Community Development and Planning, MA

Overview

Community development isn’t a one-size fits all endeavor

Community development is so much more than blueprints and zoning. It’s about cultivating spaces where people can flourish. Spaces with enough green space to play and relax. Spaces that offer economic opportunities that allow people to realize their dreams and aspirations. Places where people have access to quality, culturally responsive food, education, healthcare, and housing. At Clark, you will learn about the power structures that shape community spaces, and how to create processes in which community members have a say in those power structures.

Change happens at the speed of trust

Community development happens in the context of relationships. As practitioners, we can’t impose our own visions on communities. Rather, through community-engaged learning, students collaborate with community members and other stakeholders to understand each community’s unique strengths, and then collectively create strategies so that people’s dreams can take root and grow.

Be a partner in a community’s transformation

Grounded in principles and practices of ethical community engagement, we provide students with knowledge and skills in finance, project management, monitoring & evaluation, geo-spatial analysis, and non-profit leadership. These skills are needed to be a practitioner who can be a partner and ally in a community’s transformation.

Community Planning and Development Course of Study

The M.A. in Community Development and Planning requires a minimum of 10 graduate course units, combining skills/methods courses and elective courses that link theory with practice. The final requirement is one experiential learning credit.

12 Unit MA/MS Degree - Research or Practice Track Requirements

 For the master’s degree requiring 12 graduate course units with the Research Option, students will take 12 courses in the following categories:

1. Two required core courses
2. One course each in Sustainability Studies, Social Change and Institutional Transformation, Fundamental Skills, Intersectional Analysis, Principles and Ethics in Community Engagement, and Experiential Learning
3. Three courses in Methods of Inquiry & Subject Matter Electives
4. Two units of substantive research, one directed study (SSJ 399 ) and one thesis course ( SSJ 397 ).

For the master’s degree requiring 12 graduate course units with the Practice Option. Students will take 12 courses in the following categories:

1. Two required core courses
2. One course each in Sustainability Studies, Social Change and Institutional Transformation, Intersectional Analysis, and Principles and Ethics in Community Engagement
3. Two courses in Methods of Inquiry & Subject Matter Electives
4. Three courses in Fundamental Skills
5. Two units of Experiential Learning

Department Instructors

Jennifer Safford-Farquharson M.Ed

Dodi Swope M.Ed

Lionel Romain, MBA

Liz Hamilton, MBA

Linda Cavioli, M.A.

German Chiriboga, M.P.H

Frank Kartheiser, M.A.

Sustainability and Social Justice Program Faculty

David Bell, Ed.D.

Ramón Borges-Méndez Ph.D
Nigel Brissett, Ph.D.
Cynthia Caron, Ph.D.

Timothy Downs D.Env.
Anita Fábos, Ph.D.
Jude Fernando, Ph.D.
Ellen Foley, Ph.D.
Denise Humphreys Bebbington Ph.D.

Eman Lasheen, Ph.D.
Ken MacLean, Ph.D.

Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger Ph.D.
Margaret Post, Ph.D.
Laurie Ross, Ph.D.

Morgan Ruelle, Ph.D.