The Tulane School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) is now accepting applications for 100% online Master of Professional Studies (MPS) programs in Emergency Management and Security Management. The programs respond directly to a need for highly skilled leaders in a rapidly growing field with openings in government agencies, private corporations and nonprofits, building on SoPA’s nationally-ranked Homeland Security MPS degree. Program graduates will be ready to plan and lead efforts to protect people, places and of all types of property.

Recurrent natural disasters, infrastructure attacks, and the ongoing threat of terrorism have made emergency management and security management sought-after programs. Students learn to apply a variety of skills from a managerial perspective, with an emphasis on leadership, data analysis, hands-on training, critical thinking, ethics, and decision making.

“Our setting in New Orleans distinguishes this program,” says Michael Wallace, Program Director and Professor of Practice in Emergency & Security Studies. “New Orleans provides an array of examples for our students to analyze: large-scale public events, chemical, oil and gas, and nuclear plants, and major infrastructure such as levees and ports. Our students use the natural setting of the school as a textbook.”

Both the MPS in Emergency Management and the MPS in Security Management offer a combination of asynchronous and synchronous learning, so that students can learn on a schedule that fits their needs. Students come together as a full group in monthly group video sessions while completing most work independently and in smaller project-based groups.

The MPS in Emergency Management consists of nine core courses in a range of academic disciplines and approaches to emergency management administration, counter-terrorism, and disaster communications, followed by a “capstone” project that brings together everything that the student has learned.

The MPS in Security Management provides students with skills needed to protect businesses and corporations from terrorism, criminal acts, and disasters. Core courses cover a variety of topics such as risk management and threat assessment, emergency management administration, corporate security, and physical protection systems, followed by a capstone project.

The School of Professional Advancement’s Emergency & Security Studies program is a member and participant in the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) and University and Agency Partner Initiative (UAPI), the nation’s leading program for establishing and sharing homeland security curricula.

Tulane School of Professional Advancement offers working adults the opportunity to enhance their professional lives by providing flexible degree and certificate programs. The school currently offers nine undergraduate degree programs and six master’s programs, as well as a range of graduate, professional and post baccalaureate certificates. Using an applied learning approach, students gain tools and hands-on experience working with professors who are also industry leaders.