The Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) program at Cornell is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral degree designed for working professionals who want to enhance existing skills and advance their careers in the broad field of public affairs.
Through an 18-month blended course of study taught by Cornell faculty, you will receive advanced training in strategic planning and management, economic and financial analysis, program evaluation, and project management.
The complex challenges facing the world are not solved solely by governments, nor by corporations or nonprofit organizations working alone, but with leadership and innovation from all three sectors. An Executive Master of Public Administration degree from Cornell University shows the world that you belong right in the middle of that solution set.
Program Overview- Public Administration: A Strategic Planning Perspective
- Leadership for Public Service
- Law and Public Agency Decisions
- Microeconomics for Management and Policy
- Market Regulation
- Managerial Statistics
- Strategic Nonprofit Management I
- Managing Change
- Effective Policy Writing
- Accounting for Government and Nonprofit Organizations
- Project Management for Policy
- Fundraising
- Systems Thinking for Policy I
- Systems Thinking for Policy II
- Public Interest Technology
- International Public Management
- Corporate Responsibility
- Politics of the Policymaking Process
Students will make three 1-week visits to Cornell’s campus, where they will meet their classmates and professors in person. These residencies include intensive courses in:
- Year 1 Summer residency week:
- Microeconomics for Management and Policy
- Strategic Nonprofit Management
- International Public Management
- Year 2 Summer residency week:
- Vulnerability Planning
- Politics of the Policymaking Process
- Public-Private Partnerships
- Year 2 December residency week:
- Project Management for Policy
- Capstone Project Presentations
Tailor your program by choosing from two concentrations:
- Public and Nonprofit Management, with elective courses in managing technology, managing personnel, decision analytics, and leadership and strategy
- International Policy, with elective courses in frontiers of international policy, human rights, international management, and leadership and strategy
- Tarcisio Alvarez-Rivero, Faculty Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Derek Cabrera, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Laura Cabrera, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- General George Casey, Distinguished Senior Lecture of Leadership, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Brandon Chiazza, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Rebecca Darling, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Elizabeth Day, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Alexandra Dufresne, Senior Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs; Director, State Policy Advocacy Clinic
- Karan Girotra, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs; Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management
- Joe Grasso, Vice President of Finance and Administration, Le Moyne College
- Chris Hess, Lecturer and Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Alan Mathios, Professor
- Karima Mariama-Arthur, Lecturer, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Thomas O’Toole, Executive Director of Public Affairs Programming, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Nicholas Sanders, Associate Professor; Director of Graduate Studies, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Ning Su, Visiting Associate Professor, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- John Tobin, Professor of Practice, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
- Cindy Van Es, Lecturer and Professor of Practice, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs