Higher education continues to face evolving challenges related to educating students and engaging in research. These challenges include changing funding models, increasing demands for service and accountability for student outcomes, and increasing scrutiny from stakeholders. One way to address these challenges is by studying the role of leaders and leadership in achieving the mission of higher education institutions and addressing these challenges. Distributed Leadership is an understudied theory in higher education. However, the complexity and structure of higher education lends itself to the applicability of Distributed Leadership to higher education. This study uses a Distributed Leadership benchmarking tool to determine what leadership practices and activities are occurring in a Division of Student Affairs within a large, public University. The results of this framework indicate areas where staff perceive they are able to effectively engage in Distributed Leadership and where they perceive they are less able to engage in Distributed Leadership. The results also support the use of this framework in future research on Distributed Leadership. Recommendations to improve leadership practice in this Division of Student Affairs and future research in the field of Distributed Leadership are also provided. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]