John Gershman

The heart of NYU Wagner's programs is our faculty. An amalgam of full-time, clinical/research/visiting, and adjunct professors, they are outstanding teachers, expert researchers and committed practitioners.

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Centers & Institutes

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The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is home to research and policy centers, institutes, and initiatives that focus on solving urban problems and strengthening public policy and public service nationally and around the world.

The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a consortium of researchers at NYU, Yale, Harvard and IPA focused on finding answers to how financial sectors can better meet the needs of poor households.

Since its founding in 1994, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy has become the leading academic research center in New York City devoted to the public policy aspects of land use, real estate development and housing.

The Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS) is a research and education center founded in January 1998, located at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and directed by Professor Rae Zimmerman. ICIS promotes interdisciplinary approaches to planning, building, and managing the complex world of civil infrastructure systems to meet their social and environmental objectives.

A university-wide, multidisciplinary enterprise, the Institute for Education and Social Policy was founded by former Wagner Dean and NYU Executive Vice President Robert Berne, the Aaron Diamond Foundation's Norm Fruchter, and NYU Steinhardt School of Education Dean Ann Marcus. The Institute investigates urban education issues and studies the impact of public policy on students from poor, disadvantaged, urban communities.

New York University is proud to announce the establishment of the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. The Center is named in honor of NYU President Emeritus and former Member of Congress, Dr. John Brademas.

The NYUAD Center for Global Public Service and Social Impact's mission is to advance international understanding and effective practice for strengthening the global public service as a driver of social impact in a constantly changing international environment. It is designed to support the entrepreneurial, effective and efficient production of public value by governments, nongovernmental organizations and private social ventures, by working through networks of scholars, opinion leaders and senior executives across the world.

Housed within the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the Research Center for Leadership in Action (RCLA) creates collaborative learning environments that break down this isolation, foster needed connections and networks, and yield new and practical insights and strategies.

Established in 1996 at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and named in September 2000 in recognition of a generous gift from civic leader Lewis Rudin, the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management is currently led by Mitchell Moss.

The Mission
The purpose of the project is to create and convene an interdisciplinary network of thinkers and doers (the "Network") that could help with making the transition from closed-and-centralized to open-and-collaborative institutions of governance.

The Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is a central address for Jewish communal and social policy, both on the web and in its home at NYU Wagner. Named for its principal funder, The Berman Foundation, BJPA's primary focus is on making the vast amount of policy-relevant material accessible and available to all those who seek it.

Global forces are dramatically changing the environments of children, youth and adults both in the United States and throughout the world. First- and second-generation immigrant children are on their way to becoming the majority of children in the U.S., bringing linguistic and cultural diversity to the institutions with which they come in contact.

NYU Wagner is affiliated with the Nathan Kline Institute, the National Hispanic Health Foundation, and the Transatlantic Policy Consortium.

Degree Programs

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Ranked #6 in Public Affairs by U.S. News & World Report, the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service educates the future leaders of public, nonprofit, healthcare and private sector organizations addressing the world's critical issues.

Students who wish to take only a few courses at Wagner must apply as a non-degree student by the appropriate deadlines; however, non-degree and advanced certificate applicants are not eligible for scholarship consideration.

NYU Wagner offers more than 150 different courses, allowing students to select not only by degree and specialization within that degree, but also by topic area.

Capstone is learning in action. Part of the core curriculum of the MPA and MUP programs at NYU Wagner, the Capstone program combines critical learning with an opportunity to perform a public service.

The flexible and fluid world of public service requires a broad and transferable education. Housed in a school of public service, rather than a school of public policy or public affairs, the Master of Public Administration in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy program at NYU Wagner educates professionals committed to public service in all sectors.

NYU Wagner's Health Policy and Management program has been recognized as one of the best in the country. Located in a school of public service rather than in a medical or public health school, our program crosses traditional boundaries, linking management, finance, and policy, and provides students with the cutting-edge concepts and skills needed to shape the future of health policy and management.

NYU Wagner's Master of Urban Planning program prepares students for the full set of challenges of today's cities, balancing development, community needs and social justice, provision of critical public services, sustainability and security.

Through theoretical and methodological training, Wagner's doctoral students learn how to produce insights required for effective and equitable public and nonprofit programs and policies.? Our program is interdisciplinary, flexible, and provides a wide range of academic opportunities for students.

With a powerful professional network and a flexible curriculum, the Executive MPA program helps mid-career professionals prepare for the highest levels of public service leadership.

NYU Wagner offers a number of dual degrees in conjunction with other NYU schools. Programming and academic resources can include exclusive speaker events, tailored orientations and designated faculty and administrative advisors.

The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service offers a set of courses and minors open only to undergraduates. All of the courses are taught by Wagner School faculty who are recognized experts in their fields and provide students with an opportunity to explore some of the most important public policy issues facing policy-makers and practitioners at the local and national level today.

Students arrive at NYU with the desire to serve the public. They leave with the skills and experience to bring about change. Combining coursework in management, finance and policy with cutting-edge research and work experience in urban communities, the NYU Wagner education will enable you to transform your personal commitment into public leadership.

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Composing Your Career is a guide to help you on your path to work that matters to the public and to you.

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Date	Publication/Paper
2011	Gershman, John and Jonathan Morduch. 2011. *Credit is Not a Right.* (Working Paper). View Publication Abstract Is credit a human right? Muhammad Yunus, the most visible leader of a global movement to provide microcredit to world’s poor, says it should be. NYU’s John Gershman and FAI’s Jonathan Morduch disagree. In their new paper, Credit is Not a Right, they ask whether a rights-based approach to microcredit will in fact be effective in making quality, affordable credit more available to poor families – and, more importantly, whether it is a constructive step in terms of the broader goal of global poverty reduction. Jonathan Morduch argues his case in this video.
2004	Gershman, J. 2004. *A Secure America in a Secure World.* Interhemispheric Resource Center, September. View report Abstract The Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” reflects a major failure of leadership and makes Americans more vulnerable rather than more secure. The administration has chosen a path to combat terrorism that has weakened multilateral institutions and squandered international goodwill. Not only has Bush failed to support effective reconstruction in Afghanistan, but his war and occupation in Iraq have made the United States more vulnerable and have opened a new front and a recruiting tool for terrorists while diverting resources from essential homeland security efforts. In short, Washington’s approach to homeland security fails to address key vulnerabilities, undermines civil liberties, and misallocates resources. The administration has taken some successful steps to counter terrorism, such as improved airline and border security, a partial crackdown on terrorist financing, improved international cooperation in sharing intelligence, the arrest of several high-level al-Qaida figures, and the disruption of a number of planned attacks. But these successes are overwhelmed by policy choices that have made U.S. citizens more rather than less vulnerable. The Bush White House has undermined the very values it claims to be defending at home and abroad—democracy and human rights; both Washington’s credibility and its efforts to combat terrorism are hampered when it aids repressive regimes. Furthermore, the administration has weakened the international legal framework essential to creating a global effort to counter terrorism, and it has failed to address the political contexts—failed states and repressive regimes—that enable and facilitate terrorism.
2002	Gershman, J. 2002. *Is Southeast Asia the Second Front?* Foreign Affairs, July/August 2002. View report Abstract With U.S. troops on the ground in the Philippines and closer military ties developing to other countries in the region, Washington is taking the war on terror to Southeast Asia. But a military approach to the region's problems would be a deadly mistake: it could weaken local democracies and turn neutral forces into new enemies.
2000	Fox, J. & Gershman, J. 2000. *The World Bank and Social Capital: Lessons from Ten Rural Development Projects in the Philippines and Mexico.* Policy Sciences, Vol. 33 Issue 3/4, p399-419, 21p. Abstract Compares rural development projects funded by the World Bank in the Philippines and Mexico. Impact of the World Bank on social capital; Indicators of institutional preconditions for informed public participation; Ethnic and gender dimensions of social capital.

Is credit a human right? Muhammad Yunus, the most visible leader of a global movement to provide microcredit to world’s poor, says it should be. NYU’s John Gershman and FAI’s Jonathan Morduch disagree. In their new paper, Credit is Not a Right, they ask whether a rights-based approach to microcredit will in fact be effective in making quality, affordable credit more available to poor families – and, more importantly, whether it is a constructive step in terms of the broader goal of global poverty reduction. Jonathan Morduch argues his case in this video.

The Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” reflects a major failure of leadership and makes Americans more vulnerable rather than more secure. The administration has chosen a path to combat terrorism that has weakened multilateral institutions and squandered international goodwill. Not only has Bush failed to support effective reconstruction in Afghanistan, but his war and occupation in Iraq have made the United States more vulnerable and have opened a new front and a recruiting tool for terrorists while diverting resources from essential homeland security efforts. In short, Washington’s approach to homeland security fails to address key vulnerabilities, undermines civil liberties, and misallocates resources. The administration has taken some successful steps to counter terrorism, such as improved airline and border security, a partial crackdown on terrorist financing, improved international cooperation in sharing intelligence, the arrest of several high-level al-Qaida figures, and the disruption of a number of planned attacks. But these successes are overwhelmed by policy choices that have made U.S. citizens more rather than less vulnerable. The Bush White House has undermined the very values it claims to be defending at home and abroad—democracy and human rights; both Washington’s credibility and its efforts to combat terrorism are hampered when it aids repressive regimes. Furthermore, the administration has weakened the international legal framework essential to creating a global effort to counter terrorism, and it has failed to address the political contexts—failed states and repressive regimes—that enable and facilitate terrorism.

With U.S. troops on the ground in the Philippines and closer military ties developing to other countries in the region, Washington is taking the war on terror to Southeast Asia. But a military approach to the region's problems would be a deadly mistake: it could weaken local democracies and turn neutral forces into new enemies.

John Gershman
Clinical Associate Professor of Public Service

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