University of Vermont
AC-4: Graduate Program

Our accelerated, 12-month program integrates sustainable business practices across disciplines, focusing on the tools needed to manage business today and lead through change tomorrow. Sustainable Innovation MBA graduates jump back into work with the knowledge and skills they need to become change agents in fields as diverse as impact investing, sustainable development, mission-driven marketing, supply chain management, nonprofit management, and other socially responsible business functions.

The program is structured in 4 modules of 8 weeks each. Each module comprises a series of short, intense courses. The students in each cohort learn and grow together as a cohesive group, and form lifelong professional and personal relationships. Every course integrates discussion on how to embed socially responsible practices in business. Students explore the ethical considerations business leaders must address to build value in multistakeholder environments, and learn from business cases drawn from around the globe.

To complement the core curriculum, the program also incorporates sustainable business leaders in the classroom through the Innovator in Residence speaker series. These talks are presented exclusively for Sustainable Innovation MBA students and provide an open and intimate forum to hear from and interact with thought leaders in the socially responsible business arena.

Innovators in Residence share their personal experiences drawn from work in B Corporations, sustainable development, social enterprises, impact investing, socially responsible businesses and leading nonprofits.

The Masters of Professional Studies in Leadership for Sustainability, under the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources,is designed for emerging and experienced leaders to explore leadership practices that are inspired by the wisdom of nature and challenge forces of domination and oppression. This two-year program offers an innovative blend of week-long residential intensives (taking place in Vermont, Durham N.C., and the Bay area in California), interactive online courses, professional coaching, and an incredible network of faculty and professional affiliates. At the heart of this program is our dedication to cultivate a diverse and equitable learning ecosystem. The program has three central learning goals for sustainability:

1. Leadership Inspired by the Wisdom of Nature - Deepening our relationships with the more-than-human world and the ecological systems, patterns, processes, and organizing principles that can inspire our leadership, design, and change-making processes;

2. Challenging Forces of Domination and Oppression - Enhancing our ability to critically examine dominant worldviews and shift inequitable systems, patterns and structures of power and privilege;

3. Practice - Deepening leadership practices that enhance our capacities draw on multiple ways of knowing, stay centered, catalyze change, advance the work of our communities and professional organizations, and create conditions for life to thrive over the long haul.

Our graduate program in community development and applied economics boasts faculty with expertise in economics (both ecological and neoclassical), food systems, public policy, ecological economics, renewable energy, public communication, consumer affairs, and community economic development. Students engage in a transdisciplinary approach to research that prepares them for leadership positions in the non-profit and government sectors, as well as in socially and ecologically responsible businesses.We offer courses to give students foundational academic and professional skills and we encourage our graduate students to seek out courses and skills both within the program and across UVM to individualize their transdisciplinary experience.

With 20 years of experience researching both within our communities and across the world, CDAE graduate students study current development issues facing local and international communities. The well-connected nature of both Burlington and Vermont provide opportunity unmatched anywhere else.

MS & PhD in Food Systems- http://www.uvm.edu/foodsystemsprogram/

MS & PhD in Plant and Soil Sciences- https://www.uvm.edu/cals/pss?Page=grad_intro.html&SM=grad_prog_menu.html

MS & PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering- http://catalogue.uvm.edu/graduate/civilenvironengineering/civilandenvironmentalengineeringms/

MS & PhD in Natural Resources - https://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/graduate_programs

MPA - https://www.uvm.edu/cals/cdae/mpa

Sustainable Development Policy, Economics and Governance Ph.D. - https://www.uvm.edu/cals/cdae/phd-sustainable-development-policy-economics-and-governance

Rooted in “Participatory Action Research” (PAR), this 15-credit program guides students to identify key questions and practice new methods for integrating data from multiple perspectives (farmers, academics, activists, policymakers, etc.) around the topic of sustainable agroecosystems. This is used to both better understand agrifood system issues, as well as search for sustainable solutions that show real promise to help resolve issues on the ground. Students will:
1. Integrate ecological, social, and economic perspectives while investigating contemporary problems in our agrifood system.
2. Be placed in yearly cohorts that build community and create functional networks among program participants
3. Live in your own food shed while learning lessons you can apply anywhere.

The certificate is managed jointly by the Gund Institute and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and conferred by UVM’s Graduate College. Ecological Economics is a transdisciplinary field that examines the relationships between ecological and economic systems while working to solve humanity's current environmental challenges. It is based on the understanding that the economy is a subsystem of a larger ecological life support system, and it strives to create an ecologically sustainable, socially equitable, and economically efficient future. The Certificate is a problem-based, interdisciplinary program focused on developing a practical framework for integrating economic and ecological systems. Students will acquire a theoretical and pragmatic basis to carry these skills into the world of practice.

Taught by leading experts in the field, the Ecological Economics Graduate Certificate is a 15- to 21-credit, problem-based program, depending on previous credits and life experience.

Resilient communities of the future will be designed and governed through the awareness that no single public policy issue or concern can be addressed in isolation of one another.

Secure provision of food, energy and water to vulnerable communities in the face of natural and man-made hazards requires urgent attention of policy makers at all scales of governance.

The 18-credit Certificate of Graduate Studies in Community Resilience and Planning (CRP) provides masters, doctoral and certificate of graduate study-only students with the skills and knowledge needed to lead and guide communities through periods of change brought on by natural, economic, social and political shocks and disruptions. Students completing this certificate will develop a deep understanding of the current threats and opportunities facing communities within Vermont, the United States, and across the globe. With a core set of courses designed to provide students with a survey of the community resilience and sustainability field, a foundation in community economic development and research methods, and a capstone experience focusing on system dynamics and strategic management and planning, the CRP prepares students with the tools needed to lead and assist communities through times of crisis and transition.

Global and Environmental Public Health CGS: https://catalogue.uvm.edu/graduate/publichealth/environmentalpublichealthcgs/

Public Health CGS: https://catalogue.uvm.edu/graduate/publichealth/publichealthcgs/

Sustainable Family Enterprise CGS: https://www.uvm.edu/business/certificate-graduate-study-sustainable-family-enterprise