EJB Talks
Join our faculty and staff experts, as well as some of our alumni and students, as we talk about topics within the disciplines of public policy, urban planning, public health, health administration, and informatics.
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EJB Talks: Alumnus Helps Rethink Jersey City’s Public Spaces
Dean Stuart Shapiro talks to alumnus Barkha Patel, MCRP ’15 this week on EJB Talks. She reflects on how the planning school fundamentals and communication skills she learned still form the basis for her work, and concludes with encouraging emerging planners to adopt an action-oriented mindset by becoming a person who figures things out and gets things done, even when they feel out of their depth.
EJB Talks: Uncovering Inequality Through Design
Assistant Professor Carmelo Ignaccolo explains how, in both his research and teaching, he has focused on how design has had the power to shape inequality over time, showing how decisions such as highway placement or waterfront redevelopment leave long-lasting impacts on communities.
EJB Talks: Lifelong Learning and Leadership in Healthcare
With nearly four decades of healthcare administrative experience, William Tuttle explains how his journey began with his decision to shift from medicine to hospital management. He talks about his 38 years with Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, where he advanced through multiple roles from managing service departments to leading a rural hospital and later overseeing physician recruitment and large construction projects.
EJB Talks: Careful Campaigns, Big Debates
With just a month until New Jersey’s gubernatorial election, Dean Stuart Shapiro sits down with Kristoffer Shields, Director of Eagleton Institute’s Center on the American Governor, for a special pre-gubernatorial debate episode of EJB Talks. They discuss how the race between Mikie Sherrill (D) and Jack Ciattarelli (R) has so far unfolded cautiously, the slowly-growing appearance of negative ads as the election cycle has progressed, and the challenges both candidates face in breaking through the noisy national news cycle.
Social Determinants, Health Policy, & Public Health
Dean Stuart Shapiro and the EJB Talks podcast have returned for season 13 with assistant teaching professor Katie Pincura. Connecting her own experiences navigating health systems in Canada and the U.S. with her work fueled her interest in health policy and ultimately led her to pursue an MPH and DrPH. Since arriving at Rutgers’ Bloustein School last year, Katie has sought to integrate her students’ lived experiences into public health policy by encouraging them to critically examine the trade-offs between individual freedoms and collective well-being.
From Public Health Research to Real-World Impact
This week on EJB Talks we talk to Melinda Rushing, a new faculty member in the school’s health administration program, and her winding journey from social work to public health and how her passion for research, particularly around sickle cell disease and healthcare access, shaped her academic journey.
Inside, Outside, & In Between: Leading In Government
This week on EJB Talks, Bloustein School Young Alumni honoree and Advisory Board Member Sara Meyers MPP ’09 shares her unconventional path into public policy, beginning with a background in music and German before being inspired by political events to pursue change from within government.
Clint Andrews–The Critical Role of University Research
This week on EJB Talks, Dean Stuart Shapiro speaks with Bloustein School alumna and Bloustein Advisory Board member, Leah Furey Bruder, MCRP ’06 about her journey into urban planning and her experiences working in municipal and redevelopment planning. Leah explains how her background in international studies shifted to local planning after working on community development in Camden, NJ. She discusses her work in Cherry Hill, her time as an in-house municipal planner in Evesham Township, and her decision to start her own firm to focus on impactful projects.
Leah Furey Bruder–Community Centered Urban Planning
This week on EJB Talks, Dean Stuart Shapiro speaks with Bloustein School alumna and Bloustein Advisory Board member, Leah Furey Bruder, MCRP ’06 about her journey into urban planning and her experiences working in municipal and redevelopment planning. Leah explains how her background in international studies shifted to local planning after working on community development in Camden, NJ. She discusses her work in Cherry Hill, her time as an in-house municipal planner in Evesham Township, and her decision to start her own firm to focus on impactful projects.
Healthcare, Policy, and the Opioid Crisis: Bridging Gaps in Access
This week on EJB Talks Assistant Professor Zoe Lindenfeld talks to Dean Stuart Shapiro about her research on substance use disorders, particularly the opioid crisis, and its ties to healthcare access and policy. She explains how her interest in the field was sparked by the opioid epidemic’s emergence as a public health crisis.
News
Wolff and Lewis Pen Chapter on PSD and Trauma-Informed Care
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma-Informed Care Introduction Prison and jail populations have dense and patterned concentrations of childhood and adult trauma (Wolff, 2022). The maturing effects of childhood trauma have been extensively studied for decades,...
EJB Talks: Alumnus Helps Rethink Jersey City’s Public Spaces
Alumnus Helps Rethink Jersey City's Public Spaces: A Conversation with Barkha Patel MCRP '15 Dean Stuart Shapiro talks to alumnus Barkha Patel, MCRP '15 this week on EJB Talks. Initially a sociology undergraduate at Rutgers, Barkha discusses how a chance visit by Dean...
New work requirements for SNAP recipients take effect
Enrollees must show they have worked or volunteered a minimum of 80 hours a month New restrictions to the country’s biggest anti-hunger program went into effect on Monday, making food access more difficult for roughly 850,000 people in New Jersey. Finalized on Monday,...
NJSPL Report: Equity Initiatives in the United States
Report Release: Equity Initiatives in the United States Read Report The New Jersey State government proactively advances equity through its Office of Equity in the Office of the Governor, and through budget initiatives such as the “Cover all Kids” program ensuring...
TECH UPDATES: Essential Technology Questions (and Answers) for Decision-Makers
By Marc Pfeiffer (Published December 1, 2025 at ICMA.org) Practical technology guidance to improve digital services, manage IT infrastructure, comply with regulations, and adopt emerging technologies responsibly This column was written to address questions that...