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.

rightNavImg

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.

rightNavImg

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.

rightNavImg

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.

rightNavImg

Whether in their first or last semester, students at NYU Wagner have many resources to help them navigate their way to graduation.

rightNavImg

NYU Wagner's Office of Career Services (OCS) provides students and alumni with the resources needed to build successful public service careers. Explore our resources for Job seekers and employers.

rightNavImg

Welcome to the Wagner Alumni WebPages, where you can find information about resources for alumni from the school, join the Wagner Alumni Listserv and much more.

rightNavImg

Read about news and ideas from NYU Wagner faculty and alumni and keep in touch with interesting and useful events at the school.

rightNavImg
Share this page
Facebook Twitter Tumblr Wordpress Email

Inequality and Social Policy

Apply to Wagner

  • Faculty Research

    Age of Entry and the High School Performance of Immigrant Youth Stiefel, L., Schwartz, A.E. & Rotenberg, A.

    In 2005, immigrants exceeded 12% of the US population, with the highest concentrations in large metropolitan areas. While considerable research has focused on how immigrants affect local wages and housing prices, less research has asked how immigrants fare in US urban public schools. Previous studies find that foreign-born students outperform native-born students in their elementary and middle school years, but urban policymakers and practitioners continue to raise concerns about educational outcomes of immigrants arriving in their high school years.

    Read More

    The authors use data on a large cohort of New York City (NYC) public high school students to examine how the performance of students who immigrate during high school (teen immigrants) differs from that of students who immigrate during middle school (tween immigrants) or elementary school (child immigrants), relative to otherwise similar native-born students. Contrary to prior studies, their difference-in-difference estimates suggest that, ceteris paribus, teen immigrants do well compared to native-born migrants, and that the foreign-born advantage is relatively large among the teen (im)migrants. That said, their findings provide cause for concern about the performance of limited English proficient students, blacks and Hispanics and, importantly, teen migrants. In particular, switching school districts in the high school years - that is, student mobility across school districts - may be more detrimental than immigration per se. Results are robust to alternative specifications and cohorts, including a cohort of Miami students.

     


  • Capstone: In the Field

    Improving Housing Options for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care (2011)
    Faculty: Ana Oliveira, Dennis Smith
    Team: Aya Keefe, Rebecca Kirchheimer, Norma Peña, Jessie Ulsoy, Claire Vancauwemberge, Brandon West

    In New York City approximately 1,200 youth ages 18­21 leave the foster care sys­tem each year. Because young adults tran­sitioning out of foster care are at greater risk of becoming homeless, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and the Administration for Children's Services engaged the Capstone team to improve housing outcomes for youth leaving foster care. The Capstone team examined existing support systems through extensive interviews, surveys, and focus groups.

    Read More

    In addition, the team examined the policy environment and best practices for programs targeting youth in foster care. The team developed a final report that provides an indepth look at the support systems and housing options available to youth transitioning out of foster care, analyzes strengths and gaps in service, and presents recommendations to improve housing outcomes through changes in process, data collection, communication, and oversight.

  • Alumni in Action

    Victoria ShireVictoria Shire Deputy Director for Neighborhood Initiatives, Enterprise Community Partners in New York

    Victoria Shire is Deputy Director for Neighborhood Initiatives at Enterprise Community Partners in New York. Through her work at Enterprise and in the previous positions she has held, she has had a far-reaching career as she has pursued the answers to questions she studied as an undergraduate philosophy student: how do we make communities better? What are our responsibilities to one another? What are we willing to do to make the community what it ought to be?

    Read More

    Just out of college, Shire managed federal child care funds and developed an outcome evaluation system for a multi-service community action agency. She then came to Wagner in search of the professional skills she knew she’d need in order to manage the programs she was evaluating. While in school at Wagner, Shire landed an internship through a fellow student with the Greyston Bakery in Yonkers. There she conducted feasibility studies for new business models and piloted an outcomes evaluation methodology and tracking tool to document the impact of employment on economic status of workers. Shire remained in the social venture field for a few more years when the same fellow Wagner student founded a social venture consulting firm and asked her to work with him on business plans and strategic consulting services. Additionally, during her second year at Wagner, Shire got an offer to run a new social venture business – a foot messenger service that exclusively employed formerly homeless, mentally ill adults. Shire saw it as “an incredible opportunity to practice her brand-new management and finance skills.” As she puts it, “it was a real chief-cook-and-bottle-washer job: I developed the business and marketing plan, negotiated contracts with customers, trained workers, kept the books, and painted the office.” Shire moved on to Enterprise in 2003. She believed the position there would allow her to continue to work on solutions to poverty at the city and national scale, and would give her the opportunity to deepen her skills in organization development. In her current role at Enterprise, Shire oversees the organization’s capacity building and the Green Communities programs with the goal of providing the capital and expertise necessary to create decent, affordable, sustainable homes and rebuild healthy communities. She also manages operations for the New York program. Depicting what she does on a day-to-day level, Shire explains, “I work with public and private funders, strategic partners, board members and volunteers to create resources for community based organizations; I create, manage and evaluate budgets; I conduct and review program evaluations and impact measurement studies; I engage with advocates and elected officials to promote and influence city, state and federal policy; and earlier this year I was responsible for the design and construction of a new 20,000 square-foot office space in lower Manhattan, and then moved a staff of 60 to that new office…a logistical challenge that drew on every piece of my Wagner training.” Her responsibilities keep her busy, and challenges are no doubt compounded in the current economic climate. “This is a difficult time,” Shire explains, “like none we’ve seen before – for housing, and for any organization like ours that is so deeply connected to the real estate and credit market, as well as to banks and financial institutions. But it’s also a time of real opportunity when new solutions are required,” she continues, noting Enterprise’s work in “creating a standard for green affordable housing, and then in further linking that housing to the carbon offset market.” Additionally, the organization is currently working on a retrofit fund to help keep existing affordable homes available to the next generation. In addition to the satisfaction that comes with finding new opportunities, Shire enjoys her work on a personal level as well. “I feel very connected to the challenges facing low-income New Yorkers, and yet I have this incredible network of knowledge being part of a national organization,” she says. “I’ve been able to work on something new every year, which has deepened my skills and broadened my experience. I also have the incredible fortune to work with really smart, creative people (including many Wagner alums) who bring an incredible amount of passion to achieve a mission I truly believe in: that we all have the right to a safe, healthy, affordable home.”