Master of Public Administration

The Master of Public Administration (MPA) and the MPA with an emphasis in Health Services Administration (MPA/HSA) programs provide mid-career and aspiring professionals with an opportunity to obtain advanced managerial education applicable to a broad range of public sector, nonprofit, and health care organizations. The MPA program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). The program is designed to be completed in approximately 28 months.

Mission

We prepare our graduates for public leadership by advancing a challenging curriculum while pursuing complementary research, transforming learning into acts of consequence to serve our communities, especially the most vulnerable among us.

Goals

• Educate students to be compassionate and effective leaders who humanely manage public organizations.

• Prepare students to initiate and facilitate interactions between government, for-profit, and nonprofit sectors to provide ethical and workable solutions to societal needs.
• Create a collaborative environment of excellence in instruction, research, and service.
• Translate research into effective practices and achievable, humane policies.
• Prepare students to determine, collect, and analyze the evidence appropriate and essential for implementing public service strategies

 Program Requirements

The MPA curriculum is comprised of 13 courses (39 credits). Students who select the Health Services Administration (HSA) emphasis will apply their credits of the HSA coursework toward the emphasis. Students pursuing an emphasis in HSA take PA 660, PA 617, and the health care track of PA 680.  

Required courses are sequenced as follows:

• PA 611 - Public Administration as a Field and Practice in Contemporary Society
  
• PA 620 - Leadership Ethics
• PA 613 - Management and Organization Theory
• PA 670 - Quantitative Methods

• PA 636 - Human Resource Planning and Management
• PA 638 - Emerging Technologies for Public Managers
• PA 632 - Public Policy Analysis
• PA 644 - Strategic Planning and Implementation

• PA 623 - Economics and Finance for Public Managers
• PA 685 - Strategic Management of Public Communication
• PA 633 - Public Sector Budgeting
• PA 680 - Program and Policy Evaluation (PA and HSA tracks)
  
• PA 650 - Integrative Seminar in Public Management

Health Services Administration (HSA) courses Include:

• PA 617 - Health Care Issues
• PA 660 - Health Care Law
  
• PA 680 - Program and Policy Evaluation (PA and HSA tracks)

Degree Requirements

• Completion of all major coursework with a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA
• Successful completion of all degree and concentration requirements
  

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate leadership behavior through application of organizational and managerial theories.

• Identify effective leadership in practice.

• Identify and discuss the role of public leaders toward recognizing and instituting the principles of democratic governance in public organizations and community-based initiatives.

• Identify and describe differences between the vision, values, and goals of actors in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors; discuss practical and ethical implications of these differences for public leadership; and discuss disparate impacts for the most vulnerable among us.

• Demonstrate the ability to correctly and effectively recognize changes in workforce and community populations; determine appropriate communication modes and content.

• Describe superior performance of a diverse workforce and the contribution to this of managerial action and institutional supports.

• Assess and modify public service, based on cultural competency and citizen feedback.  
  

• Identify challenges and issues in the U.S. health care sector in specific areas of policy, its contemporary legal framework and management; describe/develop operational responses and managerial adaptations.

• Determine, collect, and articulate the interests of diverse voices of a community, especially the most vulnerable among us.
  

• Develop and apply the critical and analytical thinking skills necessary for effective, informed, and balanced policy analysis. 
  

• Accurately interpret and communicate analytic research and policy implications to stakeholders.

• Demonstrate essential analytic skills (qualitative and quantitative).
• Develop and present informed and balanced results.

• Report findings and interpret research in recognition of, and with respect for, diverse cultural and historical perspectives; correctly identify limitations and constraints; effectively communicate with elected officials, administrators, issue advocates, and the population at large.