Concentrations
SPA offers concentrations in the following areas:
The Nonprofit Concentration develops social entrepreneurs who can lead and manage innovative nonprofit organizations. Our program is designed for the professional development of individuals seeking an MPA for careers in management, resource development, advocacy, or service delivery. Course topics include social entrepreneurship, working with nonprofit boards of directors, financial management, strategic management, social change, public-nonprofit partnerships, funding diversity, and other important contemporary topics. A non-degree Certificate in Nonprofit Management is also available. The Nonprofit Management concentration is the only concentration that is available completely online as well as on campus.
Our program is now available in a unique online/on-campus schedule. Reaching out to students across the nation, the Program on Domestic Violence combines core M.P.A. courses with intensive domestic violence and nonprofit courses. The first graduate program of its kind in the nation, the M.P.A. Program on Domestic Violence focuses on organizational management and public policy, helping service organizations integrate grassroots social justice work with good administrative practice.
Our students come from around the country to participate in this program, which combines online offerings with campus visits. Many are practitioners - advocates, counselors, social workers, and other victims' services and domestic violence workers - who seek to enhance their management and policy skills. Some are managers in related fields who seek to gain an understanding of domestic violence and the policies, services, and public consciousness surrounding it. Others are interested in making a career change or entering the field after graduating from college.
Local government is the most rapidly growing area of public sector employment and provides job opportunities in municipalities, counties, regional authorities, and Councils of Governments. If you choose this option, you'll become well versed in the forces that shape the agendas of local governments. Through required courses such as Local Government Management, Local Government Politics/Policy, and Urban Social Problems, you'll also gain an understanding of the government management and policy making.
Understanding our environment requires an understanding of relationships. In environmental science, this means understanding relationships within ecosystems, and how human behavior affects them. In Environmental Policy, Management, and Law (EPML), this means understanding how the environment is affected by relationships between various entities, including: legislatures, administrative agencies, courts, federal, state, and local governments, government and the nonprofit and private sectors, and the government and the public it has been established to serve
The Environmental Policy, Management, and Law (EPML) program provides qualified applicants with just that understanding. Offered by the School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, the EPML program can be taken as either a stand-alone graduate certification program or as an emphasis area within the school's Master of Public Administration curriculum.
The graduate concentration in Emergency Management and Homeland Security (EMHS) provides advanced education in the management of emergencies, hazards, disasters, and homeland security. The EMHS program is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to work or currently work in the field of emergency management and homeland security.
The EMHS program applies an interdisciplinary approach to education that (1) emphasizes high-level skills of critical thinking, learning, and adaptation, and (2) focuses on the all-hazards emergency management model (encompassing natural hazards, technological hazards, and terrorism). Students completing the EMHS concentration program will have the knowledge and skills necessary to assess and manage a broad range of hazards and disasters, and to understand the policy environment in which emergency management occurs.
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, through the Center for Homeland Security (CHS), has developed a set of graduate courses leading to a Certificate in Homeland Defense. These courses are available at the
UCCS campus as well as online.
Students completing all four courses receive a certificate from UCCS. In addition, the courses may be used to complete the Master of Public Administration degree offered by the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs and as electives in selected other graduate programs at the university.
Public Management - Colorado Springs Campus