Public Health Management & Administration (PHMA)

PHMA 501  — Introduction to Public Health Systems  

This course will provide an overview of core disciplines and theories in public health learning and practice, including behavioral and community assessment, program development evaluation, policy and advocacy, and environmental and occupational health. Learners will also begin to understand the management and administration principles that define this degree, with a particular focus on business and sustainability.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 502  — Foundations in Design for Organizational Behavioral Change  

This course is an introduction to the dynamics of organization behavior, organization development, and the creation of intentional physical space design elements to foster collaboration and high performance. Adult learners learn and understand the importance of using themselves as an intentional instrument of change as a foundation for their leadership practice. The course introduces a consulting model and several models of organizational change that can be practiced inside the class laboratory and applied immediately to the adult learner’s work settings.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 503  — Elements of Nonprofit Organizations  

Part One of the Managing and Leading Public Health Orgs course is designed to address business structures and processes in the not- for- profit environment, grant development processes, ethical and social responsibility, and risk management.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 504  — Collaboration in Complex Systems  

This course focuses on helping adult learners see the systemic conditions in which they live and work. An important purpose of the course is to provide an understanding of what is needed to create powerful human systems – systems with outstanding capacity to perform their functions and carry out their mission. During the first day of the course, students will be immersed in a “living case study” of organizational life as related to complex systems. This experience and the related frameworks will provide the basis for exploring issues of empowerment, partnership and collaboration.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 505  — Financial Planning and Complex Budgeting in Public Health  

Part Two of the Managing and Leading Public Health Orgs course is designed to address financial concepts and strategies that can support and sustain public health organizations in today’s environment. Accounting and budgeting practices will be covered in addition to a more macro perspective on cash and fundability.

3 credits  

Hybrid, OnLine

PHMA 506  — Public Policy Law and Innovation  

This course helps leaders to think with a whole system approach as they develop and implement innovative policies that facilitate change and identify strategies and processes to successfully implement the policies. Students in this course will understand that the innovation process includes the importance of working collaboratively with all stakeholders: policy decision-makers within all levels of government; funders; and, providers with a variety of constituent viewpoints and interests. As leaders, students will be introduced to and learn the legal rights and responsibilities of stakeholders in public health systems. In addition, students will learn to analyze different aspects of the evolving landscape of judicial rulings, including legislative and administrative regulations that impact public health systems.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 507  — Cultural Diversity in Populations and Partner Groups  

This course identifies culture as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a community. These communities exist around gender, race, color, age, different- ability, sexual orientation, class, religion, ethnic, and nationality. This course examines differences that characterize people of various communities and what happens when they come together in organizations to fulfill the mission of the organization by delivering services to their diverse partner and population groups. This course will culminate in the development of strategies for engaging people of various cultures more successfully to deliver optimal services to/for internal and external populations.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 508  — Evidenced-Based Practices in Decision Making  

This course is intended as preparation and support for the final Capstone project. It reinforces action research as a critical tenet of public health, organization development, leadership and change. The learning experiences will focus on enhancing action research practice and data collection skills to facilitate deeper-level inquiry, reflection, critical thinking and assessment into the issues that are impacting performance and results. Adult learners will learn how to appropriately design the data collection methodologies and interventions with the identified organizational issue(s)/problem(s). As a definitive outcome, adult learners will align strategies to improve performance based on evidence based practice to inform their decision making at these levels: individually, group, system/organization and community.

3 credits  

Hybrid, OnLine

PHMA 509  — Strategic and Professional Communication Skills for Leaders  

This course introduces a comprehensive set of communication skills available to leaders including theoretical background, practical applications and on-camera practice sessions delivering critical messages to diverse audiences. Students will examine core components of messaging and powerful presentations in organizational settings—including media applications. Students will learn how to effectively communicate from organizational and individual settings, including creating a strategic organizational communication plan.

3 credits  

Hybrid, OnLine

PHMA 510  — Leaders as Process Designers and Facilitators  

Meetings are where collaboration happens. Well planned, designed and facilitated meetings tap a variety of different perspectives, expand everyone’s understanding of the situation and increase the likelihood of good decisions that benefit the system – the common good. The purpose of this course is to become familiar with basic concepts, to practice the skills and methods, and to develop the habits of mind essential to designing and facilitating task-focused, collaborative meetings while delivering optimal results in projects they are managing.

3 credits  

Hybrid, OnLine

PHMA 511  — Capstone  

The Capstone/Practicum course is taken in the last year of the adult earner’s master’s degree work. Working with the program director or other faculty as her/his advisor, the learner demonstrates her/his competence in public health management and administration, data collection strategies, designing for improvement and understanding organizational change dynamics that inform decision making at all levels of practice. As an outcome, adult learners will write an action research paper from a real-life practice perspective describing how they would engage in data collection and organizational diagnosis to clarify the current organizational or business challenge, design an intervention(s) appropriately aligned with the organizational diagnosis, and practice use of self as an instrument of change to achieve the desired individual and organizational results. Electives (one weekend “turbo” format at PCOM or PHMC – connected to Capstone/Practicum)

3 credits  

Hybrid, OnLine

PHMA 513  — Leveraging Relationship to Advance Your Mission  

In this course, leaders will gain a greater understanding of how relationships and the network-based opportunities inherent in the interactions we have with everyone we meet is an important part of leading organizations. Leaders will learn that recognizing transactional possibilities in a variety of settings is a competency that can tremendously enrich a leader’s capacity to be successful.

3 credits  

Hybrid

PHMA 599  — Advanced Standing  
0, 0, 0 credits