Aligned with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs), each course expands the knowledge of public administration principles and develops leadership skills through reading, course work, and conversations with peers and professors.

Courses include:

• Leadership for Key Executives
• Executive Clarity: Thinking and Writing
• Legal Issues in Public Administration
• Public Managerial Economics
• Budgeting & Financial Management
• Managing in the Information Age
• Organization Diagnosis and Change
• Executive Problem Solving
• Language of Statistics
• Acquisition Management
• Politics, Policy Making, and Public Administration
• Analysis and Evaluation
• Strategic HR Management for Executives
• Public Marketing & Strategic Communications
• Ethics for Public Managers

For additional details on each session, please review the course descriptions.

Learn how the Key Executive Leadership MPA meets the Senior Executive Service (SES) Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). View the chart.

Academic Credit

Students who wish to get recognition of previous completed coursework in the Key Executive Leadership MPA may be eligible to for a tuition discount if they've participated in the Key Executive Leadership Certificate program, approved OPM and DAU courses.

Approved OPM Courses

Courses Offered at OPM's Eastern and Western Management Development Centers

• Crisis Leadership Workshop
• Dynamics of Public Policy Seminar
• Environmental Policy Issues Seminar
• Executive Development Seminar
• Federal Budgetary Policies and Processes Seminar
• Natural Resources Policy and Issues Seminar
• Science, Technology and Public Policy Seminar
• Management Development Seminar II: Leading Organizations

Courses Offered at OPM's Federal Executive Institute (FEI)

• Leadership for a Democratic Society
• Applied Leadership for a Democratic Society

Defense Acquisition University (DAU)

The University will grant up to a 25% tuition discount for the Key Executive MPA to any member of the DoD AT&L workforce who possess a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited university, has at least two years of management experience, and has earned a Level I, II, or III Certification in at least one DAWIA career field and are accepted and enrolled in the Key Executive Leadership MPA Program. Acceptance into the program is subject to an AU review of student applicant credentials.

Please contact the Key MPA Graduate Advisor for additional information on receiving for course waivers for work accomplished in the the Key Executive Leadership Certificates, approved OPM courses, or DAU Certification programs.