ENES275 - How Do You Navigate Leadership in Times of Crisis?
Available Summer 2025! Register on Testudo now!
General Education: DSHS, SCIS
Students take part in immersive opportunities to learn from industry professionals about crisis prevention and response. The course introduces students to the study and practice of leadership with promising practices in disaster preparedness and data informed decision-making. Global communities need those who can lead during times of crisis and understand when and how to use data to inform decisions in times of crisis.
This course will examine how leadership has been enacted to help local, national, and global communities navigate through pandemics, disasters, and other humanitarian crises. Students will develop capacities for informed leadership in times of crisis and develop an understanding for applying these skills in a variety of industries, and public and non-profit settings. Embedded through this course will be voices of leadership from crisis response roles within and beyond the scientific community.
The course will be designed in three parts:
- An overview of leadership theories, models, and practices used in times of crisis and an examination around how culture influences leadership in times of crisis;
- Review of technical approaches to employ data, data analysis, predictive models, and data visualization as applied to emergency and crisis leadership decision-making;
- Connect theory to practice by applying the theories and technical approaches, demonstrated throughout the course, to applications in leadership in times of pandemics, disasters, and humanitarian crises.
Course Learning Outcomes
- Students will develop an understanding of theories, models, approaches, and best practices to leadership in times of crisis
- Students will explore the nuances of problem solving, communication, and project management unique to times of crisis
- As pandemics and disasters cut across cultures and often require a global response of people leading across cultures, students will gain an understanding of how culture influences leadership and develop skills necessary to lead effectively across cultures
- Students will effectively communicate findings from data analysis, predictive models, and data visualization
- Students will apply critical thinking and knowledge of theories relevant to leadership in times of crisis to evaluate and critique examples from historic and/or current responses and communicate findings in writing and/or visual presentations
- Through a final project, students will apply research and established frameworks for how information used in real-world crisis and emergency response (e.g., under resource and time constraints)
How can I apply this course to my degree program?
- Computer Engineering: Category F Elective
- Electrical Engineering: General Technical Elective
- Fire Protection Engineering: Technical Elective
- Mechanical Engineering: Out-of-Major Technical Elective
- Fulfills a minor requirement for students in the Global Engineering Leadership Minor
- Other majors/minors should reach out to their advisors to determine if this course can be applied to their degree program.
