School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs - Impact Report - 2022-2023

School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

IMPACT REPORT

The Policy School is committed to an inclusive model that breaks the boundaries between disciplines, transcends borders, connects communities, and communicates a vision for change in a way that inspires action.

Maria Ivanova Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

A Note from Director Maria Ivanova

Reflecting on my first year as Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, I am pleased to present the inaugural Impact Report. This document is a testament to our collective resilience, ingenuity, and progress over the past year.

This report highlights the depth and breadth of the Policy School’s influence Our faculty and students have not just participated in but have significantly reshaped the policy landscape, addressing pressing issues from environmental justice, climate action, and youth employment, to gun violence, and energy transformation. Their impactful work resonates in communities and countries around the globe.

Our achievements have been bolstered by the steadfast support of our Advisory Committee members, who have championed student fellowships, co-op placements, conference participation, and operational work. Their contributions have solidified our position as a leading hub of policy innovation.

Since its inception nearly two decades ago, the Policy School has continually evolved, adapting to the dynamic landscape of public policy and urban affairs. While our core mission – promoting interdisciplinary research, policy-relevant professional training, and fostering community involvement – remains intact, we are also embracing the challenges of today With the strategic planning process underway, we are paving the way for the Policy School's future, which transcends geographical boundaries, enhances community connections, and spurs action.

The Policy School is more than an academic institution; it's a community. We learn from each other, grow with each other, and build together. I trust that you will feel a profound sense of pride as you read this report. Our accomplishments are shared achievements, reflecting our collective strength, dedication, and commitment to positive impact.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who, over the past year, has turned the Policy School's vision into reality. Our collective efforts draw us closer to a world that is just, resilient, and sustainable.

As we celebrate our achievements and anticipate future opportunities, I thank you for making the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs a dynamic, inclusive, and innovative learning environment

Maria Ivanova Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Inspiring Innovation

Policy School scholarship seeks to deliver a positive impact on real-world challenges. On a broad array of issues ranging from climate change to gun violence, Policy School faculty paved the way for transformative change in communities both in Northeastern's immediate neighborhoods and worldwide.

BOSTON CLIMATE PROGRESS REPORT

In partnership with the Boston Foundation, the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy completed the inaugural Boston Climate Progress Report. Prof. Joan Fitzgerald led the team conducting research for the report. She was joined by Prof. Ted Landsmark, Prof. Kaitlyn Alvarez Noli, and Michael Jay Walsh, an independent decarbonization consultant The report assessed the city’s progress on its climate action and resiliency plans with a particular focus on equity.

GLOBAL SCIENCE MISSIONS

Policy School Director Maria Ivanova, an inaugural Fellow of the International Science Council, was a member of the Council’s Technical Advisory Group. The Group provided science advice for a new report released at the 2023 High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York. Flipping the Science Model: A Roadmap to Science Missions makes an argument for fundamentally redesigning and scaling up global science and science funding. Prof. Ivanova spoke at the UN to urge action on the steps necessary to meet the complex needs of humanity and the planet.

Joan Fitzgerald, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

We are excited about this opportunity to examine how well Boston is achieving climate goals and building resilience in a just and equitable manner.

Joan Fitzgerald

Maria Ivanova

PLANNING TRANSFORMATIONAL COASTAL ADAPTION EVALUATION OF A HARM REDUCTION TRAINING PROGRAM

Laura Kuhl and Moira Zellner

Climate-intensified storms and rising seas demand solutions beyond incremental change new planning approaches are needed for equitable coastal adaptation. In collaboration with Prof. Julia Hopkins (College of Engineering), Profs. Laura Kuhl and Moira Zellner developed a framework to evaluate transformational coastal adaptation strategies in Boston using a climate justice lens. The project explored distributional aspects of adaptation, identified which people and structures are displaced through adaptation, and proposed equitable alternatives. They used participatory modeling techniques to co-design the adaptation scenarios with community members and establish the constraints and priorities for transformation in the community

COMMON SENSES: STANDARDS FOR ENACTING SENSOR NETWORKS FOR AN EQUITABLE SOCIETY

Dan O'Brien and Moira Zellner

Common SENSES project leaders work with nonprofits and municipal governments to generate community-led, data-driven engagement around local development projects. The work integrates cutting-edge sensor technology, data modeling, and participatory modeling approaches with public conversations to identify “microspatial inequities” in environmental hazards, simulate how different construction decisions might intensify or mitigate those hazards, and support deliberation for solutions that respond to this information in a manner aligned with community priorities and values.

Lori Gardinier and Emily Mann

Through the HaRT Scholars program, RIZE MA seeks to learn how to successfully transform graduate education for social workers to include principles and practices of harm reduction with the goal of replicating these learnings across Massachusetts and the country. The program aims to: 1) promote a culture of harm reduction; 2) increase the clinical presence at harm reduction organizations/agencies to improve linkages to behavioral health and medical treatment; and 3) increase the presence of racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse social workers in the work of harm reduction

MASS KILLING DATABASE

James Alan Fox

Over the past decade, USA TODAY, along with Northeastern University and The Associated Press, has been tracking all mass killings in the United States. The database includes every mass killing since 2006 from all weapons in which four or more people, excluding the offender, were killed within a 24-hour time frame The database also includes dozens of variables on each incident, offender, victim, and weapon

Prof. James Alan Fox oversees the database and continues to add information drawn from media reports, FBI data, arrest records, medical examiners' reports, prison records and other court documents. For this work, Prof. Fox won two EPPY awards, which honor the best in digital news publishing.

Think Globally, Act Locally

Pressing global problems motivated Policy School faculty to deliver impact-focused research and transformative pedagogy The School is home to key centers and labs including the Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI), the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and the Social Impact Lab. Policy School faculty have also created one of the two Impact Engine Accelerators at Northeastern – Community to Community (C2C). By building collaborative communities and pursuing both local change and global engagement, the Policy School is helping to create solutions to pressing issues in Boston and beyond.

BARI STUDENT WORKSHOP COMMUNITY TO COMMUNITY

Under the leadership of Greg Zappata, Public Urban Informatics Education Program Director, BARI launched "Picturing Environmental Justice," an after- school program that focuses on environmental justice, environmental racism, and the role of data science. It provides eleventh-grade students from Dorchester's Jeremiah E Burke High School with knowledge about the environmental justice movement, data science basics, and policy implementation. Successful participants become eligible for paid summer internships with local communitybased organizations.

Through Community to Community (C2C), Prof. Alicia Modestino and colleagues use data and analysis to design, implement, and evaluate public policies that push the needle forward on complex urban problems C2C will bridge the gap between knowledge and practice by fostering community-engaged research across all of our global campus locations starting with partnerships in Boston and Oakland. This includes seed grants for faculty to build research-practice partnerships, a "no wrong door" for policymakers and practitioners to pitch a project or get connected to a faculty expert, and training for both academics and external partners to make use of research on the most pressing problems that campus communities are facing. Profs. Modestino and Carrie Maultsby- Lute were honored with the Network Accelerator Award for connecting diverse communities of problem-solvers that span disciplines, colleges, campuses, countries, and industry sectors.

INTERNATIONAL PLASTICS TREATY

Policy School Director Maria Ivanova, highlighted in September 2022 in Times Square for the UN Transformers initiative, has contributed significantly to global environmental governance. She was a member of the International Science Council delegation at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution and advised Rwanda's delegation. The latest negotiations took place at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, ending with a unanimous agreement for a first draft of an international treaty on plastic pollution by November 2023

MYRA KRAFT OPEN CLASSROOM COP-TRANSFORMERS PODCAST

In partnership with the United Nations Science-Policy-Business Forum, the Policy School co-hosted the COP-Transformers Podcast. In the first episode, Policy School Director Maria Ivanova and PhD student Olga Skaredina engaged in a conversation on empowering Africa and the role of tech and finance.

A longstanding tradition in the Policy School, Open Classroom is a semester-long seminar series for the Northeastern community and the general public facilitated by Prof. Ted Landsmark. Open Classroom guest speakers offered insights on topics including "The European Green Deal – Towards the first climateneutral continent," "The ENVISION Program for the Pedestrian Bridge and the Sustainable SITES Initiative for Carter Field and Playground," and "Leadership in Global Environmental Governance: Individuals, Institutions, and Ideas."

Policy School Director Maria Ivanova on the screen in Times Square, New York, during UN General Assembly and Climate Week in September 2023.

INDIAN BICYCLE PROGRAM

Bicycles can serve as a powerful tool for public policy and female empowerment, Prof. Nishith Prakash and a team of researchers have found. In 2010 they began measuring the impact of a program designed to close the education gap among girls in Bihar, India. Launched in 2006, the program provided every girl in grade nine in the state with money for the purpose of buying a bicycle to commute to school. The Bihar bicycle program improved enrollment by 32 percent and reduced the corresponding gender gap by 40 percent. Prakash and his team even found that the program led girls to express more of a desire to delay marriage and pregnancy. They subsequently helped bring the program to Zambia as part of another successful trial and hope to bring similar programs to half a dozen more countries. The study has been picked up by USAID and World Bicycle Relief and Prof. Prakash's team has received around $3.9 million to scale it up in five or six countries in Africa.

TRAFFIC TICKET AUDIT

Connecticut State Police submitted at least 26,000 fake traffic tickets from 2014 and 2021, according to the findings of an audit of the department’s records co-conducted by Prof. Matt Ross. The audit revealed that 387 troopers and constables had submitted thousands of fake tickets. Prof. Ross estimates that the total number of fake tickets could be as high as 58,533. The fake tickets made state troopers and constables seem more productive, putting them in line for certain perks and promotions. The thousands of false records also distorted the state’s racial profiling traffic stop data, making it appear that state police were ticketing more white drivers. The audit has prompted both state and federal inquiries.

POLICY SCHOOL HISTORY PROJECT

Summer 2023 high school interns Sienna Robertson of Noble Greenough School and Paige Webb of Boston Green Academy, collaborated with Policy School co-op student Hannah Mohtadi ’24, an Environmental Studies and International Affairs major, to research the history of the Policy School

Their participation in the C2C program enabled the interns to engage in this research initiated by Director Ivanova and conduct interviews with Profs. Ted Landsmark, Chris Bosso, and Joan Fitzgerald.

DIALOGUES OF CIVILIZATIONS

Associate Dean Tom Vicino and Prof. Lori Gardinier co-led 29 Northeastern students on a Summer 2023 Dialogue of Civilizations in London. Students learned about the politics, culture, and globalization of that city

Prof. Matt Lee led a Summer 2023 Dialogue of Civilizations in Croatia and Bosnia. Students investigated cross-cultural psychology and the psychology of ethnic identity and ethnic conflict in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

WATER GOVERNANCE

PhD candidate Vaishali Kushwaha organized a panel on “Water Governance towards Sustainability and Resilience in the Cities of Global South” at the 6th International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP6) in June 2023. Scholars and practitioners from Latin America, Asia, and North America shared their case studies, methodologies, and analysis of water issues. Presenters discussed case studies from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kyrgyz Republic, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and India.

From left, Policy School co-op student Hannah Mohtadi, summer intern Sienna Robertson, Prof. Ted Landsmark, and summer intern Paige Webb.

SUMMER YOUTH JOBS PROGRAM

“It’s so kids don’t have to choose between a learning experience and having a job during the summer,” said Prof. Alicia Modestino, a leader of Northeastern’s Summer Youth Employment program. The collaboration brought 155 Boston youth ages 14 to 18 on campus for six weeks Eighty-five or so of the participants were Boston Public Schools students who took part in the Bridge to Calculus program. Another 50 participants worked among 30 departments across the university. Another 10 jobs were created on Northeastern's campus at Mills College in Oakland, California a program that may be extended in future years to other locations in Northeastern’s global campus network.

AT HOME IN

CHINATOWN

At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective highlighted four years of the Residence Lab Arts Residency program (ResLab), a community-driven yearly artist residency that activates spaces in Boston's Chinatown through culturally affirming co- designed public art. Curated by Prof. Lily Song, the exhibition supported ResLab’s mission to highlight the dignity, vibrancy, and imagination of Boston’s Chinatown inhabitants in the face of a long history of gentrification and institutional neglect.

Prof. Alicia Modestino introduces the Summer Leaders to high school students attending the Summer Youth Jobs Program orientation

Former Residence Lab participants and staff at opening of At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective. Photos by Mel Taing.

Forging Partnerships

Extramural funding for Policy School research continued. From 2017 to 2023, the number of faculty submitting grant proposals increased by 70 percent. The amount raised increased by more than 700 percent (from $431 thousand to almost $3.5 million).

In 2023, the Policy School raised almost $30 thousand for student support and, on Northeastern Giving Day, mobilized the largest number of contributors of any unit in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities.

National Science Foundation: Mobility Data for Communities

Boston Area Research Initiative

Cell phone location records, called mobility data (MD), are data about where people go. These data are an essential resource to study how people move and interact in society. However, these data are also very complex, so very few scientists have the technical skills to work with them.

Alongside MIT Connection Science, BARI received a $1 million grant to support the creation of Mobility Data for Communities (MD4C), an infrastructure project that converts MD into a series of useful measures that describe mobility across a region's neighborhoods and places within those neighborhoods. These measures are accessible to everyone, including researchers, policymakers, and practitioners

P. Sloan Foundation: Energy Justice Transformation After Crisis—Lessons from Puerto Rico

Prof. Laura Kuhl received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support a comparative community-engaged project that will examine the power dynamics that surround disruptions, recovery, and the related implications for equitable energy transformation in Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and Massachusetts – three regions with different energy systems and disparate political contexts.

The research team will work with community partners to ensure that marginalized voices that are often left out of discussions of energy transformation are elevated. The research design will center community perspectives on energy transformation in their community. The project will highlight how energy investments are being deployed on the ground and how these investments align with the priorities of the local communities

Alfred

Laura Kuhl

The United States Agency for International Development: Empowering Caribbean Communities Against Climate Change

With the help of a $1 million federal grant from USAID, Northeastern University is partnering with three communities in Barbados and Dominica over the next two years to develop resilience plans to adapt to climate change and extreme weather events. The team's effort centers around community-led initiatives to properly identify and prioritize the various needs communities face, and assess and creatively build on their own capacities.

Awarded to Prof. Stephen Flynn, Director of the Global Resilience Institute, Rebecca Riccio, Director of the Social Impact Lab, and Prof. Moira Zellner, Director of Participatory Modeling and Data Science and Co-Director of the NULab, this grant is in collaboration with the University of West Indies and the University of Hawai'i.

National Endowment for the Arts: Northeastern Public Evaluation Lab

Prof. Emily Mann is working with Northeastern Public Evaluation Lab (NUPEL), an interdisciplinary lab conducting evaluation research on successful and unsuccessful aspects of community programs in order to promote healthier communities and enhance residents' lives Alongside Northeastern NuLawLab, NU-PEL was the recipient of a newly awarded grant by the National Endowment for the Arts

The East Boston Spatial Justice Lab will work with Maverick Landing Community Services and local artists Gabriela Cartagena, communications co-director at City Life Vida Urbana, and Anthony Romero, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. In addition to the School of Law’s NuLawLab, the Northeastern University project leadership includes co-principal investigators Prof. Tiana Yom of NU-PEL and Prof. Miso Kim of Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media and Design

Rebecca Riccio and Moira Zellner

Emily Mann

Spotlight: Fellowships and Service

Policy School faculty shared their expertise with institutions engaged in creating solutions for social, economic, and environmental challenges. Through these relationships, they extended the Policy School's influence, impact, and inspiration.

Equity is not only expanding choices and opportunities for those who have had the least but also reimagining and rebuilding our world to be free of the cumulative disadvantages and illicit advantages that people inherit in the first place.

♦ Maria Ivanova, International Science fdfCouncil Foundation Fellow and Foundation fdfCouncil Member

♦ Jennie C. Stephens, Radcliffe-Salata Climate fdfJustice Fellow

♦ Joan Fitzgerald, Community2Community fdfPolicy Fellow

♦ Timothy Hoff, Visiting Associate Fellow at the fdfUniversity of Oxford's Green-Templeton fdfCollege

♦ Cara Michell, committee member for the fdfBoston Society for Architecture

♦ Lily Song, board member of the Boston fdfSociety for Architecture

–Lily Song, Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice, and the Built Environment

One of the things that I encounter a lot is that there’s this tension between wanting to identify solutions and the need to really deeply understand the problem in all of its complexity. This award feels like recognition that students are hungry to discuss these kinds of challenges and ways to address them.

Laura Kuhl, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs

Faculty Recognitions

Laura Kuhl: 2023 University Excellence in Teaching Award

Timothy Hoff: Fottler Exceptional Service Award, Academy of Management

Cristina Stanica: 2023 Jeanne-Marie Col Section Leadership Award by the American Society for Public Administration, Section on International and Comparative Administration

Cristina Stanica: 2023 Julia J Henderson International Award, by the Section of Women in Public Administration of the American Society for Public Administration

Ted Landsmark: 50 Most Influential Men of Color, Get Konnected, Boston’s first comprehensive multicultural resource guide

James Alan Fox: Eppy Award, best in digital news publishing

Fenway Alliance Celebrates Exceptional Spirit

In recognition of Prof. Ted Landsmark's long-time contributions to the arts in Boston, the Fenway Alliance celebrated him as a Trustee of the MFA, Board Chair of the ICA, board member of the Fenway Alliance, board member of the New England Foundation for the Arts, board member of the Trustees of Reservations, board member of Historic Boston, art gallery owner, and arts funder at the Boston Planning & Development Agency.

Inaugural Network Accelerator Award

Profs. Alicia Sasser Modestino (Boston) and Carrie Maultsby-Lute (Oakland) are joint recipients of Northeastern’s inaugural Network Accelerator Award. Together they launched a Northeasternsponsored organization Community to Community (C2C), which uses research to confront difficult problems and develop long-term solutions based on the needs of the community

Profs Alicia Sasser Modestino (left) and Carrie Maultsby-Lute (right) received the inaugural Network Accelerator Award.

David Madigan, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, surprises Prof. Laura Kuhl with the 2023 University Excellence in Teaching Award

Bookmarks

Policy School faculty have published books that shifted the narratives on topics ranging from governance to the application of big data. Their books also reflect the extent to which environment and sustainability have emerged as an area in which the Policy School now offers world-class expertise and a growing presence.

Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan's 3/11 Disasters

Daniel P. Aldrich

MIT Press showcased The Untold Story in its 2023 Impact Report as one of its most influential books. It presented Ivanova’s work, which it made available through open access, as a model for how to engage the widest possible international audience with cutting-edge scholarly ideas and insights.

Greenovation: Urban Leadership on Climate Change

Joan Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald shows precisely how to harvest beyond the low-hanging fruit: this is a smart book, filled with enough detail to help any planner, and enough vision to inspire any citizen.

The Untold Story of the World's Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty Maria Ivanova

– Bill McKibben, Author, Journalist, and Founder of 350.org and Third Act

Noveck's book is bursting with sage, practical advice for public sector officials and civil society actors who want to engage citizens and give them more power.

Glen Weyl and Henry Farrell, Boston Review

Solving Public Problems: A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World

Beth Simone Noveck

Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy

Jennie C. Stephens

Urban Informatics: Using Big Data to Understand and Support Communities

Dan O'Brien

If we continue to rely on climate solutions proposed by those who are unaware of or indifferent to racism and sexism, we are guaranteed to reinforce those inequities.

Jennie C Stephens in her book, Diversifying Power

Amplifying Dialogues

Policy School faculty convened dynamic conferences, workshops, and cross-university discussions to explore critical issues of civic engagement, economic empowerment, and environmental justice.

If you’re curious about how many different ways there are to build a life, live in a community, contribute, make a living, there is no place that’s going to give you the window into those things like the public sector.

Moving Past Politics to Deliver Results Discussion moderated

by Alicia Modestino

September 21, 2022: How do you move beyond politics to get big things done?

Massachusetts Gov Charlie Baker and former chief of staff Steve Kadish spoke about the nonpartisan framework they created to tackle some of the state’s most complex policy problems in their new book, titled Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done, as part of Northeastern’s Civic Experience.

From Boston to Beirut with Rebecca Riccio and Lynn Zovighian, Zameli Family Fellow

October 3-7, 2022: The Social Impact Lab (SIL) kicked off October with a week of talks and workshops that reimagined the work of social change in the Middle East. Featured projects included a housing program for a semi- nomadic desert community in Saudi Arabia, a grant-making program to support women’s economic empowerment, Lebanon’s political and economic freefall, and Zovighian's collaboration with survivors of the Yazidi genocide.

Gov. Charlie Baker during the discussion Moving Past Politics to Deliver Results

Prof Alicia Sasser Modestino, Gov Charlie Baker, and Steve Kadish at Moving Past Politics to Deliver Results

Rising Tides Conference

presented by The Dukakis

Center and The Leventhal Map & Education Center

November 4, 2022: The Rising Tides Conference discussed how citizens engage with environmental governance and how policymakers contribute to equitable green development while addressing issues of environmental justice Keynote speaker Sen Ed Markey discussed building a scientific and social movement towards environmental justice, – and called out the Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act.

Midterm Election Results

Discussion organized by Maria Ivanova and Adam Hosein

November 16, 2022: The Policy School convened a dynamic cross-university discussion on politics. Ted Landsmark, Policy School professor, Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, assistant professor of religion and anthropology, Jeremy Paul, professor of law, and Costas Panagopoulos, professor of political science, analyzed how the 2022 midterm election will impact the United States going forward and the likelihood of bipartisan cooperation.

Boston Area Research Initiative

(BARI) Conference facilitated by Aida Kilkic and Dan O'Brien

April 23, 2023: The BARI Conference is a unique forum for community leaders, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to share how they advance data-driven research and policy in Greater Boston and how we could do even more through collective action. Keynote speaker Geeta Pradhan, President of the Cambridge Community Foundation, emphasized the importance of research and community connection, introducing a 'Provocateur' role for moderators to address research and community concerns.

Sen Ed Markey speaking at the Rising Tides Conference

Profs. Costas Panagopoulos, Sarah RiccardiSwartz, Jeremy Paul, and Ted Landsmark, discussing midterm election results

The Next Generation

Policy School students model excellence in action as they frame their educational experiences and future pathways around a core question: “What are you going to do for the world?”

In the Spring 2023 semester, 85 Policy School Capstone students collaborated with 18 community partners to bring public service training out of the classroom and put it to work in local neighborhoods.

Projects ranged from policy analyses to operations recommendations to urban design (and everything in between) Students served the Greater Boston area, Massachusetts-wide agencies and non-profits, and even Northeastern's sister community in Oakland, CA. By the end of the semester, students and partners alike reported lots of learning and many connections made.

A panel discussion with Northeastern alumni, from left, Jameson Johnson, Cassie Harris, Jarid Turner and Camille Martin and moderated by Richard Harris (center) during the “A Tribute to the Dream” celebration of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr ’s legacy

Student Spotlight

Civic Action Project

The Civic Action Project (CAP) was founded in 2019 to train a new generation of leaders who want to be catalysts for policy change The CAP Fellowship program is “real-world” skills training focused on political strategies and tactics needed to advance public policy Fellows spend four days a week at their individual internships, and one day per week as a group; engaging in roundtable discussions with prominent leaders and practitioners involved in civic engagement

2023 Fellows

Sophie Arjevanidze '23, Master of Public Policy, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)

Samantha Caracciolo '24, Master of Public Policy, Massachusetts State Senator Tram Ngyuen

Maria Salim '25, Master of Urban Planning and Policy, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)

2022 Fellows

Israel Collazo-Luciano '23, Master of Public Policy, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu

Fabiola Matos Ruiz '23, Master of Public Administration, Massachusetts State Representative Jon Santiago

Christopher-Robin Millican '23, Master of Public Administration, Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok

Equity and Justice Fellow

Francesco Rizzini Bisinelli '24, MS Environmental Science and Policy, was selected by the Policy School Advisory Committee for his research with Prof. Aron Stubbins to study the mechanics of the natural environment.

Fishman Family Fellow

Yoshki Wurtz '24, Master of Public Administration, serves as an intern in the Massachusetts State Senate: Office of Sal DiDomenico.

Founder's Fellow

Glenn Ann Geiler '23, Master of Public Administration, was selected as Northeastern's first Founder’s Fellow by the American Society for Public Administration. Glenn serves as Grants Manager for the Brockton Area Transit Authority.

Fulbright Teaching Scholarship

Saoirse McNally '23, Human Services and Criminal Justice, was one of four Northeastern students awarded Fulbright Scholarships.

Student Awards

Graduate Student Leadership

Award Jose Guerrero Sanchez '23

Master of Urban Planning and Policy

Outstanding Academic Performance Award

Community Impact Award

Sydney Fisher '23

Master of Urban Planning and Policy

Riley Glosick '23

Master of Public Administration

School Spirit Award

Shelby Kurland '23

Master of Public Administration

Kelly Ann Lewis '23

Master of Public Policy

Kiera Fair '23

Master of International Affairs

Peer-to-Peer Award

Johan Arango-Quiroga '25

PhD in Public Policy

Policy School Student Adam J. Scanlon speaks at graduation ceremony

Policy School student Adam Scanlon '23 was selected to speak at the May 2023 College of Social Sciences and Humanities graduation celebration. Adam graduated in Spring 2023 with a Master of Public Administration. As part of his master’s program, he took a course with Prof. Michael Dukakis and was inspired by the former governor’s passion for public service and his teachings about the importance of collaborative leadership in local and state government. In 2020, Adam was elected state representative for the 14th Bristol district in Massachusetts.

Barr Turner '23

Master of Public Policy

Alexandra Bollella '23

Master of Public Policy

Emma Dempsey '23

Master of Public Policy

Kathleen Magee '23

Master of Urban Planning and Policy

Xianjie Meng '23

Master of Science in Urban Informatics

Alumni in Action

David Halbert '16

Executive Director

The Progressive Massachusetts Funders Collaborative

"I think oftentimes we find in policy issues that when you have two sides that seem to be very much in opposition, in a binary, the truth and the answer lie somewhere in between. But you have to break down those walls and allow for effective communication in order for change to happen.”

Heather M. Hume '13

Senior Director, Green Line Transformation at the MBTA Lecturer at the Policy School Policy School Advisory Committee member

"As a person interested in both sociology and transportation, I care deeply about how public transportation affects both the lives of those who use the systems, as well as those who provide the services. Using innovative technology and practices, I strive to help public transportation improve people’s lives."

Lauren Jones '17

Secretary of Labor & Workforce Development

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

"Lauren Jones has a proven track record of collaborating with businesses and labor to expand workforce development opportunities, attract new businesses to our state, and give both workers and employers the support they need.”

Gov. Maura Healey

Policy School retreat, September 2022, Peddocks Island

Programs and Directors

BAinHumanServices

LoriGardinier

MAinInternationalAffairs

JulieGarey

MasterofPublicAdministration

LindaKowalcky

MasterofPublicPolicy

LindaKowalcky

MSinEnvironmentalScienceandPolicy

BenjaminDittbrenner

MSinSecurityandResilienceStudies

DanielAldrich

MSinUrbanInformatics

MoiraZellner

MSinUrbanPlanningandPolicy

GavinShatkin

PhDinPublicPolicy

DanO'Brien

Administration

MariaIvanova Director

LindaKowalcky

AssociateDirector

MicheleRosenthal

AssociateDirectorofAcademicOperations

BeverlyBallaro

CommunicationsStrategyandStudentSuccess

EldaCeribashi

FinanceandAdministrationManager

JocelynPowers

AcademicProgramAdministrator(Graduate)

AlexisRosales-Hernandez

AcademicAdministratorandEventsManager

NataliaStone

ProgramManager(Undergraduate)

School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

310 Renaissance Park

Northeastern University

1135 Tremont Avenue

Boston, MA 02115

https://cssh.northeastern.edu/policyschool/

Centers and Initiatives

BostonAreaResearchInitiative (BARI)

DukakisCenterforUrbanand RegionalPolicy

SocialImpactLab

CommunitytoCommunity(C2C)

View the digital Impact Report

Special thanks to Beverly Ballaro and co-op students Hannah Mohtadi '24 and Kylee Hendrie '24 for designing and editing the Impact Report.