About Us :: New Jersey Policy Perspective

You've found New Jersey Policy Perspective's new website and we hope you're finding what you see here to be thought provoking and enlightening.

We started NJPP in 1997 because of the need for credible research and analysis on important issues facing New Jersey. Reasoned, effective public policy requires more than bumper sticker slogans, 30-second commercials and TV news sound bites. It takes an informed, engaged public. Information is crucial so people can help to shape the debates we must have about this state's future.

We need fresh ideas. We need to explore creative opportunities for getting government back to the job of representing people and helping them to make the best of their lives. NJPP aims to help develop sound, progressive policies to provide New Jersey with a strong fiscal foundation and an equitable way of raising the money the state needs.

NJPP offers information that helps make debate more balanced. We won't swallow the conventional wisdom when there are other ways to look at problems. Our publications and outreach activities are part of an effort not only to analyze issues but also to propose policy alternatives. At NJPP we pride ourselves on shining light on problems often ignored by the politicians and the press.

We're not running for anything, so we're not running from anything. In other words, NJPP tells it like it is.

Of course, we can't do it alone. Our work is made possible by the support we have received from individuals and organizations across the state. If you would like to join this growing group, we welcome your support. NJPP is a 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code. That means we do not engage in elections or partisan politics, and it means your contributions are tax-deductible. You can send a check to NJPP at 137 W. Hanover Street, Trenton, NJ 08618.

NJPP engages in research, analysis and strategic communications with the goal of a New Jersey where everyone can achieve to his or her full potential in an economy that offers a widely-shared, rising standard of living. Our efforts reflect these fundamental principles:

New Jersey is at a crossroads. It's not clear that the gains of the past will be protected or that the building process, far from complete, will continue. Public debate occurs within narrow bounds.

NJPP is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that has worked since its creation in 1997 to bring a progressive voice into the debate in New Jersey. We believe that to win debates you must start at the beginning to actively shape the terms. NJPP nurtures and advances ideas. We analyze current policy issues in a timely fashion. We work with grassroots organizations to build alliances for change. We seek greater public awareness of the real choices New Jersey faces, honest debate over solutions and a climate where progressive principles can prevail.

Jon Shure, President, has been with NJPP since its founding in 1997. He was a journalist with The Record newspaper of Bergen County for 12 years, before joining the staff of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Competitiveness and Consumer Protection, chaired by Rep. Jim Florio. He served as Communications Director for Governor Florio and then was Vice President at the Twentieth Century Fund, a New York-based policy organization known now as The Century Foundation.

Shure is a Visiting Associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. In recent years he taught two courses in the Rutgers political science department: New Jersey Politics and Mass Media and US Democracy. He speaks and writes frequently about public affairs.

Shure was graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Industrial & Labor Relations and has an MA in Journalism from the University of Missouri.

Mary E. Forsberg, Research Director, has been with NJPP since 2001 after working 14 years in Trenton for the state Office of Legislative Services, the nonpartisan research arm of the state Legislature. There, she was involved with drafting the state budget, analyzing municipal aid programs and examining activities of the state Treasury Department.

Forsberg was graduated from Connecticut College with a BA in Asian History and has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Public Administration from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, where she focused on public finance and budgeting issues. She also did post-graduate studies at the Wharton School of Finance at Penn.

Ray Castro, Senior Policy Analyst, joined NJPP in 2006 after more than 30 years with the New Jersey Department of Human Services. Prior to serving as the Director of the DHS Office of Legislative Services he held a number of posts, including Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, Policy Analyst, Program Development Specialist and Legislative Analyst. Castro was closely involved with state legislation relating to New Jersey FamilyCare, Medicaid and child welfare programs and helped develop the policy and legislative strategy that led to New Jersey's state Earned Income Tax Credit. He is an expert in national and state welfare-to work policies and legislation.

He received a BA in Psychology from the University of California-Berkeley and holds a Masters in Social Work with a specialization in policy from Rutgers University .

Norman J. Glickman, University Professor at Rutgers University is NJPP’s Thomas Hartmann Policy Fellow. At Rutgers, he carries out research and teaching in urban and public policy and studies the work of nonprofit organizations. From 1989 to 2000, Norm directed Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research. During that time, he and CUPR won awards for research and service from the United Nations, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the APA and other organizations. Glickman was awarded the Lindback Prize for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Pennsylvania and holds HUD’s Certificate of Special Achievement. He is the author of books on econometrics, foreign investment, urban development in Japan, the urban impacts of federal policies and numerous scholarly articles. Glickman also works with community development organizations throughout the country on issues of economic development and poverty.

Dr. Glickman is an economist, with degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to Rutgers, he taught at Penn and the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the first holder of the Hogg Professorship in Urban Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. NJPP’s Policy Fellow position is named for Thomas B. Hartmann, who served as a member of our Board of Trustees from the organization’s founding in 1997 until his death in November 2007. Tom was a professor of Journalism and Mass Media at Rutgers University’s Livingston College after helping to found the college.

Karen Lagerquist, Community Outreach Director, joined NJPP in 2008 after working as Policy Advocate for the Coalition for Affordable Housing and the Environment (CAHE). At the Coalition, she developed advocacy strategies to ensure affordable housing opportunities and open spaces for New Jersey’s urban, rural and suburban communities. Prior to CAHE, Karen was Director of Public Policy and Community Education for Family Promise, and also worked as a photojournalist in the Middle East in the 1990s.

Karen received her JD from Rutgers Law School-Newark and graduated with honors from St. John’s University.

Sarah Stecker became Policy Analyst at NJPP on a full-time basis in June 2002 after serving an internship for several months. She is a graduate of Rutgers University with a BA in Political Science. At Rutgers she was a Phi Beta Kappa and received the Center for American Women and Politics Nancy H. Becker Award for Public Leadership.

Stecker received her Master of Public Administration degree, with policy specialization, from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. Prior to attending graduate school she served as District Representative for US Rep. Rush Holt and was on the Washington staff of US Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Anastasia R. Mann joined NJPP as a Policy Analyst in 2007. Before becoming a staff member, she wrote NJPP's report Flunking Out: New Jersey's Support for Higher Education Falls Short. Stacy received her BA from Clark University and has a PhD. from Northwestern University in U.S. History with a focus on social policy. Her dissertation, "All for One, but Most for Some," examined how the push for veterans’ rights during World War II undercut the movement for universal security and, as often as not, drew arbitrary distinctions among groups of hardworking Americans.

Stacy began her postgraduate career at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City and has taught undergraduates at Northwestern and Princeton University. She is a contributor to the Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working Class History (Routledge, 2006).

Naomi Mueller joined NJPP as a Policy Analyst in June 2008, after graduating with a Master of Public Policy from Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy. While at Rutgers, Naomi worked as an intern with the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Naomi was also a Raimondo fellow with the Eagleton Institute for Politics and was involved with several research projects while at school, including one that studied campaign finance reform in New Jersey and another that looked at the consolidation of municipal governments in the state.

Before attending graduate school, Naomi worked as a newspaper reporter for seven years, including nearly six years at New Jersey's Asbury Park Press. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from the University of Florida.

Kate Atkins
Executive Director, Garden State Alliance for a New Economy (GAIN)

John Atlas
Executive Director, Passaic County Legal Aid Society

Timothy Carden
Public Private Strategy Group

Henry A. Coleman
Director, Center for Government Services, Rutgers University

J. Kelly Conklin
Partner, Foley-Waite Associates Architectural Woodworking

Debby D'Arcangelo
Community activist

Amy Goldsmith
Executive Director, New Jersey Environmental Federation

Herbert Greenberg
President and CEO, Caliper Human Strategies

Rona Parker
Media communications consultant

Bruce S. Rosen
Attorney, McCusker, Anselmi, Carvelli, Rosen & Walsh

Richard V. Sinding
Journalist; former President, Center for Analysis of Public Issues

Deborah Spitalnik
Executive Director, Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Diane Sterner
Executive Director, Housing & Community Development Network of New Jersey

Gerald R. Stockman
Former State Senator; Attorney, Gerald R. Stockman, LLC

Irwin S. Stoolmacher
President, Stoolmacher Consulting Group

David B. Thornton
Pastor, United Presbyterian Church of Paterson

Susan N. Wilson
Executive Coordinator for Family Life Education, Rutgers University Center for Applied Psychology