Mercer to Launch Executive-Format Master of Science in Public Safety Leadership

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McDONOUGH — The College of Continuing and Professional Studies of Mercer University will launch an executive-format Master of Science in Public Safety Leadership degree in January. Courses in the new format are delivered online with the exception of two weekend sessions per 16-week term. The weekend sessions will initially be offered at Mercer’s Henry County Regional Academic Center. Pending new site approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the classes will move to the Georgia Department of Corrections’ headquarters at State Offices South at Tift College in the city of Forsyth in August. 

“This degree will help officials from all areas of public safety to learn the vital leadership skills they need to advance in their jobs, while safeguarding the public,” said Dr. Larry Stewart, associate professor and coordinator of the Public Safety Leadership Program. “The online, executive format will accommodate the needs of students in the public safety field, where schedules are rarely 9 to 5.”

The new executive format builds on the successful evening graduate public safety leadership degree program, which launched in 2007, and was the first of its kind in Georgia. It focuses on a holistic approach to public safety education. The degree emphasizes practical training in effective leadership and professional preparation for a variety of fields and positions, including: anti-terrorism task force directors; disaster relief and emergency response directors; emergency medical services personnel; 911-communications personnel; homeland security directors; federal agents; chief deputy sheriffs and police chiefs; probation officers, parole officers, correctional administrators, commissioners and assistant chiefs; fire chiefs, and managers of private security firms.

The 12-course, 36-semester-hour program provides each candidate with a solid foundation in leadership, organization administration, ethics, and research methods. Electives allow the program to be customized to individual career goals, with an array of courses, such as budgeting, corrections, cyber crime, and forensic psychology, all taught by experienced faculty, who contribute both academic expertise and professional accomplishment.

For more information on the Master of Science in Public Safety Leadership, contact Tracey M. Wofford, associate director of admissions, at (678) 547-6422 or (478) 301-6422 or wofford_tm@mercer.edu.

About the College of Continuing and Professional Studies
The College offers degree programs and lifelong learning opportunities for adults who seek leadership roles in their communities and beyond, professional transition and advancement, and lives that have meaning and purpose. The College offers undergraduate degree programs in organizational leadership, human resources administration and development, public safety, liberal studies (individualized), and human services, and graduate programs in counseling, school counseling, and public safety leadership. Its programs are offered on Mercer’s Macon and Atlanta campuses, at the University’s regional academic centers in Henry County, Douglas County, Eastman and Newnan. Beginning the fall of 2011 the College will offer a Bachelor of Science in Informatics and in January 2012 a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership.

About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,200 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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