Executive MPA
The Degree for Working Professionals
Baruch’s Executive MPA is designed for New York City’s working professionals. With a leading faculty from academia, government, and nonprofits and a powerful alumni network, the Baruch EMPA will help you vault ahead in your career as a manager or administrator committed to making a difference.
How a Baruch Executive MPA works for you:
- Small student cohort of professionals
- 35 in person Saturday classes per year, accelerated two-year course of study
- Blended academic and practitioner instruction, distinguished guest speakers from government, non-profit, and private sectors
- International one-week study trip
- Professional development & networking events
- EMPA support including academic assistance, automatic registration, books, supplies, and Saturday breakfast and lunch (we know how busy life gets)
Among our guest speakers we have had:
- US Supreme Court Justice
- Manhattan DA
- Military leadership
- Commissioners and leadership of City and State agencies and legislatures
- E.D.’s of not-for-profit institutions and foundations
Our meetings with these individuals are intimate gatherings that include meaningful time for students to speak individually with our guests.
Meet Our Alums
Adriana Henriquez, EMPA 2020, Chief Operating Officer, Makeba
The cohort model is brilliant. Ours was tremendously diverse— politically, ethnically, and professionally. This was a huge advantage because we weren’t just learning from our professors, we were learning from each other.
Meet Our Alums

One of the best parts of the ExMPA program is the direct applicability of the lessons to our workplace. During my two years, there were many times where the lessons I learned on Saturday were immediately applied the following Monday. The classes are not theoretical—what we learn we really need to know and has a direct, measurable impact on what we all do every single day. One great example I had was learning about statistics, then being on a CDC call about seasonal influenza and understanding the reported data at a much higher level!
The cohort model is an invaluable component of the ExMPA program. Some of the difficulty of the program is mitigated by having a group of strong, like-minded professionals at your side. The group was always supportive and never failed to help one another. To this day, my cohort and I remain in contact, and it has helped many of us in our careers and our personal lives. Whether it is to see a show (put on by a fellow ExMPA alum) or a karaoke night out, the cohort has been a fantastic group to grow with and an amazing network of individuals who I know I can rely on professionally.”

Initially, I thought of graduate school as a tool for advancement, an entrance fee into a new tier of opportunities. I was not expecting such a dramatic development in my thinking and understanding throughout the course of study. My classes helped me access my previous experiential learning, trust myself, and investigate those experiences for new ideas. They acted as a laboratory where I teased out ideas and worked through knotty problems. My work completely shifted. I found a new vocabulary and clarity of purpose I could not have imagined two years ago, which led to a promotion and expansion of a project I’d been developing for over a decade. All the while, my cohort walked with me, sharing their wealth of experience, varied contexts, understanding, and hilarity. Attending the Marxe School is one of the best decisions of my adult life.”

I made the decision to attend Marxe to pursue my EMPA after years of telling myself that I couldn’t do it. My role at my current organization was beginning to expand and I wanted to ensure that I was well equipped with all of the tools I needed, personally and professionally, to succeed. What I appreciated most about the EMPA program was the strategic and intentionality of its structure. Each of the courses prepared you for the next. My communication skills, writing skills and overall understanding of the public and private sectors have prepared me for the next phase of my career. Cohort 37 has been the driving force behind my success at Marxe as it pertains to accountability. We held each other to the highest of standards and became family while doing so. (Where would we be without WhatsApp?)”
Meet Our Students

I am an executive in the financial services industry and enrolled in the Executive MPA program at Baruch to fulfill my lifelong wish to improve society. Reflecting on the program, I better understand and appreciate the economics of public policy decisions through coursework, in-class instruction based on the professors’ lived experiences, and my cohorts’ diverse views and experiences. I am a better leader as a result of the program.

It took me eight years to settle on a master’s program and a college. Working in the for-profit arts sector, I was torn between an MBA, an Arts Administration degree, and a few others. After years of waiting and deliberating, and six years in the Army, I finally selected Baruch College’s EMPA program. They had a very good reputation professionally and as a veteran-serving institution, they rank very well in all the national rankings, and their cohort model and ability to work full-time while attending were extremely valuable.
At one of our alumni events I met a fantastic group of alumni, two of whom I’m working with professionally now. I also gained a mentor who is now a friend and colleague as part of the College’s Executives on Campus program.
The EMPA program is a huge asset to anyone working in any sector who is looking to level-up their professional skills and build their network. We learned from industry-leading professionals passionately teaching content they love. We took classes that challenged our management styles, interpersonal and organizational communication, group psychology, and analytical skills. Aside from marrying my husband, it’s the best choice I’ve ever made.
Meet Our Faculty

The students who come to the Executive MPA want to improve their management skills for the position they are in or one they aspire to, and they do it with like-minded, motivated colleagues. What they learn in the program translates immediately to their work, and their work immediately informs the class. If you are an accomplished mid-level manager who would benefit from a rigorous skills-building program, and you want to work with others like yourself, the Executive MPA is very likely what you are looking for!

Data, analytics, and research surround us today. Our research and analysis courses will help you figure out what to trust, what to ignore, how to refute bogus (or just misguided) evidence, and most of all, how to extract what is useful and valuable. During class and in assignments, students apply new tools and ways of thinking to work examples they select and to applied examples from many fields of practice.”

Jerry Mitchell is professor of public policy. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Kansas. Graduate courses include animal welfare and rights, introduction to public affairs, and interpretive policy analysis. He teaches an undergraduate seminar on New York City’s future for the Macaulay Honors College. His current research focuses on nature-based public policies.

Ideen Riahi’s research interests include economic development and political economy. Riahi received his PhD in Economics from Simon Fraser University, MSc in Economics from Sharif University of Technology, and BS in Economics from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran.

Gregg Bishop is currently the Executive Director of the Social Justice Fund, an initiative funded by The Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation. The Social Justice Fund centers its work around racial justice and economic mobility for BlPOC populations in Brooklyn.
Before this role, Bishop served as the Interim Executive Director of Coro New York, an organization that believes meaningful change comes from collaboration: people in business and communities, schools and unions, government and nonprofits, working together to find creative solutions, and strengthen our democracy.
Bishop has over 13 years of government experience, serving under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio. From 2015-2020, he served as the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), where he was charged with running a dynamic City agency focused on equity of opportunity, leading to economic self-sufficiency and mobility for New York City diverse communities. During his tenure, he connected small businesses to over $200 million in capital, certified a record 9,000 Minority and Women business enterprises, connected over 100,000 New Yorkers to good-paying jobs, and invested over $10 million in capacity-building programs across the five boroughs. In addition, over 10,000 city residents were trained with new skills in the technology, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, and hospitality sectors. He also developed and launched several initiatives aimed at structural barriers minorities face, including Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC) and Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WE NYC).
Bishop has a strong track record in the nonprofit and private sectors. He served as the Senior Manager of Workforce Development at NPower, where he was responsible for doubling the capacity of Technology Service Corps, a nationally recognized technology training program for young adults aged 18-25. He has worked at several startups, including TheStreet.com, Oxygen Media, and VIBE Magazine.
Bishop is an adjunct professor at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs and serves on several boards including Red Hook Initiative, Junior Achievement of New York, Pursuit (formerly New York Business Development Corporation), The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and The Association for a Better New York (ABNY). He also serves on the Hebrew Free Loan Society Microenterprise Committee, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Local Advisory Committee and is the Vice President of the Alpha Gamma Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.Close

Don Waisanen is a Professor in the Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, where he received the Presidential Awards for Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Scholarship. He teaches courses and workshops in public communication—including executive speech training, communication strategy, and seminars on storytelling, conflict and negotiation, and leadership and improvisation.
All of Waisanen’s research seeks to understand how communication works to promote or hinder democracy. Since “every human advancement or reversal can be understood through communication” (Walter Annenberg), he has written over 50 scholarly publications on the subject, covering topics from strategies in public speaking to the ways that organizations and governments can better communicate with different stakeholders. He is the author of seven books, including States of Confusion: How Our Voter ID Laws Fail Democracy and What To Do About It (New York University Press), Improv for Democracy: How to Bridge Differences and Develop the Communication and Leadership Skills Our World Needs (State University of New York Press, New Political Science series), and Real Money, Real Power? The Challenges with Participatory Budgeting in New York City (with Daniel Williams; Palgrave-Macmillan).
Previously, Waisanen worked in broadcast journalism, as a speechwriter, and on campaigns. He is the founder of Communication Upward and an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University and New York University. For the last two decades, he’s also been an improvisational performer at theaters in Los Angeles and New York.