Students specialize to develop knowledge and skills in accordance with their interests and career goals. Specializations are developed to help students build a body of knowledge in a particular area, guide students as they design their program, and connect students with faculty involved in their chosen area of research and teaching. Although not a formal requirement of the program, some students choose to focus on a particular specialization. Specializations generally require taking three or more courses related to a particular field of interest.
CPPA students can develop their own specializations, or select one of the following areas: 
There are also substantial resources on campus to develop specializations in additional areas, including information technology, conflict resolution, macroeconomic policy, advanced quantitative methods, labor policy, and media / public policy. Students have the flexibility to design specializations in their own areas of interest by taking electives from among the wide array of courses offered at the University of Massachusetts. Program faculty and staff work individually with students to design specializations that meet their specific interests and needs.
Education Policy
The Education Policy specialization allows students to gain a deeper understanding of issues in three main contexts: primary and secondary education in the United States, higher education, and international education.
CPPA graduates who specialize in Educational Policy may pursue careers in a range of institutions, including state and federal education authorities, education associations, foundations, institutions of higher education, and international organizations.
Courses that students may take in this specialization are offered in the School of Education's Department of Educational Policy, Research, and Administration. Students also have the opportunity to participate in research and other projects undertaken by the UMass's Center for Education Policy . In addition, there are a number of other courses offered in the departments of sociology, economics and legal studies that are also relevant to this specialization.
Environmental Policy
Students who specialize in Environmental Policy are interested in contributing to the development of solutions to critical domestic and international environmental problems.
Graduates of the Center for Public Policy and Administration with an environmental policy specialization pursue careers in government agencies, nonprofit organizations, international organizations, and consulting firms. Examples include: US Department of the Interior, US Department of Agriculture, US Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Tellus Institute for Resource and Environmental Strategies, World Resources Institute, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
The UMass campus offers a rich diversity of environmental courses and programs, ranging from Geosciences to Resource Economics to Environmental Design, all of which have a unique perspective on understanding and evaluating natural resource use and the preservation of unique resources. CPPA supports an Environment and Natural Resources speaker series, inviting to campus prominent scholars and practitioners in the environmental policy field.
Food Science Policy
This academic concentration is the result of a new emphasis in Food Science Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, motivated by the need to train scientists who can also be effective in the policymaking world. The focus involves food science policy and regulation in both the domestic and international arenas. The complexity of scientific issues involving food and health requires policymakers who are knowledgeable about the scientific underpinnings of policy, and professionals who can bridge the scientific and policymaking communities. The Food Science Policy program establishes a means to educate and train highly skilled scientists for careers in food science policy by providing them a strong foundation in public policy and administration.
Two students will be selected for entrance into this program each year and they will receive funding through the Department of Food Science. They will be admitted into the MPPA Program and required to follow its curriculum. Electives will be replaced with a 12-credit thesis and two food science policy courses developed by the Food Science faculty.
For more information, please click here. Individuals interested in the Food Science Policy program should contact Professor Fergus Clydesdale, Department of Food Sciences (413-545-2276) or Satu Zoller, Center for Public Policy and Administration (413-545-2714).
Health Policy
The Health Policy specialization provides CPPA students with comprehensive, state-of-the-art training for professional careers as managers and policymakers in the changing health care system. The management courses emphasize an aggressive yet ethical approach to institutional leadership in a complex period of mounting competition and shrinking resources. Health policy students acquire a solid understanding of the process of policy formation on the international, national, local, and institutional levels.
Graduates of CPPA with a health policy specialization can pursue career opportunities in government agencies, nonprofit organizations, international organizations, and consulting firms. Examples include: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Health Care Financing Administration, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, The Alpha Center, The Alliance for Justice, Families USA, The National Rural Health Association, and The World Health Organization.
Students learn how to improve administrative practice, enhance the effectiveness of health service programs, and improve the health of the public through services that prevent disease and protect health. This is accomplished in a variety of ways, such as: understanding the social, economic, legal, and political issues germane to national and local health policies; understanding the history, dynamics, and function of the health care delivery system; applying concepts of administration to the management of health programs and institutions; planning and implementing research projects in collaboration with an agency or organization; mastering skills in managerial problem solving and in oral and written communication.
International/Comparative Policy
The International/Comparative Policy specialization prepares students to take a comparative and international approach to public policy, including both comparative analyses of policy development and implementation, and analyses focused on international relations and foreign policy. This specialization allows students to explore international and domestic institutions, political development and culture, political economy and policymaking, law, and social and political change. This specialization prepares students to contribute to the development of policy solutions to critical international problems such as labor issues, poverty, trade, environmental issues, security, human rights, immigration, and development.
Graduates of the Center for Public Policy and Administration with an International/ Comparative Policy specialization can pursue career opportunities in government agencies, international organizations, educational institutions and consulting firms. Examples include the United Nations Development Program, State Department, Save the Children Federation, International Labour Organization, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, World Bank, Center for Strategic and International Studies, or the International Monetary Fund.
CPPA-affiliated faculty members provide a contextualized global understanding of public policy. The interdisciplinary strengths of the Center, drawing on faculty in Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Legal Studies, and several other disciplines, give students the tools to consider governance and policy from a global perspective. In addition, one of the leading centers for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies is housed in the UMass Economics department, and courses, as well as certificate programs are open to CPPA students.
Public & Nonprofit Management
Managers in the public and nonprofit sectors face different issues, political pressures and financial incentives than their private sector counterparts. The specialization in public and nonprofit management allows students to explore and understand in depth the roles and activities of managers in these sectors.
Graduates of the Center for Public Policy and Administration with a specialization in Public and Nonprofit Management can pursue career opportunities in federal, state or local government agencies, nonprofit organizations and international organizations. CPPA graduates have worked in a wide range of organizations, such as the US Department of Transportation; the Greater Worcester Community Foundation; the City of Chicago; the New England Medical Center; Save the Children Federation; the Federal Transit Administration; Prince Georges County, Maryland; and many others.
CPPA and associated departments offer a number of management relevant courses, with content that includes organization theory, political and legal aspects of management, personnel management, managerial ethics, conflict resolution, and information technology development and management.
Science, Technology and Society
The STS specialization allows students to focus on the public understanding of science and the societal implications of science and technology.
CPPA graduates who specialize in STS will be prepared to pursue careers in a wide variety of institutions and organizations in governments, nonprofits, consulting firms, and research institutions.
Courses for this specialization are offered through numerous departments and schools across campus including Community Health, Sociology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Philosophy, Anthropology, Management, and Food Sciences. Students will also have the opportunity to pursue individual interests through CPPA independent studies and will be supported by the newly formed Science, Technology, and Society Initiative. More information on STS-related courses can be found here.
Social Policy
Social policy encompasses a wide variety of public policies aimed at ameliorating hunger, poverty, ill health, homelessness, and other forms of human distress. Students concentrating in social policy explore the dynamics of these problems as well as public and private systems of social provision in the United States and abroad. Courses highlight historic and persisting dilemmas related to race, gender, and inequality; structures of wealth and opportunity; the nature of civil and political rights; welfare state development; explanations of poverty and welfare use; and stigma and discrimination.
Students concentrating in social welfare policy are prepared to pursue career opportunities in government agencies, international organizations, consulting firms, and research institutions. Program graduates have been placed in a variety of settings including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Social Security Administration; Massachusetts Departments of Housing and Community Development, Social Services, and Transitional Assistance; Massachusetts Division of Health Care, Finance, and Policy; Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers; Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute; Rural Health Centers of Maine, Inc.; Chicago Department of Public Health; Greater Lawrence Community Action; Franklin Community Action Commission; Queens Independent Living Center; Literacy Volunteers; Family Planning Council; Retirement Security Alliance; Institute on Family Law and Policy; Health Research, Inc.; and Barnard-Columbia Center for Urban Policy.
Many academic programs and departments on campus offer courses particularly relevant to investigating the social issues impacting citizens receiving social aid. Such departments include: Sociology, Political Science, African-American Studies, Women's Studies, Economics, Public Health, and Regional Planning.
