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Development Practice

Break barriers and build bridges, worldwide. The world today isn’t the same as the world a decade ago, or even the world as it was in the past 24 hours. Every moment, change sweeps over local, national and international communities, bringing new opportunities and challenges to bear. Development practice is the discipline of helping communities navigate those challenges. By choosing to pursue work in that field, you’re following an inner calling to create equal, just, innovative, healthy environments both at home and abroad. When you earn your degree in development practice at Regis University, you gain practical insight into the biggest issues driving societal change and emerge ready to build a career of service through policy, and of expertise applied with a focus on social justice.

    Why Pursue a Degree in Development Practice at Regis?

    A career in development practice is your chance to not only recognize that our world is continuously changing, but to actively engage as a positive force and help global communities tackle the biggest challenges they face as they shift and evolve. By growing your expertise at Regis, you delve into development practice with an eye toward health, engineering, climate, economics, culture, gender and politics and understand their interconnectedness and intersection on a deeper level made possible by Regis’ intimate class sizes, as well as opportunities to connect directly with experienced faculty mentors.

    How Will You Build Your Story?

    Explore our development practice programs to find out.

    By the Numbers:

    • 1 of only 8 MDP programs nationwide.
    • 1 of only 36 member institutions of the Global MDP Association.

    What Sets Regis’ Degree in Development Practice Apart

    Here are just a few of the factors that help graduates stand out:

    • Regis is one of only eight MDP programs nationwide, and one of only 36 member institutions in the Global MDP Association.
    • 95% of Regis master’s graduates report working in their degree field1

    1 Regis First Destination Survey

    Faculty Spotlight

    Emily Van Houweling, Development Practice Program Director

    Emily Van Houweling has been a faculty member in the Master of Development Practice program since 2017. Van Houweling loves working with students around the world on their development programs and thinking innovatively about teaching in Regis' synchronous global classroom. She teaches classes on participatory planning, the water, food, and energy nexus, research methods, and indigenous knowledge and grassroots activism. The MDP program aligns well with her experience working between academia and development. Van Houweling's first experience in development was as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Mali where she worked in the area of water and sanitation. Since then, she has conducted fieldwork in nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and worked with a variety of development and research partners. Previously she also taught development at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies and served as the Assistant Director of Women and Gender in International Development at Virginia Tech. Her research explores issues of equity, sustainability, and governance in relation to water and sanitation services. Van Houweling has published in leading gender, environment and development journals and she is currently working on a book project that explores the social and gender impacts of a rural water project in Mozambique.

    Upgrade Your Knowledge

    Growing in the development practice field positions you as an emerging leader in careers ranging from humanitarian aid and politics to journalism, diplomacy and immigration. In the course of your studies, you will not only be able to choose a specialty, but also discover numerous areas of global change with issues that need your solutions-oriented mind. And, with classes conducted with live broadcasts from the Denver’s Posner Center, you will have the rare opportunity to build a collaborative network of peers from around the world.

    • Join development practice degree holders who excel in a wide range of careers, including humanitarian aid, academic research, international diplomacy, immigration consulting, operations management and more.
    • Focus your studies with a specialization in either education or environment. When specializing in education, you can build in-depth mastery of primary and secondary schooling, as well as school support for refugee students. When specializing in the environment, learn how you can foster conditions that empower individuals in creating their communities’ sustainability practices.

    Build Your Online Experience

    Regis is the only modern, Jesuit Catholic university in the Rocky Mountain region, but Rangers can live and learn anywhere. Designed for adult and working professionals, most online learning offerings follow five or eight-week schedules. Programs also start up to six times per year, meaning you can begin to build your new life on your own schedule.

    Let’s Begin

    Explore Regis University's Academic Program Guide.

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