Investing in professional growth is essential to building strong, adaptive, and innovative nonprofit organizations. Columbia University's M.S. in Nonprofit Management Professional Development Series is an online, bi-weekly, zero-credit seminar class that helps students stay current with best practices, navigate complex challenges, improve organizational sustainability, and enhance their impact in the communities they serve. Students will increase their networks and connect with potential mentors and employers while hearing how they can leverage the M.S. in Nonprofit Management degree in their own careers.
The course, which is a co-registration requirement for NOPM students taking Capstone, is open to all NOPM students and for cross-registration.
This course is designed for Project Management professionals looking to understand how the management of a project affects the overall accounting and financing functions of an organization. This course will also provide an understanding of interpreting financial information that is generated by an organization and being able to compare, contrast and benchmark against similar types of companies.
This course will allow participants in the program to understand the importance of the finance and accounting functions of an organization by teaching them how to read financial statements and related footnotes, obtain an understanding of basic accounting functions and terminology and introduce the participant on how to create and analyze budgets for individual project metrics and as well as overall company metrics. The course is also designed to integrate the participants with the program disciplines of project management including project design, project delivery and legal aspects. The course will also promote ideology of working in teams as the final assignment will be group presentations of a multi-faceted development project anchored by a minor league baseball facility, surrounding commercial and hospitality space and multi-unit residential subdivision. Teams will develop project budgets for each phase of the project. The teams will address how each aspect of the project will benefit the owner of the sports entertainment facility, address sustainability management and how technology and AI from the design and planning phase through the utilization and maintenance phase effects the financing of the project. Each group will customize their presentations from a case study provided by the instructor.
This is a required core class of the degree program and can be offered to other degree programs and certificates related to the development or investment in ground up and or rehabilitation projects. There is no prerequisite knowledge required to take this course. The course is a full semester in person/on campus class but will have an online and historical recording of all classes for those unable to attend any given class session or lecture.
Students are expected to have completed a year of high school physics and chemistry. It would be best to have also taken college level physics and chemistry.
Renewable energy is generated from natural processes that are continuously replenished. Aside from geothermal and tidal power, solar radiation is the ultimate source of renewable energy. In order to have a sustainable environment and economy, CO2 emissions must be reduced (and eventually stopped). This requires that the fossil fuel based technologies underlying our present electricity generation and transportation systems be replaced by renewable energy. In addition, the transition to renewable technologies will move nations closer to energy independence and thereby reduce geopolitical tensions associated with energy trading. This course begins with a review of the basics of electricity generation and the heat engines that are the foundation of our current energy systems. This course will emphasize the inherent inefficiency associated with the conversion of thermal energy to electrical and mechanical energy. The course then covers the most important technologies employed to generate renewable energy. These are hydroelectric, wind, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, biomass/biofuel, tidal and wave power. The course ends with a description of energy storage technologies, energy markets and possible pathways to a renewable energy future.
Students are expected to have completed a year of high school physics and chemistry. It would be best to have also taken college level physics and chemistry.
Renewable energy is generated from natural processes that are continuously replenished. Aside from geothermal and tidal power, solar radiation is the ultimate source of renewable energy. In order to have a sustainable environment and economy, CO2 emissions must be reduced (and eventually stopped). This requires that the fossil fuel based technologies underlying our present electricity generation and transportation systems be replaced by renewable energy. In addition, the transition to renewable technologies will move nations closer to energy independence and thereby reduce geopolitical tensions associated with energy trading. This course begins with a review of the basics of electricity generation and the heat engines that are the foundation of our current energy systems. This course will emphasize the inherent inefficiency associated with the conversion of thermal energy to electrical and mechanical energy. The course then covers the most important technologies employed to generate renewable energy. These are hydroelectric, wind, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, biomass/biofuel, tidal and wave power. The course ends with a description of energy storage technologies, energy markets and possible pathways to a renewable energy future.
This course equips the next generation of technologists with the skills, strategies, and savvy needed to secure systemic and lasting change for social good. These topics are examined in three units: 1. Intrapreneurship: how to guide responsible technology within and by multinationals and other large-scale, risk-averse institutions; 2. Entrepreneurship & Nonprofits: how to balance market pressures with values-based missions within startups, nonprofits, and other social-good tech enterprises; and 3. Civic Tech: how to navigate policy, politics, and bureaucracies in delivering citizen-facing technologies within local, regional, and national government bodies.
Popular and Historical Gestures explores the fundamental properties of figure drawing and portraiture through the lens of pop culture and historical gestures and poses. Students examine the figure in painting, documentary photography, art history, and literature, and then use these examples as sources for live model sessions, studio practice, and discussions. Students will work on self-directed projects and from live models. There are one-on-one and group discussions, as well as individual critiques with the instructor. Class time will include image presentations, discussions, museum trips, individual and group critiques, and in-class independent work time. Each class will begin with a homework critique and a discussion, lecture, or demonstration structured around a specific goal. Students will then work individually. Each class will end with brief individual and group critiques to allow students to see and discuss each other's work.
The Capstone Project is the culminating integrative experience of the MS in Project Management program. Students are expected to enter the course prepared to apply quantitative reasoning, structured planning methods, and financial analysis to complex project environments.
Working in teams, students engage in a complex real or realistic project scenario and design an integrated project strategy or applied analytical study that addresses a significant real world challenge in project management. Capstone projects are organized around the concentrations offered within the program, including Construction, Technology, Sports, and Sustainability. Students enrolled in a specific concentration will work on a project aligned with their track. Students in the General track may elect to participate in one of the concentration based projects or may be assigned to a cross sector project depending on availability and enrollment distribution.
Projects may be sourced from industry partners when available. When industry collaboration exists, it may include document access, advisory input, or structured feedback. When no external sponsor is involved, faculty curated materials and case documentation will be provided.
The course emphasizes rigorous problem definition, stakeholder analysis, structured evaluation, and evidence based decision making. Students are expected to integrate quantitative and qualitative reasoning, financial and operational considerations, risk awareness, governance design, and performance evaluation into a coherent and defensible strategy. Through faculty mentorship and peer collaboration, students progressively develop their work into a final written deliverable and executive level presentation that demonstrate professional readiness, analytical maturity, and leadership capacity in complex project environments.
Today, leaders must confront a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It demands that we strengthen how we lead change. We are all being stretched to learn, unlearn, relearn, and this is especially true for technology leaders – who operate in the ‘eye of the storm’ of relentless change.
In this context, strategic advocacy -- achieving support for change to address the challenges that confront an organization and the opportunities they provide – requires knowing and applying useful skills, behavior, and practices to win commitment to new, even unanticipated directions.
This is a full-semester core course in the MS in Technology Management executive program designed to expose students to practices, tools, frameworks, concepts, and real-world examples that will help you move from a technical/functional role to a senior executive orientation. Everyone’s journey is unique. As you apply the course content in real life you will be expected to choose, experiment with, and adapt the relevant approaches most meaningful to your situation.
This 3-credit core course in the M.S. in Technology Management program provides an overview of the strategic role of the technology function to improve business processes, drive transformations, and fuel innovation. Through lectures and applied case study work, students will learn how to develop and keep technology strategies aligned with business goals, navigate governance, regulatory, and budgetary frameworks, and evaluate risks to protect the organization’s IT investments.
The course will provide students with the methods and tools to understand, monitor, and analyze current environmental health threats in water and soil, and explore strategies for solving these complex challenges. Students will leave the course with a stronger sense of the power, and limitations, of environmental data and will be better equipped to evaluate and communicate the effectiveness of environmentally responsible policies. After completing the course, students will be able to apply basic scientific principles to evaluate and address public health challenges posed by water and soil pollution.
This class provides students with a deep dive into marketing and communication strategies and channels for tech company, product, and services launches. Students will work on customer personas for B2B and B2C technologies and reflect upon sustainability guidelines to shape their marketing strategy. They will analyze the different elements that make a soft and hard launch successful, such customer testimonials and industry analyst relations. The course will also discuss how AI is changing the marketing of companies, products and services.
Everything we encounter in society (products, services, brands, processes, events, spaces, systems, even politics) was designed to a lesser or greater degree to optimize a particular quality and create a specific experience. Design can be applied to any offering and the design process can be applied to the evaluation, development, and delivery of offerings within any industry or in response to many challenges. This makes it particularly critical and integral for most kinds of innovation.
This course will explore a broad range of design topics, including the design process, nearly always in a business context. It will be hands-on, learning by building design solutions. We will look at procedural issues that describe how to integrate the design process into other business operations as well as contemporary and future challenges facing design and strengths of design as a user-based process and perspective.
Participants in this semester-long elective will emerge with a proficient understanding of the design process, how it relates to business on many levels, what to expect of design work products, and how to evaluate design solutions in larger contexts. Participants won’t necessarily become design experts or expert designers, but will be capable of critiquing design and evaluating how it can add value to their own endeavors.
This elective course integrates analytic methodology with technology application to prepare students to lead data-informed decision-making in digital environments. Students learn how to convert digital signals into accountable, value-creating decisions, and move systematically from signal to insight to decision to value.
This course emphasizes decision architecture, executive translation, and value creation in digital ecosystems. Students develop the ability to interpret digital signals, assess analytic maturity, evaluate methodological rigor, and design actionable analytics roadmaps aligned to organizational strategy and governance.
The course combines conceptual frameworks, peer-reviewed research, hands-on demonstrations of leading digital analytics and AI tools, and applied exercises grounded in real organizational contexts.
This 3-credit elective was developed for the M.S. in Technology Management (TMGT) program at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. The course supports the program’s mission to bridge theory and practice by equipping students with applied analytical frameworks grounded in research and industry practice, preparing them to lead digital transformation initiatives with strategic, ethical, and organizational awareness. Space permitting, the course is open to cross-registrants from other Columbia graduate programs whose academic or professional interests involve analytics-informed decision-making. No advanced programming or data engineering background is required; however, students are expected to have foundational business literacy and a strong interest in applying analytics to real-world organizational challenges.
Medieval to Contemporary Painting Techniques explores the fundamental properties of paint materials by studying the paint-making techniques used by old masters of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods up through the contemporary era. Through hands-on work and experimentation, including preparing paint materials themselves, students will gain experience making and working with egg tempera, oil paint, and synthetic materials such as acrylics. They will develop a stronger understanding of how these materials function and how their uses fit into historical traditions and cultural contexts.
Students will participate in weekly material and technique-building workshops. They will be given select open-ended assignments for which they can choose a particular approach to explore. Students will learn how to handle traditional and contemporary materials in compliance with high material safety standards.
This course provides students with a solid hands-on foundation in BIM (Building Information Modeling) and other technologies that are revolutionizing the way 21st century construction projects are delivered. Starting from the Owner’s perspective, the class sessions will explore the benefits of BIM tools/methods as used by design teams, construction managers and sub-contractors. Students work with actual industry tools to create BIM Models that extract quantities for estimation purposes, link models to construction schedules (4D simulations), generate clash reports, and effectively communicate 3D site logistics plans. Once a BIM backbone is established, discussions will lead into and highlight: advanced applications, integration opportunities, responsibilities/contractual theories and the introduction of other 3rd Party Software. This course is a recommended companion course to CNAD PS5500, the Capstone Project. Students enrolling in the course are required to have their own notebook PC meeting the noted specifications.
With the advent of generative AI and the impending arrival of quantum computing, risks to organizations and individuals have grown exponentially. Innovation in offensive and defensive tools and technologies continues to increase. How does a leader keep up? Leaders must know how to work with internal experts and to manage these issues internally, with Boards, and for the public. Proficiency in strategies and principles, some of which date back to the ancient Greeks and Chinese, prevail over tools.
The field of management consulting is dedicated to delivering increased value to client organizations by effectively diagnosing complex challenges and crafting tailored, strategic solutions that drive meaningful change, ultimately improving organizational performance, agility, and long-term success. Moreover, mastering consulting skills strengthens leadership and stakeholder management, enabling consultants to build trust and foster collaboration that maximizes client impact in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
This course addresses a critical need by providing students with a comprehensive and integrated approach to mastering the essential skills required of advisors and consultants. Recognizing the complexities inherent in these roles, the program immerses students in realistic, end-to-end client scenarios from initial sales engagements through to project execution, equipping them to navigate complex and challenging situations with confidence.
Given the multidisciplinary nature of management consulting, this course was developed through a unique partnership between the Technology Management and Human Capital Management graduate programs at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. Designed by senior consulting partners from top-tier firms, and taught by deeply experienced practitioners, this course offers a comprehensive toolkit that students can apply in both consulting and industry roles. It uniquely integrates practical consulting tools with leadership development to prepare students for the multifaceted challenges of the ‘trusted advisor’ role to clients and leaders.
Prerequisites: at least four semesters of Latin, or the equivalent. Intensive review of Latin syntax with translation of English sentences and paragraphs into Latin.
This course is an introduction to how sustainability issues (commonly referred to as ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance) have become financially material to the global equity, credit, underwriting, insurance, risk management, venture capital, and asset management capital markets. These issues have a direct impact on risk exposure and the quality of public, private and government debt/equity investments. The course will devote significant time to fundamental principles of finance including valuation, financial statements, time-value of money, capital markets, and asset management. Students will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively communicate sustainability/ ESG issues to a financial professional.
This course gives students a foundation in how sustainability issues affect the various sectors of finance and an understanding of how integrating sustainability principles and practices into finance can be used to make a business become more efficient, effective, reduce risks, create opportunities and provide competitive advantage, for both companies and financial firms alike. The course will provide a framework for how sustainable investing has subcategories for socially responsible investing (SRI), ESG integration, ESG thematics, and Impact Investing. The alignment and tradeoffs of sustainability issues and their impact on management and investors will also be addressed.
In this course, students will explore the full product lifecycle from discovery and user research to agile execution, stakeholder engagement, and go-to-market planning. But beyond the tools and tactics, this course invites students to step into the mindset of a product leader: someone who doesn’t just manage ideas, but brings them to life with courage, conviction, and collaboration. Whether you’re refining an existing solution, launching something new, or championing someone else’s vision, you’ll learn how to lead from wherever you are navigating complexity, earning influence without authority, and making impactful decisions even when the destination is unclear.
This course is an advanced leadership studio for early- and mid-career technology and business professionals seeking a practical, decade-long roadmap to CIO, CTO, or CISO roles. Grounded in Columbia SPS’s scholar-practitioner model, the course guides students to design their own route to the C-suite through disciplined, operator-grade leadership practice. Each week blends real-world operator narratives with frameworks in decision science, systems thinking, risk, and culture, paired with studios where students create authentic CxO artifacts—entry plans, audits, governance schemes, and comms strategies. The “Path to CxO” framework connects every concept to concrete habits, exposures, and role moves students can act on now. By term’s end, participants synthesize a first-year CIO operating model and build a personal Path to CxO portfolio—charting their capability gaps, next steps, and evolution toward running technology at scale.
As organizations face opportunities and challenges brought on by increased globalization, competition, technology and other factors, they require an integrated talent management approach. This includes a clearer understanding of business objectives, associated talent needs, the information necessary to plan for the future and the ability to build and connect Human Capital Management programs and processes.
In this core course students will examine how connected organizational processes are designed to attract, manage, develop, motivate and retain key people. Through investigations of key talent processes—such as performance management, career management, succession management, leadership development, learning and capability development, total rewards, and talent acquisition—students will apply these insights in an industry-based exercise designed to demonstrate how an organization’s overall capabilities are more effective when integrated through a common strategy and set of assumptions about key motivators and management approaches.
This course serves the following programmatic goals:
Develop integrated workforce strategies and talent solutions that are responsive to a diverse and dynamic marketplace, sustainable, and aligned to organizational goals.
Analyze the role HRIS plays in achieving organizational priorities and simplifying operations and support.
Demonstrate leadership competencies required to serve as a trusted and agile advisor on human capital implications relating to the talent lifecycle and to organizational opportunities and challenges.
As organizations face opportunities and challenges brought on by increased globalization, competition, technology and other factors, they require an integrated talent management approach. This includes a clearer understanding of business objectives, associated talent needs, the information necessary to plan for the future and the ability to build and connect Human Capital Management programs and processes.
In this core course students will examine how connected organizational processes are designed to attract, manage, develop, motivate and retain key people. Through investigations of key talent processes—such as performance management, career management, succession management, leadership development, learning and capability development, total rewards, and talent acquisition—students will apply these insights in an industry-based exercise designed to demonstrate how an organization’s overall capabilities are more effective when integrated through a common strategy and set of assumptions about key motivators and management approaches.
This course serves the following programmatic goals:
Develop integrated workforce strategies and talent solutions that are responsive to a diverse and dynamic marketplace, sustainable, and aligned to organizational goals.
Analyze the role HRIS plays in achieving organizational priorities and simplifying operations and support.
Demonstrate leadership competencies required to serve as a trusted and agile advisor on human capital implications relating to the talent lifecycle and to organizational opportunities and challenges.
Conflicts that arise in family businesses are informed by long family histories and patterns of behavior, multiple identities, and are often characterized by communication breakdowns and emotional upheaval. Conflicts in these contexts are costly emotionally, financially and relationally to family members and also to non-family employees and ultimately to the longevity of the business organization itself. When conflict arises within these contexts it can be difficult to separate the personal relationships from the business relationships. Because these types of business disputes can be especially emotional, how can we most effectively engage with this type of conflict?
This course builds theoretical knowledge by introducing some context specific theories, models, and frameworks. We will build on existing NECR coursework introducing the Three Circle Model of Family Business (Tagiuri and Davis); Founders’s Value Categories Framework (Liebowitz); Dynamical Systems Theory (Coleman, et.al.) as it applies to a family businesses; Family Systems Theory (Bowen; Minuchin) and family dynamics as a subsystem; Sustaining Cycles of Trust Model (Sundaramurthy) and communications in family businesses (Astrachan and McMillan); discuss EQi-2.0 360 version (MHS) and its usefulness in the family business workplace; introduce and administer the Neethling Brain Instrument (Dr. Kobus Neethling & Paul Torrance) (NBI) as a tool for understanding more about individual thinking styles and how this knowledge informs group dynamics.
Case studies will be a primary focus throughout the course, providing examples that address a spectrum of classic family business conflicts. We will use tools to analyze and develop intervention strategies in small and large group activities. This elective course is designed for NECR degree candidates, or any SPS graduate student with an interest in the topic, space permitting. If you are a student outside the NECR program, please contact instructors for additional readings to inform course materials. NECR students will be required to have taken Introduction to Mediation NECR PS5107, Understanding Conflict and Cooperation NECR PS5101, Skills Practicum: Self as Instrument NECR PS5880, Intrapersonal Dynamics NECR PS5124.
This course addresses the relationship of energy production and use to human development and sustainability. It explores “sustainable development” as both an ideal and practical challenge, a global concern but a specific local consideration in energy production and use.
The focus of Energy & Sustainable Development is the planning and implementation of energy projects, programs, businesses and policies (collectively "energy enterprises") in frontier markets; that is, smaller, less developed countries, as well as niche opportunities within larger settings and more developed economies.
Students should consider this course if they wish to:
Examine the interconnections of energy to the major issues that comprise sustainable development, such as health, poverty, economic opportunity, social and environmental conditions, climate and weather, and energy ethics and justice.
Explore established and cutting-edge options for delivering modern energy in developing countries and other frontier markets; and,
Prepare market analysis, and energy for development proposals. It is helpful but not essential for students to be comfortable with rudimentary financial analysis and feasibility tools.
Leadership & Management of Nonprofits is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of how nonprofit organizations function, including ways in which the various functional areas of a nonprofit interconnect to achieve its mission and vision. We will address the skills and knowledge needed to lead and manage the operations and programs of an organization as well as work effectively with organizational stakeholders including governing boards, staff, partners and program recipients.
Carbon markets have become a central tool in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This course explores the economics, institutions, and pricing mechanisms that shape these markets, providing students with a fundamental description and analysis of emissions trading systems (ETS), carbon taxes, voluntary carbon markets, internal carbon transfer pricing and emerging financial instruments. Beginning with microeconomic foundations such as externalities and market-based climate policies, students will analyze the role of international organizations and regulatory frameworks, including the Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, and regional policies like the EU Green Deal, the California carbon market and RGGI. Through real-world case studies, students will evaluate carbon pricing mechanisms across jurisdictions and industries, gaining the analytical skills necessary to assess policy effectiveness and market integrity. Designed for graduate students in environmental economics, public policy, sustainability, and finance, this course is particularly relevant for those pursuing careers in climate policy, carbon finance, and international development.
This course serves as a critical component of the environmental policy and sustainability curriculum, bridging economic theory with practical policy implementation. By integrating key concepts from environmental economics, climate governance, and financial markets, it reinforces students’ understanding of how carbon pricing aligns with broader sustainability goals. Additionally, the course supports programmatic objectives by equipping students with the technical expertise and policy fluency needed to navigate and shape carbon markets. Whether students aim to work in governmental agencies, international organizations, or private-sector sustainability roles, this course provides the necessary foundation to engage with one of the most dynamic areas of climate policy.
This introductory core course examines the central role of marketing and communications in fulfilling the mission of nonprofit institutions of all types and at all stages of development. The programmatic objective of this course is to build a shared set of competencies and understandings around the power, practices, ethical applications, and desired outcomes of nonprofit marketing and communications.
Dramatic changes across civil society in recent years, including the evolving role of nonprofits in democratic discourse and the rise of new forms of communications technologies, means that nonprofit leaders today must have a fundamental understanding of the principles of marketing and communications in order to ensure organizational success both internally and externally. While outreach technologies and trends change rapidly in our era, true excellence in the field is based upon a core group of basic skills that are hardly novel: strong writing and analysis, strategic planning, and the ability to connect disparate individuals across a wide range of disciplines and diverse backgrounds to build an inclusive community around shared goals.
This course is designed to help students gain these skills through engaging with the strategic frameworks and tactical applications needed to create and leverage a range of communications and marketing activities. The course will introduce students to multiple communications and marketing practices designed to engage key stakeholders, including donors, the media, volunteers and advocates, and additional internal and external influencers and sector leaders. Throughout the semester, the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all forms of outreach (written and oral; digital and print) will be foregrounded.
No prior marketing or communications experience is necessary.
The course provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges of transnational financing from public and private sources that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation investments intended to address climate change. Although there is increased and widespread commitment to taking climate action on the part of corporations, financial institutions, countries and sub-national actors, there remains a paucity of examples where a just transition has been furthered. The conditions engendered by the advent of widespread pandemics have exacerbated global differences in capacity and access to solutions. Nevertheless, the emergence of new financial mechanisms and global cooperative responses to the pandemic have revealed potential methods to finance enhancements in mitigation and adaptation in the regions where these are most lacking. We examine current capital and trade flows and their relationship to flows of embedded carbon, methods of carbon pricing and the implementation of low-carbon pathways, with an evaluation of decentralized co-benefits that can advance sustainable development. We combine analysis of carbon accounting and financial structuring to design potential investments in example decarbonization projects which integrate additionality in mitigation and adaptation, co-benefits and poverty alleviation.
Urban Systems and their Sites
There are general, consensual definitions and practices that accrue to resilience, and we will consider these in our readings and lectures. But when considering a specific place and its hazards, specificity is necessary. This semester, we are considering how one city, Providence, deals with its flows of materials and wastes; how its systems can be improved for lesser climate impact (mitigation); how the locations and means of flows can help to respond to climate change challenges (adaptation and resilience); and how to realize potentials of urban systems for their capacity to deliver on promises to the people who depend on them.
This course will ask you to engage actively as well as providing information through lectures and readings. The work includes class discussion, student presentations, longer-term group research projects, in-class lab time, and an elective weekend design workshop conducted with the Department of Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design. Outside experts will occasionally lecture. All that you learn will be leveraged in your final group design project for Providence, RI.
Over the past two decades, public and private institutions have set clear targets for environmental, economic, and social performance and they are increasingly using analytical tools to assess problems and measure progress. The advent of “Big Data” has accelerated this work – and opened up new possibilities and challenges. This course will examine the use of data and metrics to shape and implement sustainability policies and programs and to assess and communicate their outcomes.
The course will survey a range of real-world sustainability challenges and evaluate the choices confronting public officials, private companies, NGO’s, advocates, and citizens – and the data that can be used to diagnose problems, develop solutions, and measure success. Particular focus will be given to urban sustainability efforts and corporate sustainability. We will explore how data can be used and misused in each of these domains. Throughout we will emphasize the importance of context, comparability, and completeness of information.
Students will be required to critically evaluate what they read and hear. In addition, the course will give students an opportunity to learn how to express their ideas verbally and in written form and conduct a critical analysis of how environmental data is used to develop and implement public policy. Assignments will give students the opportunity to use their technical and analytical skills while understanding the real-world applications that will be important to their future work as planners, policymakers, advocates, architects, environmentalists, or other professions. The course will feature guest lectures from speakers who are leaders in their fields. Lecture topics may be moved to accommodate speaker travel and availability. Notice will be provided to students in advance of any schedule changes.
This course covers the basic elements of crisis communication and the procedures for creating crisis communications plans and for reacting to crises when they occur. How best to develop various plans for different critical audiences and understand the most effective strategies for communicating your organization’s message during a crisis is explored. The course examines various types of crises that can occur with corporations and nonprofit organizations and the differences and similarities among them. How to avoid the classic and common pitfalls of crisis communication are addressed, as are ethical issues that arise during crises. Numerous case studies are discussed in class and exercises both in and outside of class are assigned so students gain experience in crisis communication situations.
Leading and advancing sustainability within an organization’s operations requires a strategic and balanced approach. Focusing on the integration of a wide range of today’s sustainability drivers, in a manner consistent with the organization’s culture and business objectives, optimizes the chances for long term success and impact. To that end, this course takes a broad high level approach at systematically analyzing both risks & opportunities to integrate sustainability at each step along a complex value chain. Specifically, students will be asked to assume the role of a sustainability professional within a private sector company, tasked with integrating various sustainability strategies, initiatives and tools into the fabric of the business.
Throughout the semester, the entire end-to-end value chain will be examined, however it is not the intent to conduct full in-depth technical analyses of each value chain area, rather we will look at sustainable operations from a high-level strategic management viewpoint, discussing integration opportunities and intersections related to: product design, procurement, logistics, physical operations, stakeholder engagement, product/service use and end-of-life disposition.
By considering the organization holistically, we will discuss analytical concepts and industry tools related to life cycle thinking, cost/benefit analyses, corporate sustainability strategies, and risk assessments. In addition to technical sustainability considerations such as climate change, energy, water and waste, students will learn to implement practical sustainability initiatives within operating organizations by carefully considering key stakeholder expectations and overall materiality. Finally, the intersection of sustainability and brand purpose will be explored, helping to find the sweet spot between sustainability science and creative/marketing communication.
In an era of growing environmental and social awareness, supply chains have emerged as a powerful lever for driving
sustainability in operations. Supply chain emissions are, on average, 11.4 times higher than operational emissions (1)
making them a critical focal point for impactful change in operations. This course explores the essential role of supply
chains in achieving sustainable outcomes and equips students with the tools and insights needed to transform
conventional practices into innovative, responsible, and efficient systems. This course is part of a broader curriculum
aimed at cultivating leaders who can integrate sustainability into the heart of business strategy. It is designed for
students from diverse professional and academic backgrounds, no prior experience in operations or supply chain
management is required to excel in this course.
Through this interdisciplinary journey, students will gain a robust foundation in supply chain management, learning
to integrate sustainability principles across operations. The course balances analytical skills with creative problem-
solving, preparing students to address real-world challenges. Upon completing this course, students will gain a
comprehensive skillset to analyze, design, and implement sustainable operations solutions in their future careers.
Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategic role of supply chains in modern economies,
including their critical impact in decarbonization efforts. Students will also learn to apply key analytical tools such as
demand forecasting and risk assessment, while mastering strategies for sourcing, supplier management, and logistics
optimization.
This course introduces students to the foundational principles of object-oriented programming (OOP) using Java, a robust, platform-independent language widely used in industry for building scalable and secure applications. Through hands-on experience and instruction, students will explore core OOP concepts, including abstraction,
encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism, while gaining practical experience with modular code design and reusability. Java’s extensive libraries and frameworks will be introduced to demonstrate its applications to the real-world use cases.
This course is designed for students without prior programming experience in programming. While not required, familiarity with based computing concepts (variables, loops, functions,) is recommended.
Effective dialogue is one of the single most important activities of leaders today. Whether you are confronting a team member who is not keeping commitments, critiquing a colleague’s work, disagreeing with a spouse about financial decisions, or telling someone no, critical conversations are often avoided or handled in clumsy ways. This course will provide the theory underpinning these conversations, diagram their structure, and provide specific strategies for approaching them successfully.
In this course, students will critically analyze and consider the successes and challenges facing the NFL. Specifically, students will be tasked with identifying what accounts for its success as both a corporate and cultural institution; what lessons can be drawn from the success of the NFL that could pertain to other industries, whether in professional sports or elsewhere; and importantly, how the NFL is actually run as a business. Students will take a deep dive into a variety of subjects within the business of the NFL have first-hand access to NFL insiders from a variety of sectors within the league, and be tasked with cultivating business, marketing, leadership and general decision-making skills drawn from real-world experiences within the NFL.
This course is designed to provide students with working knowledge on how to make successful investments in sustainable companies and to prepare students to be conversationally literate in financial reporting. As you leave the school and become leaders of organizations financial literacy will be a skill set that will be vital to success no matter what career path you go down. It starts with a strong foundation in accounting and corporate finance, then moves on to ESG/Impact screening of potential investments, along with valuation techniques used to arrive at a purchase price. It will explore financial models that can aggregate multiple variables used to drive investment decisions.
To understand and lead a transition to a sustainability-aware business, managers must first be familiar with the terminology, practices and consequences of traditional accounting and finance. Students will learn traditional financial and accounting methods and tools. We will examine how these methods and tools are changing to improve product and service design, resource efficiency and allocation, employee productivity and sustainability performance outcomes. Students will learn how value is created in a company and the different methods employed to create that value, conduct due diligence, discuss optimal capital structure to finance a transaction, execute a transaction, and implement a Sustainability-based value-added operating plan to the target company. The course will conclude with students preparing a persuasive investment memo and accompanying financial model to the investment committee of an impact investing asset management firm. The course also provides a practical introduction to selected non-financial accounting topics including sustainability reporting standards, ESG corporate performance indicators and corporate social responsibility report (CSR Reporting).
This course explores the role of nonprofit organizations in the formation and implementation of public policy in the United States. As the influence and scope of the nonprofit sector continue to grow, nonprofit organizations increasingly shape policy debates, represent community perspectives, and contribute to the development and implementation of public policy. Understanding how nonprofits engage in the policy process has broad implications for future public sector professionals and those working to advance the common good.
The course provides students with an introduction to the public policy process and examines the ways nonprofit organizations participate in it. Topics include lobbying and advocacy, government regulation of nonprofit organizations, ballot initiatives, grantmaking for public policy, ethics in public interest lobbying, and the challenges facing nonprofit advocacy. Students will also explore how nonprofit organizations build the organizational capacity to engage in policy work and how public policy affects nonprofit operations and mission.
Through applied analysis and case studies, students will develop essential skills in lobbying, policy analysis, strategic advocacy campaign design, and—crucially—coalition building. The course emphasizes how ideas and insights from nonprofit practice can inform policy development and implementation, and how organizations can translate community needs into effective policy strategies.
More broadly, the course situates nonprofit advocacy within the social, political, economic, and philanthropic factors that shape the nonprofit sector. By examining the relationship between nonprofits and the public sector, students will gain practical insight into the challenges facing public institutions and communities. The course supports professional preparation for careers in public service, policy, and administration, and provides a strong foundation for students interested in pursuing graduate study in fields such as law, public administration, public policy, and other areas focused on public affairs.
We need to transition toward a more environmentally sustainable society given both pollution and its health effects, and the impacts of extreme weather and climate change. The production and consumption of energy is the largest contributor to these concerns, and so the transition to a clean energy economy is essential. The increasing energy needs of the world’s growing population make this an ongoing challenge. At the same time, energy security and affordability, and social and economic inequities, must also be considered. New technologies and effective policies are needed to help drive increased deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Finance is also a key lever to drive the implementation of clean energy. The availability and cost of capital is a key determinant in scaling renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
This course focuses on the finance and market aspects of the clean energy economy, and integrates technology, policy, and finance to evaluate both the opportunities and challenges. There is a focus on renewable energy generation, as mass electrification using cleaner generation sources is necessary to sustain our energy-dependent lives and economies. The course also looks at energy efficiency, including specific end-uses of energy that are responsible for the majority of emissions (e.g., personal vehicles, buildings). Throughout the course, finance will be analyzed as a barrier to, or enabler of, greater adoption of clean energy, particularly as we think about the allocation of capital.
Course Overview
Transportation accounts for about 25% of global GHG emissions. Significantly reducing emissions in this sector is fundamental for addressing climate change. Historically, the technical and commercial tools for tackling emissions in this sector have lagged other sectors (for example, electricity production). But over the last several years, this dynamic has changed and there is now unprecedented capital and brainpower focused on transportation decarbonization. The course focuses on capturing the key elements that will speed the scale-up to low- and no- carbon transportation (“sustainable transportation”) across the breadth of transportation sectors. In doing so, this scale-up will create new industries and business models – and has the potential to benefit a wide group of people, including those who in the past have been disproportionally affected by poor air quality caused by existing transportation sources. The course is designed for any student who wishes to understand these elements in a deeper way.
The course will explore the decarbonization opportunities and challenges across the various transportation sectors, including light duty, commercial fleets, public transportation, aviation, and marine sectors – as well as areas that cut across all sectors, such as battery adoption, the supply chain for materials, fueling/charging. and the impact of hydrogen. Because the carbon content of propulsion fuels is dependent on other sectors (for example, the transition to renewable electricity), the course will examine the energy transition in transportation in the context of broader decarbonization trends. In exploring each transportation sub-sector, the course will focus mainly from the commercial perspective, but will incorporate the external factors (e.g., innovation, policy, macro-factors) that affect commercial success.
The course is intended for anyone wishing to further their knowledge or their career in the areas of sustainable transportation – especially in areas related to electric transportation. The course will rely on lectures and discussions, both led by the professor and guest lecturers. There are no prerequisites for the course. The course assignments will include a combination of problem sets, financial modeling, and case studies/written assignments. No previous financial modeling experience is required; the professor and/or TA will provid
APPLIED MACHINE LEARNING I
APPLIED MACHINE LEARNING I
This course provides an overview of the traditional ERM frameworks used to identify, assess, manage, and disclose key organizational risks. The traditional ERM frameworks are those that are more commonly in use and include COSO ERM, ISO 31000, and the Basel Accords. This course also provides an understanding of the methods, tools, techniques, and terminology most organizations use to manage their key risks, presented in the context of the foundational elements of an ERM process. This will enable students to navigate the ERM landscape within most organizations, and, along with the second-semester course Value-Based ERM, evaluate opportunities to enhance the existing ERM practices and evolve their ERM programs over time.
Weekly lectures will introduce film grammar, textual analysis, staging, the camera as narrator, pre-visualization, shot progression, directorial style, working with actors and editing. Lectures by all members of the full time directing faculty anchor the class, highlighting a range of directorial approaches with additional lectures on the techniques and aesthetics of editing. Each lecture will be supported by visual material from master film directors as well as the examples of the short films students will be required to produce in their first two semesters. For the final 7 weeks of the term, a student fellow will be available to mentor students through the planning of their 3-5 films.
This course will build on the topics and tactics covered in Business Intelligence in Sports to create a real-life learning lab where students can apply key concepts and expand their techniques against real data from a partner professional sports team. More advanced skills around SQL, Tableau, and R will be developed and applied to relevant scenarios using available data such as customer demographics, behaviors, tickets, attendance, social media, marketing, surveys, and sponsorships. Students will leave the class prepared to join a team’s business intelligence department and make immediate contributions.
Generative AI represents a pivotal technological evolution with profound implications for the global economy and modern society. This course delves into the decades-long development of AI and machine learning, emphasizing its emergence as a critical economic and strategic force. As we explore this technology, we will assess its potential to revolutionize industries, enhance capabilities, and introduce complex challenges related to security, identity, and ethical considerations.
In this dynamic landscape, both incumbent businesses and governmental bodies face the urgent need to adapt to this disruption and the transformative changes it heralds. This course seeks to unpack the catalysts of this technological surge, its foundational principles, and the critical knowledge required for modern leadership in the AI era.