Public Policy Careers
What Can You Do with a Degree in Public Policy?
Graduates of the UMass Boston Public Policy Program hold top-level professional career positions such as:
- Superintendent of Schools, Knoxville County (TN)
- Policy Advisor to a regional office of a federal health agency
- Executive Director of a community organization offering services for Latino immigrants in metro-Boston
- Tenure-track, visiting and adjunct university faculty
- Executive Director of a large, non-profit child-welfare and re-unification agency in Michigan
- Post-doc fellow and environmental consultant at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Regional Capacity Building Director for a national non-profit, health promotion agency
- Senior Project Manager at Jobs for the Future
- Energy Policy Research Analyst
- Health Planner
- Researcher/Community Liaison at a University policy institute
Profile of our graduates, their dissertation topics and current employment
Public Policy Careers Offer Variety
According to the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM), graduates with a degree in public policy:
"...differ in the organization setting in which they work. Some graduates work for various levels of government, others work in non-profit organizations or in the private sector for consulting firms, for example. Some graduates focus on a specific issue areas, or others are generalists who work on a variety of issues. Some graduates work on issues domestically and others internationally. Some ... move back and forth between the public, private and nonprofit sector, or between an international setting and a domestic one. They can do this because the general public policy degree provides one with a set of research and analytical, and management skills that are often transferable across sectors, and often across issue areas. Graduates also differ in the type of work they do. Some conduct research on public policy issues. Others help implement various programs. Still others work to advocate positions on certain issues or lobby for specific legislation. Some teach in public policy schools."
From Careers in Public Policy Analysis and Management - Information for Job Seekers
For More on Careers with Public Policy Degrees
The APPAM web site offers additional information on careers for those with a degree in public policy, including:
- Advanced searches for job listings that match criteria
- Email and RSS alerts when new jobs match criteria
- Anonymous resume listings for employers to search throughout the year
- Special logos to indicate that a job seeker will be available for interview during the APPAM fall research conference
For all this and more, please visit www.PublicServiceCareers.org.
Contact Us
About a Degree in Public Policy at UMass Boston
Contact us by e-mail at public.policy@umb.edu for more information on a UMass Boston Degree in Public Policy or see our PhD Program contact page for additional information on contacting us.
Learning to Build an Equitable Society
TESTIMONIALS FROM OUR
PUBLIC POLICY ALUMNI
“The Public Policy PhD program was a positive experience for me. The part-time option gave me the opportunity to continue in my current job working for the state Department of Environmental Protection while expanding my horizons and earning a doctorate. Many things I learned I was able to apply on the job and vice versa. Plus, I feel that I was able to keep my career going in the work world. I was avidly supported by all the faculty and staff.”
-- Michelle Portman, Ph.D.
Post-doc Fellow, Marine Policy Center
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
“I was over 40 when I started this program and thought I was settled in my way of thinking. However, I learned to look at issues through a different lens. I began to think about issues of race, gender and ethnicity and began to come to different conclusions.”
-- Kevin Murphy, PhD.
Associate Director
Institutional Research and Policy Studies
University of Massachusetts Boston