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UNC Hussman certificate programs prepare students for careers in popular, competitive sectors — business, health, sports, fashion and politics

Advertising/ Public Relations, Journalism, Undergraduate Studies,

UNC Hussman offers five certificate programs that prepare students to launch careers in some of the most popular and most competitive sectors of the journalism and communication industries — business, health, sports, fashion and politics.

Students earning a certificate in these programs get a deeper dive, developing essential skills in a specific communication field and get a leg up in the job market.

“The ability to understand the industry and speak the language of the business allows a new employee to hit the ground running, which can be highly attractive to employers,” said Hugh Morton Distinguished Professor Heidi Hennink-Kaminski, UNC Hussman’s senior associate dean for academic and faculty affairs.

“These certificate programs provide a competitive advantage by helping students develop industry-specific subject matter expertise and introducing them to industry professionals and career paths,” Hennink-Kaminski added.

Read on for more information about each of UNC Hussman’s certificate programs.

Business Communication

“Understanding business is fundamental to understanding the world,” said the school’s W.E. Hussman Professor of Business Journalism Michelle LaRoche, who leads the Business Communication Certificate program.

The Business Communication Certificate offers students a choice of three classes from among the following:


The courses allow students to explore what it really means to cover both businesses and the people who run them. Course content ranges from learning the basics of Securities Exchange Commission filings and business information databases, to breaking down data and analytics, to finding the people who impact and who are impacted by economic change.

“If you don’t understand the business side of things — if you don’t even know how to ask those questions, then you are missing the biggest stories,” LaRoche said.

Interested students should contact LaRoche.

Fashion Communication

The Fashion Communication Certificate program provides style-inclined students with tangible experience that builds on the existing Workroom FashionMash program.

Each of the course options culminate in a final showcase of client concept work, which helps to build students’ fashion network outside of the school. Students choose three of four courses:


“Fashion is a notoriously difficult industry to access without fashion-specific content expertise,” said Professor of the Practice Dana McMahan, who leads the program. “Potential employers expect to see a collection of real-world work that shows students are industry ready.”

Interested students should contact McMahan at dmcmahan@email.unc.edu.

Health Communication and Marketing

The health communication market is one of the most rapidly expanding job fields, and the Health Communication and Marketing Certificate is built to equip students with the special skills and experience to meet the rising demand.

The certificate explores the health communication field through three lenses: the category, the patient and the practice. That happens through a three-class series:


“Few things, as we all know, are more important than our health,” said Peter Sherman, who helped launch the program. “And we can, through the practice of our craft as communicators, increase access to health care, address health equity, educate and reduce the barriers to quality health care.

It’s not just a job,” he added. “It has a mission and a purpose. That’s pretty powerful.”

Sports Communication

For students interested in pursuing a career in the world of sports, the Sports Communication Certificate adds a specific credential and specialization within a highly competitive field.

The list of course options offers a breadth of knowledge beyond just writing about the game, instead also equipping students with deep skills in sports production, management and marketing.

Students choose three of the following:

“We certainly talk about journalism, but we also talk about public relations, marketing, branding, fiction and movies,” said Distinguished Professor in Sports Communication John Sweeney, who directs the Sports Communication Certificate program. “The goal is to show the disciplines of communication that surround sports.”

Political Communication

For students interested in pursuing a career covering Capitol Hill and beyond, the Political Communication Certificate — launching officially in fall 2024 — will allow them to get specialized political expertise while still at UNC Hussman.

The certificate will feature a four-course sequence, including an introduction to political communication, public issues in the platform era, a capstone Washington Experience course, and a Washington, D.C., in-residence semester in which students will have full time internships in the nation’s capital.

Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor Daniel Kreiss says this certificate comes in response to the student demand for existing courses around this topic.

“And it reflects our growing alumni network in Washington, D.C., and across the country, working in politics and eager to help our students launch their careers,” Kreiss said. “Students earning this certificate will have a solid understanding of how campaigning and policymaking works, a developed set of skills running and reporting on campaigns, hands-on internship experiences and a network to help them get to where they want to go.”

Interested students should contact Kreiss at dkreiss@email.unc.edu.

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