Chelsie Riche MPP ’23 was recently named a Public Administration Student of the Year by New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (NJ ASPA).
Each year during Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW), NJ ASPA recognizes New Jersey public servants and outstanding public administration students at their Annual Awards Reception. This year’s reception will be held on May 17 at Thomas Edison State University (TESU) in Trenton, New Jersey.
Chelsie is one of eight student awardees who have excelled in public administration studies at universities in New Jersey and have emerged as effective leaders among their contemporaries. She is deeply passionate about all children having access to quality education, and throughout her academic career has focused much of her research and activism on providing access to education for marginalized communities.
In addition to recently completing graduate studies in public policy at the Bloustein School, Chelsie is working toward completing a Master of Education in Education, Culture, and Society from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, and will also be completing a certificate in Leading Organizational Change from Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations. She works as the Assistant Director of Student Success and Experiential Education at Rutgers’ Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and earlier this year was featured in Rutgers’ Professionally Black series.
Chelsie is also the principal investigator and program manager for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority-sponsored NJ Wind Institute OSW Fellowship Program at Rutgers, a program designed to encourage student research and innovation in offshore wind.
Chelsie is a 2017 graduate of Rutgers-New Brunswick, majoring in Africana studies and history with a minor in women’s gender studies at Rutgers. She completed a dual honors thesis for both departments titled, “Vodou and the Making of Nation in Haiti: Vodou, Politics, and Recognition.” She also participated in the Lloyd Gardner Fellowship Program in Leadership and Social Policy, which provides Rutgers undergraduates with the opportunity to deepen their awareness of global issues and to take a prominent role in addressing pressing social issues through policy, law, business, health, academia, politics, and other careers.
After completing her bachelor’s degree, she was one of 36 students nationwide awarded the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. She earned a Master of Philosophy with her dissertation, “The Limits of Student Led Movements: Fees Must Fall in South Africa.”