The mission of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs is to serve as an urban-focused community of learning, dedicated to educating professionals who will plan and administer environmentally healthy and sustainable communities at the local, state, national, and international levels of society. Currently, the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs offers and administers the following graduate degree programs: Master of Science in Administration of Justice, Doctor of Philosophy in Administration of Justice, Master of Public Administration, Executive Master of Public Administration, Master of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy and Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Environmental Policy. In offering these programs, the School seeks to achieve the following objectives:

1. Promote teaching, research, and service activities that will enhance the performance of public administrators, urban planners, and environmental policy analysts at local, state, national and international levels.
2. Provide an interdisciplinary focused graduate education that contains the theory, concepts, and research skills necessary for students who seek careers in public administration, urban planning, and environmental policy and for those already working in these career areas that want to improve their capabilities.
3. Generate state of the art research that advance understanding on complex public policy issues facing public sector managers, urban planners, and environmental policy makers.
4. Educate students with appropriate knowledge, analytic skills, managerial capabilities, and sensitivities to address questions of equity and social justice.
5. Prepare students to become wise consumers of research and instill in them the importance of continuing their professional career development.