Dean’s Update – August 2012

There is so much going on at the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs that we will need a monthly update to keep everyone apprised of all the exciting changes. Here are some headlines of what’s ahead for the 2012-13 academic year:We will be seeking approval for several new master’s degree programs this year, including Engineering and Public Policy; Environmental Science and Public Policy; and Social Entrepreneurship and Strategic Philanthropy. Further, we will advance Urban Systems Analysis as an undergraduate minor and combined degree program. A proposal for a dual MPH PhD in Law and Public Policy will be submitted in September.The Smart and Sustainable Cities faculty will hold a retreat on September 7^thto begin developing the proposals for the new degree programs.  Chris Bosso is working closely with our faculty and our contacts in Charlotte and Seattle on degree and certificate programs the Policy School might offer there.We plan to increase our efforts to spread the word about the Policy School—please see John Sarvey’s Memo on Marketing Strategies and Resources we all can use. We have a marketing plan in place and I’ll report on our marketing efforts next month. Meanwhile, please send your news—grants, publications, new jobs, etc. to John Sarvey (j.sarvey@neu.edu) for future newsletters.

All the Best,

Joan Fitzgerald

Interim Dean

New Faculty

We welcome several new faculty members to the Policy School. We hope you will be able to attend the Policy School Welcome Reception on September 4^th to meet them. Their bios follow. Please check your faculty bio on the website. If you want us to update it (particularly photos) please send material to j.sarvey@neu.edu.

Len Albright

Assistant Professor, Sociology & Public Policy

Len Albright is an assistant professor of sociology and public policy with appointments of 25% in the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs and 75% in Sociology. Albright recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago, and was a recipient of the University’s Phoenix Fellowship from 2004-07. His dissertation, supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the MacArthur Foundation, is an ethnographic study of an affordable housing complex in a suburban New Jersey community.

Trained as an environmental sociologist, Albright is also researching issues of community mobilization around hydraulic fracturing and natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania. He has done extensive ethnographic research on class and racial boundaries within suburban communities.

Albright has also written on the implementation of judicial rulings (such as the Mount Laurel decision) in support of fair housing in the United States. A native of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, Len maintains an interest in the history and impact of the Mt. Laurel Decisions, a series of NJ Supreme Court decisions that advocated for inclusionary zoning and housing equality.

Areas of Research and Teaching:

Urban Sociology, Environmental Sociology, Affordable Housing, Inequality, Qualitative Methods, the Suburbs, Social Theory, Coastal Communities

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