Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy

Dean's Listening Session Fall 2025
2025-11-19 16:15 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Bloustein School CSB, Room 369A, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Come with your questions and hear from the Dean! RSVP here

CAREERS: Job Search Strategies Panel
2025-11-20 16:30 - 18:00 | Bloustein School CSB, Room 253
Hear from a panel of second-year graduate students and recent graduates from all programs as they share their personal journeys, insights, and practical advice to help you successfully navigate the job and internship search.
REGISTER HERE: https://forms.office.com/r/PthuTpU6aX

Virtual Career Drop-ins for Graduate Students
2025-11-24 11:00 - 13:00, 2025-12-01 11:00 - 13:00, 2025-12-08 11:00 - 13:00, 2025-12-15 11:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Bloustein graduate students can meet with Career Development Specialists Andrea Garrido or Cheryl Egan for up to 15 minutes to answer any career/internship related questions
URL: https://go.rutgers.edu/EJBcareerdropin

CAREERS: You Don't Have a Fellowship...Now What?
2025-11-24 17:00 - 18:00 | Virtual
Join the Graduate Society for Healthcare Leaders (GSHL) for a virtual panel discussion featuring Rutgers MHA alumni as they will share their career paths, lessons learned, and practical guidance for navigating post-MHA opportunities beyond the fellowship route.

RSVP here

PhD Colloquium: Having a Meaningful Career
2025-11-26 12:00 - 12:50 | Virtual
Presented by Evelyn Blumenberg

Civic Engagement in an Era of Artificial Intelligence
2025-12-02 16:00 - 17:30 | Virtual
Renée Sieber is an associate professor at McGill University. Since she graduated from the Bloustein School, she has investigated the intersection of civic empowerment and computational technologies. She is best known for her research and practice on public participation geographic information systems and also has conducted research on participatory climate modeling. She currently researches civic engagement related to artificial intelligence. She co-hosts the monthly Al in Canadian Municipalities Community of Practice, now in its sixth year, where cities exchange best practices on Al use. She has collaborated
with numerous federal agencies and organizations in Canada on Al policy. She has advised on the design of two Al risk assessment tools and served on the IEEE working group on Al procurement. She sits on the executive boards of GIScience and Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management.
Artificial intelligence is sold as a miraculous cure to many of the ills of cities, one of which is a lack of civic (local) engagement. Al can summarize and translate civic participation and even synthesize participants if desired. Add to that, cities may be reluctant to engage citizens on Al-its deployment, impacts, and overall policy-because engagement supposedly slows Al adoption and because the tech contains all these contradictions. It’s opaque and can only be understood by data scientists. But it seems effortless to use, with chatbots and software libraries. Humans can and should be in the loop but autonomous agents will save cities time and money. On top of all of that, Al, especially generative Al, exerts an enormous impact on people’s lives so citizens should be involved. But governments exist in a FOMO (fear of missing out) world, where they feel the need to optimize with Al, less they miss their competitive advantage. This lecture will discuss these challenges and explore numerous ways that citizens can engage with cities on Al. It will also cover the dark side of Al with regard to civic engagement.
This talk draws on Dr. Sieber’s research at the intersection of tech and civic engagement. This interest developed in her dissertation with PhD supervisor Lyna Wiggins, who emphasized local adoption by planners of GIS, which at the time was hard! Throughout her career, she has been driven to investigate the potential for civic engagement using hard tech, especially as the discourse moves towards tech as the engine of innovation, for example in smart cities. In this she will draw on her six years co-hosting Al in Canadian Municipalities Community of Practice as well as 20+ years researching public participation GIS.
RSVP AT go.rutgers.edu/meck2025
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The Stuart Meck Distinguished Speaker Series on Land Use Law and Affordable Housing was established in 2018 by the family of the late Stuart Meck, Associate Research Professor and director of the Center for Planning Practice at the Bloustein School, and a professional planner for more than 45 years. The series highlights experts and practitioners of planning and policy development, offering diverse insight into topics under public and academic debate. This year’s lecture is dedicated to the memory of Lyna L. Wiggins, a longtime professor and program director in Rutgers’ urban planning program who retired in 2019 and passed away in November 2024. A pioneer in Geographic Information Sciences (GIS), Lyna taught its intricacies to generations of students at the Bloustein School. Most currently practicing planners in New Jersey took one of her courses. All are invited to join us in honoring her memory.

CAREERS: Coffee & Careers
2025-12-03 12:00 - 13:00 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Coffee & Careers is a monthly drop-in event in the student lounge where graduate students can connect with Career Center staff in a relaxed setting over complimentary coffee and light refreshments. Designed to spark conversation and build community, this informal program offers the chance to explore career resources, ask questions, and engage with peers while gaining support for your professional journey.

Participatory Mapping of Social Determinants of Health: From Local Knowledge to Public Health Action
2025-12-03 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Dr. Wansoo Im serves as a Professor at Meharry Medical College’s School of Global Health where he manages the Public Health Exposure Database and directs the National Center for Community Mapping. His work leverages big data and social/crowd networking approaches to generate deep insights into demographic and health patterns, social and health determinants, and related business opportunities. Dr. Im received his PhD from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
RSVP HERE
Event presented by the Health Administration program.

CAREERS: Evaluating Job Offers and Salary Negotiation Workshop
2025-12-03 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual
This program is for all students (except MPP who will have this program in their AFE 1 class). It is also part of the JUMP START series for first year students.
REGISTER HERE: https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/rMRaUhItQTGhT3QZIk-QQg

Plan4HealthNJ Studio: A Diagnostic Approach to Incorporating Public Health in Master Plans
2025-12-09 17:00 - 21:00 | Gov. James J. Florio Special Events Forum, CSB, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Sponsored by the American Planning Association-New Jersey Chapter with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this Plan4HealthNJ studio enabled students to collaborate with officials and practitioners, engage in research and beta test ideas for APA-NJ to work with select municipalities to update their master plans, zoning ordinances and capital improvement programs to incorporate public health outcomes. Areas of focus included access to healthy food and agriculture, environmental health and sustainability, healthcare access, mobility, housing and community design and policy and public engagement. Students engaged in research, tested toolkits created by APA-NJ, explored how these toolkits could help urban, suburban and rural towns in New Jersey incorporate public health outcomes into their plans, ordinances and investments, and provided findings and recommendations that may prove helpful when APA-NJ works with municipalities in 2026 to update their Master Plans, ordinances and CIPs to incorporate public health concerns.
A light reception will follow the event. For more information about Plan4HealthNJ, visit https://njplanning.org/plan4healthnj/
RSVP to go.rutgers.edu/plan4healthnj

PhD Colloquium: Advice for Doctoral Students
2025-12-10 12:00 - 12:50 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Presented by Assistant Professor Emily Parker

Bloustein Research Seminar Series: Zoe Lindenfeld
2025-12-10 16:00 - 17:15 | Bloustein School, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
Presented by Zoe Lindenfeld, Bloustein School, Rutgers New Brunswick
In person in room 556 and on Zoom
This venue will enable our faculty to share research, build community, and extend our networks. Food and coffee 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.

Undergraduate Pre-major Advising Session
2025-12-11 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-01-07 15:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Pre-major advising sessions give interested students an opportunity to learn about the undergraduate program offerings at the Bloustein School. There is an overview of each major, minor, and certificate program, including the admissions criteria and application processes for current and prospective Rutgers students. Students are encouraged to bring questions. The host advisor(s) will answer them or refer the student to the appropriate department/office.

These sessions are open to current Rutgers University students who are interested in declaring a Bloustein School major.
Students should have the following:

One or more completed semesters at Rutgers with a minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA.
A final grade of C or higher or AP credits for College Writing – 01:355:101 (or equivalent)

Attendance at the session will be used to confirm your engagement with our Office of Student and Academic Services, which is required to declare a Bloustein School major. Cameras must be on.
Update the Zoom app in advance. There will be a 5-minute grace period to enter the meeting after the start time.
REGISTER HERE

Rutgers-New Brunswick On-Campus Job Fair 2026
2026-01-23 09:30 - 12:00 | Busch Student Center Multipurpose Room, 604 Bartholomew Rd, Piscataway, 08854, United States
Join us for the Rutgers On-Campus Job Fair — a hiring event connecting students with campus departments offering part-time positions for the upcoming semester. Discover opportunities to build experience, develop professional skills, and become more involved in the Rutgers community. All Rutgers–New Brunswick students are welcome.
Visit your Handshake account to learn more about employers attending and register.

CAREERS: Excel Workshop: Up-to-Speed
2026-01-30 13:30 - 15:30 | Virtual
Join PhD student, Soo Yeon Lim, in the first Excel series of the semester. Mastering Excel is a game-changer—employers in urban planning, public policy, informatics, and health administration across sectors rely on it for data analysis, efficient decision-making, and turning information into impact.

Winter 2026 Career & Internship Mega Fair
2026-02-04 11:30 - 15:30, 2026-02-05 11:30 - 15:30 | Jersey Mike’s Arena, 83 Rockefeller Road, Piscataway, NJ, United States
Join this in-person event to network with employers to discuss full-time, part-time, and internship opportunities from a wide variety of fields. This event is open to Rutgers University (New Brunswick, Camden, Newark, and RBHS) students and alumni from all academic disciplines.

Registration required via Handshake

Hosted by the Rutgers University Office of Career Exploration and Success, an anticipated group of over 300 employers will be available to network with 5,000+ candidates to discuss full-time, part-time, and internship opportunities in various fields. This event is open to Rutgers University (New Brunswick, Camden, Newark, and RBHS) students and alumni from all academic disciplines.
Position-Specific Days:

Day 1 (Feb 4): Business, HR, Education, Law, Government, Social Impact, Communications, & Creative-Related Roles
Day 2 (Feb 5): Tech, Engineering, Medical, & Sciences, Environment, Food, & Agriculture-Related Roles

Mock Interviewing Clinic
2026-02-04 16:30 - 18:00 | Virtual
Sharpen your interviewing skills by practicing one-on-one with one of our alumni, an employer partner in the planning/policy realm, or Human Resources professional. You can sign up for one 30-minute session where you will be able to practice and get immediate feedback on your interviewing skills. This event is open to graduate students and recent graduates.
More information coming soon.

CAREERS: Evaluating Job Offers and Salary Negotiation
2026-02-11 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual
Join Bloustein Career Development Specialists Cheryl Egan and Andrea Garrido for a workshop to learn tips and strategies about salary negotiation skills (which doesn’t only include negotiating for a salary) as well as how to evaluate job offers. Hear from recent graduates who were successful in negotiating their salaries!
RSVP HERE
Part of the JUMP START SERIES for first semester MHA students

CAREERS: Excel: Fixing Data
2026-02-20 13:30 - 15:00 | Virtual
Mastering Excel is a game-changer – employers in health administration rely on it for data analysis, efficient decision-making, and turning information into impact.
Join Bloustein doctoral student Soo Yon Lim for a live, virtual 90-minute Excel workshops, geared to Bloustein students. You can register up to the same day as the session.
RSVP HERE

CAREERS: Excel: Visualizing Data
2026-03-27 13:30 - 15:00 | Virtual
Topics TBA

RAISE-26 Artificial Intelligence - Informatics - Data Science AI Competition
2026-04-17 08:30 - 12:30 | Gov. James J. Florio Special Events Forum, CSB, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, United States
RAISE-26 Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Informatics – Data Science Competition
Mirror Mirror on the Wall – Is AI Transforming Us All? Exploring AI’s Impact on Human Behavior
RAISE-26, the world’s strongest AI-NLP competition, invites undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines to explore one of the most urgent questions of our time: Is artificial intelligence (AI) transforming us? This cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence – Informatics – DS Competition from the MPI program at the Bloustein School, Rutgers University, challenges participants to investigate how AI is shaping human behavior.
Find out more about the competition and register:
RAISE-26 Website
For all news and latest updates, please follow us on Public Informatics @ Rutgers University
