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Director's Welcome to Fall 2023
Colleagues, Partners, and Friends,
Welcome to the September 2023 edition of the Policy Pulse newsletter!
Policy is where idealism meets reality. At the Policy School at Northeastern University, our job is to navigate this complex interplay to enact positive change. As we move beyond traditional boundaries, we are navigating intricate landscapes, blending academic rigor with practical solutions, and striving to create policies that connect local settings and global imperatives.
A highlight of this issue is our inaugural Impact Report. It offers an insight into our academic programs, noteworthy achievements, and transformative initiatives. It showcases our work and illustrates our influence in the broader policy landscape. Covering issues from social justice to climate change to urban policy, our community contributes to and reshapes dialogues on local and global scales. We are delighted to share these achievements and insights, underlining our commitment to a just, resilient, and sustainable future.
As we step into a new academic year, let us collectively strive to extend the impact of our work beyond the confines of academia. Whether you are a part of our immediate community or a collaborator, your engagement and contributions are invaluable. I invite you to delve into the contents of this newsletter and consider the myriad ways you can partner with us in our mission.
Maria Ivanova
Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
Northeastern University
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Northeastern's 125th Anniversary
Northeastern University commemorates its 125th anniversary with a celebration of Founders Day on Tuesday, October 3. The year-long birthday party kicks off with events across Northeastern’s 13 global campuses stretching from Boston to London and Oakland. The scope of the festivities would have been beyond the imagination of the founders who established Northeastern in 1898. Additional Founders Day events are planned throughout Northeastern’s global campus system during the month of October.
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Impact Report
The Policy School's inaugural Impact Report is a testament to the School's collective resilience, ingenuity, and significant progress over the past year. On issues ranging from transportation, housing, energy and community development to social and environmental justice, resilience and sustainability, Policy School faculty, students, and alumni delivered meaningful change in communities around the globe.
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Planetizen Rankings for MUPP Program
The Policy School earned strong rankings in the recently released 7th Edition of the Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs. The Policy School’s Master of Science in Urban Planning and Policy (MUPP) program ranked as the # 10 urban planning program in the Northeast and the # 8 private school urban planning program.
“This recognition reallyshows how quickly the MUPP has emerged as a leading program in the field of planning in its few years of existence. It is a testament to the dedication and excellent work of students, faculty, and everyone at the Policy School,” says Professor of Public Policy & Architecture Gavin Shatkin, who serves as the Director of the MUPP.
“While the program is relatively young, having recruited its first class in 2019,” Shatkin adds, “it has quickly gained recognition as a program with distinct strengths in areas of growing interest in planning like sustainability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, community engaged planning approaches, and data analytics.”
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Fall 2023 New Student Orientation
A new focus on a holistic student experience shaped the September New Student Orientation.
Associate Director of Academic Operations Michele Rosenthal created a day-long program and led the team (Beverly Ballaro, Alexis Rosales-Hernandez '23, Hannah Mohtadi '24, and Jocelyn Powers) that delivered it. The event included, in addition to academic breakout sessions, presentations on academic essentials, Capstone, and mental health and wellness. Students also enjoyed a student, faculty, and staff networking reception as well as a resource fair featuring representatives from multiple Northeastern offices. Attendees included Cooper, Northeastern's certified community resource dog.
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Alexis Rosales-Hernandez '23, Hannah Mohtadi '24, Michele Rosenthal, Jocelyn Powers, Cooper | |
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New Student Programming in Fall 2023
Policy School students can access a range of new student programming initiatives in Fall 2023. The newly enhanced student experience features offerings including academic planning discussions, weekly Career Thursdays, PhD Happy Hours, Director Dialogues, Alumni and Public Service Panels, and Coffee and Conversation events.
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Students at the inaugural PhD Happy Hour | | |
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Policy School Town Hall
Students from a range of Policy School programs—PhD, MPA, MUPP, MPP, and International Affairs—shared their perspectives and questions at a Town Hall hosted by Policy School Director Maria Ivanova. Although they came from many different places of origin—Canada, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Ghana, Myanmar, Nigeria, Russia, and Rwanda—the participants invoked common themes: the importance of not navigating Northeastern in isolation, the need for on-campus opportunities to engage with peers, and a desire to belong to a vibrant Policy School community.
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Dialogue of Civilizations
In Summer 1 2023, Matt Lee, Teaching Professor of Human Services, led 14 Northeastern undergraduates on a 30-day Dialogue of Civilizations entitled “Ethnic Identity and Conflict in Croatia and Bosnia.” Students explored what happened during the breakup of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, how those events and memories contribute to persisting tensions in the region, and what intervention techniques for reconciliation and healing are possible.
What kinds of students participated in the Dialogue?
They came from a range of majors including Human Services, psychology, history, health sciences, and one pre-med student.
How did the Northeastern students respond to immersion in post-conflict zones?
Many found themselves deeply affected. We took them to places where terrible things had happened. Encountering the aftermath of concentration camps and ethnic cleansing generated strong emotions and reactions of disbelief at what war can do to people. The students grasped the complexity of societies in which victims and perpetrators, survivors and descendants of survivors continue to grapple with the past. They heard the bitterness of ordinary people angry that many perpetrators have never been held to account and lead normal day-to-day lives in their communities. But they also listened to stories of many who took great risks to protect Muslim and Jewish friends from the atrocities.
What other takeaways did the students experience?
They gained awareness and practice of educational and NGO approaches to nationalism and hate, and learned more about how intentional dialogue can be used to promote peace between people of different cultural identity groups.
What did the group do for fun amid all the intensity of what they were learning about?
They studied a bit of the local language and took cooking classes, as well as participated in a Bosnian coffee degustation and a rafting tour. They loved the food, especially uštipci, which are a kind of Bosnian doughnut, and ćevapi, a delicious traditional sausage.
What motivates you to take students each year to Croatia and Bosnia?
They are beautiful places where enormous suffering has taken place but also acts of great courage and compassion. And I feel compelled do something with my privilege to prevent another form of this happening elsewhere. I hope my students will grapple meaningfully with the question I continue to ask myself: What is our human responsibility in all of this?
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Arlington Campus Opening
Policy School Director Maria Ivanova was one of three faculty members—together with Mai’a Cross and Steve Flynn—who represented the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) at the September 14 Arlington campus launch and campaign celebration. Prof. Ivanova served as a CSSH Ambassador for the event’s interactive zone on Sustainability & Resilience: Developing Future Leaders & Solutions on Local, National & Global Scales. The zone showcased Northeastern’s strengths in making society more resilient in response to crises and challenges in the world.
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Policy School Director Maria Ivanova | |
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New Policy School Seminar Series
Prof. Nishith Prakash has initiated a new Policy School biweekly seminar series that will alternate between internal and external speakers. Prof. Prakash will coordinate the 2023-2024 series together with Profs. Cristina Stanica, Kaitlyn Alvarez Noli, and Shantanu Khanna.
Dr. Ariel Gomez delivered the first talk in the series on September 25 entitled “Rural Education, Nation-building, and Human Capital in Post-Revolutionary Mexico.” Dr. Gomez recently joined the Policy School as a Future Faculty Fellow (2023-2025) and will be researching economic development, education, and Mexican history. He earned a B.A. at UC Berkeley and a PhD in economics at Harvard.
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European Group for Public Administration Conference
Assistant teaching professor Cristina Stanica participated in the European Group for Public Administration conference in Zagreb, Croatia, on September 5-8, 2023. The conference theme was “Steering the European Union through poly-crises storms: The role of Public Administration.” As part of the “Teaching Public Administration” study group, Cristina presented her approach to teaching policy analysis through experiential learning projects. She was immersed in current findings and developments in public sector research concerning scholarly-based education and training in public administration, management, and governance.
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Career Sustainability Programs Talk
Prof. Timothy Hoff gave an invited talk in August 2023 on creating career sustainability programs for physicians at the number one U.S. ranked family medicine residency program, the University of Washington Department of Family Medicine.
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Big Data for Cities
Big Data for Cities is a course offered each Fall by Prof. Dan O'Brien that takes a service-learning approach to accessing, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting the large messy datasets that describe our modern world. This Fall, students are working with real-world data to develop an Open Data Data Science Curriculum for high school students in Boston.
They will analyze diverse data sets from Boston—such as BlueBikes rides, 311 records, and Craigslist postings—and consult with Boston Public Schools students and other local stakeholders, to develop teaching materials that make the very skills that they are learning accessible to young people in Boston. The course is made possible by a collaboration between the Boston Area Research Initiative and the City of Boston's Department of Innovation and Technology.
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Podcast, Policy Brief, and Grant Award
Dr. Kimberly D. Lucas wrapped up their work on the NSF Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC 2022). One of the original implementers and technical assistance providers to the first iteration of the grant, Dr. Lucas' work this year consisted of refining and further development of the funding line's unique Community of Practice. Dr. Lucas and Sociology doctoral student Guilherme Baratho developed and delivered workshops and toolkits to 56 teams selected for Stage 1 awards alongside partner MetroLab Network.
Earlier this year, Dr. Lucas was featured on the Itsy Bitsy Zoomcast, Holyoke Community College's innovative podcast focused on childcare and early childhood. Dr. Lucas discussed "Advocacy: Who makes decisions for us, and how can we be part of that process?"
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston recently released a policy brief by Dr. Lucas titled "Retirement for Early Educators: Challenges and Possibilities." The brief, written during Dr. Lucas’ time as a 2022 Visiting Scholar with the Boston Fed, surveys the national landscape to deepen our understanding of the challenges—and the opportunities in providing retirement benefits to early educators. Their work was featured in a blog post and article written by the Fed. Dr. Lucas also presented to the statewide 9:30 Call and will present to UC Berkeley's Center for the Study of Child Care Employment in Fall 2023.
Dr. Lucas, alongside partner Dr. Taylor Cain (Boston Housing Authority) was recently announced as one of five 2023 Sasaki Foundation Design Grant Winners. Their project, EarlyEducatorSpace 2.0, will engage family childcare providers, families, residents, and property managers at one BHA site to reimagine and redesign their shared green and open space with young children in mind. The project received $15,000 in implementation funds as well as the opportunity to participate in a design cohort alongside other winners.
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Policy School Director Maria Ivanova | |
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End Plastic Pollution International Collaborative (EPPIC) Roundtable
Policy School Director Maria Ivanova, who is part of EPPIC's grant team, spoke at the September EPPIC Charting the Course roundtable in New York. EPPIC is a public-private partnership designed to catalyze governments, NGOs, and businesses to support innovative solutions to the plastic pollution crisis – supporting projects around the world to make the full lifecycle of plastic more sustainable, starting with efforts to change the design and use of plastic products. EPPIC is funded by the U.S, government and partners with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Ocean Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and Searious Business.
Prof. Ivanova spoke about the role of academia in understanding, developing, and communicating solutions to plastics pollution. She encouraged the group to seek solutions in places where strong measures have been taken already and to integrate science, policy, and community in the conversations at every level. Academia, she said, has the ability to incorporate the physical, social, and spiritual components of the issue into the discussion, through research, innovation, community outreach, and the arts. As the sole representative of the academic community in the room, she urged the collaborative to engage the sector in their deliberations, as it will only strengthen the solutions that emerge.
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Grants Awarded to Prof. Nishith Prakash
Professor of Public Policy and Economics Nishith Prakash and his collaborators recently won two major grants. The first project aims to study the impact of "The Entrepreneurial Mindset Development Program" in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This program is implemented by the government at scale and has already reached at least 293,000 students, across 4,800 government schools and training more than 9,000 teachers. Their team received an award of $300,000 from the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale, Workforce Development Initiative Grant, and $100,000 from The World Bank, Gender and Innovation Lab Grant.
The second project aims to study an innovative science teacher training program in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This program is designed to promote curiosity-based learning and a discussion-based curriculum, giving teachers new tools to inspire curiosity and creative thinking in their students. In this project, Professor Prakash and his collaborators, including Dr. Ariel Gomez (Future Faculty Fellow at Northeastern University) will assess the effectiveness of this program in enhancing students' human capital and identifying the pedagogical and psychological mechanisms that lead to improved learning outcomes. The team received $75,000 from the prestigious J-PAL Learning for All Initiative.
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Rockefeller Foundation: Bellagio Convening
Maria Ivanova and her research team reached another milestone in implementing their project on “Reimagining Environmental Multilateralism through Small States Empowerment." They received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to convene government officials from participating small states at the Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy in early 2024. The group will articulate ideas on key issues that require multilateral action on the global agenda, create knowledge on environmental leadership, and build a coalition of committed changemakers.
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Global Green Mentor Award
Prof. Maria Ivanova received the Global Green Mentor Award (2023) in recognition of her exceptional dedication and outstanding contributions towards greening education for a sustainable future. The ceremony took place as part of the 7th NYC Green School Conference in New York City. The Conference brings together thought leaders, educators, learners, policymakers, innovators, diplomats, administrators, solution providers, healthcare experts, and climate leaders worldwide to discuss topics related to fostering a more inclusive, compassionate, and climate-conscious approach toward humanizing and climatizing global education.
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Kennedy School Fellowship
PhD candidate Sushant Kumar joined Harvard Kennedy School as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Science, Technology and Society. As part of the fellowship, Sushant will work with Prof. Sheila Jasanoff and attend her Science, Power and Politics course, participate in STS Program activities, weekly STS Circle meetings, and make presentations to the Fellows’ Group meetings. Sushant also secured an Experiential Fellowship for Fall 2023 from Northeastern for this position. In August, Sushant presented his work at the 2023 Science and Democracy Network meeting at the Kennedy School. Sushant will present his work at upcoming 51st Annual Conference on South Asia at UW Madison and Society for Social Study of Science (4S) Annual Conference in Honolulu this semester.
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Environmental Fellowship
PhD student Johan Arango-Quiroga was accepted into the Environmental Fellowship Program (EFP) at Yale. During his time in the program, he worked full-time at the Center for Biological Diversity, which counted towards his Experiential Ph.D. Research Residency. As a part of the EFP, he participated in Development Training Sessions, which helped him strengthen his skills and knowledge about environmental justice.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, Johan worked on two projects. The first was a Just Transition project, in which he wrote a brief outlining policies, legislation, and actions to increase energy accessibility and affordability, as well as actions to hold fossil fuel companies and utilities accountable. The second project involved analyzing fossil fuel projects approved by the Biden administration to better understand the magnitude of LNG projects approved by the administration. Both projects contribute to the larger March to End Fossil Fuels campaign. On August 25, 2023, Johan presented his fellowship at the Environmental Fellows Program Capstone Symposium, organized by the Yale School of the Environment.
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United Nations Action Weekend
PhD student Gerardo Gentil participated in the United Nations SDG Action Weekend and the Global People's Assembly in New York City in September. Gerardo was a speaker at the Feminist Economy Session where he talked about the connections among women, youth, and indigenous peoples in water decision-making processes to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Rwanda Conference
PhD student Olga Skaredina recently participated in a capacity-building workshop on implementing Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in Kigali, Rwanda. The workshop, co-organized by the Law Division of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Rwanda Environment Management Authority, brought together national focal points of MEAs and government experts working on biodiversity and chemicals and waste clusters from 9 countries in East Africa and the SADC region.
The workshop aimed to provide a practical understanding of how the synergies and interlinkages between biodiversity and chemicals and waste clusters could be promoted at the national level. Olga, representing Prof. Maria Ivanova and the Global Environmental Governance Project, presented the Environmental Conventions Index–an analytical tool that assesses the national reporting on MEAs and provides data on the areas of implementation where performance is high and those that require progress. The workshop illuminated the strong commitment of participants to implementing MEAs at the national level and underscored the significance of continuous capacity-building that is country-driven and demand-driven in fostering collaboration and cooperation across clusters.
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From left to right: David Halbert, Rachel Goldstein, Lindsey Boozer, Danaah McCullum, Chris Carmody | |
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Alumni in Public Service Panel
Policy School alumni shared with students their perspectives about their career pathways in public service at a September 26 panel. Participants were: Lindsey Boozer ’23, Chris Carmody ’23, Rachel Goldstein ‘14, David Halbert ’16, and Danaah McCallum ‘18.
"It was a privilege to sit on this panel with these stars," said panelist Chris Carmody, "Northeastern’s curriculum in public administration is working, and there is such great hope for the future."
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School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Alumni Networking Event
Join the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice for an alumni networking event! Explore the risks facing organizations from cyber security to climate change, and the ways professionals can build their skill set and leverage data strategically to guide organizations through these challenges.
Building Skills to Navigate Challenges in Enterprise Risk and Security
Oct 26th, 2023 | 5:30-7:30 pm
Alumni Center 6th floor, Boston campus
RSVP
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October Programming
Oct 5: Career Thursdays,1:00-2:00 (virtual), 2:00-3:00 (in person)
Oct 11: Coffee and Conversation 3:00-4:00
Oct. 12: Career Thursdays, 1:00-2:00 (virtual), 2:00-3:00 (in person)
Oct 19: Career Thursdays, 1:00-2:00 (virtual), 2:00-3:00 (in person)
Oct 19: PhD Happy Hour, 5:00-7:00, The Westland (10 Westland Ave.)
Oct 24: Capstone Information Session, 3:00-4:00
Oct 26: Career Thursdays, 1:00-2:00 (virtual), 2:00-3:00 (in person)
* In-person events take place in Renaissance Park, 3rd floor
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Milestone Celebration
Prof. Tiana Yom celebrated an important milestone along her journey of new parenthood: son Noah's first 100 days of new life, Baek-il, 백일. This occasion also represented Noah's official introduction to the world. Prof. Yom noted, "It truly takes a community to bring and raise a baby in this world!"
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Call for Book Proposals
Prof. Maria Ivanova is the editor of The Policy and Practice of Governance series at Lynne Rienner Publishers and is soliciting book proposals for the series, which is published in collaboration with the Policy School. Prof. Ivanova’s UNEP book was mentioned in a review in Nature of the first book in the series: Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals by Paula Caballero and Patti Londoño.
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Articles and Publications | | |
School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs | |
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