Leading Public Innovation

The Evans School’s graduate certificate in Leading Public Innovation fosters policy and program innovations that make services more convenient, streamlined, and human centered by infusing the work of public service with imagination, creativity, and possibility.

Today’s fiscal constraints, community needs, and urgency to revitalize public institutions demand new approaches to innovation. This certificate program helps public service professionals lead transformative change to improve customers’ experiences of public programs and services using applied knowledge, frameworks, and tools drawn from research, theory, and practice.

Participants take four graduate courses over eight months at UW, delivered in formats accessible to working professionals. Experiential, interactive coursework and customized learning enable them to co-create improvements in the public systems and services they manage.

Participants improve their ability to:

• apply human-centered design and engagement methods to improve the speed, accessibility, uptake, equity, and effectiveness of public programs and services;
• think strategically and act courageously;
• collaborate across agencies to integrate knowledge and transform institutional operations and service delivery using a tool kit of shared practices and terms.

While coursework and study hours (independent reading, completion of assignments or meetings with peers) will vary from quarter to quarter and week to week, students should expect to spend up to 10 hours per week on graduate certificate coursework. The certificate is a graduate level program and the time and intensity is commensurate with this level of study.

The program welcomes both individual applicants and participants joining as part of an organizational partnership with the Evans School. The program is designed especially for directors and program managers at large public agencies who are well positioned to lead innovation and manage the redesign of public services at their institutions.

The Evans School partners with local governments, state agencies, and other employers to increase individual and organizational potential and improve results by:

• Decreasing tuition for participants.
  • Program costs are shared evenly by 1) the employer, 2) the Evans School, and 3) the participant.*
• Offering priority access to other Evans School supports for innovation, including the Evans Public Innovation Collaborative (EPIC), our Public Redesign Toolkit, MPA student internships, and Consulting Lab Research by MPA students and faculty.

*Evans School Graduate Certificate participants whose employers sign the organizational partner MOU (paying at least 1/3 of the total program tuition) receive an Evans School scholarship covering and additional 1/3 of the tuition. 2026 Organizational Partner program schedule and approximate tuition and fees.  Please note: The tuition and fee rates for 2026 are not yet available; the schedule, tuition and fees will be updated with 2025 fee rates in mid-summer 2025.

Individual Applicants

Individuals are welcome to apply to the program without an Evans School organizational partner affiliation. 2026 Program schedule and approximate tuition and fees for individuals not receiving organizational partner funding.

Please note: The 2026 program tuition and fees for individuals not receiving organizational partner funding are not yet available and will be published mid-summer 2025.

Participants who successfully complete the certificate are eligible to apply for admission to our MPA or Executive MPA programs, counting some completed credits towards their degree.

For more than 60 years, the Evans School has built a reputation as one of the top public policy and management schools in the nation. Our faculty members are recognized as some of the best educators and scholars of public policy and governance. They are driving change and shaping innovative policy and implementation solutions in communities worldwide.

This program is a graduate certificate, endorsed by the University’s Regents. Some credits can be applied to other master’s programs at the University of Washington.

• Not currently enrolled as a graduate student at the UW.
• Leader committed to making change that advances equity and inclusion.
• A bachelor’s degree with a minimum 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 US scale, or, at least a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 US scale for the last 90 graded quarter credits or 60 graded semester credits. If your bachelor’s degree was awarded by an institution with no grading system, equivalent measures of academic performance is required. For more information, refer to Policy 3.1 Graduate Admissions.

• Application fee
• Resume
• Statement of purpose
• Unofficial transcript
• One letter of recommendation

• Create an account in the Graduate Application system
• Select “Graduate” as the application type
• Narrow your search “By Degree”
• Filter by degree “Graduate Certificate”
• Select your program “Graduate Certificate in Leading Public Innovation.

The application deadline for 2025 has passed.

Applications for the 2026 cohort will open in Fall 2025.

For questions and more information about the application process, contact us at evansadm@uw.edu.