Security and Resilience Studies

Unique Features

Program Objectives

• The certificate’s unique multidisciplinary approach enables students to think critically about a broad range of emerging security and resilience issues in order to support communities, companies, and countries facing 21st-century transnational security challenges.

• Resilience has emerged as a strategic global imperative for the public and private sector as a means for more effectively managing threats and hazards to both the built and natural environments. As the first graduate certificate program of its kind, the unique focus on resilience allows students to support government agencies, international corporations, and nonprofit organizations in building efforts to address complex risks. Such training empowers students for multiple career opportunities in security and resilience fields, as well as new roles such as chief resilience officer for cities or enterprise resilience officer for corporations.

• The distinguished faculty includes leading international scholars whose security and resilience expertise is sought by the White House, the U.S. Congress, federal departments and agencies, international organizations, and major companies in shaping the world’s approach to emerging risks. Faculty directly support students’ professional development and post-graduation career opportunities by facilitating networking with respected security and resilience practitioners.

• MS in Security and Resilience Studies students gain valuable experiences and networks through interactions with local, state, and federal officials; industry leaders;, international researchers; and through group projects and case studies.

Career Outlook

The need to devise strategies to survive disruptive events, recover quickly, and rebuild stronger clearly applies not only to local and national governments and their agencies but also to private industry. Resilience focuses on identifying risk, understanding the systems involved in that risk assessment, and the determination of how to mitigate it, as well as to bounce back and adapt after disruption. Opportunities for graduates with resilience knowledge and skills are sought within:

• Public safety and public health
• Energy/power
• Transportation
• Communications
• Supply chain management
• Government entities, including DHS, FBI, Secret Service, and branches of the military (as a private contractor)

Recent graduates of the MS in Security and Resilience Studies degree have found employment in a wide variety of opportunities, including:

• Data analyst: U.S. Marshals Service
• Program analyst and emergency management: FEMA
• Cybersecurity analyst: major health insurance corporation
• Aviation security specialist: Massachusetts Port Authority
• Security consultant for private industry customers