Center for Creative Change | Graduate Certificates

The Center for Creative Change’s seven certificate programs provide new options if you’d like to develop the skills to better lead sustainable change in organizations, businesses and communities.

If you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree and want to enhance your leadership abilities, these graduate-level certificates can give you an added advantage. They also offer opportunities for networking and a way to see if graduate school is what you’d like to pursue.

Meeting one extended weekend a month for nine months, you take six courses — two per quarter — for a total of 18 credits. For information on applying to a certificate program, click here.

Business Leadership and Change Management
Learn the business and people skills necessary to manage change in your company. This is recommended for mid-level managers. Choose three of the following four courses: Finance: Stakeholders and the Bottom Line; Marketing: Creating Customer Value; Strategic Thinking and Planning; Leadership in Business and Organizational Systems; and three electives.

Ecological Planning and Design
Learn how the systemic connection between the natural environment and human communities can bring the two together to resolve inherent problems. This is recommended for urban planners, architects, builders and environmental stewards. Choose three of the following four courses: Theory and Practice of Socio-environmental Change; Economics and the Environment; Environmental Policy and Decision-making Processes; Integrative Environmental Science; and three electives.

Effective Communication Strategies
Learn to value communication as an essential way to bridge differing viewpoints and generate positive results and to consider the larger context of language, culture and perspective when delivering messages. This is recommended for public relations specialists, information technologists and communicators in corporations, nonprofits, governmental and other agencies. Choose three of the following four courses: Communications Media and Technologies; Communicating Across Cultures; Participatory Communication for Social Change; Using Media for Social Change; and three electives.

Environmental Education
Increase your knowledge of both natural and social science perspectives and environmental education teaching methods. This is recommended for educators, environmental stewards and park and recreation personnel. Courses and electives include: Methods of Environmental Education; Integrative Environmental Science; Ecological Sustainability; Transformative Leadership; Environmental Interpretation; Human Development and Learning Theory.

Integrated Skills for Sustainable Change
Foundational courses prepare you to lead long-lasting, positive change in your organization or community. This program is recommended for community leaders and those in the field of organizational development. Courses include: Communication Design; Critical Inquiry and Ways of Knowing; Global Pluralism; Systemic Thinking for a Changing World; Ecological Sustainability; Transformative Leadership and Change.

Organizational Dynamics
Develop techniques for ensuring healthy, sustainable workplaces. This is recommended for human resource personnel, organizational development specialists and professional consultants. Choose three of the following four courses: Organizational Theory; Human Behavior in the Workplace; Group Dynamics and Facilitation; Overview of Organizational Development and three electives.

Systems Thinking and Design
You'll understand the systemic nature of problems and design solutions for the whole problem rather than just its parts. This is recommended for visionaries in corporations, nonprofits, and governmental and other agencies. Courses include: two systemic theory and philosophy courses; two design theory and practice courses; one holistic perspectives course; and one elective.