Staff
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Distinguished Fellows Senior Staff |
Senior Research Associates
Research Associates |
Senior Research Fellows
Co-ops, Interns and Work-Study Students |
Distinguished Fellows
Katharine (Kitty) Dukakis | Michael S. Dukakis
Full Biographies
To reach Governor Dukakis, contact his student assistant
Cory O'Hayer at ohayer.c@gmail.com or (617)373-4396.
Senior Staff
Barry BluestoneFounding Director, Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy
Dean, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
Barry Bluestone is the Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy, the founding Director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and the founding Dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Before assuming these posts, Bluestone spent 12 years at the University of Massachusetts at Boston as the Frank L. Boyden Professor of Political Economy and as a Senior Fellow at the University's John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs. He was the Founding Director of UMass Boston's Ph.D. Program in Public Policy. Before coming to UMass in the Fall of 1986, he taught economics at Boston College for 15 years and was Director of the University's Social Welfare Research Institute. Professor Bluestone was raised in Detroit, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan where he received his Ph.D. in economics in 1974.
At the Dukakis Center, Bluestone has led research projects on housing, local economic development, state and local public finance, and the manufacturing sector in Massachusetts. At the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, he has co-taught the Open Classroom Policy Series, a graduate seminar on critical social issues open free to the public each semester. He has also been part of the Policy School team developing our new Masters Program in Urban and Regional Policy.
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Stephanie Pollack
Associate Director of Research
Stephanie Pollack is Associate Director of the Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, overseeing the Center's research agenda as well as conducting her own research projects in the areas of transportation policy, transit-oriented development, sustainability and equitable development. Pollack is also on the core faculty for the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, teaching courses to graduate students in the Law, Policy and Society program and teaching and supervising internships for the Master of Urban and Regional Policy program. Her courses include Strategizing Public Policy, Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning, Housing Policy and Transportation Policy.
Pollack is active in public policy issues affecting transportation, sustainable development and the environment in Massachusetts. She co-chaired Governor Deval Patrick's 2006 transition working group on transportation and served on Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's Climate Action Leadership Committee in 2009-2010. She currently serves on the boards of Boston Society of Architects, Charles River Watershed Association, Health Resources in Action and MoveMass.
Before coming to Northeastern in 2004, Pollack was a senior executive and attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, New England's leading environmental advocacy organization. During her two-decade career at CLF, Pollack worked on issues including transportation and transit policy, smart growth and sustainable development and childhood lead poisoning. From 2004 through 2010 she was also a partner in the strategic environmental consulting firm BlueWave Strategies LLC, where she advised clients on smart growth, transit-oriented development and other "green" real estate projects.
Pollack received both a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in Public Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a JD from Harvard Law School.
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Heather Seligman
Associate Director of Administration and Finance
Heather began her tenure at the Dukakis Center in the fall of 2000. As our Associate Director of Administration and Finance, she is currently responsible for all grant financials, with annual funds over $2 million. Additionally, she is in charge of the Dukakis Center operations, responsible for project management, budgeting, accounting, human resources, and payroll systems. She works closely with the Barry Bluestone on strategic planning and development for the Center. She also assists with marketing and management of events and conferences.
Seligman also serves as the budget manager for the School of School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. Similar to her role for the Dukakis Center, she functions in the same capacity, managing operations and projects for the School. In May 2008, Seligman completed her Masters in Business Administration. During the course of her academic experience, she discovered her interests lie in entrepreneurship, which is closely related to her current position and the attitudes of the Center. She currently lives near the water in Chelsea, MA which she shares with her yellow lab, Ivy.
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Alan Clayton-Matthews
Alan Clayton-Matthews is Professor and Director of Quantitative Methods in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He spent his 2007 sabbatical leave at the Dukakis Center. At the Center, he was the chief designer of the Labor Market Assessment Tool (LMAT) and has served as a consultant on a number of projects including "Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts".
Clayton-Matthews is co-editor of Massachusetts Benchmarks, a joint publication of the University of Massachusetts and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston that presents timely information and analysis about the performance of the Massachusetts economy. He is also a Director of the New England Economic Project, a group of economists and managers from academia, business, and government who study and forecast the New England economy.
Previously, Clayton-Matthews has worked as an economist and policy analyst for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, the Social Welfare Research Institute at Boston College, and DRI/McGraw-Hill. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston College.
Terry Dolan is the Executive Assistant for the Dukakis Center and Policy School. Her background includes 25 years working in the public sector for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts initially as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner of Public Health, with a focus on fiscal and management issues at the public health hospitals. She joined the State House staff of Governor Michael Dukakis in 1985 as Director of Administration for the Executive Office of the Governor, a position to which she was subsequently re-appointed by Governors Weld, Cellucci, Swift, Romney, and Patrick.
Active in community affairs, she serves as an officer and member of the Executive Board of the Lower Mills Civic Association, Vice President of the Lower Mills Village Association, a member of the Community Advisory Council for the restoration of the Lower Neponset River, and the Civic Engagement subcommittee of the Boston Civic Summit working group. Additionally, she is a Playspace Volunteer with the Horizons for Homeless Children Initiative.
A graduate of Regis College, she holds an MBA from Simmons College. Terry lives in the Baker Square complex in Dorchester Lower Mills, the site of nineteenth and early twentieth century mill buildings of the former Baker Chocolate Company, which have been rehabbed and restored as housing.
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Laurie Dopkins
Senior Research Associate
Focus Areas: Non-Profit Performance and Capacity Building | Evaluation & Outcomes Measurement
Laurie Dopkins is Senior Research Associate at the Dukakis Center and Director of Academic Programs for the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. Immediately prior to moving to Boston in 2008, Laurie was Associate Research Professor at George Mason University where she taught evaluation research methods and led community-based action research projects involving collaborations between nonprofit organizations, government agencies, businesses, private foundations, and multiple units within the university.
Before joining the faculty at Mason, Dopkins had her own consulting firm in Atlanta where she worked with public sector agencies, foundations, and nongovernmental organizations on policy research and program evaluation in a wide range of areas including children and youth, community and economic development, maternal and child health, education, and immigration. Dopkins has broad experience in the management, analysis and evaluation of policies and programs, including the development of accountability and outcomes monitoring systems. She has specialized in developing collaborative evaluation techniques that enhance evaluation capacity and utilization among diverse stakeholder groups, including policymakers and program managers, service providers and clients, community leaders and advocates.
Dopkins has published dozens of evaluation and research reports for foundations, government organizations, nonprofit agencies, and community groups. Her specific areas of interest in the field of evaluation are social indicators, organizational learning, program theory and logic models, evaluation capacity building, evidence based policy and practice, and the translation of knowledge to action. Dopkins received her Ph.D in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1984. She lives in Brookline with her husband, Steve Vallas, and has two grown daughters, Rebecca and Kaitlin.
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Michael E. LakeSenior Associate
Executive Director, World Class cities Partnership
Michael is the Executive Director of the World Class Cities Partnership, headquartered at Northeastern University. As Executive Director, Michael establishes and develops relationships with municipal governments and universities around the world, creating a global network of partner cities dedicated to implementing public policy to address shared challenges facing 21st century cities. Michael's career in public service has spanned from serving two United States Presidents as Special Assistant for White House Operations to serving the former Prime Minister of Ireland as a policy research analyst and most recently serving as Director of Development for United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley.
In addition to his role leading WCCP, Mike serves as Executive Director of City to City Boston, an organization dedicated to learning about best practices from other cities and replicating them in Boston.
A native of Melrose, Massachusetts, Michael was the first and only graduate in history from Northeastern University or the state of Massachusetts to have completed five undergraduate degrees simultaneously. He graduated summa cum laude studying Finance, Political Science, Communications, Entrepreneurship and Management Information Systems. Michael also serves as a Board member for the Neighborhood Organization for Affordable Housing (NOAH), Boston Representative for the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Cities Network, a member of the Boston Public Library's Young Professionals Committee, the Executive Director of Northeastern's College of Business Talent Development Committee, an Alumni Mentor and is involved in a number of other charitable organizations.
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John Sarvey
Senior Associate, Marketing and Development, Dukakis Center
Executive Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
John has over 18 years of experience in non-profit management and higher education. He worked for 12 years with City Year, a national service program that engages young adults for a demanding year of full-time community service, leadership development, and civic engagement. John served twice as a local City Year executive director (San Jose/Silicon Valley and Boston) and as a national vice president. He developed several national program models at City Year including the Whole School, Whole Child model for transforming public schools and improving the academic, socio-emotional, and civic development of students.
Prior to City Year, John worked for the Campus Outreach Outreach Opportunity League, a national organization that promotes and supports college student involvement in community service. John has visited over 300 colleges and universities and provided consulting to dozens on how to build and strengthen student-led community service programs.
John serves as a trustee of the Hyams Foundation, and on the advisory boards of the IMPACT National Conference on Service, Advocacy and Social Action; the Millenium Campus Network, and Campus Community Connections. He previously served on the boards of Massachusetts Stand for Children, Asian Americans for Community Involvement, Campus Outreach Opportunity League, the Coro National Alumni Association, and KaBoom!
John has a BA in Organizational Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA from Northeastern University. He is also a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs.
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Jay Kaufman
Director, Center for Leadership and Public Life
Jay Kaufman has served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since January 1995 and now chairs the legislature's Committee on Revenue. He had, for two terms, chaired the Committee on Public Service and led the effort to develop and pass major pension reform initiatives.
His primary legislative interests are education, health care, campaign reform, environmental protection, and social and economic justice. He led the fight to pass and implement the state's campaign finance reform law, and has chaired special task forces on medical records privacy, the social and ethical implications of genetic technology, and alternatives to property taxes to fund public schools. During his freshman term, he broke a six-year logjam to win passage of the Rivers Act, a major environmental protection bill. He is currently leading the effort to pass the Act for Healthy Massachusetts, a bill that would encourage the substitution of safer alternatives to commonly-used toxic chemicals. He has sponsored legislation aimed at tax fairness and has consistently secured major budget increases for METCO, the state's premier racial desegregation program.
His monthly "OPEN HOUSE" public policy forum, now in its fourteenth season, has been recognized with the prestigious Beacon Award as the nation's best televised government relations series. Jay was appointed founding director of Northeastern University's new center for Leadership and Public Life where he now teaches and leads leadership development workshops for those in or aspiring to public life.
Senior Research Associates
Bonnie Heudorfer
Bonnie Heudorfer is an independent consultant specializing in housing, strategic planning and community development. Her clients include financial institutions, municipalities and government agencies, academic institutions, and advocacy organizations. She provides a broad spectrum of services, including housing needs assessments, affordable housing plans and implementation strategies, program evaluations, survey research, and market analyses. In addition, she assists communities in the development of local and regional housing partnerships.
At the Dukakis Center, Bonnie has been a co-author of the Greater Boston Housing Report Card series, a comprehensive annual assessment of the progress Greater Boston is making toward providing housing opportunities for all of its citizens. Previously, she worked on the Center's Weston Housing Survey. Bonnie has also worked on many other projects including, "Taking the Initiative: A Guidebook on Creating Local Affordable Housing Strategies," a comprehensive guidebook, commissioned by Citizens' Housing and Planning Association and funded by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, to provide assistance to communities attempting to expand their affordable housing options and "Massachusetts Housing Affordability Review: The Skyrocketing Costs of Homeownership in Massachusetts," a housing affordability gap analysis, by community, prepared for 2000-2002.
She has served as a consultant to CHAPA, the Governor's Task Force on MGL Chapter 40B, and as a consultant to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund and to a number of Massachusetts cities and towns.
Prior to establishing her own consulting practice in the spring of 2001, Bonnie was BankBoston's Director of Community Reinvestment and Fair Lending, and before that, Director of Residential Development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. She was the co-founder of the Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development and served as the first Executive Director of the Boston Housing Partnership. She serves on the board of directors and executive committee of Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, of which she is a past president, and is the Chair of the Town of Harvard's Housing Partnership. A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Bonnie received her master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the Pratt Institute.
Russell Lopez
Russell Lopez is a Senior Research Associate with the Dukakis Center and teaches in the Master of Urban Public Health Program at Northeastern University and at Boston University's School of Public Health. His research interests include the built environment and health, urban sprawl, and design for public health.
Russell earned his B.S. from Stanford University, a Master of City and Regional Planning from Harvard's Kennedy School, and a Doctor of Science in Environmental Health from Boston University's School of Public Health.
Shelley McDonough Kimelberg
Shelley McDonough Kimelberg is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a Senior Research Associate at the Dukakis Center. Her research focuses on economic development, urban poverty, and social policy. Shelley has served as a principal researcher on the Center's Economic Development Partnership initiative since 2004. Her primary responsibilities include managing the collection of market data from the private sector, and the development of the Municipal Self-Assessment Tool. This work comprised a significant portion of her doctoral dissertation, Risky Business: An Examination of Firm Location Decisions and Their Implications for Inner Cities.
Prior to her arrival at Northeastern, Shelley spent seven years working in knowledge management for a global management consulting firm. She received her Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. degrees from Harvard University.
Eleanor G. White
Eleanor G. White is President of Housing Partners, Inc. and a founding member of the Center's World Class Collaborative. She serves as Co-Chair of the Commonwealth Housing Task Force and along with Barry Bluestone and Ted Carman was co-author of the research that led to the successful passage of Chapter 40R and 40S housing legislation in Massachusetts.
She has worked in the fields of affordable housing development, property asset management, and public administration since 1967. She was deputy director and chief of operations at the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency from 1983 to 1995. Previously she held a variety of positions at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1967 to 1983. She has served on a number of housing boards and commissions and has lectured widely on housing and real estate. She has won many awards for her work on affordable housing development.
Research Associates
Chase Billingham, Research Associate
Telephone: (617) 373-7870
E-mail: c.billingham@neu.edu
Chase Billingham is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center and a Ph.D. candidate in the Northeastern University Department of Sociology. He received a B.A. in sociology and French from Tulane University in 2006 and an M.A. in sociology from Northeastern in 2008.
At the Dukakis Center, Chase's research has focused on municipal finance, regional housing policy, and local economic development. He has co-authored four installments of the Center's annual Greater Boston Housing Report Card series. The most recent Housing Report Card, subtitled Taking Stock in an Uncertain Time, examined in depth the persistent foreclosure crisis, the slow recovery of home prices, and the increased pressure that the region's large student population has placed on the local rental market.
He collaborated with Stephanie Pollack and Barry Bluestone on Maintaining Diversity in America's Transit-Rich Neighborhoods: Tools for Equitable Neighborhood Change. This innovative report demonstrated how the introduction of new public transportation amenities, while providing important assets to urban neighborhoods, may simultaneously spark waves of gentrification that, over time, can lead to the displacement of the very people that those new transit lines are designed to serve. He also contributed to the publication of Staying Power, the Center's assessment of the current state of and potential opportunities for the manufacturing sector in Massachusetts, as well as The Potential for Uneven Economic Development across Massachusetts Municipalities: An Analysis of the Role of Property Tax and State Local Aid, a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy working paper comparing recent economic trends in older industrial cities and rapidly growing communities in Massachusetts. The latter report highlighted the deleterious effects that an eroding tax base can have on the ability of cities and towns to provide municipal services, and it showed how state intervention, through the provision of local aid, can mitigate the potential for uneven development. Out of this research, Chase also joined Barry Bluestone in writing "The Property Tax and the Fortunes of Older Industrial Cities," which appeared in the January 2008 issue of Land Lines, the quarterly journal of the Lincoln Institute.
Chase's academic interests are in urban sociology and the sociology of education. He is currently examining the rise of the school choice movement and the spread of market ideology within the nation's urban public school systems. His most recent work demonstrates how changes in school structure and pedagogy have had important non-educational effects -- specifically, racial segregation and gentrification -- on urban schools and the neighborhoods that surround them.
He lives in Dorchester.
Jessica Casey, Research Associate
Telephone: (617) 373-7870
E-mail: je.casey@neu.edu
Jessica Casey is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center working with the Commonwealth Housing Task Force and contributing to the 2010 Housing Report Card. She is a first year student in the Master of Urban and Regional Policy program at Northeastern University. Her research interests include urban poverty, neighborhood development and the use of Geographic Information Systems in policy development.
Jessica received a B.A. in Geographic Analysis from Ryerson University in 2003. Since then, she has held positions at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, as a Geographic Information Systems analyst; Canadian Tire Real Estate Limited, as a market analyst; and the Ontario Government, as a senior analyst with the Ministry of Community and Social Services. At the Ministry of Community and Social Services, Jessica worked on a variety of projects, including the development of allocation funding formulas, spatial analytic approaches directed at funding Ontarians and relocating government agencies to serve the Ontario population more efficiently.
Jessica was born in Oshawa, Ontario and moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1999 to begin her undergraduate studies. She has recently relocated to Mission Hill to continue her studies and work with the Dukakis Center.
Anna Gartsman, Research Associate
Telephone: (617) 373-3933
E-mail: a.gartsman@neu.edu
Anna Gartsman is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center and a doctoral student in the Northeastern University School of Criminal Justice. She received a B.S. in Linguistics, Computer Science, and Cognitive Psychology from Northeastern University in 2007. Anna's academic interests are primarily in spatial crime analysis and quantitative methods.
Anna has lived in the Boston area for over 15 years, and currently resides in Brighton, MA.
Nancy S. Lee, Research Associate
Telephone: (617) 373-7868
E-mail: n.lee@neu.edu
Nancy is a Research Associate with the Dukakis Center working with the Economic Development Partnership. Her research interests are in local and regional economic development, sustainability, energy, and transportation.
She brings over ten years of experience as a natural resource economist and transportation planner.
Prior to joining the Dukakis Center, Nancy worked as a natural resource economist for CH2M HILL and the California Water Resources Control Board and as a planner for the California Department of Transportation. She is a certified Project Management Professional.
A graduate of Washington State University, Nancy received a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies (Economics, Regional Planning, and Natural Resource Management) and has an MS and BS in Agricultural Economics from Rutgers University. She is a native of New Jersey and is happy to be back in the Northeast to enjoy the four seasons.
Sarah Nicksa, Ph.D. Candidate, Research Associate
E-mail: sarahecope@gmail.com
Sarah Nicksa is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology, where she also completed her Master's degree in Sociology in 2006. Originally from Charleston, SC, she received her B.S. in Sociology at the College of Charleston. Sarah's work at the Dukakis Center will focus on program and curriculum evaluation of the Boys and Girls' Club of Boston, as well as the Discovering Justice civics and legal education program.
Her dissertation, "Bystanders' Reactions to Witnessing Sexual Assault," explores the impact of gender, sense of community, and past experience with intervening on college students' predicted willingness to intervene in a sexual assault situation. Her research interests are criminology/criminal justice, deviant behavior and social control, social psychology, and violence against women. Sarah is committed to providing direct service as a medical advocate for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.
In fall 2011, Sarah will join the faculty of the Widener University Criminal Justice department in the fall of 2011 as an assistant professor. She loves teaching courses like "Violence in the Family," and "Deviant Behavior and Social Control" and will develop new Criminal Justice courses at Widener.
Dan Spiess, Ph.D., Research Associate
Telephone: (617) 373-7103
E-mail: d.spiess@neu.edu
Dan is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center, working with the World Class Cities Partnership, City to City Boston, and the Economic Development Partnership.
Dan received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His doctoral dissertation focused on political decision making in planning, public participation, and community-based organizations with additional research interests in economic and community development, environmental planning, and environmental justice.
Prior to his doctorate, Dan worked on the brownfields program at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and was a planner at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also worked on a variety of social, public health, and environmental extracurricular projects including the Environmental Justice Initiative (under the direction of Dr. Bunyan Bryant) at the University of Michigan.
Liz Williams, Research Associate
E-mail:williams.eli@husky.neu.edu
Liz Williams is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center working on the 2011 Housing Report Card. She is a doctoral student in Sociology at Northeastern University, specializing in urban social policy and social science research methods. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Clark University in 2004, and her M.A. in Sociology from George Washington University in 2010. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Liz worked for four years as a research associate at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC, where she focused on federal education policy evaluation and provided technical assistance to Title I Program administrators. Liz has also held research positions with the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Good Jobs First.
Liz was born and raised in Middlebury, Connecticut and lived in Washington, DC for six years before relocating to Boston to continue her graduate studies. She loves living in Cambridge, spending time with family and friends, and biking all over the city.
Yingchan Zhang, Research Associate
Telephone: (617) 373-8754
E-mail:ying.zhang@neu.edu
Yingchan Zhang is a Research Associate at the Dukakis Center and a doctoral student in the Northeastern University Department of Sociology. She received her B.A. in Economics from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China in 2007, an M.A. in Regional Economic and Social Development from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2009, and an M.A. in Sociology from Northeastern University in 2011. For her first master's degree, Yingchan wrote a thesis on the experiences of immigrant nurses in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her research interests include social stratification, immigration, globalization, and urban economic and social development.
Prior to joining the Dukakis Center, Yingchan served as Research Assistant from 2007 to 2009 in the project "An Ethnographic Study of Lowell, MA: Immigration, Globalization and Enterprise in the 'All-American City.'" In the summer of 2010, she worked as a program assistant at the Center for Family, Work and Community at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Yingchan was born and raised in Chengdu, China. She came to the US for graduate school in 2007 and currently lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.
Joan Fitzgerald
Joan Fitzgerald is the Director of the Law and Public Policy Program at Northeastern University. At the Dukakis Center, Joan brings prior experience and current forward-thinking research focusing on "green growth".
Her current research includes work on "Emerald Cities", a comprehensive research project that examines how U.S. and Western European cities address the interrelated issues of global warming, energy dependence and opportunities for green economic development. Based from the findings of her research, this potential includes building new technology-based industry clusters, improving the efficiency of production in existing manufacturing processes, and creating well-paying green jobs in construction, manufacturing, and entirely new advanced technology sectors.
Prior to her work on "Emerald Cities", Joan has written for several journals and regularly advises government officials on new "green-growth strategies". Her recent publications include her 2002 economic development book, Economic Revitalization: Strategies and Cases for City and Suburb, Moving Up in the New Economy (2006) and recent articles in the American Prospect focusing on green building and renewable energy.
Before coming to Northeastern University, Joan taught urban policy and public affairs at the New School University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Ohio State University.
Richard O'Bryant
Richard O'Bryant is Director of the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute at Northeastern and a Senior Research Fellow with the Dukakis Center. He previously also served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. Richard helps coordinate activities with the Stony Brook Initiative and has developed a number of research proposals on the role of information technology on democratic process.
O'Bryant's current teaching responsibilities include "Science, Technology and Public Policy", "Urban Policies and Politics, Current Issues in Cities" and "Suburbs and Economic Institutions and Analysis". O'Bryant is also co-director of the Political Science Experiential Education internship program. His recent publications include Low-Income Communities: Technological Strategies for Nurturing Community, Empowerment and Self-Sufficiency at a Low-Income Housing Development, a monograph published in 2005 in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's National Forum on Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Higher Education for the Public Good, and a review of Media Access: Social and Psychological Dimensions of a New Technology Use, published in February 2005 in the New Media and Society Journal. His current research interests are information technology and civic, social, and political participation.
Professor O'Bryant served as co-principal investigator of the Camfield Estates/MIT Project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which included making wireless connectivity available to residents of Camfield Estates, located in Roxbury, Massachusetts. His professional experience also includes serving as a senior software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation (now HP-Compaq), a research associate at the William Monroe Trotter Institute, and former Director of the John D. O’Bryant Community Youth Center.
Born and raised in Boston, O'Bryant received his doctorate in 2004 in Urban and Regional Studies from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. O'Bryant also has a bachelor's degree in computer systems engineering from Howard University.
Mary Huff Stevenson
Mary Huff Stevenson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Dukakis Center. Stevenson is a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Boston and past Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs at UMB's John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies.
At the Dukakis Center, Stevenson has been a co-author with Barry Bluestone and Russell Williams of The Urban Experience: Economics, Society, and Public Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Stevenson has been widely published, and writes on a number of issues that complement her specific interests: urban poverty and labor market problems, the economic status of women, and the development of urban public institutions. She is the author of three other books, two of which were co-authored with Dukakis Center director Barry Bluestone: The Boston Renaissance: Race, Space, and Economic Change in an American Metropolis (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2000) and Low Wages and the Working Poor published by the University of Michigan in 1973. Her solely authored book, Determinants of Low Wages for Women Workers, was published in 1984.
She has also written for a wide number of publications, including the Eastern Economics Journal, Borderlands of Economics: Essays in Honor of Daniel R. Fusfeld; For Crying out Loud: Women's Poverty in the United States; and for the Boston Observer, "The Dynamics of Labor Market Segmentation" and "Sex, Discrimination, and the Division of Labor."
Don Walsh
Don Walsh was the Director of Community Relations and Economic Development for NSTAR, the region's electricity and gas distributor, since its formation in 1999 until 2005, and served as the Director of Economic Development for Boston Edison since 1991. He was responsible for the relationships between NSTAR and the 108 cities and towns comprising the company's service territory. As a result, he has a variety of real-world experiences built around the role of energy and energy delivery in municipalities. He has a strong background in economic development, particularly urban economic development, housing, and energy.
At the Center, Don was co-director of the research project that culminated in "Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts" and serves as co-chair of the Staying Power Task Force.
In addition to active participation in key private sector efforts to strengthen the Massachusetts economy, he was the founder of the Mass Alliance for Economic Development (MAED), which has become the primary source of real estate information for businesses considering a Massachusetts location. He was also the Founding President of Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation, one of the city's premier Community Development Corporations (CDCs); he is DBEDC's current president.
A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, Walsh has a Master's Degree in Sociology from Northeastern University and an MBA from Harvard University.
Russell Williams
Russell Williams is an Associate Professor of Economics at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts who specializes in urban, labor, and institutional economics. At Wheaton he teaches courses in urban economics, the economics of education, the economics of race, and macroeconomics. Williams received his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, which he attended after winning a Ford Foundation Fellowship. At the Dukakis Center, he has served as a Senior Research Associate working on a number of projects related to minority business enterprise and is a co-author, along with Barry Bluestone and Mary Huff Stevenson of The Urban Experience: Economics, Society, and Public Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Williams' professional experience in economics includes previous positions with the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., the Regional Institute for Employment Policy, Abt Associates, and the William Monroe Trotter Institute at UMass Boston. He has contributed to a number of reports and studies dealing with urban economic development, the changing demographic makeup of Greater Boston, workforce training, and youth programs in the inner city. His academic and professional work has used a wide range of methodologies, ranging from interviews and focus group facilitation, to statistical analysis techniques including OLS, probit, and hazard analysis. His writings have been directed to a wide variety of audiences, from academicians to policy-makers to the general public.
In addition to his research, applied work, and teaching in economics, Williams' other professional experience includes nine years as Associate Director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc., where he managed 20 professional staff and oversaw operations with a cash flow of $3 million; and consultant work for AHEAD, Inc., an international health and development organization. Williams has volunteered in several capacities, including service as a member of the Board of Managers of the New England Home for Little Wanderers, as a member of the Advisory Board of the New England Advanced Studies Program (an enrichment program for high school students), as co-chair of Operation Big Vote-Boston, and as a member and subcommittee chairperson on the United Way of Massachusetts-Bay Social Services Allocations Review Committee. He has been listed in Who's Who in the East, and Who' s Who in American Education.
Williams has been a guest lecturer on numerous occasions addressing topics such as urban economics, economic inequality, and the economics of education. In 1996, he was a participant in a Children's Defense Fund-sponsored national teleconference on the relationships between economic development and the needs of black children.
In his spare time, Williams enjoys music and watching sports. He is a lifelong pianist, whose pre-college training included studies at South Carolina State University and Peabody Institute of Music (Baltimore). As an adult he served for two years as accompanist for New England Conservatory' s Community Services Program voice class. Williams lives in Central Massachusetts.
Nicolle Bugajski
Student Research AssistantE-mail: N.Bugajski@neu.edu
Nicolle Bugajski is a rising senior attending Bates College located in Lewiston, Maine. As a sociology major, Nicolle is deeply interested in public policy and social inequality. Both in high school and in college, she has been an active member of the community. In high school, Nicolle led charity events and fundraisers. Also, she tutored her peers both in high school and elementary school students. While in college, she continues her devotion to the community and volunteers in the local Lewiston public schools mentoring young children and tutoring Somali students. Nicolle plans to write a community-action based honors thesis this upcoming fall. This summer, she is interning for the Dukakis Center as a student research assistant.
Nicolle lives in Brookline with her family and graduated from Brookline High School in 2008 with honors. She enjoys playing tennis and tossing a Frisbee around in the summer. She has played tennis for both her high school and college teams. She recently spent her first semester of her junior year studying in Rome, Italy where she learned about Roman history, art, and culture.Carissa Huang
Marketing and Development Co-opCommunications Studies with a minor in Graphic Design, Class of 2013
Carissa is from Albany, New York. She is currently a Northeastern junior and on her second co-op. She is a Communication Studies major with a concentration in Media Studies and a Graphic Design minor. She has always been interested in the media and how it affects the public. Whether it is through verbal communication or visuals, each aspect of the media is an area of interest. She is also passionate about non-profit work and this was apparent at her previous co-op with the American Diabetes Association. She helped coordinate and execute a fundraising event in the Central MA area.
Carissa also enjoys acrylic painting, traveling, and playing competitive Ultimate Frisbee.
Margaret Morgan
Marketing and Development Co-opCommunications Studies with a minor in Sociology, Class of 2014
Margaret Morgan is a Northeastern sophomore and currently on her first co-op. She has lived all around the United States, including Washington state, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Michigan. Margaret first became interested in both Communications and Sociology by joining the first year of her high school's resurrected debate team, where young students were given a platform to do serious independent research on social issues and present them publicly at competitions. Finding creative ways to deliver information through public speaking, the internet, or any other form of media has always been of special interest to Margaret.
Margaret enjoys reading many genres, especially science fiction, playing the French Horn, and designing adventure scavenger hunts for friends and family.
Heather Mann
Work Study StudentNursing, Class of 2014
Stan Phanord
Work Study StudentPolitical Science with a concentration in Public Policy and Administration, Class of 2014
Stan was originally born in Haiti and moved to America when he was three years old. He was raised in Massachusetts for most of my life. He was later accepted to the Boston Latin Academy and graduated in the Class of 2009. Upon graduation he became a 2009-2010 ACCESS Scholar. From there he was accepted into Northeastern University's Foundation Year Program (a more structured and supportive Freshman Year Program). He completed the program with high honors and decided to remain at Northeastern to continue his studies.
Stan is now studying Political Science at Northeastern with a concentration in Public Policy and Administration. His role at the Dukakis Center is to video tape the Open Classroom Series, as well as assist John Sarvey in the management of the Dukakis Center website. He also assists in research as needed.
Stan's ultimate goal is to eventually work with adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds and inspire them to find success through a college education.
Darya Tsibulskaya
Work Study StudentInternational Affairs and Political Science, Class of 2014
Darya Tsibulskaya was born in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine and emigrated from there to San Francisco, CA with her family when she was seven years old. In high school, she developed an interest in politics. Following this interest, she interned for a District Supervisor in San Francisco City Hall and then went on to serve on the San Francisco Youth Commission for two years. She is now a sophomore here at Northeastern Univeristy majoring in Political Science and minoring in Business Administration.