Master of Science in Executive Fire Service Leadership

• Community and Human Service Delivery
  
  This course examines human services, such as the Fire/EMS services, from theoretical and practical positions. It examines underlying philosophies and values, planning and development of programs and systems, managing these programs and systems, and evaluating and altering them.
  
  
• Organizational Theory and Behavior
  
  This course examines organizations from a sociological perspective, considering structural issues and inter-organizational phenomena and interactions between the organization and its environment.
  
  
• Public Sector Ethics
  
  This course examines major topics in professional ethics particular to the public sector. Topics include, but are not limited to, the responsibilities of organizations to personnel; the responsibilities of personnel to the employer; the responsibilities of supervisors to personnel and personnel to supervisors; issues in economic systems with the primary emphasis on capitalism; and social responsibilities of business, including quality of products or service, truth in advertising, environmental concerns, ethical standards for professionals; and what is involved in moral education.
  
  
• Information Systems
  
  This course provides the framework for organizational analysis and strategic planning for change, particularly technology-driven change. The course examines the new challenges stemming from increased use of technology and the rapid acceleration in the rate of change.
  
  
• Public Policy
  
  This course will be especially useful for individuals working in the pubic sector and will encourage a familiarity with public issues that will be useful for Fire Service Executives in making administrative or policy decisions. Further, this course will enhance the executives' sense of their own influence in their work environments, their community, their profession, and in the broader realm of political life at the local, state, and national level.
  
  
• Public Sector Finance
  
  This advanced introduction to the fundamentals of financial management emphasizes analysis of financial statements, organizational-departmental-divisional cash flows, taxes, the financial environment, bonds and their valuation, stocks and their valuation, and the cost of capital.
  
  
• Strategic Planning in Fire Science
  
  This course examines and defines the steps, concepts, theory, and value of comprehensive strategic planning. Students will participate in the formulation, financial development, operational management, and evaluation of currently utilized strategic plans and take part in the outline and design of a mock strategic plan.
  
  
• Applied Fire Service Research
  
  This is a capstone course in which the student will be able to translate a great deal of the knowledge and skills gained in the other MSEFSL course work into a comprehensive graduate level research study.
  
  
• Occupational Health and Safety
  
  This course covers management of an integrated fire service health and safety program; related national and local regulations and standards, medical management, physical fitness development, implementation of safety programs, statistical development and assessment, gaining workforce commitment, and fire service health and safety issues.
  
  
• Disaster Preparation and Crisis Management
  
  The course focuses on specialized decision-making processes involving analytical methods and information management; interaction with other agencies and effective coordination of roles and efforts within a structured command system offer the crisis manager decisions in an unstructured environment; major events that have happened to the fire service; and how to prepare for the unexpected, including how to be a strong leader dealing with instant life and death decision making on the emergency scene.
  
  
• Legal Aspects of Fire Service
  
  This course discusses rules and regulations governing the fire service and how they affect the government, the fire department, and the community; practical approaches to legal issues that affect managers regarding duties, responsibilities, and authority; reducing personal and departmental liability, including state-of-the-art standards to maximize safety and efficiency.
  
  
• Environmental Issues and Hazard Management
  
  Students will learn about Fire Service's role in protecting the environment from damage; the potential environmental impact of various types of emergency incidents; the roles of various agencies in mitigating incidents that may be hazardous to the environment, including federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and ordinances; and planning, resource management, and other related issues