The David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity at the University of Rochester strives to expand the educational pipeline through the doctoral degree for low-income, first-generation college, and underrepresented minority students. The center focuses on the creation of replicable and scalable educational models that will increase the number of low-income and historically underrepresented individuals pursuing undergraduate, graduate, and professional education.

The center provides educational guidance, scholarships, and support services to students who come from low-income families, are first-generation students, and who come from racial groups identified by the federal government as underrepresented in higher education.