opportunities.”

While in his role at JPMorgan, Jackson became interested in optimizing the impact of technological innovation on both employees and firms.

“A core program focus was the importance of stepping outside the echo chamber that is often illustrated by one’s firm, community, or regular associates for different perspectives and information,” Jackson says. “That intentional and ongoing cross-sector, cross-industry, cross-regional engagement is required by leaders to innovate and better optimize strategies that sustain themselves and their associated enterprises.”    

In addition to the ability to work with people from a wide array of perspectives and experiences, a key component of Jackson’s program was learning how to understand and lead with the latest developments in technology, specifically machine learning and artificial intelligence (A.I.). 

“How do we leverage those capabilities within the context of our enterprises, how do we recognize them, and are they really ensuring that they’re driving the right solutions?” Jackson says. The program at Steinhardt helped integrate these real-world experiences and demystify some of these themes, exploring how they come together and their implications, he adds.

“I learned the importance of data-driven decision making”

Mautra Jones has been passionate about education since she was in high school, and in March 2022 she became the first woman and the first person of color to serve as president of the Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC).

It was after more than 20 years of working with schools and organizations to provide education and resources for kids, teens, and young adults that Jones returned to school. She chose Vanderbilt University’s full-time Ed.D. program, which is ranked No. 1 by Fortune, and selected the university’s learning and leadership in organizations track.

“Due in large part to my dean, professors, and diverse cohort of students, I gained greater insight into the challenges, opportunities, and best practices of higher education,” says Jones. “While my professors were well versed in educational theory, they also placed considerable emphasis on the application of that theory to the realities of higher education, including the ever-evolving circumstances created by the pandemic.”

Not only is she the first Black person to lead as president of OCCC, she is also the first Black woman to lead an institution of higher education in Oklahoma that’s not a historically Black college and university. The Ed.D. program helped shape her experiences and abilities to become a more effective leader. Jones graduated from the three-year program in 2020.

“I learned the importance of data-driven decision making and allowing the data to guide policy and institutional practices,” Jones says. Leaning into empirical data allows us to base decisions on objective evidence and reveals a story about the reality of our choices and our performance, she adds. 

An Ed.D. was a fit because “it was time to take the next step”

While Jason Snider was working as an academic administrator at a small private college, he decided he wanted to find a way to develop his research and leadership in a more formal, academic manner. So he enrolled in the University of Dayton’s Ed.D. in leadership for organizations program. 

“I figured it was time to take the next step. I knew I would need a doctorate to accomplish my career goals,” says Snider, adding that he expects to graduate from his program in August. “The practical element of the Ed.D. best aligned with my career goals and allowed me to work on researching a real institutional issue.”  

Today, as assistant provost for curriculum and inclusion, and registrar at the same university where he is pursuing his degree, Snider is responsible for managing and bettering the school’s curriculum, developing new programs, and solving systematic inequities within the institution. “I knew that earning my Ed.D. would take time away from my job so I figured I should focus on a problem that I was interested in and that would benefit my institution.” 

Snider wanted to increase the academic success of student-athletes, and to do this he needed to investigate both the academic resources the University of Dayton offers and their effectiveness. Since identifying this problem during the first term of his Ed.D. program, he has been able to apply solutions in real time.

“It’s also been fantastic to work with a cohort from different areas in different professions,” Snider says. “That broad perspective has helped me to better examine my own practices and leadership.” 

The full-time online program allowed Snider to get his degree faster than if he had chosen a part-time program, but still gave him the flexibility to balance his career with classes.

“The real-world aspect has been very useful,” Snider says. “There’s typically something I can use right away from each class.”

See how the schools you’re considering fared in Fortune’s rankings of the best master’s degree programs in nursing, computer science, cybersecurity, psychology, public health, business analytics, data science, doctorate in education, and part-time, executive, full-time, and online MBA programs.