Princeton - Weekly Bulletin 02/28/05 - Policy Research Institute addresses regional challenges

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Editor: Ruth Stevens
Calendar editor: Carolyn Geller
Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Steven Schultz
Contributing writers: Patricia Allen, Karin Dienst, Eric Quiñones
Photographer: Denise Applewhite
Design: Margaret Westergaard, Laurel Masten Cantor, Mahlon Lovett
Web edition: Mahlon Lovett

Princeton NJ -- The Policy Research Institute for the Region is under new leadership and has scheduled a series of events for this spring to address issues of importance to the area.

The institute, established by the University and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2003, is directed by Anthony Shorris, who earned his master of public affairs from the school in 1979. He succeeds Karen Jezierny, who is now the University’s director of public affairs.

Before joining the institute last fall, Shorris served as deputy chancellor for operations and policy at the New York City board of education. He has more than 25 years of experience in public and nonprofit management, including serving as New York City’s commissioner of finance and its deputy budget director and as the first deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He also has been executive vice president and chief operating officer of a billion-dollar health care organization operating in New York and Pennsylvania.

Under Shorris’ leadership, the institute has become a forum for bringing together policy-makers in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania region with researchers and students from the University and other institutes around pressing policy issues.

The institute’s new Web site <region.princeton.edu/> focuses on regional policy research across the broad spectrum of issue areas. A Web-accessible database will collect administrative data from multiple sources and link such information in ways that will be of value to policy-makers and scholars alike.

“The institute will examine some of the tough policy issues facing the region, issues that are challenging but not insurmountable,” said Shorris. “We feel strongly that through rigorous research and honest dialogue between scholars, community leaders and local and state officials, we can have a major impact on critical issues, while supporting the region.”

This spring, invited guests will attend sessions on a wide range of issues of concern to the region (see box). Throughout the semester, the institute also will sponsor a series of discussions led by successful policy leaders from across the state and region.

In support of the Woodrow Wilson School’s efforts to train leaders for public service within the state and region, the institute’s staff is available to provide advice and practitioner contacts to the school’s undergraduate and graduate students seeking research, work-study or summer internship opportunities in the region.

March 4 - “Beyond Post-9/11: The Future of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey”

April 15 - “States and Stem Cells: A Symposium on the Policy and Economic Implications of State-Sponsored Stem Cell Research”