The Bloustein School is pleased to welcome five new faculty members and two policy fellows to the teaching ranks in the fall of 2022.
Yen-Tyng Chen, Ph.D. joins the Bloustein School as an Assistant Professor. 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 shape health care delivery and health behaviors among under-resourced populations.
Dr. Chen uses epidemiological methods and behavioral theories to analyze and synthesize quantitative data and translate the findings into public health recommendations for downstream action or change. She has published peer-reviewed journal articles in leading public health journals such as Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, AIDS and Behavior, Journal of Urban Health, Social Science & Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health.
She has received multiple awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research. Dr. Chen and colleagues focus on developing HIV prevention and care intervention models using a social-spatial approach among young Black men who have sex with men in Chicago, USA. Dr. Chen’s current intersections of research area and methodological expertise include: health care engagement; built and social environments; structural racism; stigma and discrimination; social network analysis.
Derek DeLia, Ph.D. joins the Bloustein School as an Associate Professor. 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 among the poor, uninsured, and minorities; social determinants of health; childhood obesity and the built environment; health insurance coverage; performance measurement in Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s); healthcare markets; and market factors that affect access to limb salvage procedures for patients with severe chronic wounds. Dr. DeLia’s research is published in peer-reviewed journals such as Health Affairs, Health Services Research, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and Medical Care.
Dr. DeLia has been awarded more than $5.3 million in federal, state, & private research funding as Principal Investigator (PI) and has made substantial contributions to raising more than $18.8 million as a contributing co-Investigator. He has presented research and provided policy analysis for the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), and the NJ Dept of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS). He also served on the NJ Healthcare Access Study Commission and a Subcommittee of the Governor’s Commission on Rationalizing Health Care Resources. He has served on scientific review committees for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). In 2009, Dr. DeLia led the organization of a national research conference on the integration of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) with broader health services research and health policy. In 2007, he served on a project for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the Nation’s Report Card) to create standardized tests for high school economics. He has provided expert commentary on healthcare issues for NJN Public Television, National Public Radio, and several other media outlets including NJ101.5 and the Newark Star Ledger.
Previously, Dr. DeLia held research positions at the MedStar Health Research Institute, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, and the United Hospital Fund of New York. He also taught Health Economics, Econometrics, and Statistics for the Rutgers Economics Department, Columbia University, New York University, and the City University of New York.
Mark Paul, Ph.D. joins the Bloustein School as an Assistant Professor. 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 causes and consequences of inequality and assessing and designing remedies to address inequality. He also writes extensively on the climate crisis, focusing on economic pathways toward deep decarbonization that center economic and environmental justice. He works extensively with policymakers across scales of government and has worked with numerous Congressional offices to draft and inform legislation based on his scholarly work.
His writing and research have appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Jacobin, Dissent, MIT Technology Review, CNN, The American Prospect, and more. His first book, The Ends of Freedom: Reclaiming America’s Lost Promise of Economic Rights, was published by University of Chicago Press in 2023. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Cook Center for Social Equity at Duke University and an Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at New College of Florida.
Andrea Restrepo-Mieth, Ph.D. joins the Bloustein School as an Assistant Professor . She was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, where she worked on urban planning institutions and local climate change adaptation. She is a member of The Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement at Rutgers and the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance (GERA), a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary group of community members and university researchers working in Galápagos. Her research combines insights from urban planning, public policy and political science to examine the emergence and stabilization of urban planning and city management institutions that improve the equitable and sustainable provision of local public goods and basic services in cities in the Global South. She has a regional focus on Latin America and has also worked in Southeast Asia. She holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, a MPP from the Lee Kuan Yew School, National University of Singapore, and a BA in Economics and International Relations from the State University of New York at New Paltz.
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 municipal securities market.
Adriana Abizadeh, M.S. joins the Bloustein School as a Senior Policy Fellow. She 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 building neighborhood power and wealth in Kensington. The KCT supports sustainable corridor development through thoughtful real estate acquisition, community engagement, broad local ownership, small business lending and technical assistance, and safety and health programming. KCT’s vision is that Kensington Avenue is a safe, healthy, and socioeconomically diverse commercial corridor with accessible opportunities for the existing and future residents of Kensington.
Adriana is also the President of Catalyst Consulting Group (CCG), a boutique consulting firm that is moving projects forward for nonprofits and other stakeholders. The firm specializes in strategic planning, leadership development, and board governance. Adriana’s expertise is in supporting grassroots organizations with growth strategies and the development of welcoming and inclusive work cultures.
Prior to serving as KCT’s executive director and begin her consulting firm, Adriana was the executive director of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF) in Trenton, NJ. While there she expanded LALDEF’s direct services by increasing staff fourfold, raised the organization’s visibility, tripled the operating budget, and boosted overall capacity.
All of Adriana’s professional working experience has been in the nonprofit sector and she is passionate about serving others. Adriana has a BA from Rutgers University in Political Science with a minor in Security Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. She also has an MS in Public Policy from Drexel University.
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 advance racial and economic justice efforts and improve the lives of communities across the country. Prior to joining the Center, McKoy was President of New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP), a member organization of the SPP network, and led the organization’s efforts in shaping policy debates. McKoy previously also served as NJPP’s Director of Government and Public Affairs, and, prior to that, as Policy Analyst. He joined the organization in 2014 as a national fellow under SPP’s and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ State Policy Fellowship Program.
McKoy brings 15 years of experience in social policy research, advocacy, and implementation, having served on the boards of various community organizations, advised governors on economic and tax policy, and participated in multiple task forces to advance racial and economic justice and reduce barriers in marginalized communities. Before NJPP, McKoy worked as a Program Associate at The Fund for New Jersey, where he assisted in grantmaking on public policy issues that particularly affect low-income and minority populations in New Jersey.
He has received multiple recognitions, including 40 under 40, top millennial leaders, and top leaders of color awards in New Jersey, and is an alum of the New Leaders Council – New Jersey chapter, where he served as Director of Mentorship, Director of Diversity, and Deputy Director. McKoy holds a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning and Policy Development from Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Psychology from The College of New Jersey.