Become an innovative environmental leader.
Build upon your experience and excel at effective environmental leadership.
The challenges facing us require resource managers who can bring diverse stakeholders together to solve complex environmental challenges. Communities, organizations, and decision-makers need guidance and facilitation on how best to prepare for climate change, ensure water and food security, and approach, energy, and materials management sustainably. Our graduates lead vital environmental efforts to protect natural resources in sustainable ways, preserve ecological services in the face of landscape development, create landscape resilience, develop multiple sustainable uses of a natural resource, and restore degraded ecosystems.
This degree is offered by AU New England.
Program Overview
An interdisciplinary degree that prepares students to lead and manage projects and
organizations.
The Resource Management and Administration degree (RMA) embraces an interdisciplinary approach to addressing complex challenges and it is designed to prepare students to lead and to manage projects and organizations in the environmental field. RMA is specifically training students for professional positions within a regulated environment, which is informed by the influences of the political and economic systems.
An environmental justice and equity lens
Being cognizant of the systematic racism that has been associated with the historic utilization of natural resources and the associated emissions to the environment, the RMA program is framed so that solutions to the complex challenges on the landscape prioritizes the most vulnerable and addresses historic inequities of marginalized populations.
Environmental regenerative focus
As important as minimizing the extraction of natural resources and avoiding the release of toxic emissions is the need to restore those natural mechanisms that provide the ecological services upon which society is dependent. The RMA program embraces regenerative approaches that ensure the security of water, energy, and food resources for future generations.
Inclusive participatory decision-making
To develop strategies that are environmentally sound, economically wise, and politically acceptable approaches to the complex challenges we face, the RMA program emphasizes processes that are inclusive and builds the capacity of stakeholders to be true participants in policy decision-making.
More than just the degree… the right skills to land your dream job
In every course you take at Antioch University as part of this degree program, competencies and skills acquired will further enable you to analyze, assess, and help create strategies and solutions to create a sustainable, equitable, and resilient world.
To address environmental issues, experts in one field must be brought together with experts in other fields; without their interaction, we cannot solve environmental problems. One role played by professionals in our field is to ensure that these experts are simultaneously teaching and learning from each other.
You will further refine or acquire a skill-set throughout your course work that will culminate in a professional portfolio you can share with existing or future employment opportunities.
These skills will enable you to successfully plan, advocate, and implement successful strategies and solutions for a senior-level position. These skill-sets are listed below are in no order of importance and are often interconnected and dependent on each other.
- Systems Thinking
- Data Acquisition and Analysis
- Critical Thinking
- Social Justice, Equity and Cultural Awareness
- Temporal and Spatial Awareness
- Evaluation
- Communication
- Project Management
- Financial Analysis
- Perceptual Flexibility and Adaptability
- Team Building/Collaboration
- Consensus Building
- Community/Civic Engagement
- Ethics/Personal Responsibility
- Inspirational Leadership
Multiple pathways for RMA Students
The RMA program is structured with three curricular paths to prepare students to compete and flourish in the professional environmental field.
- Leadership and Management of Sustainable Systems (LMSS)
- Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC)
- International Development and Climate Change (ISDCC)
Additional professional designations
In addition to the Masters of Science degree that RMA program offers, there are additional professional designations that students can attain before they enter the environmental profession.
International Service Program
Combine this degree program with Peace Corps service. Through the AUNE International Service Program, you can earn credit for your service, apply what you are learning to create positive change across the world, and save thousands of dollars on your degree.
Career Outlook
RMA graduates have secured positions in the following areas after graduating from the program:
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- Nonprofit conservation and advocacy organizations at the local, national, and international level
- Government departments that manage natural resources, regulate pollution, or monitor environmental compliance
- Public agencies concerned with local and regional land use planning, or which acquire and manage open space
- Environmental consulting businesses engaged in land management and sustainable development, wetlands protection, water resource management, and environmental impact assessment
- Private industry and institutions engaged in meeting regulations for environmental compliance and developing ecologically sustainable management systems
- Entrepreneurship and business start-ups
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of their Master of Science program in Resource Management and Administration, students are able to:
- Identify and understand the scientific and social complexities within the interdisciplinary field of environmental studies including ethics, sustainability, and social justice
- Apply quantitative, spatial and qualitative research approaches to addressing science-based problems
- Critically assess scientific and economic research
- Understand the interrelationships among, and between, public policy, science, economics, and law
- Demonstrate and apply skills in external stakeholder capacity building
- Demonstrate and apply skills in facilitative and adaptive leadership
- Draw on theory to inform the practice of change management at multiple organizational scales
- Effectively manage complex projects and associated budgets and timelines
- Understand the definition and requirements of organizational sustainability