Driven by a need for specially educated supervisors at police departments, Great Bay Community College has introduced a certificate program to help create the next generation of law enforcement supervisors.
“Criminal justice leadership demands more than experience,” Eric Kulberg, department chair and professor of GBCC’s Criminal Justice Program, said with the program’s introduction in September.
“It demands the ability to think critically, lead ethically and adapt to an ever-changing landscape,” he added. “This certificate gives working professionals and aspiring leaders a structured pathway to develop those skills while applying them directly to the real-world challenges they face.”
The Criminal Justice Leadership certificate program requires 16-17 credits to complete, with three core courses and two additional courses. The first sessions are slated to begin for the spring semester 2027.
It’s no secret that New Hampshire is tied with Vermont (and behind Maine) as the second oldest state in the country by median age. That means the workforce — which includes police departments — is aging and retiring.
Today’s supervisors need to be skilled in ways that weren’t a requirement 20 years ago, according to Kulberg.
“I think they need new sets of skills in that they need technology skills. They’re going to need to be familiar with utilizing technology themselves, managing people who are very good at technology and probably superior to them,” said Kulberg. “They’re going to need new strategies to deal with, like new ideas on work. There could be different attitudes towards work itself between different generations.”
A baby boomer or Generation X police officer may have very different work–life attitudes than say a millennial, according to Kulberg.
The curriculum covers a range of topics, including advanced leadership theory, research methods and hands-on experience. Students critically assess and navigate the complexities of organizational behavior, ethical decision-making, policy analysis and evidence-based practices.
“If you have someone who’s got 30 years on the job, and someone who’s got five, they may have a very different attitude towards what work means to them,” he said. “Having this leadership theory behind them, they can understand and respond as they need.”
Great Bay Community College, located at the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, is one of seven that make up the Community College System of New Hampshire.
The system is well regarded for its ability to adapt to specific education and training needs within a region. According to GBCC, the program responds to a demand for law enforcement leadership. It said employment for first-line supervisors of police and detectives in New Hampshire is projected to grow 8% from 2022 to 2032 — more than double the roughly 3% growth rate projected nationally for the same occupation over a comparable 10-year period — according to New Hampshire Employment Security’s Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.
The college already has a criminal justice program for those who are interested in becoming a police officer. This new program takes it to the next level at a time of need.
“There certainly is a need for police officers nowadays. I hear about police departments just absolutely desperate for people. There’s a lower number of officers, a lower number of people applying for a higher number of open officer positions. So this program is to meet those who are already in to advance their career,” said Kulberg.
“As people retire, we’re going to need more mid-level supervisors. Those people are very, very important to the community in that they are the ones that are making sure their officers — the regular patrol officers who are dealing with the people — are doing so in a lawful way, in an appropriate way,” he added. “So, having them trained with us and learning techniques of leadership and teamwork and things like that really helps.”
Before joining the GBCC faculty in 2019, Kulberg spent 10 years in law enforcement, including as a detective at the University of New Hampshire and seasonally with the Hampton Beach Police Department.
The program allows for some cross pollination between those students in the criminal justice program and those in the criminal justice leadership program.
“The way I layered this program is you have classes that are required for the leadership program, and you have classes that are required for the regular undergrad CJ program, and they overlap,” said Kulberg. “At some point, you’re going to have brand new people who have not entered the job yet in classes with people who have experience.”
“I want those who are experienced to be engaged and come in and help foster this love of law enforcement, respect for law enforcement, among the new students as well,” he added.
The certificate is built on three core courses: Criminal Justice Leadership, Criminal Justice Research Methods and Criminal Justice Leadership Capstone. To complete the 16- to 17-credit program, students choose two electives from areas including Organizational Behavior, Crisis Planning and Management, Genocide, Victim Rights & Advocacy and Critical Thinking in the Humanities.
For the leadership elements, said Kulberg, “it’s going to be taught by practitioners in the area that are well respected in their leadership. They’re going to be either like FBI Academy grads or other really prestigious program graduates themselves.”
After completing the program, students will be prepared to develop strategies for team building and personnel management while applying research methodologies to inform policy and evidence-based decision-making. The program culminates in a capstone project in which students integrate and apply their learning to address a current issue facing a criminal justice agency.
If a police officer wants to advance into a leadership role, Kulberg wants to hear from him or her.
“I’m looking to attract the active police officers, those who are maybe a year or a few years on the job, looking to advance. Those are the ones I want, and I want the students that are going to be engaged,” he said.
Driven by a need for specially educated supervisors at police departments, Great Bay Community College has introduced a certificate program to help create the next generation of law enforcement supervisors
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