Environmental Management

Program Overview

274 Mary Gates Hall

The graduate certificate in Environmental Management (EM) is an interdisciplinary program designed to prepare students to contribute to sustainable utilization and enhancement of the natural and human environment. Through coursework, seminars, and a culminating two-quarters-long keystone project, students acquire the tools to solve real-world environmental problems via the three avenues of science, policy, and business. Keystone projects provide a unique opportunity for graduate students to gain practical experience working in an interdisciplinary team with students from a variety of disciplines, a faculty mentor, and in collaboration with a community partner. The EM program provides education and training opportunities for a diverse array of graduate students preparing for management careers in the non-profit, for-profit, and public sectors, as well as for those who contribute legal, scientific, and technical expertise to environmental decision making - locally, nationally, and internationally. Key benefits of the program include:

• Broadening knowledge, perspectives, and skills beyond the academic home discipline through core courses, keystone projects, and participation in a community of faculty and students from various departments that share the common goal of environmental stewardship and sustainability.
• Gaining practical experience crafting interdisciplinary solutions to real-world environmental issues and making connections with community partners outside the University.
• Receiving a printed certificate and record on the transcript from the Graduate School to document completion of the interdisciplinary program in Environmental Management.

The flexible curriculum is suitable for students from many backgrounds, such as engineering, physical and natural sciences, public policy, economics, geography, public health, and political science, to name a few. There is no other comparable interdisciplinary educational experience currently available to graduate students at the University of Washington.

Graduate Program

Graduate Program Coordinator
274 Mary Gates Hall
Box 352802
206-221-6129
envirmgt@uw.edu

Admission Requirements

1. Enrollment in a graduate and professional degree program in any school of the University of Washington.
2. Completion of a one-quarter upper-level or graduate-level course in applied quantitative methods (e.g., microeconomics, numerical modeling, applied statistical methods) or pure quantitative methods (e.g., mathematics or statistics); or social or natural science.
3. Facility with written argument and communication. This skill is demonstrated in the letter of application.

The program is governed by the Steering Committee for Environmental Management.

The certificate's courses and projects prepare students to contribute legal, scientific, social science, and technical expertise to environmental decision making at the local, national, and international scales. Students are required to broaden their knowledge and skills base beyond their home discipline; to read material from other fields with critical facility; to understand and appreciate the goals and analysis methods common to other fields; and to appreciate, communicate with, and collaborate with experts from other fields, who have different perspectives and priorities.

Certificate Requirements

Minimum 20 credits, to include:

1. Three core courses (9+ total credits; courses vary by year)
2. Team-based keystone project (ENVIR 511, ENVIR 512, 4 credits each)
3. 3+ credits of electives selected in consultation with the Graduate Program Coordinator and approved by the EM director