University of Maryland Launches Masters Program in Health and Social Innovation

UM_Graduate_School_RGBThe Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, a sponsor of MACo’s Summer Series, recently launched a new master’s program in Health and Social Innovation. The program is designed to challenge students to explore and utilize principles of innovation, entrepreneurship, and design thinking to solve complex health and social challenges.

Program Director Jim Kucher had this to say about the program:

“In Fiscal year 2015, Maryland’s counties spent almost half a billion dollars ($476M) on social services. Many of these dollars flowed to local nonprofits doing the hard work of providing front line care for those with deep needs.

There is solid and growing evidence that effective social service can reduce the economic burden on society by producing measurable outcomes (an increase in childhood literacy, or a lower incidence of diabetes, for example) in a specific population (such as a challenged neighborhood in a designated city) and be rewarded when that outcome is achieved. This bold idea is currently referred to as Social Impact Investing and is growing in popularity in nonprofit and social innovation circles.

Maryland’s county leaders have made many great strides to improve the welfare of our citizens. Using bold tools like Social Impact Investing can be a great way to make sure that current budget pressures do not erode the good work that has been done to make our great state better.”

Through the master’s program, students will develop a project that leads to social or health innovation. They will be expected to use principals of human centered design to identify societal or community needs, examine policy and regulations to determine how change can be realized, and develop a sustainable business and marketing plan to advance health or social innovation.

“The new M.S. in Health & Social Innovation will provide the civic and social leaders of tomorrow with the tools to develop effective and sustainable social innovations that can be implemented with reduced expectations of ongoing government funding.”

For more information, visit the University of Maryland Graduate School website.

Thank you to the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore for sponsoring the MACo Summer Series.

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