Master of Environmental Management

Degree Designation: Master of Environmental Management
Department: Nicholas School of the Environment
Website: nicholas.duke.edu/academics/masters-programs/master-environmental-management

Program Summary

Duke's Master of Environmental Management (MEM) prepares graduates with deep subject matter expertise in an environmental topical area, and combines that knowledge with a toolkit of cutting-edge, essential skills that can be immediately applied in a wide array of rapidly-evolving environmental careers. 

The structure of our curriculum allows you to customize your education to what is important to you by selecting two concentrations—one that will give you depth of knowledge in a topical area (Environment Concentration), and a second that will provide the skills needed to put this knowledge into practice (Management Concentration). You will select one of each from the following lists.

Environment Concentrations

• Coastal and Marine Systems (CMS): Gain a deep understanding of the complex interactions between people and oceans, examining coastal processes and environments, while learning to assess and manage how human activities affect—and are affected by—these vital ecosystems.

• Ecotoxicology and Environmental Health (EEH): Understand how pollutants affect the health of people and ecosystems by assessing the fate, effects, and risks of pollutants using a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates toxicology, environmental chemistry, risk assessment, and ecology.

• Energy and Environment (EE): Train to become an expert problem solver with the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge needed to lead the transition to a more sustainable energy future.

• Terrestrial and Freshwater Environments (TFE): Gain a foundational and practical understanding of processes that shape terrestrial and freshwater environments, and the couplings between these ecosystems. 

Management Concentrations

• Business and Environment (BE): Equip yourself to help organizations implement environmentally sustainable business practices, honing your skills and knowledge through practical applications, client-based consulting projects, and interactions with industry leaders.

• Community Engagement and Environmental Justice (CEEJ): Explore the structural, institutional, and historical basis of inequity and injustice, the role of power in their perpetuation, and the theory and methods for empowering communities to enact their vision for their environment in ways that are economically viable, socially just, and sustainable.

• Environmental Analytics and Modeling (EAM): Train to make decisions and communicate with data through coursework and applied projects providing exposure to real-world problem solving from data acquisition through processing, analysis, and presentation using cutting-edge tools and analytical techniques.

• Environmental Economics and Policy (EEP): Learn to inform effective solutions for today’s national and international environmental problems by analyzing how households, businesses, governments, and other stakeholders react to existing and proposed environmental and resource policies.