This is an introductory course for students who want to better understand theories, principles, and methods of community-based participatory action research (CBPAR), which is research done with communities and community partners. CBPAR is a means for community planning and organizing to address local issues and social needs that center individuals and communities directly impacted. This course focuses on how researchers and community members collaborate to conduct research that leads to community change and the improvement of community-identified needs as well as scholarly debates, and practical and methodological issues in the application of CBPAR.

The course explores the role of leadership in organizational efforts to change thinking, systems, and policies—taking into consideration the contested process by which the responsibility of addressing intractable problems is distributed among key diverse actors in a shared-power world. Emergent perspectives reveal leadership as the collective achievement of members of a group who share a vision, and who must navigate the constellation of relationships, structures, processes and institutional dynamics within the larger system in which they are embedded.

This course examines the leadership strategies required to navigate Puerto Rico's colonial context. Through the lens of decolonial political-economic theory, students will evaluate how past juridical mechanisms, such as the Insular Cases (1901) and the PROMESA Act (2016), function as structural constraints on social-sector leadership in Puerto Rico. By investigating the problems, paradoxes, and promises (3Ps) of leading in a colonial context, students will analyze how leaders in the nonprofit and public sectors negotiate 'extra-state' solutions to environmental and fiscal catastrophes, both natural and manmade. The course concludes by tracing the 3Ps back to New York City and evaluating how the Puerto Rican diaspora leverages philanthropic and political capital to either bypass or bolster institutional gaps on the archipelago.

Management and Leadership is designed to empower you with the skills you will need to make meaningful change in the world—whether you care about education, criminal justice, prenatal care, urban planning, or something else. In this course, you will enhance the technical, interpersonal, conceptual, and political skills needed to run effective and efficient organizations embedded in diverse communities, policy arenas, and sectors. In class, we will engage in a collective analysis of specific problems that leaders and managers face—first, diagnosing them and then, identifying solutions—to explore how organizations can meet and exceed their performance objectives. As part of that process, you will encounter a variety of practical and essential topics and tools, including mission, strategy, goals, structure, teams, diversity and inclusion, motivation, and negotiation.