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
Ceu Cirne-Neves, MPA, FACHE Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
The Bloustein School is proud to share that Professor Céu Cirne-Neves, MPA, FACHE has been honored with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives New Jersey Chapter (ACHE-NJ). The award was presented at the chapter’s...
Stamato Commentary: N.J. GOP foes of Obamacare are pushing to save it? What’s up with that?
By Linda Stamato All three of New Jersey’s Republican congressmen – Reps. Jeff Van Drew, Chris Smith, and Tom Kean Jr. – supported the bill to open the government with no evident hesitation. It was signed into law by President Donald Trump soon afterwards. When they...
Pfeiffer Opinion: N.J.’s public media lifeline is about to snap — will Murphy and Sherrill let it?
By Marc Pfeiffer for NJ Advance Media New Jersey faces a decision it hasn’t confronted in 15 years: how to support the public interest information needs of 9 million residents. New Jersey state government news receives historically limited coverage by New York and...
NJSPL: The Healthcare Affordability Crisis in NJ and Nationally
The Healthcare Affordability Crisis in NJ and Nationally In 1992, political strategist James Carville famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” in reference to the messaging needed to get Bill Clinton elected. Carville’s admonition applied just as much to this year’s...
Charter schools proposed as solution to New Jersey’s segregation crisis
New Jersey’s school segregation is among the worst in America, in large part because the state is divided into so many districts – roughly 600, as compared to 180 in a more populated state like Georgia. Those partitions magnify residential segregation because students...










