Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy

Intelligent Informatics at Rutgers: Knowledge Graphs in Natural Language Processing: Overcome Domain Adaptation Challenges in Language Models
2022-11-11 11:00 - 12:15 (America/New_York) | Virtual
This event was hosted by the PISG, the MPI program and the Rutgers Urban & Civic Informatics (RUCI) Lab, the Bloustein Student Services and BGSA in collaboration with our partners at Rutgers University and our external collaborators.
Event presented by Vivek Kumar, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Scholar, University of Cagliari, Italy
Vivek Kumar is an NLP Enthusiast. He is presently working as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Researcher with the University of Cagliari, Italy and Philips Research, Netherlands for PhilHumans (European Commission, Horizon 2020, ITN project). Prior to this, he worked as a Research Engineer for the project “Search for Hidden Particle” (SHiP) of the European Commission of Nuclear Research (CERN) at NUST-MiSiS. He received his MS degree from NUST-MiSiS in Computer Science. In his career so far, he has authored several publications with Journals, Book Series and Conferences of International repute. He is also the reviewer / editor for several Journals and International Conferences of IEEE, Springer, ACM, etc.
Watch the recorded event at

2022 Alumni Awards Celebration
2022-10-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED
Since 1994, the Alumni Achievement Awards have recognized Bloustein School alumni who have made exemplary contributions to their professions and communities, while demonstrating support of the Bloustein School. The purpose of the Bloustein School Alumni Hall of Fame, inaugurated in 2013, is to showcase and honor the current and all previous recipients of the Alumni Achievement Awards whose personal and professional accomplishments have been of the highest caliber and brought credit to the school.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT!

2022 Honorees
Dean’s Medal of Merit
Selected and awarded by the Office of the Dean
Steven Allard MCRP ’79
Career Achievement
Kevin Drennan MCRP ’07
Rising Star Awards
Formerly the Young Alumni Awards
Brandon McKoy MCRP ’13 Angela Burnett Penn MCRP ’14 Arielle Woronoff MPP ’09

Meet our 2022 Honorees
2022 DEAN’S MEDAL OF MERIT AWARD
STEVEN ALLARD, MCRP ’79

Steven Allard began his career in the public sector, with stints at the New York City Legislative Office of Budget Review and the New Jersey Department of Energy Office of Planning and Policy Analysis. In 1984, he moved to the private sector to take a position with a start-up municipal bond company – the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company – working in the Utility and Transportation Group as an analyst. Over 12 years at FGIC, Steven went from an analyst in the group to its Director, and participated in over $20 billion of municipal bond issuances for infrastructure projects for over 200 states, municipalities and regional authorities. As a member of the Management Executive Committee, Steven also helped oversee FGIC’s entire public finance portfolio.
In 1996, Steven moved to the Credit Assessment Group in the New York office of Société Générale (SocGen), an international bank and finance company based in France. There, Steven was the Managing Director responsible for the credit risk function in the Americas for a nascent public finance debt portfolio that grew to $15 billion during his tenure, as well as smaller investor-owned utilities, power and infrastructure project finance, energy commodities, metals and mining, and corporate healthcare portfolios. While at SocGen, Steven also developed and led a training program for junior analysts.
Since his retirement in 2013, Steven has channeled his energy toward a number of civic activities in and around New Brunswick. He is a member of the New Brunswick Area Branch of the NAACP and currently serves as Treasurer. He was engaged by the Lost Souls Public Memorial Project, a local grassroots organization, helping achieve incorporation and 501©3 status, and currently also serves as Treasurer. He serves on the Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement Advisory Board, and the Middlesex County Strategic Investment Framework Technical Advisory Committee associated with the Middlesex County Destination 2040 plan. Until his move earlier this year, he also served on the Highland Park Mayor’s Equity Advisory Council.
2022 CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
KEVIN DRENNAN, MCRP ‘07

Kevin Drennan serves as Managing Director in Mercury’s Westfield, NJ office, where he specializes in government affairs. In this role, Kevin is responsible for strategic advising and legislative advocacy. He is also a Partner at Field Strategies/Civic Operations Group. In this role, he is responsible for building strategic relationships and managing senior staff members of the organization.
Most recently, Kevin served as Executive Director/Chief of Staff in the New Jersey Senate Majority Office. As Executive Director/Chief of Staff, he managed a staff of 40 people, created the policy agenda as well as communications plans to drive the agenda forward. Some key policy successes include the elimination of cash bail, legalization of cannabis, stabilization of Atlantic City, improvement of the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities, increasing the minimum wage, expansion of paid family leave, improvement of K-12 funding, creation of the first Urban Research University, the development of the state’s first veterinary school, the rebirth of the City of Camden, improvement of the State’s economic incentives, movement towards increased development of solar and wind and the stabilization of the state’s three nuclear power plants.
Before joining the New Jersey Senate Majority Office, Kevin worked at a prominent telecommunications and entertainment company in New Jersey where he worked with regulatory agencies, government officials, and other regulated companies related to the telecommunications industry. He also worked in the healthcare field leading the government affairs team for one of the nation’s largest companies in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
He served in Governor McGreevey’s Office as an intergovernmental affairs representative serving as a liaison to local government officials. US Senator Corzine brought him on as a Special Projects Director. When Governor Corzine became Governor, Kevin served in the Office of Economic Growth, Executive Director of the New Jersey State Commerce Commission, and chair of the Urban Enterprise Zone Authority.
Kevin also has led voter contact teams from school board races to United States Senators. He was the Get Out the Vote Director/Voter Contact Director on two New Jersey gubernatorial campaigns and on two United States Senate campaigns.
Kevin earned his B.A. in Political Science from the College of New Jersey and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University. Kevin lives in Hamilton, NJ with his wife Rachel Holland and two daughters Eva Marie and Jacqueline.
2022 RISING STAR AWARDS
BRANDON MCKOY MCRP ’13

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.

ANGELA BURNETT PENN MCRP ’14

Angela Burnett Penn is an environmental management, urban planning and climate change adaptation professional, born and raised in The Virgin Islands. Her primary goal is to promote progressive, climate-resilient communities that balance environmental, social and economic goals. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development from Brandies University (2007) as well as a Master of City and Regional Planning from the Rutgers University Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy (2014).
Since 2008, Angela has served as The Virgin Islands’ Climate Change Officer, building the Territory’s climate change programme from scratch into a small-island best practice model with support from regional institutional partners. In 2008, she achieved Government approval of a multi-sector standing Climate Change Committee to support mainstreaming adaptation. In 2012, following broad-based consultation, she authored The Virgin Islands Climate Change Adaptation Policy. To serve as a sustainable financing mechanism for adaptation and mitigation, Angela also co-led development of The Virgin Islands Climate Change Trust Fund, a first of its kind in the Caribbean. This involved design of the Trust Fund architecture, assisting in drafting the Trust Fund Bill and defending it before the House of Assembly. These efforts resulted in the passage of The Virgin Islands Climate Change Trust Fund Act in 2015. Angela has since supported operationalization of the Trust Fund, including overseeing development of its Operational Manual.
Angela has also designed and implemented creative climate change public education campaigns, conducted a vulnerability and capacity assessment of the tourism sector to climate change and managed implementation of local physical adaptation projects. These projects were critical to protecting flood-prone, coastal communities in record-breaking category 5 Hurricane Irma in 2017.
In addition to her climate change adaptation work, Angela has contributed to beach management plans, the Territory’s National Physical Development Plan and the Environmental Management and Climate Adaptation legislation. She also pioneered the Green Pledge Programme that encourages adoption of environmentally friendly practices across private sector and Government.
From 2019 to 2021, Angela served as the Climate Change Coordinator for Saint Lucia’s Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project, a diverse portfolio of 126 climate change adaptation projects worth USD $74 million, funded through the World Bank. In addition to providing project management support to the entire portfolio, Angela was responsible for a sub portfolio of over 40 projects mainly focused on capacity building, ecosystem restoration and enhancing data and data systems to support adaptation. She also provided technical support to the Project’s innovative Climate Adaptation Financing Facility, administered by the Saint Lucia Development Bank. In that capacity, she led design and development of the Act to Adapt App which predicts Category 5 hurricane impact to homes and helps homeowners determine projects to build resilience.
In her private capacity, Angela serves as a climate change advocate. Following the devastation of Hurricane Irma in her country, within 3 months she wrote and published The Irma Diaries, a collection of survivor stories. With more than 35 speaking engagements around the world and a TEDx talk to date, she uses the book as a platform to educate about the impacts of stronger hurricanes, bridge personal connections to climate change and inspire global action. Angela has pledged 50% of profits from The Irma Diaries to survivors and the Climate Change Trust Fund.
In her spare time, Angela enjoys all outdoor activities, including her weekly Sunday swim! She looks forward to further contributions to climate change adaptation and sustainable development.

ARIELLE WORONOFF MPP ’09

Arielle Woronoff is the Director of the Office of Legislation at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, Arielle advises the CMS Administrator on policy and operations and serves as the agency’s chief liaison to Congress. She develops and executes legislative strategy for key CMS priorities and provides strategic and technical input on agency administrative actions including during the development, passage, and implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Prior to this role, Arielle served as Senior Health Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Majority Staff under Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR). Her portfolio was focused on the Affordable Care Act, drug pricing issues, and Medicare Advantage. During her time at the Finance Committee, she also worked on policy issues related to Medicare hospital payment and health information technology. Arielle worked at the Finance Committee during the controversial 2017 legislative debate over repeal of the Affordable Care Act, working with stakeholders and legislative staff to defend the law and formulating and making key procedural arguments to the Senate Parliamentarian related to the Senate budget reconciliation process. She also worked on major legislation including the CARES Act and the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act.
Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Arielle worked for the House Energy & Commerce Committee for Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), covering Medicare Part B, the Affordable Care Act, and health information technology. During this time, Arielle was a lead negotiator on key provisions of the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act, the 21st Century Cures Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Arielle came to the Energy and Commerce Committee after advising Senator Cory A. Booker (D-NJ) on health policy while he was getting his Senate office up and running. Here she developed and advanced the Senator’s health policy priorities during his first year in the Senate. Prior to this, Arielle was Domestic Policy Counsel for Congressman Sander M. Levin (D-MI), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, advising the Congressman on health care, Social Security, income security, and budget issues.
Arielle has a Master of Public Policy degree with a concentration in health policy from the Rutgers Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. Arielle is from New Jersey and now lives in Washington, DC with her husband and daughter.

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to make a donation, we suggest a $30 donation to the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy 30th Anniversary Fund or another Bloustein fund of your choice by visiting the Rutgers Foundation website.

Intelligent Informatics at Rutgers: Open Data for Society: Accelerating Solutions for Society's Most Pressing Challenges
2022-10-19 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtual
We welcomed our distinguished speakers from the AI for Good Lab @ Microsoft.

Anthony Cintron Roman is the Director of Data Architecture & Strategy with the AI for Good Lab at Microsoft, where he works with a team of data engineers, data scientists and researchers in Machine Learning and data science-based projects across Microsoft AI for Good efforts. He specializes in cloud solution architecture and open innovation and has a BS in computer science and an MBA with a specialty in the management of information systems.
Lucas A. Meyer is the Principal Data Scientist with the AI for Good Lab at Microsoft, and he specializes in models to promote economic development and detect financial misconduct. Lucas also worked in fraud detection at Amazon, and has an M.Sc. and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Prof. Jim Samuel, Director of the Master of Public Informatics (MPI) program at the Bloustein School, provided closing comments on the potential societal implications of combining artificial intelligence and open data.

Virtual 2022 AFE Presentations
2022-10-07 10:00 - 13:00 | NJ
FIRST 3 PANELS: 10 am – 11:15 am | SECOND 3 PANELS: 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
10 am – 11:15 am
PANEL A | Community Economic Development & Economic Development | Moderated by Professor Julia Sass Rubin | ZOOM ROOM LINK: https://go.rutgers.edu/2rnddx96

Ahmed Bajwa | Choose New Jersey: A Step into My Future
Amanda Bruce| New Jersey Community Capital: Assessing a Nonprofit Organization’s Place in the Policy Arena and Managing Expectations
Zachary Kourgialis | Collaborative Planning and Political Process at the County Level
Camryn Mathews| NJ Economic Development Authority: Providing Economic Security Through Innovative Initiatives
Ian Vlahovic | Reflections on my Fellowship at New Jersey Community Capital

PANEL B | Health, Human Services and Welfare | Moderated by Professor Andrea Hetling | ZOOM ROOM LINK: https://go.rutgers.edu/gr9esx70

Serwaa Akoto | Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Prevention Studies
Amanda Hinton | Exploring Health Disparities & Career Goals at the New Jersey State Policy Lab
Carly Mihovich | Urban Institute’s Welfare Rules Database: Key Trends & Takeaways
Mylena Resende-Guimaraes | Changes in Payment Mechanisms of Child Care Subsidies Post COVID-19 Agency: New Jersey State Policy Lab
Jennifer Spiegel | My Summer at Mathematica: A Day in the Life of a Human Services Intern

PANEL C | Housing & Equity | Moderated by Senior Fellow Adriana Abizadeh | ZOOM ROOM LINK: https://go.rutgers.edu/9c6tqppj

Gerardo Benavides | A Housing Campaign for Latinx Renters with Make the Road New Jersey
Dan Nelson | Working as a Community Scholar with Region 9 Housing Corporation
Iman Mustafa | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in the Workplace (American Civil Liberties Union National Office, NY
Jessika Sherman| A Policy Fellow’s Role Withing the New Jersey Office of the Governor, Wealth Disparity Task Force
Grace Maruska| New Jersey Energy Efficiency Workforce Equity Study (Heldrich Center for Workforce Development)

11:30 am – 12:45 pm
PANEL A | Consulting & Contract Research | Moderated by Professor Debbie Borie Holtz | ZOOM ROOM LINK: https://go.rutgers.edu/9c6tqppj

Aaron Cornell| Evaluating National Security Contracting and Acquisitions at The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Cristina Toppin| System of Sup-PORT: Informing Congress on the State of Intermodal Transportation, Inland Ports, and Supply Chain Efficiency as a Government Accountability Office Intern
Fralinda Zazay | Analyzing the Implementation of Security Measures for Federal Buildingsat the Government Accountability Office
Isaac A. Velez | Exploring Government Consulting at Deloitte
Ahmed Salman Zafar | Early Identification of At-Risk College Students in New Jersey Organization: Heldrich Center for Workforce Development

PANEL B | Environment | Moderated by Professor Ruth Winecoff | ZOOM ROOM LINK: https://go.rutgers.edu/gr9esx70

Abigail Brown | Feasibility of Micro-Scale Anaerobic Digestion at New York City Housing Authority
Anna Heckler | Advancing Agricultural Organics Waste Management
Jeffrey Lai | Conserving Natural Resources for Alaska and Beyond: U.S. Department of Agriculture –Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Brooke Schwartzman | Sustainability for the City of New York (NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice
Chelsie Riche | Engaging Multi-Stakeholder Partners through Public Budgeting Systems to Address Climate Change and Workforce Development: A Case Study of the Newly Established NJ Wind Institute Fellowship and University Initiative Programs

PANEL C | Politics| Moderated by Professor Julia Sass Rubin | ZOOM ROOM LINK: https://go.rutgers.edu/2rnddx96

Noah Callahan | The Eagleton Center at Rutgers University-Public Polling Impacts on Politics and Policy
Daniel Jefferson | “It’s how you said it”: Interning with AARP New Jersey State Office
Zeke Weston | Policy in Motion: A Summer in the NJ Legislature
Elaine Rickards | Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling

Intelligent Informatics at Rutgers: Data Visualization with Python Jupyter Notebooks – A Hands-on Introduction
2022-04-08 12:30 - 14:30 | Virtual
The session consisted of brief presentations, with around 100 minutes of interactive work-along demo of data visualization with Jupyter Notebooks, and ended with Q&A. Participants learned to create data visualizations and can opt to either access Rutgers University’s high-performance computing (HPC) platform/cloud* or to run the code locally on their own computers.

Dr. Bala Desinghu, Senior Scientist from OARC, Rutgers University provided an interactive introduction to data visualization with insights on the use of high-performance computing.
Dr. Abhishek Tripathi, Associate Professor, School of Business, TCNJ, introduced the use of Python libraries such as Seaborn, Plotly and Cufflinks for creating advanced and interactive data visualizations.
Dr. Jim Samuel, Associate Professor, Rutgers Bloustein School, concluded the session with insights on the use of Artificial Intelligence for visualizations and language data visualizations.

This workshop was hosted by the Rutgers Urban and Civic Informatics Lab (RUCI Lab) at the Bloustein School and the Rutgers Office of Advanced Research Computing and sponsored by the Bloustein School Master of Public Informatics program. It was organized by Dr. Bala Desinghu and Dr. Jim Samuel in collaboration with our partners, the Eastern Regional Network (ERN), the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub (NEBDI Hub), and the New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA).

Intelligent Informatics at Rutgers: Introduction to the Power of GitHub for Analytics
2022-03-31 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtual
This workshop instructed participants in how to get started with GitHub from scratch, including the basics of GitHub (account creation, organization use, permissions, and more); using GitHub to manage code and projects for academic research and teaching; best practices for data science workflows in GitHub; GitHub Actions for automated web scraping, data acquisition and dynamic data visualizations via RMarkdown; and publishing static websites and hosting them via GitHub pages.
This workshop was led by Gavin Rozzi, Research Computing Specialist at the Rutgers Urban and Civic Informatics Lab (RUCI Lab). Gavin also teaches graduate courses in the Bloustein School’s Master of Public Informatics Program.

Intelligent Informatics at Rutgers: Public Informatics for a Better Future: Textual Analytics with R and Social Media Data
2021-11-12 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual
In this virtual workshop, Dr. Jim Samuel, Executive Director of the Bloustein School’s Master of Public Informatics, provides an interactive introduction to textual analytics and natural language processing. The session includes a presentation and an approximate 30-minute interactive work-along demonstration for textual analytics using R-Studio. Participants will learn to generate insights from social media data related to current events or issues of public importance.
