PUBPOL 5733

Vulnerability and Resilience Planning for Executives

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This is an Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) course designed to prepare leaders and develop an understanding of problems and trends in disaster policy, recovery, planning, and management. These concepts can translate to manage for the unexpected and equitably invest in building community capacity. This course focuses on the challenges leaders face working with vulnerable communities and how to build capacity and resilience. Students will learn about climate change, as well as the fields of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation. The class will think through likely outcomes of innovative policy interventions and discuss risk and pathways for evaluative decisions about hazards. What is a disaster, and how do disasters impact communities, governments, and organizations? What makes people vulnerable, and how to build their resilience to facilitate recovery and adaptation? How does climate change contribute to disasters?

Enrollment Priority Enrollment limited to: Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) students.

Exploratory Studies (CU-SBY)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SU, 2024SU, 2023SU, 2022SU

Learning Outcomes

• Students will describe key themes in disaster prevention, planning, recovery, adaptation, and climate-related disasters.
• Students will identify what makes communities vulnerable, and how to build their resilience to facilitate recovery.
• Students will evaluate policy interventions, identify risks/hazards, and tools for decision-making.
• Students will identify obstacles leaders face in disaster planning, including key political, financial, and technical concerns.

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