Courses

Required for MPA Health students. This introductory course is designed to familiarize students with basic concepts and ideas concerning the distribution of health and illness in society, the organization of the health care system, and the relationship of one to the other. We begin by considering the evolution of the U.S. health care system and of health policy. We then present an international perspective on the U.S. health care system with an emphasis on the Affordable Care Act, alternative government roles, current challenges and the future of the health care system.

This course is designed for public and nonprofit leaders and managers rather than human resource professionals, and provides a broad overview of human resources and talent leadership.

This course provides graduate students with experiential learning in healthcare consulting through live projects with early-stage technology founders funded through private equity and venture capital dollars. Students work in teams with one of three companies:

In our increasingly data-reliant and data-saturated society, people who understand how to leverage data to generate insights have the power to change the world. Data visualization and storytelling is a crucial skill for policy and data analysts, communications and marketing professionals, and managers and decision-makers within nonprofits, social organizations and the government. With the advent of visualization tools that do not require coding, data storytelling in the digital age is also an attainable skill set for people with varying levels of technical ability.

The public/nonprofit administrator, whether primarily concerned with management, policy or finance, is called upon to manage or becomes involved in a wide variety of conflicts. Conflict is ubiquitous - within and between organizations and agencies, between levels of government, between interest groups and government, between interest groups, between citizens and agencies, etc.

The public/nonprofit administrator, whether primarily concerned with management, policy or finance, is called upon to manage or becomes involved in a wide variety of conflicts. Conflict is ubiquitous - within and between organizations and agencies, between levels of government, between interest groups and government, between interest groups, between citizens and agencies, etc.

Restricted to students in the Executive MPA Program.

This course is designed to create an “action learning” community in which students will integrate their professional experiences, and other graduate course work, with a final exploration of leadership concepts, theory and applied practice.

This course is a general introduction to nonprofit management, with heavy emphasis on practical application. How do nonprofit organizations actually function? How do they attract “customers?” How do these companies grow when there are no owners with financial incentives to grow the business? What are the core elements of a “good” nonprofit company? What are the metrics for determining the health of a company without profit?  And, what, exactly does nonprofit even mean?

Public service work involves some amount of writing and communications. But the tools for success have dramatically changed in the last few years with the development and deployment of Large Language Models and Artificial Intelligence. This communications course will equip students with the skills to leverage AI tools, such as GPT, GrammarlyGo, and other AI products, to produce compelling and persuasive communication  deliverables.

This course introduces students to the wide-ranging and evolving policy dimensions of labor markets. We begin with an analysis of the microeconomics of labor markets, presenting the competitive markets and monopsony pricing models as benchmarks. The course then turns to the institutional features of markets, including topics such as collective bargaining, labor standards, and minimum wage laws.

Introduction to Public Policy covers a wide range of topics, from the norms and values informing democratic policymaking to the basics of cost-benefit and other tools of policy analysis. Though emphases will differ based on instructor strengths, all sections will address the institutional arrangements for making public policy decisions, the role of various actors-including nonprofit and private-sector professionals-in shaping policy outcomes, and the fundamentals (and limits) of analytic approaches to public policy.

As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is a critical site for exploring public service leadership challenges and opportunities in a contemporary colonial context. This course explores leveraging leadership for resilience and success during fiscal, environmental, and social crises. This seven-day trip will require site visits with leaders in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sectors at organizations that provide opportunities for real-time perspective-taking and knowledge exchanges.

Couples with CAP-GP 3802. For MPA-Health students.

Couples with CAP-GP 3402. For MPA-PNP students.

Introduction to Public Policy covers a wide range of topics, from the norms and values informing democratic policymaking to the basics of cost-benefit and other tools of policy analysis. Though emphases will differ based on instructor strengths, all sections will address the institutional arrangements for making public policy decisions, the role of various actors-including nonprofit and private-sector professionals-in shaping policy outcomes, and the fundamentals (and limits) of analytic approaches to public policy.

In this course, students will be introduced to methodological and practical issues involved in carrying out spatial analyses when planning for (and emerging from) an emergency or disaster. The course is, therefore, composed of lectures, discussions, and technical exercises pertaining to data collection, analysis, and interpretation for disaster management. Along with demonstrating the analytical capability of GIS for planning, risk, and vulnerability assessment, this course introduces students to different tools required in hazard mitigation, risk analysis, and mapping.

This course introduces students to the main areas of corporate finance and how they relate to policy issues and discussions. The course covers topics in the three main areas of corporate finance: 1) capital structure (financing choices), 2) valuation (project and firm valuation) and 3) corporate governance (optimal governance structures). We will analyze how public policy, through taxes, public expenditures and regulation, affect these aspects of corporate finance.

This is a course in Contracts for the non-lawyer.  Every day we see contracts and may have to read them, sign them and/or perform them.  Many organizations are not large enough to have their own in-house counsel and calling outside counsel is expensive.  Thus, more and more executives and their staff have the responsibility of understanding the day to day contracts with which they come in contact.

Inequality and poverty are outcomes of social choices and economic relationships. Understanding their causes and implications points to ways that economies and societies fit together—as well as who wins and who loses from economic and policy choices, and why.  The seminar draws on research in the social sciences with an emphasis on economics. The aim is to explore research questions, with a mix of early studies and recent empirical approaches, together with perspectives on policy.

Open only to students in the MSPP program. Communication Skills for Policy Analysts is a seminar course that simulates a fast-paced public policy environment where different stakeholders require a constant flow of written and oral communication work products. Each work product assignment will be treated as a case with a specific audience, background information and real-world situation and will require outside research and collaboration. MS in Public Policy students will draw on knowledge and techniques being learned in their other Fall coursework.

This course explores ethical dilemmas in creating health policies and running health systems, though the ethical dilemmas have relevance beyond the health sector and non-health students are welcome as well. We begin with two policy-making sessions, taking up the question: under what conditions can one violate their personal values in an effort to get a policy deal that would benefit many done?

Research is an important part of the policy process: it can inform the development of programs and policies so they are responsive to community needs, it can help us determine what the impacts of these programs and policies are, and it can help us better understand populations or social phenomena. This half-semester course serves as an introduction to how to ethically collect data for research projects, with an in-depth look at focus groups and surveys as data collection tools. We will also learn about issues related to measurement and sampling.

Though the policymaking process is complex, with a host of actors and competing interests, public policy is traditionally shaped by elected officials, administrative agencies, and organized interest groups. There are many avenues for policies to be informed by the lived experience of members of low-income and marginalized communities; however, their participation is often hidden and/or undervalued.

Climate change is one of the defining public policy challenges of the 21st century. This course begins by reviewing the essential climate science most relevant to policymakers before turning to policy responses and the political challenges of implementation. The first part of the course focuses on decarbonization, or how societies can transition away from the use of fossil fuels to renewable energy.