MASI Student Resources

The Master of Arts in Social Innovation (MASI) program is designed for individuals with vision, leadership skills and an entrepreneurial mindset who want to tackle the world’s toughest challenges, such as poverty, climate change, and inequality. The MASI curriculum incorporates theory with field-based practicums, design thinking pedagogy, and the opportunity to participate in pitch competitions, in which students can create and test their innovative solutions for complex problems. MASI graduates have impactful, purpose driven careers in philanthropy, government and nonprofits. Others create economic, social and environmental value in the private sector, working in B-corps, social enterprises, consulting and corporate social responsibility. The MASI program is offered as a full-time 9-month or part-time program. The MASI program has both Fall and Spring enrollment periods.

The Master of Arts in Social Innovation Combined Degree Program is open to all undergraduate majors at the Shiley- Marcos School of Engineering and the School of Business at the University of San Diego. Completion of the combined degree program results in the conferral of a Bachelor of Science (BS), a Bachelor of Arts (BA), a BS/BA, a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), or a Bachelor of Accountancy (BAcc) degree and a Master of Arts in Social Innovation. This program allows undergraduate students at the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering and the School of Business the ability to accelerate their academic career with a fast-track to graduate studies. Enrolled students may take up to 12 units of courses at the Kroc School during their junior and senior years and apply those courses to both their undergraduate degree requirements as upper-division elective units and to the MA in Social Innovation degree requirements. Up to three of the 12 units may be upper-division undergraduate courses, and students should consult with their undergraduate academic advisor and a Kroc School advisor when selecting courses for the combined degree program. As a full-time graduate student, the MA in Social Innovation program can be completed in 9 months post -undergraduate with a lighter academic load of 18 units to complete compared to the typical load of 30 units of graduate coursework in 9 months.

For courses at the Kroc School, all MA in Social Innovation combined degree students must begin with KROC 500 Foundations of Peace, Justice & Social Change (3 units). Following this, students may take the core courses, KROC 510 Leadership & Organizations (3 units), KROC 521 Social Innovation (3 units), and KROC 523 Social Entrepreneurship (3 units).

To apply to this combined degree program, the Kroc School of Peace Studies does not require the GRE or a graduate school application fee, but requires the student to demonstrate academic achievement in their undergraduate courses with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. For students in the combined degree program, upon satisfactory completion of a BS, BA, BS/BA, BBA or BAcc degree with a minimum overall GPA of 3.0, the student will be admitted to the MA in Social Innovation program.

Taught by Professor Patricia Márquez

The course introduces students to a series of big ideas for making the world more peaceful and just, and how to apply them in shaping their own lives and careers of purpose. Foundations sets out to both 1) introduce foundational theories behind peace, justice, and social innovation and to 2) apply these concepts to specific fields of inquiry and practice. Throughout the course, students will be challenged not simply to learn a spectrum of ideas and practices, but to understand how they fit together, where and how to learn more, and how to craft their own educational and professional trajectories. This process has four essential elements: 1) building an inclusive, resilient, and productive culture; 2) getting everyone up to speed on the defining aspects of our field; 3) introducing the unique expertise and experience of Kroc School faculty and staff; and 4) helping you to see how your passion for positive social change is linked to particular issues and interventions.

Taught by Erin Gavin

The Kroc School is committed to supporting students’ professional and career development throughout their academic journey. KROC 502 Pursuing Purpose: Professional Pathways in Peace, Justice, and Social Innovation is a required course that supports students in designing and navigating their career paths with clarity and confidence. Drawing upon design thinking principles, Pursuing Purpose empowers students to develop self-awareness, understand the social impact career landscape, build their professional brand, and create actionable career development plans. While we offer the course every semester, we strongly encourage students to take Pursuing Purpose in their first semester to get a headstart on the professional pathway plans.

Taught by Mark Manasse

This course focuses on the interplay between individuals, organizations, and change, providing multiple perspectives of leadership theories and their application to solving complex problems. It prepares students to become influential leaders in organizations pursuing social transformation and peacebuilding, locally and abroad. Students in this course explore their purpose, goals, and leadership style and begin to create their plan to achieve agency and grow as leaders, emphasizing adaptive change. In-class students expand their knowledge to discern and balance competing demands and tensions inherent in organizations and gain skills for addressing challenging situations and capitalizing on opportunities. Building peace and justice in communities worldwide involves leaders capable of articulating a compelling vision, mobilizing resources, and working effectively with diverse groups of people. It includes working in organizational settings with particular structures, strategies, and practices, whether nonprofits, for-profits, government, or hybrids. The course prepares students for peace and justice work in various economic, social, and cultural settings by bringing core concepts and theories about leadership, organizations, and change alive through experiential learning, case analysis, individual assessment, and self-reflection. In team exercises, students experience specific challenges and opportunities that leaders and team members face and obtain techniques for solving problems and getting things done.

Taught by Topher McDougal

Starting with a solid understanding of the evolution of thinking and practice among key development and peacebuilding actors, this course is designed to prepare students to design, monitor and evaluate peacebuilding programs and project. Students will not only understand best practices in project design and management but also learn the skills and tools necessary to effectively carry out projects.

Taught by Topher McDougal

Evidence is mounting that unprecedented economic growth experienced by human societies has induced a state of crisis for the Earth’s ecological systems. Many of the public goods provided by them – fresh water, clean air, abundant fisheries, nutritious soils, low sea levels, and moderate weather, to name a few – are increasingly at risk. Their failure poses existential threats to the societies humans have collectively built over millennia, and heightens the risk of violent conflict. This course will critically examine connections between the three legs of the proverbial sustainable development stool: environment, economy, and peace. We will explore specific issues in an applied, place-based framework, focusing on ways of understanding larger challenges as they manifest themselves in the San Diego region. We will also ask fundamental questions about environmental sustainability: How do current development paradigms create environmental conflicts? What role can we expect technology to play in offsetting our ecological impact or solving our conflicts over scarce resources? What does environmental justice look like? And ultimately, what are our prospects for peace and progress in the face of environmental peril?

Taught by Patti Saraniero

Social innovations are about novel solutions or approaches to solve social problems and they must be translated into actionable initiatives to achieve their intended goals. This course is designed to prepare students to design, monitor and evaluate social innovation initiatives. It provides essential knowledge for program design and management, including needs and impact assessment, as well as logic frameworks. Innovation involves transforming or creating new processes, services, products, policies, community dynamics, among others. But how do we know that a particular social innovation creates the desired impacts or value for individuals, communities, and society? How large are those impacts? How long do they last? This course introduces the basic concepts of ‘program evaluation’ in order to equip students with tools to answer these and similar questions for the purposes of enhancing the quality of initiatives. The course includes case studies, hands-on exercises, and opportunities to interact with guest speakers to develop familiarity with planning tools, evaluation types and designs, metrics and indicators, data collection methods, and human subjects research ethics.

Taught by Karen Henken

This immersive, field-based practicum bridges theory and practice through a client-focused team project supported by in-class learning, site visits, and community research. Working with a San Diego–based nonprofit or mission-driven business, students apply social innovation strategies to tackle real-world challenges and create actionable solutions.

Students serve as hands-on consultants, developing practical insights into nonprofit management, leadership, and community engagement. The course introduces key social innovation frameworks while building transferable skills in project management, communication, and analytical problem-solving.

In addition to producing tangible impact for the client, students expand their professional networks through collaboration with nonprofit leaders, community partners, and peers—gaining both experience and connections that will serve them well in diverse career paths.

Taught by Erin Gavin

Is the capitalist system the evil of our time or the savior of our future? Are businesses the cause of society’s most pressing problems, or could they be part of the solution instead? How can business and entrepreneurial ingenuity reduce poverty and wealth inequality, protect the environment and natural resources, create community and social values, provide education and health services, and reduce gender inequality and migration? Can the capitalist system, powered by individualism, ambition, and a competitive spirit, evolve to be more humane and conscious of social problems? In a nutshell, what paradigms must change in the business world and society to make the market system a pillar for lasting positive peace? Working with real-life business cases, students in this course will be able to examine and critically analyze the above questions. The course will provide tools to tackle social issues using proven and innovative business techniques and models, from big businesses to small entrepreneurial examples. In short, this course focuses on the recently explored intersection between business and social innovation. Phills et al. define social innovation as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.” Social innovation is about generating transformative ideas and initiatives that meet unmet needs and attempt to create a “new equilibrium” that is socially superior to the status quo. By the end of the course, students work in teams to develop a sustainability project for an existing company or a new entrepreneurial venture. The business initiative must create social value for all relevant stakeholders and society and show how it contributes to positive peace. The projects must be cross-functional so that students use the full spectrum of knowledge and skills acquired during this course.

Taught by Dr. Sarah Federman

In all human societies, conflict is an integral part of daily life at interpersonal, intra-group, inter-group, and inter-national levels. Conflict can be constructive, focusing attention on neglected voices or social injustice and driving cultural and political change. It can also be destructive, damaging relationships, polarizing societies, or escalating into violence and war. In our increasingly interconnected world, it is crucial to develop effective methods to understand the sources and dynamics of conflicts and to deal with conflict productively. This course is designed to familiarize students with the interdisciplinary fields of peace and conflict studies, providing an overview of core concepts of contemporary theory and practice, as well as of the recent critical turn. We examine frameworks for analyzing the origins and processes of social conflict and violence and leading practical approaches to the conduct and evaluation of conflict resolution interventions. The course employs diverse methods and media, including lectures, discussions, interactive exercises, film, written assignments, and a conceptualization of an intervention. The course features experiential learning activities that provide opportunities for practical application of course concepts. Active participation in every class is essential; readings are always necessary but not sufficient for learning the material.

Taught by Dr. Sarah Federman

Negotiation is the most widely used means of conflict management. This course aims to develop your understanding of the principles, strategies, and tactics of effective negotiation in emotionally charged conflict situations. The role of identity – culture, gender, religion, nationality, class – will be mainstreamed throughout the course. Case studies and hands-on simulations will cover a variety of multi-issue, multi-party negotiations involving territorial and ethnic conflict, environmental justice, and post-conflict reconciliation. Each case involves both material concerns and underlying social-psychological interests. This course emphasizes the power of symbols, rules and norms, and regime and relationship building for cooperative ventures, governance, and conflict prevention.

Taught by Dr. Dustin Sharp

The purpose of this class is to support students in cultivating a practice of reflection and resilience. Students and the instructor together will explore faith, spirituality, and contemplative practice in the context of their personal experience as peacebuilders, activists, changemakers, and social entrepreneurs. Spiritual concepts will be accompanied by insights drawn from more secular philosophical perspectives, as well as science. The course will begin at the micro level with an examination of the self, the nature of consciousness, and other existential introspective themes, before moving to the more meso and macro levels where we will investigate the relationship between inner peace and outer peace. The latter will include the ways in which spiritual faith and practice can both motivate and sustain peacebuilding work, including by helping to cope with issues of stress and burnout; and the ways in which spiritual practices can be integrated into peacebuilding programs. While students will be encouraged to pursue a wide variety of spiritual practices, as a class we will spend a significant amount of time together learning and practicing mindfulness and other forms of meditation.

Taught by Dr. Juan F. Roche

Social entrepreneurs leverage their efforts through collective action to scale up and grow, institutionalize core values, and significantly impact society beyond profits. They leverage and formalize their activities through organizations, including for-profit entities (LLC, sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, etc.), nonprofit corporations, and, more recently, hybrid forms (3LC and B corporations).

The choice of organizational form will constrain some management decisions from funding and revenue structure, what to produce, and whom to serve. However, all organizations operate under similar institutional environments and adhere to standard regulatory guidelines and financial pressures. This implies that core financial management practices are common to all organizations, are necessary for long-term sustainability, and are essential to creating sustainable business models for social impact. This course enables students to grasp fundamental financial and accounting concepts, tools, and techniques. Students will learn to read and interpret financial statements and ratios, analyze working capital and cash flow needs, interpret Return on Investment models, and create economic forecasts and budgets. We will also examine the main factors in project management and analyze different impact investment options.

Taught by Colin Campbell

With social media and the growth of the internet of things, even the smallest company is expected to connect with consumers online and use social media as a marketer. In this workshop you'll learn to create a strategy and tactics to execute on a social media marketing plan that uses current marketing channels to take your social innovation, organization or department to the next level. This workshop provides students with fundamental marketing concepts, and exposes them to a set of new strategies including the latest trends on social media for business, online advertising, and content creation to promote their brands and give their organizations an edge over the competition. In this course you will develop a social media marketing plan to launch or grow a social innovation.

Taught by Jake Wild Crea

This practicum explores how money, power, and purpose intersect in efforts to create social change. Students will engage directly with local philanthropic and nonprofit leaders to understand how resources move through the social sector—examining both the realities of how philanthropy works today and emerging models for more collaborative, effective approaches. Through site visits, dialogue, and applied analysis, students will critically assess the infrastructure that supports (and sometimes constrains) peace and justice work, and explore what more generative systems of resourcing could look like.

Taught by Dr. Sarah Federman

In this course, students will engage in a semester-long social action project focused on the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis. Students will conduct research, develop conflict maps, and analyze the local context. They will learn how to build coalitions, collaborate on an intervention, and engage with diverse stakeholders. The course includes planning and implementing a social action initiative, assessing its impact, and reflecting on outcomes. While assigned readings will provide theoretical grounding in nonviolent social action, students will help shape the process and direction of the course.

(This course may substitute for KROC 531, Intervention Design.)

Taught by Dr. May Farid

With the political shift of the last two decades, the majority of the world’s population now lives in nondemocracies. How do peacebuilders engage with these regimes and populations? This course enables students to gain firsthand insight into one of the major potential conflicts of our time, and into the inner workings of a state and population that, for better or worse, will have a decent impact on global security, climate change, and the global economy over the coming decades. Students will explore three areas during this course: China’s government, society, and global impact.

We will engage with policymakers and state-adjacent institutions to explore China’s political system as it relates to Great Power politics, including its foreign policy, decision-making processes, and centralization of authority alongside localized discretion.

Second, we will explore Chinese society and learn to disaggregate it from the state, visiting social organizations and NGOs, studying its shifting economic structures and vibrant entrepreneurship, and exploring its rich intellectual traditions of harmony and global order.

Finally, we will explore China’s engagement in global peace building, international aid, and foreign investment. As China’s impact in SE Asia, Latin America, and Africa grows, we speak to actors across the state-society divide who are working to make this engagement more just, peaceful, and environmentally sustainable.

Taught by Jake Wild Crea

This course investigates the dynamics of conflict within organizations and the conditions under which it can be managed, resolved, or transformed. Drawing from organizational theory, conflict analysis, and systems thinking, students examine how structures, roles, and communication patterns contribute to both dysfunction and innovation. Through case studies and applied exercises, students develop the analytical and practical skills needed to recognize underlying sources of conflict and design interventions that improve collaboration, learning, and decision-making.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Apply conflict management principles to high-stakes and interdependent organizational environments.
• Use conflict resolution strategies to navigate interpersonal and inter-team tensions.
• Employ conflict transformation frameworks to cultivate adaptive, resilient, and inclusive organizational cultures.

Students learn to engage conflict as an inherent—and potentially generative—aspect of organizational life, equipping them to lead and contribute effectively in diverse professional settings.

Taught by Dr. Andrew Blum

It is not possible to succeed as a leader in the nonprofit space without understanding the landscape of funding and philanthropy. And given the centrality of fundraising and philanthropy to nonprofit work, Kroc Students need to be prepared to be the changemakers that will improve philanthropy in the future. More specifically, the ability to develop compelling grant proposals is an essential professional skill that those working in nonprofits need to master. And being an effective and successful grantwriter is a sure path to a successful career in any social change sector.

In order to provide students both with a deeper understanding of philanthropy in general and give them the opportunity to develop skills in grantwriting in particular, the course will have two main sections:

1. Landscape of Philanthropy and Funding: Students will increase their understanding of the current philanthropic landscape both from an ethical and a practical perspective. What are the major types of funders and what kinds of projects are they funding? What are the major trends regarding funding? What are the key debates, controversies, and challenges? Where is philanthropy heading?
2. Project Design and Grantwriting: The ability to develop compelling grant proposals is an essential professional skill that those working in nonprofits need to master. And being an effective and successful grantwriter is a sure path to a successful career in any social change sector. This course will help students develop the skills necessary to develop high-quality grant proposals for foundations and government funders. During the course, students will work through the entire proposal process, from researching funding opportunities, to analyzing requests for proposals, to designing their project, to developing their proposals and budget to submit.

Taught by Dr. May Farid

This course explores the dynamics of international peace and security. It covers both foundational and emerging theories in international relations, peace studies, and security studies.

We will examine various explanations for war, and review the evolution of warfare and its varieties, including interstate, civil, and proxy conflicts. We contrast the perspectives of war-making as state building, with the perspective of peace building as state building. We cover contested meanings of security and review a range of security threats, including terrorism, environmental and climate security, cybersecurity, nuclear security, health security and changes in migration and the role of non-state actors. We examine post-WWII international systems and global order, including its organizations and norms, and discuss when and whether international peacekeeping interventions succeed, and how they interact with local peacebuilding, antiwar and nonviolent movements. Finally, we discuss the role of non-democracies in the global system and in international peace and security, specifically.

The course will be offered in collaboration with the Department of International Relations of the Universidad Pontifica Comillas in Spain, with two sessions virtually integrating Comillas faculty and students.

Students will learn to:

• Apply international relations theories to particular security events of consequence in global politics, analyzing a particular problem in security in a theoretically consistent manner.
• Discuss and appraise the various meanings ascribed to international security in the policy and academic world.
• Gain a basic grasp of major international security threats.
• Provide a range of explanations for war and describe its evolution over time.
• Describe the prevailing international system and global peace and security architecture.
• Discuss the potential and limits of local peacebuilding, antiwar and nonviolent movements.
• Question the source and assumptions of knowledge about global politics before accepting it as truth.

This course will help you to draw together the concepts, skills, and work you have done at the Kroc School into a narrative of personal and professional development that will aid you on your journey forward. In particular, this course will provide the time and support required to compile a professional portfolio comprised of the items specified by your degree program. This course builds upon the Pursuing Progress program and serves as a bookend to the Kroc experience that you began in the Foundations class. Work will take place through a combination of small group and one-on-one meetings with your faculty advisor, culminating in a presentation for a small audience.

As part of your degree requirements, all students must complete the Professional Portfolio in their final semester. Starting Fall 2025, the structure changed: instead of a faculty-led course, students will complete their Portfolio course through one-on-one meetings with their faculty advisor––students are to schedule those meetings directly with their advisor.

• Students entering Fall 2025 and latermust enroll in:
  • KROC 596: Professional Portfolio (0 units)
• Students who matriculated before Fall 2025 may choose one of two options:
  • Option 1
    • KROC 597: Professional Portfolio (1 unit)
  • Option 2
    • KROC 596: Professional Portfolio (0 units)
    • KROC 502: Pursuing Purpose (0 units)

(Students wishing to waive KROC 502 must petition their faculty advisor, program director, and Assistant Dean.)

Action Required

If Spring 2026 will be your final semester and you plan to enroll in Professional Portfolio, please complete this form to indicate which option you plan to pursue. We will register you, based on your response.

Instructor: Karen Henken

This immersive, field-based practicum bridges theory and practice through a client-focused team project supported by in-class learning, site visits, and community research. Working with a San Diego–based nonprofit or mission-driven business, students work in teams to apply social innovation strategies to tackle real-world challenges and create actionable solutions.

Students serve as hands-on consultants, developing practical insights into nonprofit management, leadership, and community engagement. The course introduces key social innovation frameworks while building transferable skills in project management, communication, and analytical problem-solving.

In addition to producing tangible impact for the client, students expand their professional networks through collaboration with nonprofit leaders, community partners, and peers—gaining both experience and connections that will serve them well in diverse career paths.

This class will be structured as a hybrid class, with a mix of in-person and Zoom sessions with students and the professor as well as students working in teams in field-based research.

Summer 2026 Projects

Business for Good San Diego

Business for Good San Diego (BFG) is a coalition of local business owners advancing an inclusive, sustainable economy through policy and community action. This project combines value proposition research and member value enhancement to strengthen BFG's positioning across the San Diego region.

Students will act as strategy consultants to a live business coalition, mapping San Diego’s mission-driven business landscape, conducting interviews and surveys with current and prospective members, and analyzing what different types of small businesses most need from a policy- and advocacy-focused network. Drawing on examples from other cities and national networks, students will evaluate successful membership and revenue models, then craft a compelling value proposition and messaging framework tailored to BFG’s target segments.

By the end of the project, students will deliver concrete recommendations—such as new membership tiers, programs, or benefits, plus sample outreach tools—that BFG can immediately test to grow and diversify its membership base. This project is ideal for students interested in social entrepreneurship, policy-informed business, and building coalitions that empower small businesses with capacity building resources, fostering a more equitable and inclusive regional business economy.

Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute

This project with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) focuses on supporting the development of a Center for Excellence in Marine Aquaculture to advance sustainable fishing and ocean stewardship while generating new revenue streams for HSWRI. Students will create a partnership and sponsorship development framework that aligns with HSWRI's mission by identifying corporations, foundations, and public agencies with shared sustainability goals.

Students will work at the intersection of science, sustainability, and business development, mapping the broader “blue economy” ecosystem, analyzing where HSWRI’s aquaculture expertise creates unique value, and identifying high-potential partners in sectors such as seafood, retail, hospitality, and ocean-focused philanthropy. The team will develop concrete partnership concepts (e.g., co-branded initiatives, sponsored research, workforce development pipelines, or impact-focused investment opportunities) and outline criteria, talking points, and materials HSWRI can use to cultivate and steward these relationships.

The final deliverables will position the proposed Center for Excellence as a compelling vehicle for partners seeking credible, science-based ways to support ocean health and responsible food systems, while providing HSWRI with a practical roadmap for mission-aligned revenue generation. This project is especially attractive for students interested in climate and ocean solutions, nonprofit revenue innovation, or cross-sector collaboration with the private and public sectors.

Course Schedule:

Instructor: Karen Henken

The Rwanda Social Innovation Practicum immerses students in Rwanda’s dynamic ecosystem of social enterprise and sustainable development, using social innovation and peacebuilding frameworks to understand the country’s post-conflict transformation from an agrarian society into a diversified, innovation-driven economy. Students explore how ventures in technology, finance, hospitality, tourism, and worker-owned cooperatives contribute to inclusive growth and social cohesion. Through focused visits with leaders in government, business, foundations, and community organizations, participants examine how mechanisms such as worker ownership, microfinance, impact investing, and revenue-generating nonprofits drive systemic change. The practicum challenges students to connect theory with practice as they analyze how innovation and collaboration support Rwanda’s ongoing pursuit of resilience, peace, and equitable socio-economic development—and to apply these insights in their own impact-focused work.

Instuctor TBD

Description coming soon

There are 3 sections of KROC 500:

• Topher McDougal
• Sarah Federman
• Patricia Márquez

The course introduces students to a series of big ideas for making the world more peaceful and just, and how to apply them in shaping their own lives and careers of purpose. Foundations sets out to both 1) introduce foundational theories behind peace, justice, and social innovation and to 2) apply these concepts to specific fields of inquiry and practice.

Throughout the course, students will be challenged not simply to learn a spectrum of ideas and practices, but to understand how they fit together, where and how to learn more, and how to craft their own educational and professional trajectories. This process has four essential elements:

• Building an inclusive, resilient, and productive culture;
• Getting everyone up to speed on the defining aspects of our field;
• Introducing the unique expertise and experience of Kroc School faculty and staff;
• Helping you to see how your passion for positive social change is linked to particular issues and interventions.

Pursuing Purpose is an immersive career and professional development workshop tailored specifically for Kroc School students. Its primary aim is to provide students with the clarity, competencies, and confidence to self-author and pursue impactful careers. Grounded in a design thinking approach, this workshop facilitates a journey of self-discovery–– enabling students to explore meaningful social impact career paths through personalized guidance, and the creation of individualized career action plans, while honing skills in personal branding and networking.

Instructor: TBD

This course focuses on the interplay between individuals, organizations, and change, providing multiple perspectives of leadership theories and their application to solving complex problems. It prepares students to become influential leaders in organizations pursuing social transformation and peacebuilding, locally and abroad. Students in this course explore their purpose, goals, and leadership style and begin to create their plan to achieve agency and grow as leaders, emphasizing adaptive change. In-class students expand their knowledge to discern and balance competing demands and tensions inherent in organizations and gain skills for addressing challenging situations and capitalizing on opportunities. Building peace and justice in communities worldwide involves leaders capable of articulating a compelling vision, mobilizing resources, and working effectively with diverse groups of people. It includes working in organizational settings with particular structures, strategies, and practices, whether nonprofits, for-profits, government, or hybrids. The course prepares students for peace and justice work in various economic, social, and cultural settings by bringing core concepts and theories about leadership, organizations, and change alive through experiential learning, case analysis, individual assessment, and self-reflection. In team exercises, students experience specific challenges and opportunities that leaders and team members face and obtain techniques for solving problems and getting things done.

Taught by Dr. Dustin Sharp

In modern history, the momentum behind the idea of human rights has grown tremendously. What began as a marginal utopian discourse has today become an important moral and political narrative in domestic and global affairs. At the same time, rights remain controversial and contested, and gaps in enforcement of human rights norms are conspicuous. At the current moment, there is a heavy shadow over the future of human rights as a global project, with challenges coming from both the political left and right, to say nothing of the shifting of the global political geotectonic plates. This course examines the actors, organizations, and ideas behind these developments, as well as the vast challenges we face today in attempting to enforce human rights norms globally.

Taught by Grace Tien

A Social Innovation is a “novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than current solutions” (Phills, Deiglmeier, & Miller 2008). The value created accrues primarily to society rather than to private individuals. In this course, you will develop your own definition of social innovation, will develop your own theory of change that social innovation is embedded in, and will learn about a number of strategies for understanding and creating social change for the greater good. You will gain knowledge and experience through engagement with individuals, organizations, and institutions that are implementing a wide range of social innovations. Cases of social impact through different organizational platforms – in the market, in government, within the nonprofit sector, and increasingly in the space between these three sectors – will be analyzed and discussed in this class. This course is additionally optimized to prepare you for clarifying your own SI contribution. You will have the opportunity to understand how social innovations are ideated and developed in different sectors. Through a combination of readings, guest lectures, and case studies, you will gain knowledge on diverse ways organizations are implementing social innovations as well as analyzing successes and failures. Participants will get to see social innovators as they are finding solutions to critical issues in our own backyard, and ask questions like: What defines a social innovator? Who do they involve in the process of achieving transformative social change? How do they learn? Social Innovation requires a unique and transferable set of skills. Through the course’s field-based learning process, and through practical analytical tools, student participants will gain experience in analyzing others approaches and in developing their own approaches to social change.

Taught by Paula Cordeiro

Globalization and rapidly increasing communications make us painfully aware of the intractable problems facing humanity and our planet today. Thankfully, we find that there is a growing number of talented, ambitious, and courageous individuals known as social entrepreneurs, and organizations known as social enterprises, that are creating initiatives that attempt to mitigate some of these problems on a scale - and with far more ambition - than ever seen before. These individuals and organizations are creating models of urgent, systemic change rather than more traditional incremental improvement, which are being advanced globally in what has come to be known as Social Entrepreneurship. In this course, we will get to know who these people are and what their organizations do, how they think and work, and why they represent more than just a ray of hope for our world today. Social entrepreneurship is a rapidly developing and evolving field in which nonprofit and business leaders design, grow, and lead mission-driven enterprises. As the traditional lines blur between nonprofit enterprises, government, and business, it is critical that students understand the opportunities and challenges in this new landscape. This course considers the full spectrum of social business models, including strictly non-profit organizations, enterprises developing revenue-generating products or services for a social goal, and socially responsible for-profit companies. This course will expose you to theory regarding entrepreneurship, models of social change, definitions of social entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship, management skills and the leadership required for social entrepreneurial organizations, scaling of social impact, the various possible legal structures, forms of financing and impact measurement for social mission organizations. We will also take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of a classic example of social entrepreneurship - microfinance. Social entrepreneurs address problems where the government, private sector, and traditional non-profit sector fail to achieve systemic impact. The course takes a global perspective, including organizations from San Diego, around the US, and abroad. It is designed to be highly participatory and engage students through readings, classroom discussions, videos, case studies, site visits and speakers from leading social enterprises. This course is designed for students who want to explore social enterprise start-ups, as well as those students who are just curious about the field and want to learn more about entrepreneurship and explore career opportunities.

Instructor: Erin Gavin

Is the capitalist system the evil of our time or the savior of our future? Are businesses the cause of society’s most pressing problems, or could they be part of the solution instead? How can business and entrepreneurial ingenuity reduce poverty and wealth inequality, protect the environment and natural resources, create community and social values, provide education and health services, and reduce gender inequality and migration? Can the capitalist system, powered by individualism, ambition, and a competitive spirit, evolve to be more humane and conscious of social problems? In a nutshell, what paradigms must change in the business world and society to make the market system a pillar for lasting positive peace? Working with real-life business cases, students in this course will be able to examine and critically analyze the above questions. The course will provide tools to tackle social issues using proven and innovative business techniques and models, from big businesses to small entrepreneurial examples. In short, this course focuses on the recently explored intersection between business and social innovation. Phills et al. define social innovation as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.” Social innovation is about generating transformative ideas and initiatives that meet unmet needs and attempt to create a “new equilibrium” that is socially superior to the status quo. By the end of the course, students work in teams to develop a sustainability project for an existing company or a new entrepreneurial venture. The business initiative must create social value for all relevant stakeholders and society and show how it contributes to positive peace. The projects must be cross-functional so that students use the full spectrum of knowledge and skills acquired during this course.

Instructor: JC Rivas

This workshop provides an opportunity for students to experience the process of Design Thinking. Students in this course gain insight and understanding of the mindsets needed to engage in the design process. It prepares students to use Design Thinking strategies to engage in social change and social innovation projects.

There are two sections of KROC 530:

• May Farid
• Philip Gamaghelyan

In all human societies, conflict is an integral part of daily life at interpersonal, intra-group, inter-group, and inter-national levels. Conflict can be constructive, focusing attention on neglected voices or social injustice and driving cultural and political change. It can also be destructive, damaging relationships, polarizing societies, or escalating into violence and war. In our increasingly interconnected world, it is crucial to develop effective methods to understand the sources and dynamics of conflicts and to deal with conflict productively. This course is designed to familiarize students with the interdisciplinary fields of peace and conflict studies, providing an overview of core concepts of contemporary theory and practice, as well as of the recent critical turn. We examine frameworks for analyzing the origins and processes of social conflict and violence and leading practical approaches to the conduct and evaluation of conflict resolution interventions. The course employs diverse methods and media, including lectures, discussions, interactive exercises, film, written assignments, and a conceptualization of an intervention. The course features experiential learning activities that provide opportunities for practical application of course concepts. Active participation in every class is essential; readings are always necessary but not sufficient for learning the material.

Instructor: May Farid

The Intervention Design course provides a framework for students to synthesize and apply knowledge and practical skills gained during the program to create a specific conflict management/resolution project. The course is also a chance to create a key Kroc School Portfolio item that students can showcase to prospective employers, donors, or partners. The course is a requirement for the MS in Conflict Management & Resolution (MS-CMR) program and an elective option for the Graduate Certificate in Mediation & Conflict Resolution.

Instructor: Philip Gamaghelyan

This graduate-level course introduces foundational negotiation concepts, frameworks, and strategies that can transform daily interactions and support broader social change across personal, organizational, and community contexts. Using students’ lived experiences as a laboratory, the course combines readings, structured exercises, and real-world negotiation challenges to develop practical skills in preparation, perspective-taking, strategic adaptation, and ethical decision-making. By the end of the course, students will be able to prepare systematically for negotiations, apply analytical frameworks in real-world settings, adapt strategies in response to power dynamics and stakeholder interests, reflect critically on ethical considerations, and assess their own negotiation style and areas for growth.

Instructor: Jake Wild Crea (2 sections)

This course is a theoretical and practical introduction to mediation that examines models associated with conflict management, conflict resolution, and conflict transformation schools of thought, with primary emphasis on alternative dispute resolution (ADR), the most widely practiced approach within the conflict management tradition. Through readings, demonstrations, role plays, and structured reflection, students develop foundational third-party intervention skills applicable across interpersonal, community, and organizational settings. By the end of the course, students will be able to explain key mediation models, demonstrate core mediation competencies such as active listening and reframing, structure and facilitate a basic mediation process, and apply mediation techniques ethically in a variety of contexts.

Instructor: Jake Wild Crea (2 sections)

In an era marked by deepening division, the ability to facilitate honest and inclusive conversations and decision-making is more vital than ever. Whether navigating internal tensions within a team, addressing conflict in a community, or supporting groups with complex shared histories, practitioners must learn to manage difference, discomfort, and disagreement with clarity and care. Well-designed facilitated spaces hold the potential to build understanding, foster trust, and catalyze group-driven social change.This course is designed to build practical skills and confidence in facilitation and dialogue in service of peace, justice, and collaboration. Through hands-on exercises, observation, readings, and structured practice, students develop a deeper understanding of both the potential and the limitations of facilitation and dialogue, as well as greater awareness of what they personally bring to the role of facilitator and participant.

Instructor: Lucine Hanessian

This interactive, experiential workshop, delivered online in four modules over four consecutive weeks, will explore the science and practice of stress resilience. Developing foundational knowledge about the dynamics of stress, its response patterns in brain, body, cognition, and behavior within interconnected systems, supports students to strengthen skills and capacities for embodied awareness, emotional agility, cognitive reappraisal, and cultural sensitivity. These capacities help to navigate complexity, conflict, and uncertainty with presence and flexibility, while mitigating the risk of burnout and vicarious stress. An integrative understanding of the science of stress, state, and story, woven together with inclusive, accessible, evidence-based practices and Indigenous approaches to wellbeing, offers a holistic framework for cultivating collective care, interdependent resilience and sustainability.

Instructor: Erin Gavin

Solving the most pressing issues of our times requires understanding the needs, motives, and attitudes of the main stakeholders we aim to influence. For the desired change to occur, messages and interventions must resonate to produce positive and lasting public behavior. The discipline of applying traditional marketing principles and techniques to help solve these “wicked social problems” is known as social marketing.

Social marketing offers a revolutionary approach to solving social problems in health, safety, environmental protection, financial well-being, community involvement, etc. For instance, successful social marketing campaigns have helped reduce and prevent smoking, decrease infant mortality, stop the spread of HIV/AIDs, decrease littering, increase recycling, and drive various other societal shifts in the U.S. and across the globe (Andreasen). While the fundamental principles at the core of social marketing are like the central tenets of commercial marketing, essential distinctions exist in applying this marketing approach because the primary beneficiary is society.

We will review the social marketing theory in detail, including mapping the environment, audience identification and analysis, establishing objectives and goals, behavior change theories and frameworks, behavior economics, application of the marketing 4Ps, budgeting, and evaluation. The course provides illustrative, detailed examples of successful social marketing campaigns, in-depth case analysis, and issues for discussion within each chapter of the book. The course ends with a team project requiring students to develop a social marketing campaign plan.

Social marketing is NOT expressly about ‘social media’ or ‘social networking’ – although we may discuss the role of vehicles such as Facebook or Twitter in mobilizing opinion and behavior. Social marketing is not entirely about social issue advertising because this may not always be the most effective or efficient way to achieve the objectives. As a result, social marketing overlaps with areas of PR, lobbying, direct marketing, education, and entertainment using a mix of techniques from the conventional to the innovative.

Instructor: Topher McDougal & Tori Luna

This advanced practicum course is designed to give select students an opportunity to apply their existing knowledge and skills in Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DME) or Impact Evaluation by leading real-world program evaluations for clients of the Kroc IPJ's Peace Evaluation and Accompanied Research (PEAR) Initiative. Each student will take a leading role in one evaluation, while providing support on others. The course will include practical experience engaging with implementing partners, conducting field visits, analyzing data, preparing professional evaluation reports, presenting findings to partners, and offering recommendations to enhance future evaluation capacity. These credits can be counted toward the practicum requirement for Kroc School graduate programs, and toward the embedded graduate certificate in Monitoring, Evaluation, Assessment, and Learning (MEAL).

Instructor: Sarah Federman

Narratives about Self and Other as well as stories about past glories and traumas can entrench us further into conflict or help create pathways out. Narratives contribute to our vulnerability and resilience. Poorly formed narratives leave us vulnerable when the world does not match our story or when they cut us off from people, resources, and solutions. Better-formed narratives give us room to engage with complexity and respond to challenges with creativity and humanity.

When we innovate and/or create conflict interventions without addressing the poorly formed stories in circulation, we create short term solutions at best. Narratives of distrust and unaddressed indignities, for example, can upend initiatives for positive peace. Interventions that do not consider narrative ecologies can even set communities on the road back to war or totalitarian regimes.

This course examines narratives circulating in a variety of conflict and post-conflict settings and while discussing approaches to guide groups towards better-formed stories. Students will also learn forms of narrative intervention.

This attention to narrative could not come at a more important moment. The growing distrust of media, knowledge, expertise, and each other, fueled in part by social media, leaves many communities fractured and ungrounded. Methodologies that can interrogate and respond to conflict narratives will be critical as the country navigates governance in these polarized political waters.

Instructors: David Karp, Ian Ragsdale & Xiani Williams

This course introduces the philosophy and varied practices of restorative justice. Restorative justice (RJ) is a philosophical approach that embraces the reparation of harm and healing of trauma, often in a legal setting. A central practice of RJ is a collaborative decision-making process that includes harmed parties, people who have caused harm, and others who are seeking a resolution that includes meaningful accountability, taking responsibility for repairing harm and proactive social support.

Restorative justice is a global movement with applications that include misbehavior in school, misconduct in the workplace, and criminal adjudication. Restorative approaches draw upon a variety of cultural and religious justice traditions that, in many ways, challenge the Western legal tradition of adversarial proceedings and punishment.

This course includes a practicum that provides students with supervised, hands-on experience examining how RJ principles and practices are applied within incarcerated communities, reentry settings, and vulnerable populations. Students will develop and practice facilitation and teaching skills while working with these populations through trauma-informed programs.

Instructor: Lu Hanessian

This interdisciplinary Foundations Course offers an integrative lens on trauma and resilience across individual, community, cultural, and generational contexts. Grounded in a systems approach, the course combines the science of trauma with experiential, applied learning, integrating neuroscience with embodied and restorative approaches to collective care and wellbeing. Through reflective practice, case-based learning, collaborative inquiry, and skill-building, students expand self-awareness, adaptive capacity, and resilience-centered trauma literacy for application across disciplines in real-world practice. Emphasizing culturally responsive and systems-aware engagement, the course explores trauma-sensitive practices in professional and community settings while engaging students in healing-centered leadership and expressive arts approaches to trauma recovery and growth. Students examine how the integration of trauma awareness, resilience, and restorative approaches can be implemented across professions.

This course will help you to draw together the concepts, skills, and work you have done at the Kroc School into a narrative of personal and professional development that will aid you on your journey forward. In particular, this course will provide the time and support required to compile a professional portfolio comprised of the items specified by your degree program. This course builds upon the Pursuing Progress program and serves as a bookend to the Kroc experience that you began in the Foundations class. Work will take place through a combination of small group and one-on-one meetings with your faculty advisor, culminating in a presentation for a small audience.

Students who began their program before Fall 2025 may choose to complete the Professional Portfolio – KROC 597 (1 unit) or follow the Fall 2025 catalog requirements and take KROC 567 (0 units). The course description of KROC 597 and KROC 567 is the same.

An independent study for up to three units provides students an opportunity to research a topic of particular interest to them relevant to Peace and Justice Studies. The faculty supervisor, program director and Dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies must approve the project proposal prior to the beginning of the relevant semester. This course may be repeated up to a maximum of three units.