Master of Public Policy Program

The Panetta Institute’s Master of Public Policy program offers recent graduates and mid-career professionals a unique opportunity to gain a real-world understanding of the policy process, with the goal of developing leaders capable of dealing with the great policy challenges facing our country.

Launched in the spring of 2003, the program features faculty who have deep, firsthand knowledge of policy making, and it draws on multiple disciplines to enhance understanding of the human element in the process. Students develop their practical and theoretical skills with the aid of seasoned mentors, and gain access to networks that can improve their employment opportunities. The Institute actively seeks a diverse mix of students, reflective of the changing demographics of society.

Institute co-founder Leon Panetta developed this unique program drawing on his experience as Chief of Staff to the President of the United States, director of the Office of Management and Budget. U.S. Representative for California’s 17th Congressional District, chairman of the House Budget Committee, and director of the U.S. Office for Civil Rights.

Dr. Richard Kezirian is the primary professor for the Panetta Institute’s classes in the MPP program.  A strong cadre of guest lecturers with significant experience in government will also be drawn upon to add breadth and depth to the academic material.

The program’s curriculum consists of core courses that concentrate on policy process and methodology, electives that offer a policy concentration, and a practicum that applies analytic skills to actual public policy problems. For course-related research in this program, students have access to the Leon E. Panetta Archive, an extensive repository of documents and artifacts from Leon’s many years in public service.

The Institute offers a policy concentration in government and politics, and the Department of Health, Human Services and Public Policy (HHSPP) at CSUMB offers a concentration in health policy. Consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of this program, students are required to take at least one class in a policy concentration other than their own. The Panetta Institute classes that fulfill the nine elective credits required for the policy concentration in government and politics are:  Congressional and Presidential Politics and Policymaking; Budget Policy and Politics; and Money, Media and Politics.

Classes for the concentration in government and politics are taught at the Panetta Institute and each cohort admitted is limited to approximately twenty students. CSU Monterey Bay acts as the degree-granting university for this Master of Public Policy degree.

Please contact us for more information.