Professor Randy Martin's Theory of Change
Professor Randy Martin’s “Organization and Nonprofit” course has become a program favorite for many reasons. The course introduces students to the basic concepts of organization and management, including impact leadership, strategy, organization development, and fundraising skills that are important to understand when considering how leaders in the social sector sell their impact. Students apply these concepts in a term-long project, the final deliverable of which is a group presentation to sell the impact of a nonprofit of their choice to the class.
Professor Martin is on the adjunct faculty of the Goizueta Business School and is an independent consultant for the nonprofit, charitable and social enterprise sectors. In addition to the 35+ years of experience in business consultancy, he brings a background in sociology to his work and approaches organizational behavior from a systems perspective. He encourages students to understand organization behaviors as they manifest themselves at the individual, team, organization, and societal levels in ways that reinforce and oppose other patterns of behavior. Randy believes that without such a holistic understanding, problem-solving can be ineffective in creating sustainable solutions to organizational and social challenges.
On the last day of class, Professor Martin summarized the semester’s content by presenting what he called “My Personal Theory of Change”. At its core is the encouragement for MDP students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to all aspects of their life to generate systemic change.
Randy says what really matters in driving true change is to:
Professor Martin’s class is typically taken during the first semester at MDP, equipping students with a refined lens through which to view development practice. MDP is grateful to have Professor Martin as a guest lecturer.
Curriculum
The Emory MDP curriculum combines natural, social, health sciences and management.
FIELD PRACTICUM
The Field Practicum is a core component of the Emory MDP curriculum.