Strategic Leadership
PA EX 501: Foundation Week (5 credits)
Role of leader, leadership styles, authorizing environment, strategic direction, organizational alignment, leading self, coaching, 360-degree leadership assessment
Mission and Strategy
PA EX 502: Organizational Leadership (6 credits)
Essential concepts and skills to lead and manage organizations in public service: Techniques to envision desired future states that our organizations might create, and strategies to realize them; Approaches to building a team and developing staff capabilities to align with organizational mission and strategy; Understanding financial statements and program budgets to serve an organizational strategy.
Understanding and Navigating Policy Contexts
PA EX 503: Policy Leadership I (6 credits)
Understand and engage strategically in the settings and processes through which public policies get made by using concepts and skills from the fields of politics, economics, communications, behavioral analysis, policy studies, and related disciplines.
Formulating and Analyzing Policies
PA EX 504: Policy Leadership II (4 credits)
Concepts and skills to formulate and analyze public policies. This course builds on PA EX 503 (Policy Leadership I) by providing additional concepts, frameworks, theories, and practice to facilitate strategic policy making.
Improving Capacity for Implementation
PA EX 505: Organizational Leadership II (4 credits)
Concepts and skills to assess and redesign the implementation of public policies and programs, including practice with participatory tools for analyzing and redesigning services, work flows, and delivery systems to better achieve the mission of a program or organization.
Negotiating and Building Consensus
PA EX 506: Policy Leadership III (6 Credits)
Concepts and skills to assess and advance a policy proposal’s prospects for successful enactment and implementation. Examine legislative relations, budget processes, policy field analysis, and negotiations to practice tools for understanding and increasing the viability of policy recommendations. Course concepts also have applications to organizational management and leadership as well, including labor relations and interorganizational partnerships.
Evaluating and Improving Performance
PA EX 507: Organizational Leadership III (6 credits)
Concepts and skills to help you measure, evaluate, and improve the performance of policies, programs, and organizations. Consider public value through the lenses of performance management and equity, considering how organizational operations, data and evidence can better support equity and results that matter to those we seek to serve.
Legacy – Capstone Weekend
PA EX 508: Strategic Leadership II (2 credits)
This course reflects and builds on the leadership development completed throughout the program. Practice crafting strategies for leading change to suit different aims and settings, as well as building changes into organizational culture to institutionalize new ways of doing things.
PA EX 548: Leadership Salon (1 credits)
Personal reflection and intentional practice are essential for public leaders working to address complex problems in fast-paced environments. This one-credit course is an opportunity to deepen and apply what you’re learning in the Executive MPA program to practical issues you face at work.
PA EX 549: Racial Equity Skills Lab (1 credits)
Understanding and action around racial equity begin with equity literacy, including a sense of one’s own racial identity. Through reading guidance, homework exercises, and online discussions, this course asks you to reflect on work you’ve done related to racial equity understanding and action in your life, in your career, and in the EMPA program.
Customized Study
MPA Elective Course (4 credits)
Students will select an elective from the following courses: