News & Events

2012 Capstone Expo

The Capstone program is a valuable service that Wagner proudly offers to the city, the region, and the world. Join us for this year's Capstone Expo, where students will display summaries of their work. A reception at Kimmel will follow.

NYU MEATLESS MONDAYS

Monday, May 7th |
Rudin Forum at Puck Building, 2nd Floor | 12:30-2PM

You have the power to reduce climate change with every meal you eat. Come join the Meatless Mondays campaign, featuring:

-Tasty *free* vegetarian food provided by the NYU Student Food Co-op -Organic coffee to get you through finals from Blue Bottle Coffee

-Sustainable Lunch Maps for good options around NYU

-Meat-free meal guides to cook your own tasty veggie-friendly food


Curious about the carbon footprint of your meals? The meat industry contributes to our emissions much more than most of us realize. Livestock alone creates more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes, and other fossil-fueled modes of transportation in the world according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in their widely cited report, Livestock's Long Shadow. In fact, our current food system--from industrial farming to packaging to transporting--contributes as much as one-third of total greenhouse gas emissions. Some reports even tip the scale closer to half.

Pledge to go meatless on Mondays this year and join the movement to cut the meat, once a week. All students and staff participating in MM this year will receive buttons, recipes and resources to lower our environmental footprint. Collective pledges will be aggregated to measure our communal impact throughout the year.

The Climate Change: It's What's For Dinner campaign is a joint collaboration of the Wagner Food Policy Alliance, the Wagner Climate Coalition, NYU Steinhardt Food Studies, NYU Law/Students for Animal Legal Defense Fund and is supported by a Green Grant from the NYU Office of Sustainability.

Visit our website, http://nyumeatlessmondays.wordpress.com, and find:

-Vegetarian Recipes (or submit some of your favorites to nyumeatlessmondays@gmail.com)

-Resources from local NYC Eating Guides to an NYU Sustainable Lunch Map

-Articles, books, blogs, and podcasts to keep you up on the links between climate change, meat, and health

-Apps and Cookbooks to plan out your sustainable eats

-Q&A Interviews with NYU vegetarian athletes like Pete Horn to Dirt Candy Chef, Amanda Cohen

It's all online at the NYU Meatless Mondays site.

And follow the action, find recipes and connect with resources through Twitter also, follow us @NYUmeatless! Send in your pics of favorite local spots, what you're cooking up and home and how you're living out a sustainable life in NYC and check out the flickr photostream for some past postings of events and recipes, too.

Questions? Email bronsing@nyu.edu

IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS
Join the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress and NYU Wagner on May 2, 2012 at 3:00PM in welcoming Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein who are sure set off passionate debate among these and other important players in the beltway and beyond withIT’S EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism

Technology and Urban Mobility: Perspectives from the Front Lines

Presented by Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management

Transportation is vastly changing as infrastructure becomes smarter. How are transportation managers incorporating technologies into our cities’ streets, vehicles and transit networks, and what are the outcomes, successes and pitfalls? How do these solutions affect mobility?
Join us for a look into technology’s influence on mobility management in New York City. Panelists include:
• Ernest Tollerson, Director, Environmental Sustainability & Compliance, Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Monica DaCosta, Supervisor of Operational Programs and Strategic Initiatives, Port Authority of NY & NJ
• Brian Ferris, Software Engineer, Google Transit
• Jeff Maki, Principal, Transportation Group at OpenPlans
• Adam Ernst, Software Developer & Creator, iTrans

The Supreme Court and Health Reform: How Should It Rule?

Join us for a panel discussion on this timely debate.  With:

Deborah Bachrach, Special Counsel, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Roderick Hills, William T. Comfort, III Professor of Law, NYU School of Law

Rogan Kersh, Professor of Public Policy and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, NYU Wagner

Moderated by
John Billings, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Public Service, and director of NYU Wagner's Health Policy and Management Program

Venus Noire

Presented by Wagner Student Association for Africa

The film Venus Noire, is a real-life story about the life of Saartjie Baartman, a black, Khoi domestic worker, who in 1810 was enticed by fame and fortune to leave her home in South Africa for Europe. Upon her arrival in London she faced dehumanization and extreme ridicule as she was displayed as a "freak of nature" by virtue of her unusual anatomy and sexual organs. She was shipped to France where she was studied, made to mimic savagery and expose her body in Carnivals and eventually in brothels, where she was sexually exploited.

Baartman died at the tender age of 27 of pneumonia and venereal disease, all alone and never having returned to her homeland. After her death, her sexual organs and brains were displayed in a French Museum and studied to establish a link between man and apes. After several years of the South African government requesting that the remains of Baartman be returned for a humane burial, she was eventually returned in 2002 and buried in her homeland.

We will explore the issues raised in Venus Noire, particularly the role of women in general, the perception of African women and how issues of sexuality, dignity and power play into society today.

Urban Exposure Photography Showcase

Presented by Urban Planning Student Association

Urban Exposure is an urban-themed documentary photography showcase.

This year, we are featuring the work of students and aspiring photographers in the New York City area.
We will be awarding four individual artists for their outstanding contribution to the arts, the study of the urban form, and to the competition.

This event is free and open to the public. Wine and refreshments will be served.

6th Annual Hannah Engle Memorial Lecture:  "Jewish Peoplehood in a Time of Personal Autonomy"

The lecture this year will be given by Alisa Rubin Kurshan, PhD, Senior Vice President of UJA-Federation of New York for Strategic Planning and Organizational Resources.

A reception will follow. Dietary laws will be observed.

Please join the Wagner-Skirball community as we honor the memory of Hannah Engle.

2012 Henry Hart Rice Urban Policy Forum
with

John White, 
Louisiana State Superintendent of Education

Reception: 5:30 - 6 pm
Program: 6 - 7:30 pm

Seating is limited.  Please register below.

Building a Bike-Friendly Business District in the LES

An Outreach Event with Transportation Alternatives

Join the Wagner Transportation Association and Transportation Alternatives in building support for one the nation’s first Bike-Friendly Business Districts! As you know, bicycle use and infrastructure improvements in NYC have exploded over the past few years, but that hasn’t come without some battles. In order to win even more improvements, TA has begun identifying bike-friendly businesses throughout the city, and has its eyes set on declaring the Lower East Side a bike-friendly district. To help with this initiative, we’re organizing a Day of Service to canvass small businesses and educate them about how they can support bicycling in the city. We’ll meet at the TA offices at 1 PM on Saturday, April 21st for training & lunch, then head back to the LES for the canvass. It’s sure to be a lot of fun and will make bicycling in NYC even better. Please RSVP by April 18th. To check out the current list of bike-friendly businesses and learn more, visit http://bikingrules.org/business.

Arcology, Arcosanti and the Ecological Cities of Paolo Soleri – Towards Genuine Long-Term Sustainability

Co-sponosroed by the Wagner Transportation Association (WTA) and the Urban Planning Student Association (UPSA)

Arcology is architect and philosopher Paolo Soleri’s concept of cities which embody the fusion of architecture with ecology. It proposes a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the antithesis of urban sprawl. By foregoing the automobile and minimizing destruction of the surrounding ecology, and by incorporating extensive terraced solar greenhouses and energy production, arcologies provide for highly pedestrian cities which maximize urban functioning while dramatically minimizing energy and resource consumption and waste. Arcosanti is the prototype arcology being built in Arizona.

George Kosmides, who will provide the discussion of Paolo Soleri, is President of Noospherics Technologies, Inc, and the former staff electrical engineer at Arcosanti. He still works with the Arcosanti staff on an ongoing basis, as well as with a range of leading edge solar and wind energy development projects.

Critical Trans Politics: Dean Spade in Conversation with Andrea Ritchie and Reina Gossett

The Stonewall Policy Alliance (SPA) of the Robert F. Wagner School, at NYU presents
Critical Trans Politics: Dean Spade in Conversation with Andrea Ritchie and Reina Gossett

Join us in a celebration of Dean Spade's recently released book: 'Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law' (South End Press) in conversation with Andrea Ritchie, co-author (along with Joey L. Mogul and Kay Whitlock) of 'Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States,’ and Reina Gossett, contributing writer to ‘Captive Genders.’ The overlapping themes of these authors' books and life-work should yield a deep discussion around LGBT policy, law, and justice issues in the US.

The event is free and open to the public.

Date/Time: April 19th, 2012, 530pm - 730pm
Location: Room 214, Furman Hall @ NYU

Co-Sponsored by: OUTlaw, SCJR, NYU LGBT office, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality

About the speakers:

Dean Spade is assistant professor at the Seattle University School of Law, teaching administrative law, poverty law, and law and social movements. In 2002 he founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a nonprofit law collective that provides free legal help to intersex, trans, and gender nonconforming low-income people and people of color and works to build racial and economic justice-centered trans resistance. He is the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law (South End Press, 2011).

Andrea Ritchie is a police misconduct attorney and organizer in New York City. She co-coordinates Streetwise and Safe (SAS) and is co-author, along with Joey L. Mogul and Kay Whitlock, of "Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People" in the United States (Beacon Press 2011).

Reina Gossett is an activist living in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Currently Reina works at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project as Membership Director and formerly directed the Welfare Organizing Project at Queers for Economic Justice and was a Soros Justice Fellow on staff at Critical Resistance. She is a contributing writer for Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment & the Prison Industrial Complex and believes imagination and creativity are vital for creating strong social movements for self determination & liberation.

The Rescuers

Presented by Wagner Student Association for Africa, Jewish Wagner Professional Association, and Asian Pacific American Student Alliance

Film Screening: THE RESCUERS, the latest film from Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Michael King, uncovers the largely unknown stories of 13 heroic and courageous diplomats who, at tremendous personal cost, saved tens of thousands of Jews during World War II. The film follows Wagner's very own Stephanie Nyombayire, a young Rwandan anti-genocide activist who lost 100 members of her family in the Rwandan Genocide of the 1990s, and Sir Martin Gilbert, the renowned 20th century and Holocaust historian, as they travel across 15 countries and three continents interviewing survivors and descendants of the diplomats. Nyombayire and Gilbert explore and contemplate the past in a quest, in part, to understand what should be done to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur and elsewhere. Visit http://www.rescuersdoc.com/ for more information.

The film screening will be followed by a short Q&A with Stephanie and others involved in making the film.

Morning Forum - Women Creating Change

with Dr. Sylvia Maier, Center for Global Affairs and the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, NYU; 

Keynote Address and Discussion

with Patrick Meier, Director of Crisis Mapping and Partnerships at Ushahidi

Afternoon Forum - Just Hype? Social Media, Tech, & the Arab Spring

with David Keyes, Co-founder, Cyberdissidents.org; Zack Brisson, Co-founder, thereboot.org; and Ahed Al Hendi, Founder, Syrian Youth for Justice.

Afternoon Forum - Social Media & Social Change

with Trinh Nguyen, Program Manager, Viet Tan; Justin Wedes, Occupy Wall Street Media Team and Dana Variano, Communications Strategist, Breakthrough.

Afternoon Forum - How-To: Social Media for Your Cause

with David Aglar, Vice President for Digital Strategy at Weber Shandwick

World Café Discussion over Coffee

The World Café will offer conference participants an opportunity to reflect on the panels and forums they attended throughout the day and engage in a facilitated small-group dialogue to uncover key themes and takeaways. Moderated by Natasha Iskander, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, NYU Wagner.

Evening Reception at Dove Parlour

Increasing Parent Engagement In Education

Wednesday, April 11th at 11:30am
Puck Building, Mulberry Conference Room

Please bring your lunch and join WEPSA as our speakers engage in a discussion of two unique models for increasing parental involvement in education.

Despite being a required component of many school improvement initiatives - from Title I Schoolwide Programs to federally mandated school improvement plans, parent involvement continues to challenge practitioners engaged in school reform. The benefits of parent involvement are clear: A growing body of research shows that successful parent involvement improves behavior and attendance and has positive effects on student achievement. Yet many schools and education programs continue to struggle with defining and measuring meaningful parent involvement.

Speakers:
Saskia Traill, VP, Policy & Research at The After-School Corporation (TASC)



The After School Program
Founded in 1998, TASC was the first nonprofit organization to set out to build a citywide K-12 after-school system. TASC created a model for daily after-school programs called ExpandED that expands the school-day by roughly three-hours and works with community organizations in partnership with schools, offering kids sports, arts, academic help and support for their healthy social and emotional development. TASC received a grant from The New York Times foundation in 2006 to examine how their sites can successfully engage parents in after-school programs.

DOE iZone
The iZone aims to increase student achievement in K-12, college and career by supporting innovative educational models that will best meet the needs, motivations and strengths of each student. The iZone engages with parent coordinators to support student achievement.

West Side Collaborative Middle School
WSC is one of the few middle-schools selected to pilot innovative time and staffing schedules as well as technology curriculum as members of the DOE’s iZone.

Annual Wagner International Alumni Night

Wagner International Student Society (WISS) sincerely invites you to Annual Wagner International Alumni Night. We are enthusiastic to provide a great opportunity for you to both reunions with peer international alumni, and share your stories with fellow Wagner international students. The event will take place at April 11 (Wednesday) 6-8pm, Rudin Conference Room.

Short Talks, Big Ideas: Transportation at the Tech Frontier

Presented by Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management

How is cutting-edge technology bringing us into the new frontier of transportation? Join us for a fun, engaging, fast-paced event, with several speakers making short presentations about their tech-enabled and optimistic projects and theories, followed by networking and refreshments. Confirmed speakers include:
• Anthony Townsend, Institute for the Future/Rudin Center: Limits of the Untethered City
• Andrew Mondschein, The Rudin Center: Social Travel in the Era of the Smartphone
• Frank Hebbert, OpenPlans: The Collaborative City Plan
• Sophia Choi, NYC DOT: Taxi GPS Data and The Breadcrumb Project
• Mark Krawczuk, WeMakeCoolSh.it, L Train Notwork
• Elizabeth Paul, MTA: The Future of New Fare Payment Systems
• John Geraci, faberNovel: Getting Around Cities
• Lizzy Showman and Kathleen Fitzgerald, School of Visual Arts: I Heart M15

APASA/WISS Presents the Chinese Calligraphy: The Art of Writing

10 minutes presentation of Calligraphy art, followed up with 45 minutes of live calligraphy show, teaching and interaction with participants.

We plan to sell the artwork afterwards too to fundraise for Wagner Class 2012.

IPSA's Fair Trade Fashion Show

IPSA has been proud to bring several fair trade food producers and sellers to campus to educate us about fair trade practices in the agricultural world, from cocoa to coffee. Through these events, we've learned the importance of fair trade in ensuring livable wages to the workers, safe working conditions, and employing environmentally sound company practices. But fair trade is not just about food. Everything from the clothes we wear to the pens we write with have impacts on the workers who make them. We are excited to partner with the NYC Fair Trade Coalition to bring local fashion designers who adhere to Fair Trade business practices in their production of clothing, jewelry and accessories. At the Fair Trade Fashion Show, you will have the opportunity to learn about these designers and also see models (all Wagner students) wearing their pieces. Join us for a night of fun, fashion, and fair trade!

Designers featured: Soham Dave, Rising Tide Fair Trade, Pokuasi, KNO Clothing, Cambodian Threads, Global Goods Partners, Marquet, and My Fair Label.

Food: Fair trade fruit trays and a table for Kopali Organics (chocolate dessert samples), and Fair Trade wine from Fairhills Fairtrade Wines.

16 Annual Kovner-Behrman Health Forum:
Empowering Nurse Leaders in Hospitals
With: 
Moderated by:

5:30pm Reception
6:00pm Dialogue

Seating is limited.

Danger: EAT at Your Own Risk

Wagner Food Policy Alliance Brown Bag with Lauren Bush
Rudin Forum
Wednesday, April 4 ~ 12-1 PM

"Each year, one in six Americans — 48 million people — gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Ineffective food safety practices often fail to detect foodborne disease outbreaks and often nobody knows why people get sick or what food to blame.*

Join Wagner graduate student Lauren Bush as she discusses her personal story of foodborne illness and the advocacy role she has since taken in the food safety campaign. After eating a bowl of contaminated spinach, Lauren was out four months of her life and her insurance company had to pay $50,000 in medical bills. Lauren will share her story and shed light on our nation's food safety system and the policy debates, as well as ways for students to inform themselves on these issues.

*Read more on the News 21, How Safe is Your Food site at http://foodsafety.news21.com/2011/overview and listen to Lauren at http://foodsafety.news21.com/2011/safety/prevention.

The Gallery Space at Wagner is pleased to announce the opening reception for "I will show you fear in a handful of dust: An Earth Day Exhibit," our Spring-2012 exhibition featuring paintings and installation work by New York City artist Erick Sánchez.

Staged in commemoration of international Earth Day and NYU Earth Week, the project was conceived as a visual manifesto—a display about the perils of man-originated ecological disturbances and the urgency for intensified environmental conservation efforts. With this series Sánchez gives shape to a fragile space consumed by globalization, industrialization, global warming, and other consequences of human behavior and the concomitant natural disasters. The four semi-figurative landscapes resulting from these explorations are impactful, deliberately cautionary in tone, and executed with assertive brush stroking and inventive medium combinations.

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust" is presented by the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in partnership with the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and the Wagner Environmental Policy & Action (WEPA). The exhibit is co-sponsored by NYU Sustainability/Earth Week and the Student Network Exploring Arts & Culture (SNEAC).
 
A related panel discussion on environmental and climate change issues will also take place at the site of the exhibit at a later date (details to be announced).

House Resolution 7 - The Future of Federal Transportation Spending

Presented by Wagner Transportation Association

Please join us for a special talk with Jon Orcutt, NYC DOT Policy Director and Wagner School Adjunct Professor, and Linda Bailey, NYC DOT Federal Programs Adviser, about the politics surrounding HR7, the recently introduced House Bill which would imperil funding for public transit, pedestrian, and cycling projects. The bill has provoked a large backlash and has raised questions about the political viability of sustainable, non-motorized transportation.

Collateral Consequences to Criminal Convictions: Barriers to Housing

Access to affordable housing is a necessary precondition for successful community reintegration following criminal conviction. Far too often, however, individuals with criminal records struggle to find suitable housing or are overtly denied shelter, greatly increasing the likelihood of recidivism.
 
At Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions: Barriers to Housing, NYU Wagner Students for Criminal Justice Reform seeks to tackle the contradictory housing policies that create barriers to reentry following criminal conviction. Panelists will discuss what makes successful reintegration so difficult, what policies exist to prevent those with criminal convictions from obtaining suitable housing, and what steps must be taken in order to help the formerly incarcerated and those with criminal convictions find permanent housing while reestablishing themselves as positive contributors to society.
 
Panelists will include:
 
Rebecca Greenberg
Attorney, Civil Action Practice
Bronx Defenders
 
Ryan Moser
Managing Director, Eastern Region
Corporation for Supportive Housing
 
Laurie Parise
Executive Director and Founder
Youth Represent
 
Rita Zimmer
Executive Director and Founder
Housing + Solutions

WEFA: Alexander Hamilton Society

The Alexander Hamilton Society and The Wagner Economic and Finance Association (WEFA) invite you to the second annual: Geopolitics, Global Markets, and Your Career.

Join veterans of international finance for an off-the-record, free-wheeling discussion of geopolitics, the global marketplace, and U.S. power. After taking an unflinching look at the current state of the world economy, they’ll offer invaluable advice on building a successful career that allows you to pursue your policy interests at a high level.

Sustainable Transportation and Economic Development in Africa: Stories from the Field

Presented by the Wagner Transportation Association (WTA)

In rural and underdeveloped areas of Africa, the lack of reliable and affordable transportation is one of the largest obstacles to economic development and employment. It also severely limits access to critical services, especially health care. At the same time, the continent suffers from continuing deforestation and environmental degradation.

We'll hear from Aimee Gauthier, of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy; and John Mutter of the Bamboo Bike Project, about their organizations' work supplying Africa with bicycles which improve access to vital services and opportunities and in so doing creating employment and protecting African forests.

The Securitization of Climate Change: 'Threat Multipliers' and Climate Migration in Africa

Greg White, Professor of Government, Smith College 

This presentation unpacks the security discourse that emerged in the last decade concerning climate change.  It examines the framing of climate change as a "threat multiplier," "fire accelerant," and "security risk."  It argues that such a framing is a strategic choice that supports key interests and agendas, while undermining more productive ways of adapting to the likely effects of climate change.  

No Time to Lose: The Promise and Policy Implications of Expanded Learning Time

Join the Wagner Education Policy Studies Association (WEPSA) and a panel of experts as they discuss the various policy implications, funding impacts, and programmatic approaches to extending the day and expanding learning time in and outside of schools. As charter schools, after-school partnerships, and other models increasingly challenge the traditional school day, districts are becoming more innovative in their approaches to time. Philanthropic organizations also play a powerful role in this nonprofit-public-policy dynamic, building the capacity of nonprofits to pursue innovative solutions and raising the bar for impact and results. Representatives from a non-profit after-school program, philanthropy, a policy intermediary, and the Department of Education, among others, will examine this timely issue.

Dual Language Public Schools: Policy, Practice, & Implications for Research

Presented by Berman Jewish Policy Archive

How do dual language public schools advance the cultural horizons of their students and work for a healthier society at large? These schools engage the interest and concerns of numerous stakeholders, among them: educators, parents, scholars, and ethnic/religious communities. Can they, do they and should they serve as vehicles for cultural preservation and identity transmission?

Join a diverse group of scholars and practitioners as we discuss:

--Major objectives of dual language public schools, both in terms of the student and the larger society.

--The major objections to dual language public schools and impediments to their growth and success.

--Creating a research agenda to advance the discourse on the dialectic above.

The discussion will take place from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM with a reception to follow.

Addressing Diversity in the Workplace: An interactive workshop

Presented by Wagner Management and Leadership Organization, Alliance of Latin American Students, Stonewall Policy Alliance, and Wagner Women's Caucus

WMLO Workshop Facilitator: David P. Rivera, Doctoral Candidate in Counseling Psychology, Columbia University

How Well Do You Manage Diversity?
WMLO, in partnership with ALAS, SPA and WWC, is hosting an interactive workshop to address and understand how to manage the different dimensions of race, culture, ethnicity, physical abilities, age, gender, sexual orientation, and other characteristics that give rise to a variety of perspectives, affecting performance, motivation, success, and interactions with others in the workplace.

The learning objectives for the workshop are:

* To increase knowledge about diversity in the workplace
* To encourage self-awareness about cultural and social identities and our individual biases, attitudes, and behaviors
* To develop skills to effectively address diversity in the workplace.

Refreshments and Drinks will be served during the workshop

Facilitator Bio: David P. Rivera
David P. Rivera, M.S. is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. He holds degrees in psychology and counseling from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wyoming. His research focuses on issues impacting the marginalization and health of people of color and sexual minorities. David’s research has been published in The Counseling Psychologist, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and The Journal of Counseling and Development. His work also includes publications on workplace diversity issues. He has received multiple recognitions for his work, including national honors from the American Psychological Association and the American College Counseling Association.

IPSA's Discussion of Chronic Disease and Economic Development in Nicaragua with La Isla Foundation

In recent decades, chronic kidney disease (CKD) has emerged as a devastating epidemic in the agricultural communities near Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. Studies have shown a developing epidemiological pattern that differs from traditional causes, with CKD most prevalent among young, male agricultural workers.

La Isla Foundation was formed in 2008 with the aim of reducing the burden of disease on affected communities. By engaging with individuals on the ground and coordinating the efforts of health institutions from around the world, La Isla Foundation has helped bring attention to communities which sit at the fault lines of global issues.

Join the International Public Service Association (IPSA), Alliance of Latino and Latin American Students (ALAS), Wagner Health Network (WHN), and Wagner Food Policy Alliance (WFPA) for a presentation by the La Isla Foundation with a Q and A session and a reception to follow.

Read more at the Huffington Post website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/12/mystery-disease-central-america_n_1272286.html

State of the Digital City: Government 2.0 and its Impact on Policymaking

Presented by Wagner Policy Alliance

In 2011, Mayor Bloomberg’s office rolled out its Road Map for the Digital City, a vanguard municipal plan for increasing avenues for digital engagement, government transparency, and data accessibility for New York City residents and businesses. One year later, the City boasts hundreds of recently released data sets, dozens of apps developed through city-supported hackathons and competitions, more than 200 social media engagement channels, and GovFresh’s 2011 City of the Year award for its leadership in technology-supported democracy. Clearly, much is happening on the web—but what is the impact on the ground? How have the City’s digital initiatives affected public service? Who is engaging? And what changes will government 3.0 bring?

Join the Wagner Policy Alliance for a panel discussion and reception with esteemed experts and practitioners.

Panelists:
NYC Council Member Gale Brewer, Founding Chair of the Committee on Technology in Government

John Kaehny, Executive Director and Founding Board Member, Reinvent Albany

Anthony Townsend, Research Director, Institute for the Future, and NYU Adjunct Assistant Professor

Moderator:
Shankar Prasad, NYU Adjunct Associate Professor and Yourlist.org Founder


Sponsored by NYU Wagner's Urban Planning Student Association and NYU Law School's Law and Government Society

Rudin Center for Transportation Presents "The Five Borough Taxi Plan: A Discussion with NYC Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky"

Announced by Governor Cuomo in December 2011, the Five Borough Taxi Plan is a Taxi and Limousine Commission approved bill that will issue 18,000 permits to livery cabs, which will allow them to pick up street hails in: Brooklyn, Queens (airports are not included), the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan above East 96th Street and above West 110th Street.

The new permit holding vehicles will be equipped with special markings for easy identification, a roof light, a meter, a credit card reader, and GPS tracking. In addition, the plan will require a specific percentage of the permits to be issued to wheelchair accessible vehicles. The bill also allows for the Taxi and Limousine Commission to sell 2,000 additional taxicab medallions.

Join us for a conversation with Commissioner Yassky about these and other aspects of the new Five Borough Taxi Plan.

David Yassky is the eleventh person to serve as Commissioner/Chairman of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. Previously, Commissioner Yassky completed eight years of service in the New York City Council, representing the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. On the Council, he sponsored legislation to promote the use of fuel-efficient hybrid cars as taxicabs and authored innovative laws in the areas of affordable housing and economic development.

Roundtable Discussion on Long-Term Liabilities & Re-thinking Pension Investments

Presented by The Fund for Public Advocacy, in partnership with the Office of New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and the NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, with generous support from The New York Community Trust and the Peterson Foundation. Co-sponsored by the The Wagner Economics and Finance Association.

Introductory Remarks
Bernard Schwartz
Chairmen and CEO, BLS Investments
 
Panel Discussion
Mike Fishman, 32BJ Service Employees International Union
Steven Lydenberg, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University
Peter Goldmark, Former Budget Director of New York State

Moderated by
Dr. Mark Funkhouser, Director of Governing Institute and Former Mayor of Kansas City

The Fund for Public Advocacy, in partnership with the Office of New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and the NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, with generous support from The New York Community Trust and the Peterson Foundation, is sponsoring a series of roundtable discussions to engage members of the public, government officials, and other key stakeholders on New York City’s long-term liabilities.  The previous roundtables explored pensions and healthcare, and this one will focus on rethinking pension investments.
 
Pension funds for public employees are powerful investors with large amounts of assets.  New York City alone currently has $115.2 billion in assets under management.  Strong investment performance is essential to the long-term financial health of the City.  How these funds invest not only affects rates of return, but also has the potential to yield complementary benefits to the community.  Investments may be targeted to spur economic drivers such as infrastructure improvements, housing development, and new enterprise – and create jobs along the way.  This roundtable will explore the benefits, risks, and challenges to implementing new ways of investing.

The Politics of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: A Comparative Study on Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay

A Conversation with Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Director of the Schomburg Center


Women of Color Policy Network Executive Director and NYU Wagner Professor Dr. Nicole Mason will interview Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad about the work of the Schomburg Center, as well as his book on the criminal justice system and its effect on black men, "The Condemnation of Blackness."  This will be followed by a question and answer period.

NYU MEATLESS MONDAYS LAUNCH
Monday, March 5th | 12-2PM
Rudin Forum

You have the power to reduce climate change with every meal you eat. Join the Climate Change: It's What's For Dinner as we launch a series of meatless events around campus.

Come join the Meatless Mondays campaign launch, featuring:

-Tasty *free* vegetarian food from Sacred Chow

-Sustainable Lunch Maps for good options around NYU

-Meat-free meal guides to cook your own tasty veggie-friendly food

-Raffles for local restaurants

Curious about the carbon footprint of your meals? The meat industry contributes to our emissions much more than most of us realize. Livestock alone creates more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes, and other fossil-fueled modes of transportation in the world according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in their widely cited report, Livestock's Long Shadow. In fact, our current food system--from industrial farming to packaging to transporting--contributes as much as one-third of total greenhouse gas emissions. Some reports even tip the scale closer to half.

Pledge to go meatless on Mondays this year and join the movement to cut the meat, once a week. All students and staff participating in MM this year will receive buttons, recipes and resources to lower our environmental footprint. Collective pledges will be aggregated to measure our communal impact throughout the year.

The Climate Change: It's What's For Dinner campaign is a joint collaboration of the Wagner Food Policy Alliance, the Wagner Climate Coalition, NYU Steinhardt Food Studies, NYU Law/Students for Animal Legal Defense Fund and is supported by a Green Grant from the NYU Office of Sustainability.

Follow the action, find recipes and connect with resources: Twitter | Website | Questions?  Email bronsing@nyu.edu

WEPSA Networking Reception

Presented by Wagner Education Policy Studies Association

The Networking Receptions is a time for current graduate students, alumni, and leaders and practitioners in the education field to make meaningful connections.

Mingle with education leaders in the NYC community and learn more about the activities these organizations engage in and what it takes to lead these agencies.

Agencies attending include the NYC Department of Education, Citizen Schools, The After School Corporation, Revolution Foods, Uncommon Goods, and many more.

Accountability to Beneficiaries of Humanitarian Aid: What is it and How Can it Be Measured?

Cine ALAS

Join the Association for Latin@s and Allies in Public Service for a screening of Fresa y Chocolate, (Strawberry and Chocolate), a seminal film exploring LGBT issues in communist Cuba. Conversations about themes central to the film within the modern Cuban context and networking to follow.

Rudin Center for Transportation Presents "A Conversation with Council Member James Vacca"

Council Member Vacca’s involvement in public service and transportation policy began early in life at the age of 13 when he organized his fellow JHS students to rally for better bus service from the MTA. Before long, he was fighting for stop signs, traffic lights, the fixing of potholes, and other local issues that affected his community.

In 1980, at the age of 25, Mr. Vacca became the District Manager of Community Board #10, where he served until he took office as Councilmember of the 13th District in January of 2006. For 26 years as District Manager, he fought for one of the most diverse districts in the borough. At Community Board #10, Jimmy Vacca was constantly in the vanguard on issues facing the residents of his district. Since he started fighting against graffiti and other types of "quality of life" crimes in the 1980's, his former community board district benefited from his proactive stance by being rated both the safest and cleanest in the Bronx for many years. Over the past several years, he has been the voice of the community in its efforts against rampant overdevelopment, and through his leadership, City Island, Throggs Neck, and Ferry Point were recently rezoned to stop the rapid growth in these neighborhoods.

Today, Mr. Vacca represents the Bronx’s 13th Council district which includes the areas of Pelham Parkway North and South, Pelham Bay, Country Club, City Island, Throggs Neck, Allerton, and Morris Park. As chair of the New York City Council Committee on Transportation, Mr. Vacca plays an integral role in the transportation and infrastructure policymaking.

Going Solo: A Conversation about Cities, Social Policy, and Public Sociology with Eric Klinenberg and Sudhir Venkatesh
Co-sponsored by the Craft of Ethnography Project, a joint initiative of the Columbia University Department of Sociology and the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge.

The incredible rise of living alone is the greatest social change that we’ve failed to name and identify, let alone understand. In 1950, four million Americans lived alone. Today, more 32 million do, accounting for 28 percent of American households. The rates of living alone are even higher in urban areas. More than 40 percent of all households consist of just one person in Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. In Manhattan, the figure is nearly 50 percent.
 

Eric Klinenberg examines the seismic impact of these changes in his new book, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (Penguin Press). In this public event, the renowned Columbia University sociologist and best-selling author Sudhir Venkatesh joins Klinenberg in conversation.  They will discuss Going Solo, the state of contemporary cities, and the reemergence of public sociology.

 

Eric Klinenberg is Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Media, Culture, and Communications at New York University, and editor of the journal Public Culture. His books include Heat Wave:  A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, which won six scholarly and literary prizes and is currently being adapted as a feature documentary, and Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media. In addition to his scholarly publications, Klinenberg has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the London Review of Books, and This American Life.  (Listen to a story from Going Solo on a podcast from This American Life).

Sudhir Venkatesh is William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology, and the Committee on Global Thought, at Columbia University. His most recent book is Gang Leader for a Day (Penguin Press), which received a Best Book award from The Economist and is currently being translated into several languages. His previous books include Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (Harvard University Press, 2006) about illegal economies in Chicago, and American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (2000) about life in Chicago public housing. Venkatesh’s editorial writings have appeared in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post, and his stories have appeared in This American Life, WIRED, and on National Public Radio.

 
A book signing with both speakers will immediately follow the conversation.  Both books will be available for sale.
 

Film Screening and Discussion: Invisible Slaves: An MTV EXIT Special

Please join us for a special screening of Invisible Slaves: An MTV EXIT Special, a documentary film hosted by nineteen time Latin Grammy Award Winners, Calle 13. The screening will be followed by remarks on the partnership between UNICEF and MTV, the challenges and outcomes of using media and celebrity to raise awareness about human trafficking, and a short question and answer session. MTV EXIT is a campaign about freedom — about our rights as human beings to choose where we live, where we work, who our friends are, and who we love.

IPSA's Book Launch of Ecomind by Frances Moore Lappé

What if the ecological crisis were, at heart, a crisis of perception? In her new book, EcoMind, Frances Moore Lappé helps facilitate a much needed shift.

Join the International Public Service Association (IPSA) for a discussion and book launch with Moore Lappé. Engage in the dialogue with the NYU community about developing your own Ecomind. Appetizers and drinks will be served. The event will be followed by a small reception.

The author argues that much of what is wrong with the world, from our eroding soil to our eroding democracies, results from ways of thinking out of synch with human nature and nature’s rhythms. Moore Lappé weaves her analysis together with stories of real people the world over, who, having shifted some basic thought patterns, are shifting the balance of power in our world. She reveals that the gap between the world we long for and the world we thought we were stuck with can be bridged after all--if we can learn to think like an ecosystem. EcoMind shows us the way.

Creating a Sustainable Food Chain from Farm to Fork


Walter Robb, Co-CEO, joined Whole Foods Market in 1991 operating the Mill Valley, CA store until he became president of the Northern Pacific Region in 1993 where he grew the region from two to 17 stores. He became Executive Vice-President of Operations in 2000, Chief Operating Officer in 2001 and Co-President in 2004. Now as Co-CEO, Robb oversees six regions and is on the Whole Planet Foundation Board of Directors. An avid organic advocate, Robb is on the Advisory Board for the Organic Center for Education and Promotion. He is also on the Board of Regents for the University of the Pacific.

Carolyn Dimitri is an applied economist interested in food issues, which includes organic food, local foods, and the economic history of food marketing institutions.  Prior to joining the Food Studies faculty at NYU Steinhardt as a Research Associate Professor, she worked as a senior economist at the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture for 12 years.  Along with collaborators, she has obtained grants to study retailer and intermediary behavior regarding organic marketing and procurement practices, and urban agriculture around the US. Other recent work includes an analysis of regional food hubs across the country.  Dr. Dimitri earned her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a BA in Economics from the University at Buffalo. She blogs at www.sustainablefoodeconomics.com.

The Road Map to Ending Trafficking: Policy, Law Enforcement and Social Services

Brownbag lunch panel on the system-level ways we approach the issue of ending human trafficking in NYC and the U.S. Emphasis will be placed on the roles, current efforts and common barriers different agencies play and experience in securing justice for trafficking victims.

Tentative speakers include representatives from the NYC Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator, the Kings County Police Department and Safe Horizon.

This event will start promptly at noon.

This discussion explores two case studies on how climate, surface hydrology, and human water demands interact. The first case focuses on Northern Eurasia to examine how changes in climate are driving changes in the surface hydrology. Through the use of a numerical land surface model and in-situ observations, Dr. Troy shows that the interactions of precipitation and temperature trends during the past century have resulted in changes in the snowpack and streamflow in the region. The second case focuses on the interactions of climate variability and human water demands in the Indus River Basin, the breadbaskets of India and Pakistan. 

Mega-dams, Oil and 'Terrorists':  Blowback from U.S. Geopolitics in the Horn of Africa

Pimping in the US: A Deeper Look at Commercialized Sex

At this Valentine’s Day event, we will learn about domestic sex trafficking of American nationals from Bradley Myles, Executive Director of Polaris Project. Afterwards, guests are invited to a dessert and drinks reception with representatives from various organizations serving women and children engaged in prostitution.

Book Launch: What the U.S. Can Learn from China
Presented by Demos and NYU Wagner


Ann Lee, Demos Senior Fellow
in conversation with
Matthew Bishop, US Business Editor and NY Bureau Chief of The Economist

Introduced by Rich Benjamin

While America is still reeling from the financial crisis and high unemployment, China’s economy continues to grow and is predicted by some to surpass the U.S. by 2020. In her new book, What the U.S. Can Learn from China, expert Ann Lee outlines lessons the U.S. can glean from China’s growth.

From education to governance and foreign aid, Lee details the policies and practices that have made China a global power and then isolates the ways the U.S. can use China’s enduring principles to foster much-needed change at home. She does not ignore China’s shortcomings, particularly in the area of human rights, but rather asserts that overemphasizing these differences will cause the US to miss a vital opportunity.

Supply Chains: Slave-Made Products in the Global Market

As part of "Stop Traffic: Human Trafficking Awareness Week," Wagner's International Public Service Association, Wagner's Women's Caucus, and Wagner Health Network are pleased to co-sponsor this kick-off event.

This event will explore the supply chains of some common products, from cocoa to clothing. We will examine our role as consumers in creating the demand for slave-made products, and strategies for ensuring that products are made with adult, compensated labor. Potential speakers will come from The Body Shop, Free the Slaves, Made by Survivors, Kopali Organics, and Human Rights First.

Campaign Watch 2012
Presented by NYU Wagner and the Wagner Policy Alliance

with Steve Schmidt, Robert Shrum, and George Stephanopoulos
and introduced by Diane Yu, NYU Chief of Staff and Deputy to the President

Join us for a lively discussion moderated by George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "Good Morning America" and "This Week" and featuring Steve Schmidt, former senior advisor to the John McCain campaign in 2008, and Robert Shrum, NYU Wagner Senior fellow and former senior-advisor to the Kerry-Edwards Campaign in 2004.  The speakers will evaluate the upcoming presidential election in light of the first several caucuses and primary elections, and will discuss the current state of the Republican field, public opinion on the Obama administration and his campaigning efforts, and potential general election scenarios.

Please note:  This event is free but requires a ticket and PRE-REGISTRATION FOR  A limited quantity of tickets will be available at the door.

The event can also be watched live online at  wagner.nyu.edu/events/livestream/ 

House opens at 12:00pm.  Event begins promptly at 12:30pm.

"Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock" Documentary Screening and Discussion

The NYU Wagner Black Student's Alliance and Wagner's Women Caucus will be screening the documentary "Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock" on Monday, February 6, 2012 from 5:30 - 8:00 pm in the Kimmel Center Room 803. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A session with the Director/ Producer Sharon La Cruise, an NYU alumni. Join us to celebrate Black History Month with this documentary  - refreshments will be served.

Synopsis: Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock tells the story of a seven-year journey by filmmaker Sharon La Cruise to try to unravel the life of a forgotten civil rights activist named Daisy Bates. In 1957, Bates became a household name when she fought for the right of nine black students to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bates’ public support culminated in a constitutional crisis—pitting a president against a governor and a community against itself. As head of the Arkansas NAACP, and protector of the nine students, Daisy Bates would achieve instant fame as the drama played out on national television and in newspapers around the world. But that fame would prove fleeting and for her attempts to remain relevant, she would pay a hefty price.

Bio: Sharon La Cruise, Director/ Producer
Sharon La Cruise has worked in television and film for twenty years, both in the corporate and production aspects of the business. Currently, she is the Producer/ Director of Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock, a feature length documentary on civil rights activist Daisy Bates, which will be broadcast February 2012 on PBS' Independent Lens. She began her television career with ABC Primetime sales, working closely with account executives and advertising agencies. She has worked for Blackside Ind., Firelight Media, Roja Productions, The Faith Project, The Coca-Cola Company, the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, and the Cable News Network (CNN). She has worked on: Shut up and Sing, Going Up River: The Long War of John Kerry, Beyond Brown: Pursing the Promise, Citizen King, Matters of Race, This Far By Faith: African-American Spiritual Journeys, The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, and CNN's Through the Lens, The Road to the White House and The Planetary Police. She currently works as an associate for the Ford Foundation in the JustFilms unit. She is a member of the International Documentary Association. She holds an M.A. degree in television journalism from New York University, and a B.A. in history from Adelphi University.

Summer Courses Abroad Info Session

Join us for a presentation by faculty and staff regarding Wagner’s courses abroad in Accra, Geneva, and Shanghai.

Salary and Gender Issues in the Jewish Community with The Forward's Jane Eisner

For Wagner/Skirball Dual-Degree Students

Jane Eisner, editor of The Forward, will be coming to talk with Wagner/Skirball students and alumni and friends of the program about issues relating to salary and gender inequality in the Jewish professional field. Attendees are asked to read the following articles published by The Forward in December as preparation for the discussion:

www.forward.com/articles/147588/
www.forward.com/articles/147568/
www.forward.com/articles/147550/

WSAFA: Film Screening of Venus Noire

Co-sponsored by SNEAC and The Wagner Women's Caucus

The film Venus Noire, is a real-life story about the life of Saartjie Baartman, a black, Khoi domestic worker, who in 1810 was enticed by fame and fortune to leave her home in South Africa for Europe. Upon her arrival in London she faced dehumanization and extreme ridicule as she was displayed as a "freak of nature" by virtue of her unusual anatomy and sexual organs. She was shipped to France where she was studied, made to mimic savagery and expose her body in Carnivals and eventually in brothels, where she was sexually exploited.

Baartman died at the tender age of 27 of pneumonia and venereal disease, all alone and never having returned to her homeland. After her death, her sexual organs and brains were displayed in a French Museum and studied to establish a link between man and apes. After several years of the South African government requesting that the remains of Baartman be returned for a humane burial, she was eventually returned in 2002 and buried in her homeland.

We will explore the issues raised in Venus Noire, particularly the role of women in general, the perception of African women and how issues of sexuality, dignity and power play into society today.

Engage2012 Opening Event

The Women of Color Policy Network at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service will host a convening of leading people of color policy experts, practitioners and social change advocates working on issues related to immigration, racial justice, economic security, LGBTQ rights and reproductive and environmental justice to better understand how to work across communities to identify common policy goals and targets, strengthen coalitions and dismantle issue silos, and ultimately advance a multi-issue, intersectional framework to address structural and institutional inequalities and disparities present in society.

The public is welcome to attend the opening plenary of Engage2012 with policy experts, practitioners, thought leaders, key stakeholders, and members of the NYU community.

Confirmed Panelists Include:

--Cornell Belcher, President of Brilliant Corners Research and Strategy

--Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
--Cheryl Contee, Co-Founder of the award-winning Black political blog Jack and Jill Politics

--Susan Herman, President of the American Civil Liberties Union
--Marc Lamont Hill, host of the nationally syndicated television show Our World with Black Enterprise and Columbia University Professor
--Avis Jones-DeWeever, Executive Director of the National Council of Negro Women
--Maria Teresa Kumar, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Voto Latino
--Clarissa Martinez de Castro, Director of Immigration and National Campaigns at the National Council of La Raza
--Anika Rahman, President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women
--Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange
--Linda Sarsour, Director of the Arab American Association of New York
--Miriam Yeung, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

 --Moderator: Sheryl Huggins Salomon, Managing Editor of The Root

Additionally, the following individuals are still pending confirmation:

--Reverend Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation
--Kimberly Teehee, Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs, White House Domestic Policy Council

Engage2012 is co-sponsored by: Applied Research Center, Demos, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, Ford Foundation, Ms. Foundation for Women, National Council of La Raza, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, National Urban League, Open Society Foundations, The Opportunity Agenda, Rock the Vote, Voto Latino and Women’s Funding Network

Guest Lecture: Carlos Leite on
"Sao Paulo Sustainability Indicators: from formal to informal territories"

About the Speaker:
Carlos Leite, Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo; Principal, Sustainable Development and Design consultant at Stuchi & Leite Projetos

Professor Leite is both a practicing architect and urbanist on sustainable urban development in global megacities.

His current research in Sao Paulo covers sustainability indicators in both the formal city center and the informal urban periphery.

SCJR Brown Bag: Stop, Question & Frisk

Pat Wing, former NYPD Captain, current Director of Uniform Operations with the Department of Public Safety at New York University, and a Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service Executive Master of Public Administration candidate. Dinner and refreshments will be served.

Moving Forward, Getting to Zero: the AIDS Crisis after 30 Years

Sponsored by the Stonewall Policy Alliance

Building upon this year's World AIDS Day theme, the event will bring together experts and practitioners from the fields of science, public health, public policy, and community activism to discuss how the HIV/AIDS epidemic generates an ever-evolving social and collective understanding of HIV/AIDS. Reflecting upon the almost immediate response of activists and artists, we wish to inform new activists in how to reinvigorate the public, policymakers, and the science and medical communities by deploying cultural, artistic, and deeply social responses once at the heart of the fight against the disease.

Moderator: Sean Cahill, Phd., Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Wagner and Director of Health and Policy Research at the Fenway Institute.

Panelists:
Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention

Catherine Hanssens, Executive Director and founder of the Center for HIV Law and Policy

Jaszi Alejandro, Youth & Diversity Programs, Gay Men's Health Crisis

Cheikh Traore, Senior Policy Advisor, Sexual Diversity HIV Practice, United Nations Development Program

Imoh Colins Edozie, Executive Director of the Centre for Human Development and Social Transformation, in Nigeria

The event will begin with a panel discussion and then attendees will form interactive brainstorming groups to discuss provided scenarios that will allow them to posit questions to the speakers.

Thinking of Working in Philanthropy? Career Reflections from Gara Lamarche

Join Wagner’s Alumni in Philanthropy Affinity Group in conversation with Mr. Gara LaMarche, Senior Fellow at Wagner. Mr. LaMarche, who previously served as President and CEO of Atlantic Philanthropies, will be sharing reflections from his rich career in philanthropy – fifteen years on the “giving end,” as well as twenty years before that on the “receiving end.” Mr. LaMarche will talk about how he made his career in philanthropy, provide insights on the state of the field and best ways to foster relationships in the philanthropic sector.

Visit www.wagner.nyu.edu/lamarche to read Mr. LaMarche’s full biography.

East Africa Famine: Humanitarian Response and Benefit Dinner

Sponsored by International Public Service Association and Wagner Student Alliance For Africa


Event Description:
The Horn of East Africa has experienced several famines over the years, but this summer's drought led to one of the worst famines the region has seen in over 60 years. Some claim that climate change is to blame, while others contend that the militant Al-Shabab group in Somalia exacerbated the problem. Whatever the cause, over 920,000 Somalis fled into neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia and have become residents in various refugee camps. Addressing these refugees' needs, and the needs of Somalis who remained in country, has become a great concern for humanitarian organizations.

In response to the famine, several humanitarian organizations responded with life-saving interventions, including medical care and high-protein food supplements. At this event guests will have the opportunity to learn about these interventions with staff members from the International Rescue Committee, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, and Islamic Relief USA. After the discussion, we invite guests to enjoy a home-cooked Somali meal, courtesy of NYU Wagner student Marian Haji-Mohamed. We will be asking for a dinner donation to support the ongoing efforts of the organizations, so please bring what you can afford to contribute.

Beth Brooke
As Global Vice Chair of Public Policy, Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement at Ernst & Young, Beth Brooke has public policy responsibility for the firm’s operations in 140 countries and relations with regulators, policymakers and capital market stakeholders. She has been named as one of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes magazine for three years in a row, and the 2009 “Women of the Year” by Concern Worldwide. She serves on numerous boards and public policy advisory councils, is a Pathways Envoy for the U.S. State Department and is a member of the Audit Advisor Committee for the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. delegation to the UN Commission of the Status of Women.

Jewish Values, Jewish Interests: Negotiating the Tension

How should Jews and Jewish leaders relate to the larger society and broader world? Prof. Ruth Wisse (Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature, and Professor of Comparative Literature, at Harvard University) and Rabbi Joy Levitt (Executive Director of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan) will discuss both real and putative tensions between expressing Jewish values and advancing Jewish interests. BJPA Director Prof. Steven M. Cohen will moderate.

This event celebrates the complete digital collection of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service on bjpa.org, and honors JJCS Managing Editor Gail Chalew for her 20+ years of service. The event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Communal Service Association of North America and the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner.

Spotlight on Burma: Screenings of "Happy World" and "From Burma to New York" and Discussion

Join APASA and IPSA for a screening of "Happy World: Burma, the dictatorship of the absurd,” which exposes the senselessness of the military dictatorship in Burma by focusing on how its policies affect Burmese civilians. The 2009 film, directed by Gael Bordier and Tristan Mendes-France presents a fresh and original trip through Burma.

The film will be followed by a selection of short videos from the multimedia project “From Burma to New York,” spotlighting Burmese refugees’ arrival in New York, the challenges they encounter and the different paths they take.
Please join us for a great discussion with "From Burma to New York" directors Karen Zraick and Lam Thuy Vo, and Maureen Aung-Thwin, Director of the Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative at the Open Society Foundations. Aung-Thwin is also on the Asia Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch and a trustee of the Burma Studies Foundations, which oversees the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University.

Shifting School Lunch Policies

co-sponsored by the Wagner Education Policy Studies Association
and the Wagner Food Policy Alliance

·         Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years.

·         1 of 7 low-income, preschool-aged children is obese

·         On average, children will eat 2,300 lunches in school cafeterias

·         Much of a student’s long term nutrition is determined by school district lunch offerings

·         Congress recently rejected the first changes recommended by the USDA in 15 years to the school lunch program

 

Please join us for a discussion of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act, USDA school lunch priorities, and ideas on how to shift student demand.

Current Panelists:

Lisa Keise Miller, Revolution Foods, Regional Vice President New York/New Jersey.

Beth Dixon, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor and Director of the Public Health Nutrition concentration of the Community Public Health Program in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at NYU

Ian Marvy, Executive Director, Added Value and Herban Solutions, Inc

Opening Reception for "how ounces become tons" at the Gallery Space at Wagner

NYU Wagner, in partnership with NYU Steinhardt, is pleased to present "how ounces become tons," the second exhibition of the 2011-2012 season at the Gallery Space at Wagner. Curated by Ann Chwatsky and Frankie Crescioni-Santoni, this dynamic and intriguing exhibit features drawings and mixed-media works by studio artist Joseph Imhauser.

With "how ounces become tons," Imhauser presents us with a collection of intricately detailed drawings focusing on what he denominates as idiosyncratic patterns. The pieces seek to explore issues of origin, formation, and assimilation of pattern-based shapes, as well as their incursion into their immediate environment and our everyday lives.

Joseph Imhauser is an artist, musician, and community organizer. He graduated from CalArts in 2005 and is currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts at NYU Steinhardt (MFA 2012). His artworks, performances, and videos have been featured at numerous venues both locally and internationally.

Global Perspectives of Road Safety: A conversation with public health expert Dr. Kelly J. Henning, Director of Public Health Programs for Bloomberg Philanthropies

Presented by NYU's Rudin Center and the Wagner Alumni in Philanthropy Affinity group

Join us for a discussion with Dr. Kelly Henning, Director of Public Health Programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, as she discusses road safety in a global perspective. Dr. Henning will talk about the current state of road safety in low- and middle income countries, and share information about the Bloomberg Global Road Safety Program.

With more than 20 years experience in epidemiology and public health, Dr. Henning was the Director of the newly formed Division of Epidemiology at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2003 - 2006 before joining Bloomberg Philanthropies in January 2007. Currently, Dr. Henning directs all public health programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, including the $375 million Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use -- a global project aimed at curbing the tobacco epidemic in low and middle income countries, and the $125 million Bloomberg Global Road Safety Program, a global project aimed at decreasing road traffic deaths and injuries, and improving mobility and road infrastructure in 10 low and middle income countries.

E. Benjamin Skinner
E. Benjamin Skinner is an award-winning author and journalist, and a senior fellow at Brandeis University studying the U.S. and global political economies, specializing in modern-day slavery. In researching his book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern-Day Slavery, which received numerous accolades including the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, he observed the negotiations for sale of human beings on four continents. He will share his experiences documenting modern slavery around the world, and discuss promising local and international efforts for ending it.

Bridge Presents the Social Enterprise Bootcamp

Sponsored by Bridge: Students for Social Innovation, in collaboration with Columbia University's SIPA Net Impact Chapter, the School for Visual Arts, and the NYU Law and Social Entrepreneurship Association (LSEA)

The Social Enterprise Boot Camp is a series of participatory, practical workshops where current and aspiring social entrepreneurs will learn from pioneers in social enterprise how to sharpen the tools and build the relationships they need to get social ventures off the ground.

The Social Enterprise Boot Camp caters to entrepreneurs with a clear idea of what they want to build, as well as those who are still in the process of figuring out their venture ideas. Workshops are organized along four thematic tracks--Conceive, Implement, Communicate, Evaluate--that offer relevant content regardless of the stage of the venture.

For more information, please visit: http://www.socialenterprisebootcamp.org/

To attend, participants MUST register and pay using the following link: http://socialenterprisebootcamp2011.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn

Date: November 19-20, 2011

Location:
NYU Law; School of Visual Arts; Columbia University

Cost:
NYU Students: $65
Non-students: $95
Speed Networking/Reception only: $25
*Please note: prices will increase as the date approaches

For more information, please visit: http://www.socialenterprisebootcamp.org/

Sweet Developments: Fair Trade Chocolate in Ghana in the 21st Century

Join Divine Chocolate, the International Public Service Association (IPSA), Wagner Food Policy Alliance (WFPA), Wagner Office of International Programs and the New York City Fair Trade Coalition in a presentation and discussion with members of the Kuapa Kokoo Cocoa Cooperative.

Ghana is the world's second largest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and cocoa is its largest agricultural export. Kuapa Kokoo is a cocoa farmers' cooperative founded in 1993 and now represents over 45,000 cocoa farmer households. It is the major fair trade farmers cooperative in cocoa and in 1998, Kuapa Kokoo, in partnership with other organizations, formed its own marketing organization, Divine Chocolate, which markets fair trade chocolate products worldwide. Established first in the UK, its subsidiary Divine Chocolate-USA was established in 2007, and the cooperative owns nearly half of the company . Since its founding, Kuapa Kokoo has enforced gender quotas for representation at all levels of governance. Its current president, Christiana Ohene-Agyare, was elected in 2010.

Fatima Ali, Sectretary of the National Executive Council of Kuapa Kokoo, and Felicia Mensah, Cocoa farmer and member of Kuapa Kokoo, will join NYU Wagner and present about their experiences.

Presentation from 6:00pm to 7:15pm, followed by a reception.

Concrete State of Mind: How Great Streets Can Make Us Happier and Healthier

Presented by NYU's Rudin Center, Transportation Alternatives, the Urban Planning Student Association and the Wagner Transportation Association

It's obvious that when streets are built for walking and biking, it's easier for New Yorkers to be active. But did you know that streets designed for active transportation can also improve mental cognition and neighborhood social bonds? And how do designers reclaim iconic streets like Broadway in Times Square as places for people? Find out more over breakfast and a panel discussion with experts in health, transportation, and urban design.

Panelists:

Claire Fellman, Times Square Project Manager, Snohetta AS

Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Professor, Columbia University

Andrew Mondschien, Research Scientist, NYU Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management

Moderator: Matt Seaton, Editor, The Guardian

Beyond Borders and Detainment: Building Support for Immigrants’ Rights and Immigration Reform in the U.S.

Presented by the Women of Color Policy Network.

Arizona’s SB 1070 law and the copycat bills that followed marked a significant turning point in the national call for comprehensive immigration reform. Though many anti-immigrant measures were ultimately unsuccessful, in large part due to successful advocacy campaigns and strategies led by and with immigrant communities, they made the need for action at the federal level more urgent and underscored the importance of building support for immigrants’ rights in the states.

As a result of the lack of federal comprehensive immigration reform and surge of anti-immigrant policies, the voter turnout in Latino communities in the 2012 elections is uncertain. Recent polls have shown that U.S. immigration policy is the most important issue to Latino voters, beating out even the economy and jobs. Though some states have taken up their own DREAM Acts – one aspect of reform that many immigration advocates are pushing – federal reform remains stalled in Congress and is likely to influence the political choices of Latino voters, especially in key battleground states.

Join leaders and supporters of the immigrants’ rights movement as they discuss the critical components of comprehensive immigration reform, address the prospects for reform leading up to and following the 2012 elections, and share opportunities for supporting positive immigration policies and advocacy strategies that strengthen and protect the economic security of immigrant women, their families, and communities.

Discussants:

• Kemi Bello, Dream Activist, Undocumented Students Action and Resource Network
• Jessica González-Rojas, Executive Director, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Co-Founder of the National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights
• Joanne Lin, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office
• Ali Noorani, Executive Director, National Immigration Forum

Moderator:
• Suman Raghunathan, Director of Policy and Strategic Partnerships, Progressive States Network

Engaging the Public: Interactives Designed for Social Impact

Presented by NYU Wagner, the Urban Planning Students Association, and the Student Network Exploring Arts and Culture

Join us for a panel presentation and discussion with team members from Local Projects, a New York-based media design firm for museums and public spaces.  Hear about their approach to designing for interactive programs and environments that engage individuals around social issues.  They will share about their designs for the Urbanology game at the BMW Guggenheim Lab, their Change By Us program for New York City, and other unique, civic-minded projects.

Speakers from Local Projects:
Ian Curry, Director of Interaction Design
Katie Lee, Art Director
Daniel Liss, Project Director 

WEPSA & Education Pioneers Networking Reception

Please join WEPSA and Education Pioneers at a networking reception directly following the Careers in Education Panel. Take this opportunity to learn more about the Education Pioneers experience directly from alumni and staff, to network with others interested in education policy, and to talk with WEPSA board members about a variety of NYC education opportunities.

 

Across Party Lines: Voting and Civic Engagement in Communities of Color

Presented by the Women of Color Policy Network.

In the 2008 election, voter turnout was at the highest levels in forty years, due in large part to significant voter increases in communities of color. In stark contrast, voter turnout levels in the 2010 mid-term elections declined significantly – a drop best explained by noting that families of color were pummeled by the recession and less hopeful that their vote would translate into the change their communities need.

With the 2012 elections approaching, re-engaging and mobilizing communities of color will be fundamental to increasing voter turnout and winning the presidential election. Both Democratic and Republican candidates will need a multi-racial strategy to carry them across the finish line.

Join experts as they discuss how to sustain and expand civic engagement among racial and ethnic voters and increase their participation in the democratic process. Panelists will propose strategies for building political power for communities of color, mobilizing leaders of color around an agenda that reflects their values, and reviving the movement that steered the last presidential election.

Discussants:
• Terry Ao Minnis, Director of Census and Voting Programs, Asian American Justice Center
• Christina Baal, Director of Civic Engagement and Field Operations, New York
Immigration Coalition
• LaTosha Brown, Senior Advisor, Black Women’s Roundtable, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
• Donita Judge, Redistricting Project Director, Advancement Project
• Diana Sen, Senior Counsel, LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Moderator:
• Myrna Pérez, Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justicerk

Wagner Reception at APPAM for Faculty, Alumni & Friends

At this year's Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Conference in D.C., Dean Ellen Schall will host Wagner Faculty, Alumni, and Friends for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at the Washington Marriot.  See old friends, mingle with colleagues, catch up with the faculty and local Wagner grads.  Please join us!

Occupation to Policy: The Political, Governmental and Economic Implications of Occupy Wall Street

The Journal of Global Affairs is pleased to present “Occupation to Policy,” a panel discussion that will approach the Occupy Wall Street movement from a political, governmental and economic perspective. Can OWS translate in policy change? Is OWS’s vision for the future reachable or unrealistic? How can we reconcile the varied positions on the movement, and the multiple meaning people have attached to it? Looking at education specifically, how is the United States government already reacting to the movement, and how can they do more? These and more questions will be addressed by this dynamic panel!

Panelists:

Peter Cunningham
Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach, United States Department of Education
A political appointee from the Obama Administration at the U.S. Department of Education, Peter Cunningham will discuss how the U.S. government is addressing the demands of students but will also speak more broadly as to how the federal government is responding and reacting to the movement.

Shankar Prasad 
Adjunct Associate Professor, Wagner School of Public Service
Professor Prasad research and teaching interests include immigration policy; intersections of race, religion and politics; the American Presidency; financial regulation; quantitative analysis; research design; and public policy. 

Peter Rajsingh 
Adjunct Professor, NYU CAS, Stern and Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Managing Member, Castellar Partners LLC
Professor Rajsingh’s interests include finance and social theory, corporate governance and business ethics. He has held many prominent positions in both the public and private sectors.

George Shulman
Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Professor Shulman’s interests include political thought and the role of narrative in politics and he has been following the Occupy Wall Street movement since its birth.

Moderator:
Lila Shapiro
Business Reporter, The Huffington Post
Lila Shapiro is a Business Reporter at the Huffington Post. She writes frequently about labor issues. More recently, she has been reporting primarily about Occupy Wall Street. She previously worked at Talking
Points Memo, editing TPMCafe. She lives in New York City.

Large-scale Land Acquisition in Africa: Land Grab or Investment?
Sponsored by Wagner Student Alliance for Africa (WSAFA)

"Hands That Feed" Film and Discussion

Join IPSA to view selections from Hands That Feed, a lively discussion with the Executive Producer Joshua Levin, and an afternoon coffee break!

Hands That Feed is a documentary film exploring the agricultural collapse in Haiti, its role in the post-earthquake food crisis, and the emerging grassroots development models that seek to restore Haiti’s food supply and environment. http://handsthatfeed.com/

Hands That Feed will narrate the experiences of dynamic young adults in post-earthquake Haiti, representing a range of innovative grassroots recovery organizations, as they seek to build a sustainable future for the country. The film starts on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Following our characters through day-to-day life, the viewer learns how Haiti lost the ability to feed itself, turning a natural disaster into a crisis. The inspiring young people undergo personal transformation, mirroring the potential transformation of the nation, as they study sustainable agriculture techniques and trauma relief practices. They then tour the country as teachers, experiencing the hardships of post-earthquake Haiti. The viewer witnesses the challenges, frustration, and victories of teaching society to be self-sufficient in both agriculture and leadership.

Joshua Levin is the Executive Producer of Hands That Feed and a Senior Program Officer at the World Wildlife Fund, specializing in finance and agricultural commodities. His work is in finance for international sustainable agriculture, and he is passionate about the potential for ecological agriculture as a transformational development approach. Joshua has worked in the past with Root Capital, the Rainforest Alliance, EcoAgriculture Partners, and Conservation International. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, where he was a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship, and a BA from Harvard University. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY.

Leading from Behind: Race, Class, and the Promise of Education Reform

Presented by the Women of Color Policy Network.

Nearly a decade after the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the federal legislation that promised reform and accountability for the American education system, many urban cities continue to be plagued by failing schools, high dropout rates, and poor performance across the board. The statistics are clear: Over 40 percent of Black and Latino students did not graduate from high school in 2011, and graduation rates in cities with large concentrations of working class and poor residents are substantially lower than other geographic areas by over fifty percent.

The current Administration understands that to be competitive in today’s workforce, our nation must reform a failing system and invest in public education. In May 2011, President Obama announced his intent to replace NCLB in all fifty states by the end of the year with Race to the Top, a competitive grant program incentivizing education innovation and reform. At this turning point in our nation’s approach to education reform, education leaders must come together and identify the specific policies that are needed to narrow the achievement gap that disproportionately leaves low-income students and people of color behind.

Join education experts from across the nation as they explore what it will really take to reform the public education system in America and prepare students to compete in a global economy. Panelists will propose innovative approaches to education reform given a political environment favoring cuts to public investments, discuss the federal government’s role in ensuring access and quality, and weigh in on what strategies – from charter schools to equitable school financing – hold the most promise for success in a post-NCLB era.

Discussants:
• Zakiyah Ansari, Parent Leader, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice
• Lorretta Johnson, Ed.D, Secretary-Treasurer, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
• Carlos Perez, President and CEO, New Jersey Charter Schools Association
• Warren Simmons, Ph.D, Executive Director, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Moderator:
• Edward Fergus, Ph.D, Deputy Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education

Clean Energy Social Impact Investing Brown Bag

Presented by Bridge: Students for Social Innovation and the Wagner Economics and Finance Association (WEFA), as part of NYU Wagner's Climate Coalition

As the world transitions to a low carbon economy the business of clean energy and carbon is evolving quickly. Join us for a brown bag discussion with Jason Steinberg of Bloomberg New Energy Finance - the leading provider of independent analysis, data and news in the clean energy and carbon markets - for an overview of current trends in the clean energy market.

The New Green Revolution: Why GMOs Won't Feed the World

Sponsored by the NYU Wagner Food Policy Alliance, the NYU Wagner International Public Service Association, and the NYU Steinhardt Food Studies Program.

Join us in a lively conversation as Anna Lappé and Josphat Ngonyo discuss the implications of genetically engineered seeds, industrial agriculture, and the role of agribusiness on the environment and livelihoods in the US and abroad.

Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author, sustainable food advocate, and mom. Respected for her work on sustainability, food politics, globalization, and social change, Anna was named one of Time’s “Eco” Who’s-Who. Anna is a founding principal, with her mother Frances Moore Lappé, of the Small Planet Institute, an international network for research and popular education about the root causes of hunger and poverty. The Lappés are also co-founders of the Small Planet Fund, which has raised more than $500,000 for democratic social movements worldwide, two of which have won the Nobel Peace Prize since the Fund’s founding in 2002. Her latest book is Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Anna is also the co-author of Hope's Edge, with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, and Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, with Bryant Terry. Read her latest work at Take a Bite out of Climate Change.

Josphat Ngonyo is the founding Director of Africa Network for Animal Welfare and Youth for Conservation. He is a key player in conservation and animal welfare in Africa, holding many positions, including with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and as the international representative to Compassion in World Farming. He led the Kenyan government’s National Steering Committee to review its wildlife conservation and management policy and legislation. He won the Middle East Animal Welfare Award (2007) and the Eastern Africa Environmental Leadership Award (2003) and is a member of the Global Task Force on Farm Animal Welfare and Trade. He has helped develop the coalition against the introduction of GE crops in Kenya.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Capital Construction Projects: An update from Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, President, MTA Capital Construction Company

There has been a great deal of focus on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Construction Company’s (MTACC) mega-project which is the largest transit construction program in the nation with over $17 billion dollars invested in expansion and improvement of the downstate region’s transportation network.  

Join us for an exciting update from MTACC President Michael Horodniceanu, Ph.D., P.E. Listen as he outlines the history, engineering challenges and progress of MTACC Mega Project’s including East Side Access, Second Avenue Subway, 7 West Extension, and Fulton Street Transit Center.

Collateral Consequences to Criminal Convictions: Barriers to Employment

It is popularly believed that once criminals are released from incarceration that they have “paid their debts” to society and are free to start their lives anew. Of course, this is rarely true in practice. Many, if not most, individuals find that upon release they face a range of civil and administrative penalties ranging from revocation of voting rights, to deportation, to inability to access services such as public housing or student loans.

At Collateral Consequences to Criminal Convictions: Barriers to Employment, panelists will highlight and chronicle the struggles of formerly incarcerated individuals on their journeys to successful reintegration into society, starting with employment.

Panelists will include:

Glenn Martin
Vice President of Development and Public Affairs
Director of the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy
Fortune Society

Ronald Day
Program Coordinator for Workforce Intensive
The Osborne Association

Brent Cohen
Director of Legislative and Government Affairs
NYC Department of Probation

Jessica McMahon
Program Director for Employment Works
NYC Department of Small Business Services

Long Term Liability Roundtable Discussion Series:
An Overview of Long Term Liabilities and Pension Issues in New York

Presented by The Fund for Public Advocacy, in partnership with the Office of the New York City Public Advocate and NYU Wagner School of Public Service, with generous support from The New York Community Trust

Cities and states across the nation are facing serious fiscal challenges. New York City alone is projecting a deficit of over $4 billion for the next fiscal year. One of the largest single contributors to the City’s budget shortfalls is soaring employer contributions to its employee pension funds.  These contributions have increased from two percent of the City’s budget in 2000 to eleven percent in the last fiscal year, while the City's accrued health insurance benefits liability totaled $75 billion in 2010.

Join members of the public, government officials, and other key stakeholders for the first in a series of discussions about New York City’s long term liabilities and pension costs. The first round table discussion will be an overview of long term liabilities and their implications. 

8:00 AM -- Registration
8:30 AM -- Keynote & Panel Discussion

MODERATOR
Michael Powell
New York Times

KEYNOTE
Richard Ravitch
former Lt. Governor, New York State

PANELISTS
Mike Musuraca
Independent Pension Consultant
 
James Parrott
Fiscal Policy Institute

Dan Smith
New York University

For more information on this event, please contact Jae Ko at the Fund for Public Advocacy.

"An African Answer" Film Screening

Join the International Public Service Association (IPSA), The Wagner Student Alliance for Africa (WSAFA) and the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding for a pre-premiere screening of An African Answer, a film about post-conflict community reconstruction in Kenya following the 2007 massacres. The film features Tanenbaum’s 'Peacemakers in Action,' Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa.

The film will be followed by a short presentation and Q&A with the Imam and the Pastor. Kenyan activist Joseph Karanja and the film’s director Dr. Alan Channer will also be on hand to answer questions. For more information about the film please see http://www.fltfilms.org.uk/imam2.html.

Refreshments will be served.

mothers2mothers
Employing nearly 1,800 mothers in nine countries, mothers2mothers is helping to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through an innovative model of care that trains and employs local women to provide education and support to pregnant women and new mothers living with HIV. Representatives of the organization will talk about issues related to HIV and maternal health in Sub-Saharan Africa and the mothers2mothers model. 

Arts at the Intersection: A Discussion on the Wagner Experience

The interesting ideas are at the intersection... and that is exactly where studies of arts and culture are currently flourishing. There is a growing body of students at Wagner interested in understanding how critical issues of policy, management, and planning intersect with the role of the arts and culture in our lives. The Student Network Exploring Arts & Culture (SNEAC) would like to explore these interests with the goal of enhancing the Wagner Experience through new opportunities to learn about and participate in this burgeoning, cross-cutting field.

At this event, Professors, alumni in the field, student groups, and students from both the Wagner student body and other relevant schools will come together in intimate breakout conversations about some of the hottest topics in arts and culture today.

Discussions will seek to understand the issues from different angles, identify specific areas of interest to students, and create a set of ideas for how these issues and opportunities can become a part of the Wagner Experience (classes, extracurriculars, leadership development, etc). Ultimately, these discussions and recommendations will be translated into a road map for Wagner students, clubs, and administration to consider new opportunities within the school.

Roundtable Themes:
-Arts & Economic Development
-Arts & Education
-Arts & Health/Wellness
-Arts & Advocacy/Impact Measurement
-Arts & Social Justice
-Arts & the Public Environment

This event is open only to NYU students.

"The Role of UN Sanctions in African Conflict Zones"
Howard Wachtel, U.S. Mission to the UN

Zainab Salbi
Zainab Salbi is the founder of Women for Women International (http://www.womenforwomen.org), a leading expert on women’s rights and protection in conflict zones, and the best-selling co-author of her memoir, Between Two Worlds: Escape From Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam.

The Broken Society vs. the Big Society:
A Lecture and Conversation with Phillip Blond

Presented by NYU Wagner

As a key architect of the U.K.’s Big Society project, Phillip Blond will apply lessons from the recent U.K. riots to our American political scene, including the current Occupy Wall Street movement. Blond’s ResPublica (http://www.respublica.us/)  think tank has ridden to sudden prominence with radical solutions aimed at restoring civil society, remoralizing the marketplace and recapitalizing the poor. Their ideas make up a substantial part of the U.K.’s new Localism Bill, now close to passage.

Phillip Blond is a graduate of Peterhouse, Cambridge, a student of John Milbank and a former lecturer in theology at Cumbria. He has been called the "Philosopher King" of the David Cameron government and espouses what might be described as a neo-distributistapproach to politics with cooperatives, localized "non-state mutualism" and other policies that do not fit neatly any of the current political boxes. He offers a critique across the board of the centralized state, big business, banking and the unregulated free market. He has called for a renewal of morality in the market and the institutions of society. British Prime Minister David Cameron's "Big Society" is an attempt to try these ideas in the laboratory of a real country.

“Egypt’s Path to Democracy: Challenges and Opportunities”
Khaled Z. Amin, associate professor of public finance and administration, Cairo University;
affiliated scholar, the American University in Cairo (AUC); visiting scholar, NYU Wagner;
senior decentralization policy advisor, the USAID’s Egyptian Decentralization Initiative (EDI)

“Gender-Based Violence and Access to Food and Water in Humanitarian Crises: Is there a Connection?”
Meg Satterthwaite, faculty director, CHRGJ; professor, the Global Justice Clinic

In order to face the challenges of urban sustainability and to meet the opportunities of information technologies, transportation systems are undergoing a full paradigm shift. The meanings and values of our “mobile life” are changing. If the 20th was the auto-mobile century, the 21st will be the body-mobile one. Intelligent, augmented, connected; our body is the “new mode” for a modern sustainable urban mobility.

Presented by the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, Georges Amar hosts and informal luncheon to disucss the challenges of urban sustainability and what they mean to transportation systems and understanding of mobility.

Georges Amar is the Director of Prospective and Innovative Design at the RATP (the Parisian regional transit authority). Mr. Amar has spent the majority of his professional life as an engineer, graduating from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Paris. He has focused on urban transportation in various aspects, which he further explores in his latest book, Homo Mobilis – the new age of mobility.

Women in Public Service: Taking on Education

Wednesday October 5th
from 5p.m. – 6:30p.m.
Puck Building 295 Lafayette St. , Rudin Conference Room

This year Wagner Women's Caucus is highlighting gender at Wagner in a series of conversations focused on the education of women and girls.

Women in Public Service: Taking on Education will bring leaders from across the field to talk with students at roundtable discussions about the opportunities and challenges of advancing education for women and girls worldwide. Students will gain insight into the careers of leading experts and have an opportunity to network with like-minded colleagues. 

For more info and how you can get involved visit www.wagnerwomenscaucus.com.


Featured Speakers and Roundtable Topics:

Antonie de Jong, Deputy Chief of Resource Mobilization at UN Women
FINANCE: Fundraising and Advocacy for the Education of Girls Worldwide
Website - Follow on Twitter @UN_Women

Penny Abeywardena, Senior Manager at the Clinton Global Initiative
POLICY: Influencing Key Players to Support Gender Equality in Education
Website  - Follow on Twitter @ClintonGlobal

Marcia Brumit Kropf, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of Girls Inc.
MANAGEMENT: Leveraging Informal Education to Help Girls Overcome Economic, Social, and Gender Barriers
Website - Follow on Twitter @girls_inc

Jessica Posner, Co-founder of the Shining Hope Kibera School for Girls (Kenya)
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Starting and Operating a School in Africa’s Largest Slum
Website - Follow on Twitter @hope2shine


Read Speaker Bios

Carbon Nation Film Screening and Discussion

The Wagner Climate Coalition is kicking off their fall events with a film screening of "Carbon Nation" followed by a discussion led by Professor John Gershman. The event is sponsored by the International Public Service Association (IPSA), Wagner Food Policy Alliance (WFPA) and Wagner Environmental Policy and Action (WEPA) as part of the Wagner Climate Coalition.

The Wagner Climate Coalition is an alliance of Wagner students and student groups concerned about climate change that aim to share knowledge, network, collaborate, lead by example, and change Wagner, NYU, NYC and the world. Please join the Wagner Climate Coalition to discuss and learn more about the implications of climate change through their "Carbon Nation" screening.

“Priority Reproductive Health Services in Humanitarian Emergencies – the Minimum Initial Service Package”
Sandra Krause, Reproductive Health Program Director, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children

Welfare Reform at Fifteen: Is it Working?
Presented in conjunction with the Wagner Policy Alliance, and the Poverty Discussion Group

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, more commonly known as TANF. He famously declared that this act would “end welfare as we know it.” Fifteen years later the debate continues...has welfare reform lived up to its promise?

Join us for a keynote presentation and panel discussion surrounding the 15th Anniversary of Welfare Reform. We will take a look at the landmark legislation of the past, present, and future to consider: How this legislation has affected low-income families and how welfare has evolved since then? Is TANF enough given soaring unemployment rates and the deep recession? And with a major presidential election right around the corner, what is the future of this program?

Join us for this keynote presentation and lively discussion on the ever important and controversial issue of welfare reform.

Keynote Speaker:
Robert Doar, Commissioner, NYC Human Resources Administration

Panelists:
Robert Doar, Commissioner, NYC Human Resources Administration
Lawrence M. Mead, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, New York University
Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science & Sociology, City University of New York
Bich Ha Pham, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Research, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies

Moderator:
Caitlyn Brazill, Director of Policy and Communications, NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

Introduction to the NYC Department of Education (Brown Bag Discussion)

Presented by the Wagner Education Policy Studies Association (WEPSA)

This brown bag discussion will provide students with a primer on the NYC Department of Education – a quick history, major changes, a brief explanation of the structure of the agency, and what makes the district unique compared to other large urban districts.

Leadership and Management Education in the Context of Nepal's Community, Organizational and National Development

Do You Get What You Pay For? Financial Incentives in Public Policy

Presented by MDRC, Center for an Urban Future, NYU Wagner, and NYU Wagner's Economic and Finance Association

Join us for a half-day forum to present the latest innovations in the use of financial incentives in social and health policy, much of it being pioneered right here in New York City. We will take lessons learned from local examples and elsewhere and assess their applicability to policymakers at the city and state level, with a particular emphasis on providing new ideas to the relatively new gubernatorial administrations in New York, New Jersey and Conneticut. We will assess what has been learned about incentives over the past decades of wide experimentation and propose concrete reform ideas for the next generation of policy development — within the context of the “new normal” of budgetary constraints.

Keynote Speakers:
Welcome: Ellen Schall, Dean, NYU Wagner School
Overview: Gordon Berlin, President, MDRC
Moderator: Jonathan Bowles, Executive Director, Center for an Urban Future

Panel 1: Can Incentives Alleviate Poverty?
Panelists:
Richard Buery, President and CEO, Children’s Aid Society
James Riccio, Director, MDRC’s Low-Wage Workers and Communities Policy Area
Dan Rosenbaum, Senior Economist, federal Office of Management and Budget
Veronica White, Executive Director, NYC Center for Economic Opportunity
Tina Rosenberg, New York Times, moderator

Panel 2: Can Incentives Make People Healthy? 
Panelists:
Joann Casado, Executive Director, The Bronx Health Link
Brian Elbel, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, NYU School of Medicine
Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor, Urban Public Health, Hunter College
Kevin Volpp, Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management, Director of the Center for Health Incentives, University of Pennsylvania
Ben Barnes (Wagner MUP '93), Secretary of the State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, moderator

Humanitarian Emergencies: The Role of the Media

Co-sponsored by the Overseas Press Club and the New York Women's Initiative for CARE

NYU Wagner's Office of International Programs presents a panel discussion on the role of various forms of media in framing and reporting on humanitarian disasters and humanitarian emergencies.

Panelists:

• Hina Chaudhry, MD, associate professor of Medicine at Mt Sinai;
• Allan Dodds Frank, investigative reporter and former Overseas Press Club president, founder of OPC Global Parachute, a new social networking site for foreign correspondents;
• Sam Gregory, program director, Witness, co-author of Cameras Everywhere 2011 Report;
• Cath Turner, reporter and producer, Al Jazeera English.

Moderator:

• Alan Murray, deputy managing editor and executive editor, online, The Wall Street Journal
  

“Community-based Schools in Afghanistan: Preventing Violence Against Education and Protecting the Right to Learn”
Dana Burde, assistant professor of international education at NYU Steinhardt; affiliated faculty, NYU Wagner; affiliated research scholar, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University

Join the Rudin Center for a discussion with OpenPlans and New York City Streets Renaissance founder Mark Gorton as he examines and questions the role of the automobile in New York City. 

For more than 100 years New York City government policy has prioritized the needs of the automobile over the needs of any other mode of transport. Working under the faulty assumption that more car traffic would improve business, planners and engineers have systematically made the City's streets more dangerous and less vibrant places. 

As a cyclist, pedestrian, neighbor, and parent, Gorton will question why we have allowed automobiles to transform our streets from dynamic places full of play, human interaction, and commerce, into dangerous, stress-inducing thoroughfares. He will outline and refute the key myths about cars in the city, offer a vision of life in New York City after a comprehensive adoption of livable streets principles, and discuss how technology can empower citizens in the planning process.  

Fields of Engagement: Debating Key Questions of Research and Jewish Education

Who and what is driving the Jewish education agenda? How has research in Jewish education contributed to the development of contemporary Jewish life? How can research connect to new ideas and new technologies?

Dr. Lisa Grant and Dr. Alex Pomson will address these and other questions at this symposium celebrating the publication of the International Handbook of Jewish Education.

Prof. Steven M. Cohen of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner will moderate.

Light refreshments will be served.

January Courses Abroad in Brazil - Info Session

This information session will review the course content, excursions and registration logistics for Wagner's Institutions, Governance and International Development course abroad at UFBA in Salvador, Brazil, January 4 - 14, and the NYU MPH program's course abroad, Global Health Services Research, also running January 4 - 14 in Salvador at UFBA.

In the "Questions for Speaker" field below, please note the course(s) in which you are interested.

To read more about both courses in advance of this info session, visit:
wagner.nyu.edu/global/abroad/salvador.php and
mph.nyu.edu/academics/gph-gu-2900-global-health-services-research-in-brazil.html

 

“The Use of Intelligence in Terrorist Prosecutions”
Dr. David Scharia, Counter Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, United Nations Security Council

Islam in America: The Next 10 Years

Irshad Manji in conversation with John Avlon

 

Join Irshad Manji, Director of the Moral Courage Project at NYU Wagner, and John Avlon, Senior Columnist for The Daily Beast/Newsweek, as they examine how a new generation, both Muslim and non-Muslim, can re-shape post-9/11 America.  

 

In her new book, Allah, Liberty and Love, Irshad Manji paves a path to reconciling faith and freedom — and she does so by showing us all how to develop "moral courage," the willingness to speak up when everyone else wants to shut you up. John Avlon, a leading voice of young independents, is a CNN contributor. In his book, Wingnuts, Avlon illustrates how "the lunatic fringe" is hijacking America.

Followed by book signing and reception.   

Reborn: 9/11 Gallery Exhibition

Human consciousness is finite. Each of us lives for only a passing moment. Perhaps this ephemerality, obvious in the wake of 9/11, compels us to search for the meaning of our existence. For this exhibit, “Reborn,” each artist has been asked to exhibit work that is their memory/reaction. The artists are a community, a diverse and interesting group of faculty, graduate and undergraduate artists from the Art and Art Professions Department of the Steinhardt School.

The Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the Steinhardt School have gotten to know each other through the vehicle of art. Cutting across traditional lines is what often brings people together.

The Gallery Space at Wagner is pleased to announce the opening of "Position of Conflict," our fifth and closing exhibition of the 2010-2011 season. Curated by Drew McKenzie, in association with Ann Chwatsky and Frankie Crescioni-Santoni, this dynamic group exhibit is a collaborative project between the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and the College of Arts and Science at New York University. It features mixed-media works by nine emerging New York City artists: Jonathan Donaldson, Nick Etre, Graham Hamilton, Seth Hamlin, Alex LaLiberte, Drew G. McKenzie, Carolyn Park, Ken Q. Volk IV, and Jordan Walczak.

With boldness and a distinctive flair for the experimental, the artists contributing to "Position of Conflict" resort to an eclectic array of traditional and unconventional materials to create pieces that explore the notion of duality and opposition and the ever-shifting relationship between artist and the institutions that frame and display art. Painting, drawing, sculptural installation, collage, and audio and video recording are among the mediums selected to explore such intriguing dichotomies as private/public, classical/contemporary, process/product, female/male, and artist/curator.

The Rudin Center for Transportation invites you to its upcoming conference, "Alternative Fuel Vehicles Technologies & Infrastructure - Bringing innovation to our streets," that will be held on June 14, 2011 at the NYU Kimmel Center. With the transportation sector as one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, there is increased public interest in finding cleaner mobility options, including the use of alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) technologies.

Co-sponsored by Con Edison, the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Energy and Research Authority, this event seeks to contribute to the public’s understanding of AFV current technologies and innovations, by analyzing their strengths, limitations and the required infrastructure for their broad deployment. Speakers will discuss market conditions and current challenges in promoting these new technologies, including infrastructure investments. The closing panel will discuss policies and strategies that foster the broad deployment of AFV technologies in the United States.

For further information email Rudin.Center@nyu.edu

Join Wagner Alumni for Happy Hour at Sweet and Vicious Bar located at 5 Spring Street (b/w Bowery & Elizabeth).

Enjoy opportunity for conversation & networking in the great outdoor space.

http://www.sweetandviciousnyc.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sweet-and-vicious-new-york