Building Resilient Local Governments

The Evans School’s new graduate certificate in Building Resilient Local Governments is designed to equip local government officials with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to build organizational resilience and respond to the increasingly complex challenges they face.

Local and regional governments are essential to addressing the most pressing policy problems of our time. This eight-month program prepares leaders to build resilience and overcome challenges unique to their local contexts.

Designed for local government professionals, this program runs from January through August with flexible, hybrid course schedules. Over three quarters, students take three core courses and complete a capstone experience.

Local government leaders better:

• understand differences, overcome barriers, engage diverse stakeholders, and identify and implement relevant equity-centered approaches to move towards inclusivity within their communities;
• respond with awareness, equity, effectiveness, and agility in high stress settings;
• design and manage resilient and diverse partnerships.

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 affiliated membership organization. The program is designed especially for non-elected officers and managers in local governments.

The Evans School partners with membership organizations representing local government officials, including the WCMA, to co-design course content and provide fellowships to members participating in this certificate. 

Evans School Graduate Certificate participants who are current WCMA members receive an Evans School fellowship covering 1/3 of the program tuition.

View the 2026 schedule of program dates, tuition and fees.

• This schedule is subject to change and does not yet reflect the updated fee rates for 2026 (available mid-summer 2025).
• This schedule includes a 1/3 Evans Scholarship offered to any participants joining as a part of a membership organization partnering with Evans. An updated list of membership organizations partnering with Evans will be published in mid-summer 2025.

Students who successfully complete the certificate are eligible to apply for admission to our Executive MPA program, counting some completed credits towards this degree or other Evans School graduate certificates.

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.
• Local government leader committed to building capacity for resilience within their context.
• 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 Building Resilient Local Governments”

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.