This Fall semester the Department of Public Policy (DPP) welcomes 131 new masters, certificate, and undergraduate students as well as four additional members of the DPP faculty. Over 35 undergraduate institutions are represented among our Master of Public Administration (MPA), MPA Fellows, Master of Public Policy (MPP), and Survey Research (MASR) programs. Students previously completed undergraduate degrees in social science, humanities, business, and STEM fields, and the incoming cohort of masters students holds 12 advanced degrees. Both online and in Hartford, we have students coming from a number of states including California, Idaho, Illinois, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
All new masters’ students were invited to attend our virtual New Student Orientation program held on August 18th (Survey Research) and August 19th (MPA, MPP, and Fellows). Orientation provides new students an opportunity to meet one another along with DPP faculty and staff, and become familiar with the expectations of them as the newest members of the DPP community.
The Department of Public Policy also welcomes four new faculty members:
Dr. Nina Brooks joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests lie at the intersection of environment, health, and development economics. Her current research examines the environmental and health consequences of brick manufacturing in Bangladesh, how food security affects fertility in sub-Saharan Africa, and the impacts of abortion policies on women’s health and economic outcomes. Nina received a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University. She also holds an M.A. in Economics from Stanford University, a Master of Public Policy from Duke University, with a certificate in International Development, and a B.A. in International Political Economy from UC Berkeley.
Dr. Charles Kaye-Essien is a Visiting Assistant Professor from the School of Global and Public Policy of the American University in Cairo, Egypt. His focus is on public management and urban governance, with special focus at the state and municipal levels. His current research examines policy mobilities in contemporary urban development, municipal performance management, urban food governance, and sustainability systems. He is a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) scholar with a Ph.D. in Urban & Public Affairs from the University of Louisville, an MPA from The University of the Western Cape, an MA in Development Management from the Ruhr University of Bochum, and a B.Sc. in Urban Planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology in Ghana. Dr. Kaye-Essien will be teaching PP 5361 Theory and Management of Public Organizations, PP 5340 Introduction to Public Policy and Management, and PP 5304/3098 Public Policy, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Gregg Adler joins us as an Adjunct Professor of Law and will be teaching PP 5325 Labor Management Relations, Negotiation and Contract Management. He has practiced labor and employment law with Livingston, Adler, Pulda, Meiklejohn & Kelly, P.C. representing workers and unions since 1983. He previously worked as a Field Attorney at the National Labor Relations Board. He has a B.A. from Brown University and J.D from Northeastern University School of Law.
Thomas “TJ” Jones is a career specialist in governmental ethics law currently serving as a private consultant to governments and businesses on ethics issues. Until 2020, TJ was the Executive Director of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the state entity that regulates government ethics and campaign finance law in California. Prior to that, TJ served for over a decade as the Ethics Enforcement Officer for Connecticut, the first such ethics prosecutor appointed by the state. TJ served as an instructor of law at the University of Connecticut School of Law for over a decade, teaching lawyering skills and legal writing. TJ received his law degree from the University of Virginia, and his undergraduate degree in History and Music Composition, cum laude, from Amherst College. He is teaching PP 1001 Introduction to Public Policy and PP 3020W Cases in Public Policy.