Career Opportunities
- Program Evaluator
- Social Innovator
- Nonprofit Leader
- Corporate ESG Officer
- Policy Analyst
Certificate Details
Certificate Director: Sarah Suiter
Required Hours: 12
Prerequisites: Completed Bachelor's degree plus current enrollment in a master's or doctoral degree program within Vanderbilt University. Students must take Program Evaluation or Evaluation of Organizational Performance, and Applied Data Analysis and Visualization for Social Impact prior to taking the practicum course.
Home Academic Department: Human & Organizational Development
Best Suited For: Current Peabody and Vanderbilt master's or doctoral students who are planning careers in government, nonprofit, academic or corporate settings who want to design and assess significant change that impact a pressing social challenge
Certificate Curriculum
This certificate has three required courses plus students choose one additional course from a list that will grow over time.
Required Courses:
- HOD 6200 Program Evaluation or LOP 6150 Evaluation of Organizational Performance
- HOD 7160 Applied Data Analysis and Visualization for Social Impact
- HOD 7650 Practicum
Additional Courses:
Action Research
Nonprofit Management and Strategy in Community Organizations
Human Development and Prevention Science
Community Intervention and Change
Global Dimensions of Community Development
Theories of Inequality, Diversity, and Social Justice
Public Policy and Advocacy
Organizational Theory & Behavior
Strategy & Analytics
Leading and Facilitating Groups
Prosocial Leadership
Special Topics Course (previously taught: GIS, Qualitative Research, Network Analysis)
Note: Certificate courses are subject to change.
Certificate Outcomes
Upon completion of the certificate, students will be able to:
- Describe the value of social context analysis and careholder engagement in social impact design and evaluation, and develop tools for designing and implementing both
- Understand and employ the technical competencies associated with social impact design and evaluation such as design of multi-level interventions; study design; data collection, management, and analysis; and data visualization and use
- Understand and employ the tactical competencies associated with social impact design and evaluation such as relationship development and maintenance, conflict navigation, problem setting, advocacy, and storytelling
- Ground social impact design and evaluation in principles and practices that foster equity and justice
Additional Learning Opportunities
The capstone project is a requirement for earning the SIDE certificate.
Disclaimer
Not all Peabody professional degree programs include enough elective credits to make earning an additional certificate possible. Students are encouraged to confer with their program director as well as with certificate directors to ensure they can meet all requirements for both degree and certificate programs.
Certificate Overview
Social impact design and evaluation is growing in popularity and use. It draws from existing fields of program and policy design and evaluation, human development, organizational development, and community development. It also incorporates innovations and perspectives such as implementation science, human-centered design, social innovation, and data science. Social impact design and evaluation practices and skills are relevant to nearly every field and discipline, including education, medicine, nursing, public health, environmental studies, public policy, and business.