Program Overview

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

The Master of Public Administration (MPA) at The City College of New York (CCNY), based at the Moynihan Center, prepares a new generation of civic leaders for impactful careers in government, nonprofits, and community organizations serving New York and beyond.

Guiding Principles

Our guiding principles align with the core mission of the Colin Powell School to transform the world's most diverse student body into the next generation of leaders.

• Lifting Leaders: We support the growth of emerging public servants, preparing them for meaningful, purpose-driven careers in governance and community leadership.
• Shifting Power: Our students tend to come from underrepresented backgrounds—working-class, immigrant, first-generation students—and create lasting change in public and nonprofit sectors too often led by those without connections to the communities they serve.
• Transforming Society: Our graduates don't just manage the status quo; they challenge it thoughtfully, working to make public institutions more responsive, effective, and accountable.

Our Students

Our students bring core convictions and lived experiences that uniquely position them to transform the future of public service leadership and management. MPA graduates build meaningful careers spanning the public and social sectors - with 47% working in nonprofit organizations, 30% working in government institutions, and 23% working in business and social enterprise. Collectively, our students embody our mission to shift power toward those historically marginalized from it. The majority of our students are women, people of color, and the first in their families to earn a graduate degree.

Our Faculty

Our program harnesses the experiences of practitioners - professional faculty who are deeply immersed in the field of public service and social change - and connects that experiential knowledge and social issue expertise with the interests of a diverse student body of rising professionals. MPA faculty work in leading think tanks, social impact finance companies, philanthropic foundations, federal and local government agencies, and national nonprofit organizations.

Our Curriculum

The MPA curriculum centers real-world practice through professional experiences working in closest proximity to communities marginalized from power. MPA courses are designed to prepare students with in-demand professional skills and results-driven approaches to public service management that are relevant to real-world settings. The MPA curriculum is anchored by five core competencies:

• Effective communication
• Strategic management
• Data-driven decision making
• Stakeholder engagement
• Leadership

Career Outcomes

79% of MPA graduates accepted a new job offer or promotion within 6 months of graduation. The program includes a professional development component that provides leadership workshops and career-building exercises, ensuring job-based learning and professional growth parallel to coursework. A capstone project engages students in a semester-long, team-based project management experience in service to a community partner.