History of NPM&L
The Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program began in the fall of 1993, and the program expanded quickly. By 1995, the program was providing both graduate and undergraduate credit and noncredit courses to professionals and volunteer leaders already in the field, as well as those preparing for careers in the nonprofit sector. It is part of the Public Policy Administration (PPA) program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, which offers a Master’s in Public Policy Administration and includes a Local Government Management and Leadership Partnership program with the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council.
NPML has offered specialized leadership and organizational development programs for nonprofits through a competitive application process, as well as custom-designed training for individual nonprofit, voluntary, and public-sector organizations. For example, custom-designed management training programs have been provided to the St. Louis Science Center, Hopewell Center, and the Missouri Department of Corrections, among others. The most prominent of these programs was the Nonprofit Executive-Trustee Leadership Academy, cited as one of the three premier nonprofit executive training programs in North America by the Nonprofit Times.
In addition, the program has received major national grant funding and has been the recipient of national and international awards. NPML also provides vital community services under the expertise of its director, Dr. John McClusky, and other academic and community trainers. The program applies these resources to the nonprofit community by providing extensive consulting and custom-designed training in the nonprofit field, working locally, nationally, and internationally with a wide array of organizations.
Dr. McClusky has been a nonprofit organization executive for 20 years, first as a program executive at The Danforth Foundation; next, as chief executive of the St. Louis Center of the Coro Foundation and then its national president; subsequently, as vice chancellor for External Relations at the University of Missouri–St. Louis; and, most recently, as academic vice president of The Washington Center, a national higher education institution in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. Dr. McClusky has been the recipient of numerous academic fellowships and awards.
In addition to the director, Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program faculty represent a distinctive blend of academic expertise, as well as practical nonprofit and philanthropic leadership, joining to form an innovative program designed to create successful nonprofit leaders.