Environmental Executives:Earn a Duke University Masters in Environmental Management From Your Desktop!

Even though it might advance them up the career ladder, environmental and business executives often find it too daunting to leave a job and family to go back to school for a master’s degree. Now, mid-career environmental professionals and business executives can participate in the Duke Environmental Leadership (DEL) Program largely while sitting at their home computers.

The DEL Program includes a portfolio of courses driven by broad interdisciplinary and global themes,strategic approaches to environmental management, communication and effective leadership. Professionals can enroll in individual courses, 10-credit certificate programs or the 30-credit DEL-Master of Environmental Management degree program.

The program combines the strengths of online and traditional learning models by presenting courses in written and electronic formats, case studies, and weeklong intensives on campus. This format allows professionals to add depth to their current skills and blend theory with practical experience, while maintaining a commitment to job and family.

Using Dukes resources in environmental science, engineering, policy and business, students gain a unique interdisciplinary perspective of environmental issues through the curriculum. Core course topics include environmental science and management, resource economics, environmental policy and law, and program management for environmental professionals. Electives, focused around more specialized themes, are also available in such areas as environmental decision analysis, land use policy, and environmental information system design and management.

Faculty from the prestigious Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences teach the courses. The core faculty includes Norm Christensen, professor of ecology and former dean of the Nicholas School, Patrick Halpin, assistant professor of the practice of landscape ecology, Robert Healy, professor of resource economics, Randall Kramer, professor of resource economics, Lynn Maguire, associate professor of the practice of environmental science and policy, and Dean Urban, associate professor of landscape ecology.

The program is modeled on the very successful Global Executive MBA Program at Dukes Fuqua School of Business, where distance education follows place-based sessions held all over the globe. Over the course of 2 years, DEL-MEM participants will visit the Duke campus five times, to meet the faculty and interact with fellow students. The faculty will work together to minimize overlap and assignments, and will be very flexible in terms of deadlines and projects.

Sara Ashenburg, DEL Director says that developing leadership skills will be a common thread throughout the program. “DEL is really for people who want to move into leadership positions and want the additional knowledge and skills to make that jump.”

The typical student, she says, will be a mid-career professional who has been in the workforce for at least five years, probably more, and needs to update their skills in order to move up the career ladder.

“We expect the classes to be balanced and diverse,” says Ashenburg. “People that have attended our informational sessions include environmental professionals from businesses like IBM and BASF, government agencies, consulting firms and leading non-profits like The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International.”

The deadline for applications for the charter class is March 1, although applications will be accepted on a space available basis after that date. The charter class begins this August 2004.

For more information about the DEL Program, contact the DEL Program Office at 919-613-8082 or email del@env.duke.edu. Or visit the website at www.nicholas.duke.edu/del.