We have new programs in development: a Masters degree being launched in partnership with the Dugoni School of Dentistry in Education for the Health Professions. This unique degree targets those in the health professions who want to be health professions educators. It is a one-year accelerated degree, fully online to reach a wider audience.

Similarly, we are launching a fully online Masters degree in Education, special education concentration, without credential. This degree will be offered in partnership with school districts that already offer their own credential. By partnering with districts, we can help provide an advanced degree that will position their educators to be district leaders and mentor teachers.

We are also launching a new concentration in Criminal Justice to our degree completion program in Organizational Leadership. And because we know there is high demand for degree completion programs, we have also developed a new degree option for returning adult learners in Health Services Administration and Leadership. These programs are designed to help professionals advance by finishing their bachelor’s degree and while obtaining the knowledge and skills to become successful leaders in their careers and their communities. Both programs will begin fall 2021.

We also plan to launch in fall 2021 a series of for-credit microcredentials at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Microcredenials are “a digital form of certification indicating demonstrated competency/mastery in a specific skill or set of skills (National Education Association). Higher education has seen an increased demand for microcrendentials and Benerd is developing innovative certificate programs designed to provide students accelerated pathways to upskilling. There will be five graduate for-credit certificates:

• Certificate in Leadership for Social Impact
• Certificate in Leadership in Health Professions Education
• Certificate in Learning, Innovation, & Design
• Certificate in Leadership in Health Education
• Certificate in Teaching, Innovation, and Design

These certificates will be offered as standalone microcredentials and students can stack them into existing degrees.

In other exciting news, we received an additional grant from Abbott Pharmaceuticals to continue to build out our Certificate in Diabetes Education for Clinicians. Our non-clinical certificate program was developed last year as part of a previous Abbott grant and launched this past year; to date 26 people have successfully completed the program. These programs are addressing a critical need in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties where diabetes has been devasting. For example, “San Joaquin County sits at the epicenter of the problem, and in Stockton alone, almost 50 percent of adults have prediabetes and 10 percent have diabetes”

Pacific teams with Abbott Fund to tackle diabetes crisis in Stockton.

We also sponsored a series of evening presentations focusing on improving classroom skills, co-curricular skill development, and talks by nationally known leading education experts focusing on how we learn, the future of higher ed, and future trends for K-12.