Faculty

Bloustein School faculty publish in scholarly journals; serve as advisers to local, state, and federal government; and are engaged in cutting-edge research that addresses many of our era’s most challenging issues, including educational policy, brownfields and neighborhood redevelopment, transportation policy, and workforce development.

Adriana Abizadeh, M.S.

Adriana Abizadeh, M.S.

Adriana Abizadeh is currently the executive director of the Kensington Corridor Trust (KCT) in Philadelphia. The mission, duty and purpose of the KCT is to utilize collective ownership to direct investments on the corridor that preserve culture and affordability while...

Amy E. Underhill Abruzzi, Ph.D, MPH, MLS, CPH, MCHES

Amy E. Underhill Abruzzi, Ph.D, MPH, MLS, CPH, MCHES

Dr. Abruzzi is an associate teaching professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy’s Public Health program. Dr. Abruzzi received her BA in Anthropology from Rutgers University- Rutgers College, and her MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from the...

Hooshang Amirahmadi, Ph.D.

Hooshang Amirahmadi, Ph.D.

Hooshang Amirahmadi holds a Ph.D. in planning and international development from Cornell University. Acclaimed for his contributions to improving United States-Iran relations through promoting world peace and humanistic studies, he is the founder of the Center for...

Clinton J. Andrews, Ph.D.

Clinton J. Andrews, Ph.D.

Clinton J. Andrews is a professor, center director, and the associate dean for research at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University. He was educated at Brown and MIT in engineering and planning, and he worked previously in the...

Hon. Paul W. Armstrong, J.S.C., M.A., J.D., LL.M.

Hon. Paul W. Armstrong, J.S.C., M.A., J.D., LL.M.

Paul W. Armstrong was nominated to the Superior Court by the Governor of New Jersey and the Senate confirmed his nomination in the spring of 2000. Judge Armstrong was granted judicial tenure in the spring of 2007 by the Governor and Senate of New Jersey. He has served...

David Artz, MD, MBA

David Artz, MD, MBA

David Artz, MD, MBA is a Senior Health Administration Fellow at the Bloustein School. He teaches healthcare economics, and his current professional foci are healthcare informatics and precision medicine payment and policy. Dr. Artz continues to practice Internal...

Juan Ayala, MArch

Juan Ayala, MArch

Juan Ayala teaches urban design skills and the application of visual communication to the urban planning and design process.  His skills in developing design solutions originate from an understanding of the traditions in hand drawing, modeling, photography, and image...

Bernadette V. Baird-Zars, Ph.D.

Bernadette V. Baird-Zars, Ph.D.

Bernadette Baird-Zars, Ph.D., joined the Bloustein School in January 2023. Prior to Rutgers, she was a post-doctoral scholar in inclusive urbanism and governance focused on flooding adaptation and post-disaster recovery at Columbia University. Her work examines...

Francis Barchi, Ph.D.

Francis Barchi, Ph.D.

Francis Barchi is an associate professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Policy and a core member of the Rutgers Global Health Institute. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers, she was a senior fellow in the Center for Medical Ethics at the University of...

Marci Berger, Ph.D.

Marci Berger, Ph.D.

Dr. Berger is an Instructor at the Bloustein School at Rutgers University.   Her professional interests include health policy, public policy and reproductive health.  She has taught classes on broad array of topics including Poverty in the U.S., Family, Gender and...

Soumitra Bhuyan, Ph.D., MPH

Soumitra Bhuyan, Ph.D., MPH

Soumitra Bhuyan, Ph.D., MPH, is an Associate Professor at the Bloustein School. His primary teaching and research interests include chronic disease management and health information systems with an overarching emphasis on population health. Dr. Bhuyan was a Fellow of...

Debra Borie-Holtz, Ph.D.

Debra Borie-Holtz, Ph.D.

Debra Borie-Holtz is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the Bloustein School where she also received her master’s degree in Public Affairs and Politics and her doctorate in Planning and Public Policy. Borie-Holtz has been an instructor at Rutgers teaching writing,...

Lawrence B. Burrows, MCP

Lawrence B. Burrows, MCP

Lawrence B. Burrows is a Senior Planning Fellow with almost four decades of experience in real estate consulting, real estate development and wood products manufacturing. At the Bloustein School, he teaches real estate and land development planning, as well as...

Alan Cander, Ph.D.

Alan Cander, Ph.D.

Dr. Cander has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate level at the Bloustein School.  He has taught the required Survey of Planning Law Principles course for MCRP students and the required Public Policy Formation course for MPP students.  At the undergraduate...

Joel Cantor, Sc.D.

Joel Cantor, Sc.D.

Joel C. Cantor is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and the founding Director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Established 1999, the Center is a leader in health policy research and development...

Raphael J. Caprio, Ph.D.

Raphael J. Caprio, Ph.D.

Raphael J. Caprio is University Professor at Rutgers University. Dr. Caprio carries out research and teaching in the area of local and state budgeting and finance, financial management, and public sector management.  He also is active in labor and public sector...

Yen-Tyng Chen, Ph.D., M.S.

Yen-Tyng Chen, Ph.D., M.S.

Yen-Tyng Chen, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School in September 2022. Dr. Chen is a social determinant of health researcher and social epidemiologist. She is committed to examining how structural-level (e.g., policy, built environment, structural racism) characteristics...

Céu Cirne-Neves, FACHE

Céu Cirne-Neves, FACHE

Céu Cirne-Neves, MPA, FACHE, is a healthcare executive with more than 25 years of experience in senior administration positions. She served as the CEO of Saint James Hospital, Cathedral Healthcare System, Newark, from 1996-2005, and most recently, in a variety of...

Henry A. Coleman, Ph.D.

Henry A. Coleman, Ph.D.

Henry A. Coleman is a Senior Policy Fellow, having retired from teaching in the Bloustein School's Public Policy Program in June 2019. He also served as director of the Rutgers Center for Government Services for twelve years. His interests and publications are...

Jocelyn Elise Crowley, Ph.D.

Jocelyn Elise Crowley, Ph.D.

Jocelyn Elise Crowley is a Professor of Public Policy, a member of the Graduate Faculty in the Department of Political Science, an Affiliated Faculty Member of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, and a Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for...

William Cundiff, JD, MBA, FACHE, CMPE, CHC

William Cundiff, JD, MBA, FACHE, CMPE, CHC

William Cundiff joined the Bloustein School as an Assistant Teaching Professor in January 2024. He possesses extensive teaching experience at the MHA and MBA levels as well as an adjunct instructor, both on-campus and online. He also served as campus executive of a...

Thomas Davis, MCRP, MPA

Thomas Davis, MCRP, MPA

I have lived in New Jersey, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.  I have experience in criminal justice, municipal finance, housing and community planning.  After working for several years in the municipal bond business in New York, I settled in Sussex County where I grew up...

James DeFilippis, Ph.D.

James DeFilippis, Ph.D.

James DeFilippis' research focuses on the politics and economics of cities and communities.  He is particularly interested in the processes of social change, and questions of power and justice in cities. His work strives to makes connections; linking disciplines and...

Derek DeLia, Ph.D.

Derek DeLia, Ph.D.

Derek DeLia, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Bloustein School. He is a Health Economist with research interests in healthcare payment and delivery reform; Medicaid policy; the economics of hospitals and health centers; emergency medical care; healthcare access...

Aakanksha Deoli, MHA

Aakanksha Deoli, MHA

Aakanksha Deoli, MHA, is an Instructor of Teaching at the Bloustein School for several undergraduate Health Administration courses, including Intro to Health Administration, Intro to Lean in Health Care, Leadership Seminar, and the Professional Practice Internship...

Barbara Faga, Ph.D.

Barbara Faga, Ph.D.

Barbara Faga joins the Bloustein School following a 30-year career as an author, professor and professional urban planner, having worked with communities to enhance the public’s perception of landscape architecture and urban design. Barbara joined AECOM (then EDAW) in...

Anita Franzione, DrPH

Anita Franzione, DrPH

Anita Franzione has been in the field of health care for over 30 years working in all sectors of health care from ambulatory care settings  to acute care hospitals, nonprofit agencies, long term care organizations, for-profit insurance companies, and quality...

Bob Gordon, M.P.P., M.B.A.

Bob Gordon, M.P.P., M.B.A.

Bob is a former New Jersey state senator, utility commissioner, transportation policy maker and corporate management consultant whose diverse skills make him particularly adept at addressing issues at the intersection of business and government.  Across a multi-decade...

Irina Grafova, Ph.D.

Irina Grafova, Ph.D.

Irina Grafova, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School as an Associate Professor in 2023. Trained as a health economist, Dr. Grafova’s research aims to bring new evidence to socio-economic inequalities in health and health disparities. She has conducted research on family...

Alexander J. Hatala, MBA

Alexander J. Hatala, MBA

Alexander J. Hatala is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Lourdes Health System, where he is responsible for the performance and overall management of the system and its affiliates. He has exceptional health system leadership abilities and thirty‐one years...

Andrea Hetling, Ph.D.

Andrea Hetling, Ph.D.

Andrea Hetling is a Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Dr. Hetling’s research interests focus on how public programs and policies can support economic well-being and financial stability among vulnerable...

James W. Hughes, Ph.D.

James W. Hughes, Ph.D.

James W. Hughes is University Professor, named to that position in 2017 by the Board of Governors of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. As such, he reports solely to the chief academic officer (Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs) of Rutgers and...

Will Irving, MPP

Will Irving, MPP

Will Irving joined the Bloustein School as an Associate Professor of Practice in Fall 2023, returning to Rutgers following a 3-year stint as an economic policy and revenue analyst at the New Jersey Treasury. Prior to his work at Treasury, Will was for many years a...

Sanford M. Jaffe, L.L.B.

Sanford M. Jaffe, L.L.B.

Sanford M. Jaffe is a Policy Fellow at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, and co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. He has served as a member of the Board of Governors at Rutgers University and chair...

Radha Jagannathan, Ph.D.

Radha Jagannathan, Ph.D.

Radha Jagannathan is a Professor of Statistics in the Urban Planning & Policy Development Program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Professor Jagannathan received a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and...

Jane Kaye, MBA

Jane Kaye, MBA

Jane Kaye, MBA is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. A healthcare CFO who brings 25+ years of finance leadership and consulting experience to health systems and physician practices positioning themselves...

Richard F. Keevey, MPA

Richard F. Keevey, MPA

Richard Keevey is the former Budget Director and Comptroller for the State of New Jersey -- having been appointed by two Governors. Keevey was appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S Senate as the Chief Financial Officer for the U.S. Department of Housing...

Susan Krum, Au.D.

Susan Krum, Au.D.

Susan Krum is an experienced healthcare leader with extensive knowledge in delivering strategic and operational change for multi-hospital healthcare systems. Dr. Krum was Vice President of Ambulatory Operations at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Her strong...

Ellen Kurtzman, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

Ellen Kurtzman, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

Ellen Kurtzman is a professor of Health Administration in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Prior to her arrival at Bloustein, Dr. Kurtzman spent 15 years at The George Washington University (GW) with appointments in the Schools of Nursing,...

David Listokin, Ph.D.

David Listokin, Ph.D.

David Listokin is a Professor at the Center for Urban Policy Research of Rutgers University. He is a leading authority on public finance, development impact analysis, and historic preservation. Dr. Listokin has recently been analyzing strategies to quantify the...

Alexandra Lopez, M.A.

Alexandra Lopez, M.A.

Alexandra Lopez has been in the field of addictions counseling for over 20 years. She has an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and a Masters Degree in Counseling Education from Kean University. She is a Licensed Clinical Alcohol Drug Counselor as well as a...

Michael J. McDonough DMH, FACHE

Michael J. McDonough DMH, FACHE

Michael J. McDonough has worked as an executive in the health care field since 1975. The first twenty years of his career were spent in acute care hospitals and joined an emerging health care system in the long term care division in 1995. From 2008-16 he served as...

Brandon McKoy, MCRP

Brandon McKoy, MCRP

Brandon McKoy is the Vice President of State Partnerships on the State Fiscal Policy team. He helps support member organizations of the State Priorities Partnership (SPP) network by connecting them with vital resources as they research and promote policies that...

Jane E. Miller, Ph.D.

Jane E. Miller, Ph.D.

Jane E. Miller is a Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, where she also serves as the Faculty Mentoring Director and the Co-chair of the Teaching Evaluation and Mentoring Committee. Until 2019, she was a Research Professor at...

Russ Molloy, J.D.

Russ Molloy, J.D.

Russ Molloy, J.D., has been engaged in public policy and government relations for the past four decades with a focus on health care issues for more than 25 years. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Hackensack Meridian Health...

Roberto Muniz

Roberto Muniz

Roberto Muñiz, MPA, LNHA, FACHCA, is a Senior Health Administration Fellow and Instructor at the Bloustein School. He is also an adjunct instructor at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Roberto teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels with...

Kathe Newman, Ph.D.

Kathe Newman, Ph.D.

Kathe Newmanis a Professor in the Urban Planning and Policy Development Program at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and Director of the Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement. Dr. Newman holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the...

Fereydoun Nikpour, PhD

Fereydoun Nikpour, PhD

Fereydoun Nikpour holds a Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policy from Rutgers University and is a Professor of Teaching at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He holds a M.A. in Urban Development from The National University of Iran (NUI), and M.C.R.P. (Master...

Robert B. Noland, Ph.D.

Robert B. Noland, Ph.D.

Robert B. Noland is Associate Dean of Faculty and Distinguished Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He also serves as the Director of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center. He received his PhD at the University of...

Patricia O’Brien-Richardson, Ph.D.

Patricia O’Brien-Richardson, Ph.D.

Dr. Patricia O’Brien-Richardson is an Associate Professor of Teaching at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. For the past ten years, she has been the CEO and Founder of Move it Nation, Inc., a public health non-profit organization whose...

Emily A. Parker, Ph.D.

Emily A. Parker, Ph.D.

Emily Parker, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School as an Assistant Professor in 2023. She was formerly a NIA Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan in the Population Studies Center and received her Ph.D. in Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University....

Mark Paul, Ph.D.

Mark Paul, Ph.D.

Mark Paul, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School as an assistant professor in September 2022. He is also a member of the Rutgers Climate Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests include understanding the...

Will Payne, Ph.D.

Will Payne, Ph.D.

Will Payne, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School in September 2020. He received his PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley, where he also was affiliated with the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Berkeley Food Institute, and the UC Berkeley Global...

Marc H. Pfeiffer, MPA

Marc H. Pfeiffer, MPA

Marc H. Pfeiffer retired in 2012 from a 37-year career in New Jersey local government administration, having served as a municipal administrator in several municipalities, and 26 years of service in the State’s local government oversight agency, the Division of Local...

Ronald Quincy, Ph.D.

Ronald Quincy, Ph.D.

Co-Academic Director, Collaborative Center for Community-Based Research and Service Academic Director, Rutgers Civic Leadership Institute, Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Faculty Director, South Africa Study Abroad, Honors College & School...

Kelcie Ralph, Ph.D.

Kelcie Ralph, Ph.D.

Kelcie Ralph joined the Bloustein School from UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, where she studied the travel behavior of special populations. She earned her Ph.D. from UCLA, where her dissertation project evaluated the causes and consequences of the decline in...

Andrea Restrepo-Mieth, Ph.D.

Andrea Restrepo-Mieth, Ph.D.

Andrea Restrepo-Mieth, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School as an assistant professor in September 2022. She was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, where she worked on urban planning institutions and local climate change...

Julia Sass Rubin, Ph.D., MBA

Julia Sass Rubin, Ph.D., MBA

Julia Sass Rubin has been part of the faculty of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy since 2003.  Dr. Rubin’s research interests include nonprofit and public organizations and processes, developmental finance, and the intersection of education...

Hal Salzman, Ph.D.

Hal Salzman, Ph.D.

Hal Salzman is Professor of Planning and Public Policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School and Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. His research focuses on science and engineering labor markets, workplace restructuring, skill...

Jim Samuel, Ph.D.

Jim Samuel, Ph.D.

Dr. Jim Samuel is an Associate Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Informatics Program at Bloustein. He is an information and artificial intelligence (AI) scientist, with significant industry experience in finance, technology, entrepreneurship and data...

Eduardo Schur

Eduardo Schur

Eduardo Schur serves as a Partner in the EY Life Sciences Practice and leads the Health Sciences & Wellness Commercial Practice. He brings over 30 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device markets. His expertise includes strategic planning,...

Eric Seymour, Ph.D.

Eric Seymour, Ph.D.

Eric Seymour, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School in July 2019. He was most recently a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University’s Population Studies and Training Center, where he worked on the spatial demography of urban population loss. Prior to that, he...

Stuart Shapiro, Ph.D.

Stuart Shapiro, Ph.D.

Stuart Shapiro was named Dean, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, in April 2023. He joined Rutgers University in 2003. Prior to that, he received a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University – Kennedy School of Government and worked at the...

Mi Shih, Ph.D.

Mi Shih, Ph.D.

Mi Shih joined the faculty of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in 2014. Prior to this appointment, she served as an assistant professor in the Human Geography and Planning Program at the University of Alberta, Canada. Between 2011 and 2013,...

Michael Smart, Ph.D.

Michael Smart, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Smart is an associate professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. His research interests include the influence of social and spatial phenomena on individuals’ transportation decisions, with a particular interest in...

Linda Stamato, Ph.D.

Linda Stamato, Ph.D.

Linda Stamato is a Policy Fellow at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. She is the author of a number of articles on mediation and negotiation and lectures frequently on these subjects. A graduate of Rutgers and New York...

Piyushimita (Vonu) Thakuriah, Ph.D.

Piyushimita (Vonu) Thakuriah, Ph.D.

Director, Rutgers Urban and Civic Informatics Lab   View Vonu Thakuriah's website:  https://sites.rutgers.edu/thakuriah              

Jermaine Toney, Ph.D.

Jermaine Toney, Ph.D.

ON LEAVE, 2023-24 Jermaine Toney, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Bloustein School. He was selected to receive a 2023-2024 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Fellowship on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Economic Outcomes. Professor Toney was a member...

Carl E. Van Horn, Ph.D.

Carl E. Van Horn, Ph.D.

Carl Van Horn is a widely recognized expert on workforce, human resources, and employment policy issues with extensive experience in public and private sector policymaking. Van Horn is the founding director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, one of the...

Sharifa Z. Williams, DrPH

Sharifa Z. Williams, DrPH

Sharifa Z. Williams, MS, DrPH, joined the Bloustein School in September 2022. Her research interests include biostatistical methods applied to identifying and quantifying health disparities that arise from exposure to structural adversity (i.e., discrimination and...

Ruth Winecoff, Ph.D.

Ruth Winecoff, Ph.D.

Ruth Winecoff is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy. Her primary research area is state and local public finance, with a focus on policies that affect the ability of subnational governments to raise capital for infrastructure and development projects through the...

Nancy Wolff, Ph.D.

Nancy Wolff, Ph.D.

Nancy Wolff, Ph.D., an economist and professor, joined the Bloustein faculty in 1992. Her research has increasingly focused on public policies and justice practices that influence the incarceration and rehabilitation of justice-involved people. In 1999, she was...

Wenwen Zhang, Ph.D.

Wenwen Zhang, Ph.D.

Wenwen Zhang, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School in August 2020. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia Tech’s School of City and Regional Planning in 2017. She also earned Masters in City and Regional Planning, Civil Engineering, and Computational Science &...

Associated Faculty & Postdoctoral Associates

Bob Kopp

Bob Kopp

Lenna Nepomnyaschy

Lenna Nepomnyaschy

Karen M. O'Neill, Ph.D.

Karen M. O'Neill, Ph.D.

Cymie Payne, Ph.D.

Cymie Payne, Ph.D.

Edward Ramsamy

Edward Ramsamy

Mark Gregory Robson, Ph.D.

Mark Gregory Robson, Ph.D.

Rachael Shwom, Ph.D.

Rachael Shwom, Ph.D.

Hannah Younes, Ph.D.

Hannah Younes, Ph.D.