Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy

Virtual Career Drop-ins
2025-03-10 11:00 - 13:00, 2025-03-24 11:00 - 13:00, 2025-03-31 11:00 - 13:00, 2025-04-07 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual
Stop by virtually on Mondays (except for holidays) beginning February 3 through April 28 between 11 am and 1 pm to ask a quick (15 min) career-related question of Bloustein Career Development Specialists Cheryl Egan and Andrea Garrido.
URL: https://go.rutgers.edu/EJBcareerdropin

Bloustein Research Seminar Series: Danielle Falzon
2025-03-10 16:00 - 17:15 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Presented by Danielle Falzon
This venue will enable our faculty to share research, build community, and extend our networks. Pizza will be served. Bloustein faculty, advanced PhD students, and external speakers will present research talks. The seminar series is open to the entire Bloustein community.

People, Policy, Planning, Place and Product: Lessons from a City Planner
2025-03-11 16:00 - 17:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
ANNUAL DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING LECTURE
Presented by Christopher A. Watson, M.Sc., Ph.D.[c] Director of Planning and Development Services, Murphy Schiller & Wilkes LLP
Planning as a tool is ideally to organize the physical environment to effectuate the life course of residents, so that they can be triangled with the resources needed to live successful life courses. Often, whoever gets to make the decision as to how space is organize determines the outcome for those residents, enveloped in those planned areas. To better provide the support residents need to advance themselves, personal agency aside, planners must be able to be the best translators of residents’ voices within planning principles that forward an agenda that is inclusive of community voice. Without this key understanding in practice, space is disorganized, and the evolution of society is stymied by confusion.
This conversation will explore these themes and will allow us as planners to have an honest conversation as to what our mandates are, how we practice these mandates, and how we come together to organize space around who we are planning for. Planning for people should include their voices, and this lecture is to provoke a conversation as to how we get to this realization in our practices.

Giving Day Celebration - College Avenue Campus
2025-03-12 11:00 - 15:00 | College Avenue Student Center, 126 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Join us at the College Avenue Student Center for coffee and giveaways!
https://rutgersfoundation.org/give/ways-give/rutgers-giving-days

Urban Planning Listening Session
2025-03-12 16:15 - 17:15 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
The Urban Planning Listening Session is an open and informal forum discussion for students to provide feedback, offer suggestions, and hear the most up to date news about the program.
Hosted by Mi Shih, Urban Planning Program Director; Courtney Culler, Associate Director for Graduate Student Services; and Greg Marrero, Student Counselor for Graduate Student Services.
RSVP HERE

Cultural Heritage Now: Evidence and Evaluation: Understanding What Cultural Heritage Projects Achieve"
2025-03-12 17:30 - 18:30 | Virtual
Presented by Dr. Paul Burtenshaw, Senior Director of Project Impact at World Monuments Fund

There is an increasing need within cultural heritage to provide evidence for project impact. This need has several sources, from the evolving requirements of sustainable and international development practice, changes in impact philanthropy, desire for justifying public budgets and from cultural heritage itself wishing to demonstrate its applicability to wider social agendas. This lecture will discuss these sources and how we can develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems and tools, including current work at World Monuments Fund.

Dr Paul Burtenshaw is the Senior Director of Project Impact at World Monuments Fund. Paul completed his PhD at University College London into the performance and politics of cultural heritage as an economic asset. He was previously the Director of Projects at Sustainable Preservation Initiative and has been a freelance consultant for projects involving heritage economics, tourism, and how cultural heritage supports sustainable and community development.

Join on Zoom

For more information: chaps.rutgers.edu

Giving Day Celebration - Livingston and Douglass Campuses
2025-03-13 11:00 - 15:00 | College Avenue Student Center, 126 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Join us at the Livingston and Douglass for coffee and giveaways!
https://rutgersfoundation.org/give/ways-give/rutgers-giving-days

17th Annual Krueckeberg Doctoral Conference in Urban Studies, Urban Planning, and Public Policy
2025-03-14 08:00 - 17:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
The Bloustein School will present the 17th Annual Krueckeberg Doctoral Conference in Urban Studies, Urban Planning, and Public Policy on Friday, March 14, 2025. The conference is organized by doctoral students for doctoral students engaged in urban planning, urban studies, health, and policy-related research across disciplines and universities in the tri-state NJ-NY-PA metropolitan region. Named after Professor Donald A. Krueckeberg, the conference commemorates Don Krueckeberg’s long-running commitment to doctoral education by providing a one-day forum highlighting doctoral student research at the cutting edge of urban studies, planning, and public policy.
Conference Registration: https://forms.gle/rWAx3cMnqyTVtZ5S8
Conference Agenda
Doctoral students at any stage of dissertation research are invited and encouraged to present their work at the conference. First-year doctoral students are invited to participate to try out a topic, and advanced candidates may present sections of research or a finished dissertation, or anywhere in between. Past presentations have outlined tentative research topics, surveyed literature, reported interim findings, and overviewed completed dissertations. The conference aims to encourage questions, comments, and discussions during each session.
A well-known and respected scholar in the planning profession, Professor Krueckeberg’s special interests and contributions were in the areas of planning history, property theory, and land use policy. His books, Introduction to Planning History in the United States, The American Planner: Biographies and Recollections, and Urban Planning Analysis, still serve as important references for scholars and professionals in planning and public policy.
As a major contributor to urban planning and policy studies, the Bloustein School’s Krueckeberg Conference showcases some of the most unique and forward-thinking research in the discipline. Past conferences have included doctoral candidates in urban studies, urban planning and public policy from Columbia University, The New School, the University of Pennsylvania, and more.

Operationalizing Equity: Keynote of Kruekeberg Doctoral Conference
2025-03-14 13:00 - 14:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Reference to “equity” in planning is rather ubiquitous, for good reason. However, moving conceptual terms from theory to practice often belies just intentions in even the best plans and processes of implementation of urban development. In this lecture, Dr. Carolini will discuss the challenges and opportunities of moving beyond equity as a norm and consider its transition in both scholarship and practice–however complicated. While planners have long leaned on participatory decision-making strategies to ensure procedural equities and advance justice in urban planning and development, here she will draw attention to examples of how planners can also foreground epistemic and distributive equities at the local level. To this end, she will discuss project-level considerations of the quality of learning and knowledge production and the criticality of spatialized accounts of fairness in making legible the distribution of a project or program’s material benefits. She will leverage her research from across the Americas and Africa to argue that operationalizing equity can be more straightforward than it sounds. However, this requires a reframing of ex-ante and ex-post evaluative frameworks to incorporate procedural, distributive, and epistemic equities in projects and programs that can move us closer toward that which ought to be in cities.
Gabriella Carolini is an associate professor of urban planning and international development in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT, where she leads the City Infrastructure Equity Lab (CIEL). Her research and teaching are centered on providing a grounded critical analysis of how the governance of infrastructure development—including its financial architecture, implementation practices, and evaluation—shapes the distributional fairness of infrastructure benefits, particularly for and with marginalized communities.
Conference Registration: https://forms.gle/rWAx3cMnqyTVtZ5S8

NJ Climate Change Resource Center Conference: Sustaining Innovation in New Jersey Climate Policy - Past, Present and Future
2025-03-21 08:00 - 17:00 | Livingston Student Center, 84 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ, 08854
Join us for a day-long dialogue regarding New Jersey’s state climate policies, where New Jersey has to go to reach its climate goals, challenges to reaching those goals, lessons we can learn from others, and opportunities that we might explore with leading local and national experts.
REGISTER HERE
8:00 AM: Registration, Breakfast, and Networking
8:30 AM: Plenary Sessions Begin
Programming Continues Until 5:00 PM
EVENT WEBSITE
Registration ends at 5:00 PM EDT on March 17, 2025.

Public Informatics Listening Session
2025-03-24 16:00 - 17:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
The Public Informatics Listening Session is an open and informal forum discussion for students to provide feedback, offer suggestions, and hear the most up to date news about the program.
Hosted by Jim Samuel, Public Informatics Program Director; Zarak Khan, VP of Public Informatics Program for Bloustein Graduate Student Association; Courtney Culler, Associate Director for Graduate Student Services; and Greg Marrero, Student Counselor for Graduate Student Services.
RSVP HERE

Careers in Public Informatics/Data Analytics Panel
2025-03-26 16:30 - 17:45 | Virtual
Joining us will be alumni working in consulting, non-profit/public, and private sectors who will share their journeys from student to professional in the data analytics space.

Meet our alumni panelists:
Rajisha Shah, Data Analytics Specialist at IQVIA
Yingchen Zhen, Product Analystat Pandora/SiriusXM
Raj Parikh, Transit Analyst at the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG), and
Ayunthi Gunawardana, now a Senior Data Analyst at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (former Project Analyst at NYDOT)
RSVP

SAS Scarlet Speakers: From the Heart of New Brunswick with Jim Hughes
2025-03-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Jim Hughes ENG’65, GSNB’69’71
University Professor, Dean Emeritus, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
“Rutgers Then and Now: Two Centuries of Physical Campus Development”
How did the campus and buildings of Rutgers today come to be?
This talk explores the evolution of the College Avenue Campus, the historic core of Rutgers University, tracing its journey from the construction of Old Queens in 1809 to today. Through over 380 images, we examine ten phases of development, highlighting changes in buildings, grounds, and layouts. Featuring over 65 iconic structures, we’ll detail how these buildings originally appeared versus their current state.
This is a virtual event hosted on Zoom. RSVP HERE
To purchase Rutgers Then and Now: Two Centuries of Campus Development: A Historic and Photographic Odyssey please click here.

Women's Leadership Meet & Greet
2025-03-27 16:30 - 18:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are organizing a special career event aligned with this year’s national theme: “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.”
We (a group of fellow students representing the MCRP, MPP, MPI, and MHA programs), in partnership with Bloustein’s Career Office, are excited to host a networking and panel session designed to connect students with accomplished alumni and community leaders who have inspired others and made meaningful contributions in their fields.
Join change-makers, Sabeen Masih, Capital Impact Group https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabeen-masih-494b2456/; Alexandra Doll, Robert Wood Johnson, Somerset https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandradoll/ and A’dorian Murray Thomas, Founder and CEO of SHE Wins, Inc. https://www.linkedin.com/in/adorianmt/
RSVP HERE

Student Workshop: Talking Across Difference
2025-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Eagleton Institute of Politics, 191 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, 08901, United States
In this workshop, Eagleton Director Dr. Elizabeth Matto will be joined by Bloustein School Dean Stuart Shapiro in a discussion about American politics today, why it matters, and how you can get involved. Advanced registration is required, and dinner will be served — so reserve your spot today!
Open to current Rutgers students. Participants must register in advance. Dinner will be served.
This Talking Across Difference conversation will be moderated by Rutgers faculty and is co-sponsored by the Rutgers Democracy Lab, the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the Rutgers New Brunswick Political Science Department.
Registration Required.

Virtual Information Session: Master of Health Administration
2025-04-02 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual
You are invited to join us at one our upcoming spring 25 virtual informational sessions to learn more about the Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree offered by the Bloustein School at Rutgers University. We are excited to share helpful information about the MHA curriculum and answer any questions you may have regarding admissions, applications, scholarships, career opportunities in the field, curriculum, etc. Program faculty and staff will be on hand to answer all your questions.

Applications to the MHA program do NOT require the GREs. The application deadline for fall / September 2025 admission is July 1st for domestic applicants and April 1st for international applicants. The application for spring 2025 / January 2026 admission is November 1st.
All sessions will be held virtually via Zoom and will last approximately 1 hour. The event Zoom link will be sent via email, closer to the event, to those who RSVP.

Please note that all times listed are EST / New Jersey local time. If you plan to join this session from a different time zone or a different country, we ask that you please make sure to note the CORRECT local time at YOUR location for this information session.

RSVP required at https://go.rutgers.edu/ejbmhainfo

RESCHEDULED: Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute: Climate, Energy and AI Convergence Café
2025-04-03 10:00 - 14:00 | The Rutgers Club, 85 Avenue E, Piscataway, 08854, United States
This Convergence Café looks to bring together RCEI affiliate scholars and other full-time Rutgers faculty and staff to mobilize interdisciplinary teams focused on the intersection of AI/ML and the RCEI Focus Areas.
This event is for you if you are:
• Interested in learning how other Rutgers scholars incorporate AI/ML into their work.
• Searching for a collaborator to team with for research funding.
• Looking to increase your chances of success within highly competitive programs.
• In need of planning funds to get your project off the ground.

This Convergence Café will consist of plenary talks, lightning talks associated with common methodologythemes (data processing, pattern recognition, process optimization/automation, object detection/classification, projection/prediction models), and networking sessions centered on broad themes within the nexus of Climate, Energy and AI.

RSVP by March 30.

Please register again even if you previously signed up for the February event.

For more information, visit https://rcei.rutgers.edu/about/convergence-cafes/

Bloustein Research Seminar Series: James Defilippis
2025-04-03 16:00 - 17:15 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Presented by Professor James Defilippis
This venue will enable our faculty to share research, build community, and extend our networks. Pizza will be served. Bloustein faculty, advanced PhD students, and external speakers will present research talks. The seminar series is open to the entire Bloustein community.

Virtual Information Session: Graduate Program in Public Informatics
2025-04-03 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual
You are cordially invited to join us at one of our upcoming virtual informational sessions for Rutgers-Bloustein School’s spring 2025 virtual information sessions for our Master of Public Informatics (MPI) degree and our Graduate Certificate in Urban and Public Informatics. Learn more about the curriculum for our master’s degree and graduate certificate, how to apply, career services support for students, and scholarship opportunities.

The GRE is WAIVED for all 2025 applications. The final application deadline for fall 2025 admission for international students is April 1st and for domestic students is July 1st.

RSVP is required. The Zoom link for the info sessions will be emailed out to those who have RSVP’d closer to the event.

Please note that all start times listed below are in EST / EDT / New Jersey local time.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our info sessions this semester.

RSVP required at https://go.rutgers.edu/ejbmpiinfo

7th Annual Health Administration Case Competition
2025-04-05 09:00 - 17:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
The Future Healthcare Administrators presents the 7th annual case competition.
Register by 3/30/25
This event will be held at the Bloustein School on April 5th from 9 AM to 5 PM.
Register: https://go.rutgers.edu/casecompetition25

Bloustein School LinkedIn Photo Day
2025-04-08 14:00 - 18:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Bloustein School faculty, staff, instructors, undergraduate, master’s, and PhD candidates are invited to take a professional photo free of charge for LinkedIn and other professional use.
RSVP IS NOT NEEDED.
Photos will be available at bloustein.rutgers.edu/ejbheadshots/ approximately a week after each photo date. Participants will also an email letting them know photos are availalble.

Dress professionally — all photos are taken from the waist up.
Follow instructions from the photographer.
When you provide your contact information, make sure it is an email you check regularly! If you don’t get an email, check your junk/spam folder OR look at the website link below!

Please be advised these are NOT intended for passport photo use.

Master of Health Administration Town Hall
2025-04-08 16:45 - 17:45 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
The Town Hall is an open and informal forum discussion for students to provide feedback, offer suggestions, and hear the most up to date news about the program.
Hosted by Dr. Soumitra Bhuyan, Executive Director of the Health Administration Programs; Debra Akinwande, VP of Health Administration for BGSA; Courtney Culler, Associate Director for Graduate Student Services; and Greg Marrero, Senior Counselor for Graduate Student Services.
RSVP HERE
Held in CSB Room 261 or virtual by Zoom.

REACH Poverty, Equity, and their Influencing Factors Symposium
2025-04-09 09:00 - 16:00 | Cook Campus Center, 59 Biel Road, New Brunswick, 08901
This symposium, hosted by REACH in partnership with our Employment Table, will bring together the Rutgers community, academic institutions, community partners, policymakers, and funders to discuss poverty and its interconnected social determinants — including education, employment, food access, housing, population health, and racial justice.
We are especially thrilled to feature Dr. Matthew Desmond as our keynote speaker. Dr. Desmond, author of Poverty, By America and founder of Princeton’s Eviction Lab, is a leading voice on housing insecurity and poverty. His groundbreaking research and extensive work have shaped national conversations on these critical issues, making his insights invaluable for those dedicated to social impact.
Locations:
New Brunswick: Cook Student Center (host site)
Camden: Camden Campus Center (livestream + in-person events*)
Newark: Paul Robeson Campus Center (livestream + in-person events*)
*In-person events in Camden and Newark will include livestreams from New Brunswick of all plenary sessions and select breakouts, as well as facilitated discussions, networking, breakfast and lunch, and an autographed copy of Dr. Desmond’s book, Poverty, By America.
Registration has ended for this event. For more information visit https://reach.rutgers.edu/events

Navigating the Workplace
2025-04-09 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual
Join us for an hour on Zoom to hear an insightful conversation about navigating what can be a tricky time: the transition from student to professional.

Whether you’re about to begin your career or an internship, or you’ve been working and want to learn how best to navigate workplace politics and grow within your career, this session is for you!

Get tips, advice, and different perspectives on how to best navigate the world of work and make the most of your time. Topics will include the critical first 90 days, finding a mentor, engaging with your colleagues, and building your reputation. Although this is our final JUMP START event, it is open to ALL students!

REGISTER HERE: https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvf-qvrDgtGdA-OfBh4T9ReFrvdV1cDI06

Virtual Information Session: Master of City and Regional Planning/Master of City and Regional Studies
2025-04-09 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual
You are cordially invited to join us at this virtual informational session for the Rutgers-Bloustein School’s Master of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) and Master of City and Regional Studies (MCRS) programs during the Spring 2025 semester. We are excited to share helpful information about the Bloustein School and the MCRP program and answer any questions you may have regarding admissions, applications, career opportunities in the field, and the curriculum. Program faculty and staff will be on hand to answer all your questions. Each session will last approximately 1 hour.

The GRE has been WAIVED for all fall 2025 applications. Work experience is not required of applicants. The application deadline for fall 2025 admission is May 1st.
All sessions will be held virtually via Zoom.

RSVP required at: https://go.rutgers.edu/ejbmcrpinfo

Policy Collaboratory
2025-04-10 12:00 - 17:00 | Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
The New Jersey State Policy Lab is excited to announce we will be hosting the second annual Policy Collaboratory on April 10th from 11am-5pm in partnership with SPIA in NJ at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. This collaborative event, held at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development in New Brunswick, will welcome graduate students from Princeton and Rutgers universities to work together and brainstorm various solutions to address affordable housing challenges in the Garden State.
In consultation with academic experts from a variety of disciplines as well as advocates, policymakers, elected officials, and people with lived experience, students will work together in mixed teams to develop creative and original solutions to this policy problem.
The half-day event will include a complimentary lunch as well as a networking cocktail hour after the conference to be held at the Fat Cactus Cantina on 350 George St., New Brunswick.
Registration is limited and required. Please only register if you intend to attend in person: https://go.rutgers.edu/p0wc9zl6

Rutgers Spring Health Administration Alumni Networking Event
2025-04-10 16:30 - 18:30 | Virtual
Interested in learning more about careers in various healthcare sectors? Attend this virtual networking event to meet with, ask questions, and gain invaluable advice from Bloustein Alumni who graduated from the MHA, undergraduate Health Administration and Public Health programs and are working in various healthcare industries.

https://go.rutgers.edu/Spring2025HAAlumniNetworkingEvent
