Leading Public Innovation curriculum includes four courses totaling 15 credits.

Winter Quarter: Redesigning Public Services (5 credits)

This course covers practices for redesigning public services. It explores how public, nonprofit, and philanthropic structures create unique operational realities and cultures that must be navigated to lead change across institutional boundaries. It also delves deeply into personal leadership awareness and investigates social contributors to disparities in public services delivery – particularly race and ethnicity. The course will equip students with analytical frameworks and methods, including implementation analysis and strategic management, human-centered design, and racial equity analysis to support redesign processes.

Spring Quarter: Field-Specific Elective (4 credits)

Students will select from an array of courses designed with the working professional student in mind. Courses cover a range of topics, including policy implementation, collaboration, operationalizing racial equity, and more. 

Spring Quarter: Project Leadership Skills Lab (2 credits)

This course features concepts, frameworks, and practical tools to help students build and practice concepts from the Redesigning Public Services course as well as plan and refine an applied Redesign Project. By combining these elements, the course helps students improve their ability to plan, execute, track, and communicate about innovation and redesign initiatives. Readings on adaptive leadership, project management, and race and equity provide core concepts to inform discussions, exercises, and assignments.

Summer Quarter: Public Innovation Workshop (4 credits)

This workshop provides students with opportunities to develop strategic leadership and practice relevant skills. In Washington and other states, there are significant disparities in public service outcomes across racial and ethnic groups. This course will also focus on exploring the sources of these disparities, enabling leaders to experiment with how to introduce solutions to narrow the disparities in public service experiences.