Master of Public
Administration (MPA)

How does public policy contribute to social justice? This course develops the skills and in-depth understanding of how public policy is shaped, influenced, and debated. Special attention is placed on examining power and politics by looking into the processes, institutions, and social forces involved in reproducing and legitimizing outcomes that we may deem desirable, necessary, or unacceptable from the local to the national and international.

We need solid communication skills in public service to win hearts and minds. And with incredible skills in communication, students will be able to write that grant proposal, prepare that press release, pen that critical opinion editorial, present to colleagues, and distill and synthesize messy data into discernible and actionable material. Students will end the course better able to communicate in different settings, using various means. Thus prepared, they will be stronger in service to their communities and the nation in whatever area of the public sector they choose for a career.

The first part in a two-course sequence, this course introduces students to basic statistical methods and their application to public service. The course covers the essential elements of descriptive statistics, univariate and bivariate statistical inference, and an introduction to multivariate analysis. This course will focus on both the theory and application of various statistical tools and an introduction to data visualization. The course will emphasize data analysis, using the software package, Stata. The course will also explore the pitfalls of policy claims made with data as well as how data can be harnessed to achieve equity. An emphasis will be placed on the practical applications of these methods in management and policy.

Uses economic analysis to delve deeply into many of the most important and controversial public policy issues facing governments at the federal, state and municipal levels. Each policy issue is examined from the perspective of legislators and members of executive branches who must make decisions on issues with economic roots and possible economic solutions. Ideally, each policy issue discussed will be approached as though it is a business problem. Using economic theories, statistical tools and logic, potential solutions to policy issues will look at strategies, tactics, potential outcomes and the potential consequences of each of those outcomes. By the end of the semester, students will be able to speak confidently about major economic policy issues.

The purpose of this course is for students – as managers in a world of increasingly scarce resources – to understand the challenges and responsibilities they have in terms of managing human capital. Students will learn how strategic human resource management is a critical system within an organization that can move any team towards excellence. The need to attract the best people – keep them motivated, engaged and able to make a significant contribution to achieving the organization’s mission- is fundamental to success. Managers are responsible for selecting their team, developing them, managing performance and ensuring that they are engaged and feel rewarded for their efforts.

The second in a two-part sequence covering mathematical and statistical concepts and methods used to design and conduct policy research, synthesize and describe data of all types, and support management decision making. The course focuses on applications rather than on theory and mathematical development. Topics including the scientific method, Measure of Central Tendency and Dispersion, Probability Theory, Hypothesis testing, Correlation analysis, Linear regression and Multiple regression.

Daily searches for management positions requiring monitoring and evaluation knowledge and skills populate a host of new opportunities at some of the world’s smallest and largest organizations and agencies. Whether to satisfy funding requirements or to improve ongoing program operations, the demand for measuring progress toward delivering outputs and achieving outcomes is ever present in the nonprofit and public sectors. To meet the demand, this course will familiarize students with the fundamentals of monitoring and evaluation, including foundational concepts, designs, and methods; data collection and analysis methods; and designing logic models, surveys, and evaluation matrices.

In response to the inequities exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and the global uprising for racial justice, we’ve witnessed transformative change on a variety of levels over these past two years – personal, political, and cultural. We saw a dramatic turnover at the highest level of government, grassroots organizers calling for a radical re-imagining of public safety, departments of education pushing for a curriculum re-vamp, Lebron James, Aaron Rogers and Naomi Osaka in “Liberation Now!” jerseys, and elementary school students striking for climate justice. In this course, students explore the social justice ecosystem – the many players, their roles, strategies and tactics – all designed to advance equity and justice. Students also look inside to better understand how to foster progressive and collaborative leadership and inclusive and equitable organizations.

In simple terms, budgets are plans covering income and spending. But they are much more than that. Budgets are a statement of priorities for a government or organization and indicate expectations about the future financial situation of those entities. Budget documents and websites are also repositories of large amounts of data that can be used to conduct analysis. And they provide an indication about the success or failure of policies and programs. Knowing how to construct and interpret such information will contribute to the success of future public and nonprofit leaders. Being able to find such information and explain it to others is a very useful skill. This class covers the terminology, components, practices, documents, and methods of public budgeting and finance at all levels of government and in the non-profit sector. It emphasizes policy analysis—thinking through the available data, drawing conclusions, and communicating that information to a non-technical audience.

Aligned or adversarial, investment capital shapes so much of how our economy and society function. This course will focus on the broad spectrum of the rapidly growing “capital for good” industry – a complex ecosystem of philanthropy, community investment, and public and private equity – through the lens of impact investing and sustainable finance. Students will gain insights into what financial resources and incentives are available to leverage for social change. Students will craft their own strategies to mobilize capital actors and institutions to support their target areas for social impact. Many of our sessions will touch on funding sources and approaches, but the Course should not be viewed primarily as a fundraising class, its scope is much more expansive.

Leadership can be learned through the practice of skills, through guided reflection and discussion, and through observation and analysis of everyday leaders in everyday situations. By the end of the course, students will understand models and theories of leadership and leadership development, learn to identify authentic leadership skills in themselves and in others, and understand how leadership operates in different professional settings and contexts.

The capstone is the culminating experience for MPA students. The course integrates students’ experiential and classroom learning into a single project. Students work directly with a public sector or community-based partner (‘client’) on an organizational challenge to complete a complex, semester-long project that is of direct practical use to the client organization. This experience presents students with a real-world client management exercise to further develop and hone their analytical, communication and project management capabilities.