Carry the framework
into the world
The Shift Fellowship is for researchers, scholars, practitioners, and creators who are deeply aligned with the Shift Framework and want to advance it — through writing, research, speaking, and applied scholarship that shapes culture from the inside out.
Ideas need to move into the world.
The Shift Fellowship exists for people who want to extend, research, and carry the Shift Framework outward — contributing to culture, institutions, and public life through rigorous, collaborative work. Fellows are thoroughly vetted by Shift leadership for alignment, expertise, and contribution.
Writing & Publishing
Fellows produce written resources — essays, frameworks, research papers, and guides — that carry the Shift Framework into public discourse and professional practice.
Speaking & Teaching
Fellows speak, teach, and facilitate workshops that bring Shift formation frameworks into organizations, institutions, universities, and communities.
Applied Research
Fellows commission and conduct original research at the intersection of leadership formation, institutional design, and cultural renewal.
Public Engagement
Fellows carry formation into the public sphere — through media, platforms, policy conversations, and sector-specific work that shapes culture from the inside out.
How Fellowship works.
The Shift Fellowship is not a credential to collect — it is a rigorous, collaborative process for people who want to advance the Shift Framework in the public sphere. Fellows are thoroughly vetted by our leadership team for demonstrated alignment, expertise, and a specific contribution they're bringing. No prior Shift certification is required — but commitment, clarity, and character are.
If you sense a pull toward this — reach out. That's always where it starts.
What becoming a fellow typically involves:
- Demonstrated alignment with the Shift Framework and its core convictions — not necessarily prior certification
- A specific contribution to the public sphere — a research project, publication, speaking engagement, or resource
- A thorough vetting process with Shift leadership, assessing alignment, expertise, and the proposed work
- A commitment to a collaborative and reviewed publication process — any work carrying the Shift name is co-developed with program leadership
- Approved by Shift program leads and, where applicable, current resident fellows
- Commitment to ongoing accountability and peer review throughout the fellowship
An emerging field. Actively being built and proven.
The Fellowship is the public-research arm of the Designing Better Futures Initiative (DBFI) — working in dialogue with the Harvard Human Flourishing Program, the Oxford Character Project, and decades of transformational humanitarian development research. Fellows play a direct role in advancing and proving this work.
Across fields, a consistent pattern emerges: when values, goals, behaviors, and institutions are aligned, people and organizations tend to exhibit greater trust, resilience, integrity, and long-term effectiveness.
Shift extends this insight by proposing that enduring cultural renewal emerges when identity, ideas, and institutional design remain congruent across all three levels — a hypothesis we hold with conviction and are actively working to prove.
Fellows are invited not just to carry the framework — but to help us prove it.
The open research questions below represent the live agenda we're working through together. If one of these resonates, or you're already working on something related, that's where a fellowship conversation begins.
Start a conversationDoes leader formation causally improve institutional health outcomes?
We believe it does. We're building the longitudinal study to prove it.
Can the congruence hypothesis be validated across diverse sectors and cultures?
What does alignment look like in a startup vs. a seminary vs. a nonprofit in the Global South?
What assessment tools can reliably measure alignment across identity, ideas, and design?
How do we make the invisible visible — and measurable?
How do institutional design choices correlate with long-term mission faithfulness?
Tracking what happens 10 years after founders leave — and what structural decisions predicted outcomes.
What role does theological formation play in secular organizational health?
Can frameworks rooted in human dignity and transcendent purpose improve outcomes beyond religious organizations?
Have a question you're already working on?
That's where a fellowship conversation starts — bring your research question to us.
Reach outCertification forms. Fellowship extends.
These are separate pathways — both important, both built on the Shift Framework. The Certification is for leaders doing the internal formation work. The Fellowship is for researchers and practitioners who want to carry the framework into the world.
6 months of deep, whole-person formation.
For leaders who want to do the internal work — identity, ideas, institutional integrity, community, and design. A six-month cohort experience that forms the whole person before they build.
Explore the CertificationFor those who carry the framework outward.
The Fellowship is open to researchers, scholars, and practitioners who are thoroughly vetted and approved by Shift leadership — no prior certification required. Fellows produce work that carries the framework into culture, institutions, and public life.
Express Interest