About

About the MPA Program

Established in 1976, the mission of the College of Business Administration and Public Policy is to educate the leaders who shape the future. This is accomplished by providing an opportunity to acquire a nationally accredited professional education for a successful career. Our primary focus and commitment is to excellence in teaching by engaging our students in a personal, supportive learning environment. Each CBAPP concentration was designed to provide students with both theoretical and applied bodies of knowledge regarding business or public management and administration.

The MPA program mission is to advance students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully lead and manage public and non-profit organizations in a professional, ethical, and accountable manner. The MPA program serves the highly diverse and culturally dynamic Greater Los Angeles region and beyond by creating and sustaining a community of life-long learners passionate about public service and justice. Through high quality, innovative education, research and practice, the program is committed to promote effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and inclusiveness in public administration and public service.

The program aims to advance the knowledge, research, and practice of public affairs and administration. This is summarized in the mission statement with respect to achieving high-quality research; research that is able to advance knowledge in the academic fields of public affairs and public administration, as well as benefit governance practices. In many cases faculty has engaged with students in the process of research, and in doing so have improved both the quality of the research – for example by the students providing a practitioner perspective on public administrative issues – and the student experiences. The faculty has achieved the broader impact of the advancement of public affairs in numerous ways, including advancing understanding and practice around e-governance and social media, influencing legal practices and high-level government decision making on critical justice issues, advancing research around the influence of government policy on driving behaviors, and advancing educational practices through the publication of core text books and legal education cases. These activities and outputs enable the outcomes of the continued excellent reputation of the faculty within Public Administration and related academic fields, as well as within regional and national public administrative professions. In achieving these outcomes the faculty has also further demonstrated its continued commitment to public service values.

Dr. Joseph Wen
Dean, College of Business Administration and Public Policy