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: Sea Level Rise, Community Engagement, and New Jersey’s Environmental Future
Janine Barr, a researcher at the Bloustein School’s Environmental Analysis and Communication (EAC) Group, joins Dean Stuart Shapiro this week on EJB Talks to discuss the center’s work on climate change impacts, the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center’s Science and Technology Advisory Panel Report, and her path to environmental policy.
EJB Talks: Small Wins, Big Impact: On the Front Lines of Local Public Health
In this episode of EJB Talks, Peter Tabbot ’91 MPH ‘97, longtime local health officer in Rockaway, NJ and a Bloustein School public health lecturer, shares his path into public health and what it means to lead at the community level. He explains the wide-ranging role of health officers, from managing essential services to working with governments and residents.
EJB Talks: Planning, Policy, Politics, and the Path to Office
This week on EJB talks, Dean Stuart Shapiro talks to Bloustein alumnus Katie Brennan MCRP ’12, now an Assemblywoman in New Jersey’s 32nd District. Katie reflects on how her early exposure to housing instability, volunteer work, and her undergraduate policy studies shaped her belief that “everything is a housing issue.”
EJB Talks: Beyond “Does It Work?”
EJB Talks returns for Season 14 with Dean Stuart Shapiro speaking with new Public Policy professor Laura Peck. Laura discusses her journey from undergraduate activism to policy analysis, a PhD, tenure at Arizona State, and more than a decade at Abt Associates. She shares how that work shaped her focus on careful, policy-relevant research, specifically taking about her evaluation of the federal Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG) program.
EJB Talks: Fighting for Government Accountability in NJ
Stuart Shapiro asks Julia Rubin, why New Jersey has long been considered one of the most politically corrupt states. She explains how a consistent pattern of high-profile cases have contributed to this perception, citing the influence of the state’s longtime political machines and the now-abolished “county line” primary ballot that heavily favored party-backed candidates as primary examples. She also walks us through how years of research, lawsuits, and the more recent Menendez scandal have culminated in a major reform that replaced the county line with fairer office-block ballots, leading to more competitive races, higher voter turnout, and a growing number of reform-minded legislators.
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.
News
Anita Franzione, 2026 Rose Teaching Excellence Award Recipient
The Bloustein School is pleased to announce that Anita Franzione, Full Professor of Teaching, is the 2026 recipient of the Jerome G. Rose Excellence in Teaching Award. The award is presented annually to a full-time faculty member committed to quality teaching,...
Pfeiffer and Brannigan Opinion: In Consideration of Public Service
Today, our communities face many challenges – the effects of climate change, deteriorating infrastructure, increased poverty amid great affluence, the ravages of substance abuse, and more. Amidst these crises, we also face a deep cynicism about politics, government,...
Two different divorces? Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley analyzes how divorce over the age of 50 produces different impacts for men and women in Thrive Magazine, Winter/Spring 2026.
“Gray divorce,” the rising rate of separation among adults over 50, has grown dramatically in recent decades, increasing from just 8.7% of all divorces in 1990 to around 40% today. This trend reflects broader cultural and societal shifts, including longer life...
Why Central Jersey rail towns are at the center of NJ’s housing boom
New Jersey is building homes at its fastest pace in decades — a surge that is reshaping Central Jersey’s commuter rail towns, downtowns and redevelopment corridors, according to a new Rutgers University report that tracks long-term construction trends. The state...
Emeritus Professor John Pucher: A Blueprint for Better Biking
"Cycling is healthy.” This simple mantra guides the lifestyle and academic work of East Coast Greenway Alliance Advisory Board member, professor and author John Pucher, who — at age 75 — is a regular rider of the East Coast Greenway in Raleigh, North Carolina. Pucher,...