Master of Public
Administration (MPA)

Ofronama Biu teaches Economics for Public Policy. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute and a Research Affiliate with the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at the New School. Her research interests include labor market and workforce development policies and racial stratification. Professor Biu brings extensive experience in project management, program evaluation, partnership building, employer engagement, and direct service to participants. Previously, she was a research manager for worker education at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. As a senior research associate at the Building Movement Project, Professor Biu worked on national projects focused on leadership, including Race to Lead reports, service and social change, and movement building, as well as place-based projects in Detroit and New Mexico. She was also a senior research associate at the NYC Labor Market Information Service at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she directed research projects on trends impacting the social services and middle-skill healthcare workforce. Meanwhile, she has co-founded a nonprofit organization that connects youth to media professionals for skill-building and mentoring opportunities. Professor Biu holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the NYU College of Arts and Science, a Master in Public Administration (MPA) degree from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and a PhD in Public and Urban Policy from The New School. Professor Biu can be reached at obiu@ccny.cuny.edu .

Ryan Hallock teaches Program and Policy Evaluation. Since being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, he has focused on helping nonprofit organizations build their monitoring and evaluation capacity, including at the World Federalist Movement and International Crisis Group. He currently works at Planned Parenthood Federation of America in the Research and Evaluation Department. Ryan holds an MPA from the City College of New York and an M.A. in program evaluation from Michigan State University.

Jeff Holland teaches Public Budgeting and Finance. He worked in the Projections Unit of the Congressional Budgeting Office for 26 years, overseeing data compilation, writing, and production for a large part of CBO’s most widely read publications. He now serves as the Vice President of Research at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a non-partisan organization dedicated to addressing long-term fiscal challenges to ensure a better economic future. Professor Holland received his MS in Public Administration and Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and BA in Economics and Urban Studies from the University of Maryland.

Eric Horvath currently serves as Vice President of Community-Engaged Investing at Earlystone Management. He is also founder and principal at Untapped Capital Consulting and leads a program for labor pension fund trustees and responsible investing at Harvard Law School. Prior to that, he was the Director of Impact Investments at Common Future, a national nonprofit focused on eliminating the racial wealth gap and building an economy for all. Before Common Future, he worked at Transform Finance, where he launched several educational initiatives for activists, organizers and other social sector allies that explored paths for their communities to better engage with investments. Eric serves on the board and investment committee of the New York Foundation and the finance committee for the North Star Fund, New York City’s social justice community foundation. He received his MBA from NYU, MPA from Syracuse and BA from Fordham. He calls Brooklyn home.

Janet Kyle has more than 20 years of experience in the private, public, and non-profit sectors driving organizational change through strategic talent management. She holds a Master of Arts degree from The Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies and a Master of Science degree from Pace University’s School of Education. She teaches Strategic Human Resources Management.

Gara LaMarche is a Leader-in-Residence at the Colin Powell School and co-chair of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. He is also a Senior Adviser at Raben. LaMarche was previously President of the Democracy Alliance. Prior to joining the Alliance, he served as Senior Fellow at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and previously, as President and CEO of the Atlantic Philanthropies. At Atlantic, he led the foundation’s efforts to embrace a social justice framework for grantmaking, and spearheaded the largest-ever grant made by a foundation for an advocacy campaign – over $25 million to press for comprehensive health care reform in the U.S. Before joining Atlantic in 2007, he served as Vice President and Director of U.S. Programs for the Open Society Foundations (OSF), launching the organization’s pivotal work on challenges to social justice and democracy in the United States. A longtime advocate for human rights at home and abroad, he has held various positions with Human Rights Watch, PEN American Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Gara is also a frequent commentator on progressive issues in the news and has taught courses on philanthropy, public policy, and non-profit leadership.

Lakimja Mattocks brings over twenty years of leadership in the nonprofit sector and currently serves as Chief People and Culture Officer at LEAP. In addition to her primary role, she also partners with senior and emerging leaders as a strategic thought partner and coach, and works with organizations to assess and co-create solutions to organizational design, culture and learning and development challenges. Prior to joining LEAP, Lakimja co-led Nonprofit New
York’s internal racial equity work and how it was operationalized in our programs, specifically with the use of the Key Areas of Nonprofit Excellence. Additional roles in the sector include designing, managing, and facilitating cohort-based leadership programs as the Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Learning at Support Center and leading the Programs team as the Senior Program Director at Roads to Success. Lakimja has leaned into and leveraged professional certifications to build on her MPA from Baruch College, MS in Counseling from Long Island University and BA in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Temple University. She is active in her local community, through the New York Urban League and East Kings County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and is a regional leader with her undergraduate alma mater, Temple University. She is also an experienced coach, mentor, and facilitator.

Sophia Barrett is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at The City College of New York (CUNY), where she teaches applied statistics, experimental psychology, and quantitative methods. Her teaching and scholarly interests center on data literacy, mental health, equity-focused research, and applied quantitative analysis. She is deeply committed to student mentorship and believes in the transformative power of learning to code and analyze data for students from all backgrounds. In addition to her teaching, she is actively involved in curriculum development and institutional service across CUNY. Outside of academia, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her dogs.

Sarah Gruen is a writer and humorist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently a Senior Director at the speechwriting firm West Wing Writers, where she co-leads the firm’s humor practice. At West Wing Writers, Sarah has written for EGOT winners, Fortune 500 CEOs, and visionary leaders in government, social justice, and philanthropy. Under their names, her words have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, and The New Yorker, and have been heard at college commencements, global conferences, and major political events.

Previously, Sarah served as the Director of Speechwriting for Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the Untied Nations and a member of President Biden’s Cabinet. Appointed by the Biden-Harris Administration, she oversaw the Ambassador’s speeches in the UN Security Council and General Assembly, White House Cabinet Meetings, official delegations, civil society events, commencements, and more—and advised the Ambassador on policy and communications strategy.

A humor writer, Sarah is also the co-host and co-producer of SpeakEasy, a bi-monthly evening of speechwriting comedy. Her writing has been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The New York Times, and Points in Case.

Laurence Pevsner teaches Communications in Public Service. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Moynihan Center (where he was previously a Moynihan Public Scholar) and a Partner, Research at Lux Capital. At Lux, he co-leads an internal think tank and creates media, experiences, and pedagogy that bring people together and illuminate the messy intersection of science, technology, and public policy. Laurence previously served as the Director of Speechwriting for Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and a member of President Biden’s cabinet. As part of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Executive Office, Laurence advised the Ambassador on messaging and policy and oversaw everything in her voice, including over 650 speeches. Laurence served in the writers room for the 2024 Democratic National Convention and in the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign’s paid media writers room. He cut his teeth at West Wing Writers, a speechwriting and strategy firm, where he counselled CEOs, celebrities, foundation heads, and officials at all levels of government on strategic messaging and thought leadership, writing products as short as a tweet and as long as a book. He graduated from Amherst College with a degree in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought and lives in Brooklyn.

Annika Marlen Hinze is an associate professor of political science at Fordham University. She served as the director of Fordham’s Urban Studies program from July 2016 to June 2024. At Fordham, she is also a co-PI with the Initiative on Migrants, Migration, and Human Dignity, which supports immigrant accompaniment practice, research, and teaching for faculty and students at Fordham and works closely with migrant-serving organizations in NYC and at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Her research and teaching focus on urban politics, immigration policy, democratic theory, gender equality, and qualitative and mixed methods research. Her first book, Turkish Berlin: Integration Policy and Urban Space (University of Minnesota Press, 2013), compares integration policy and lived integration of second-generation Turk-German women in two Berlin neighborhoods. She is also the co-author (with Dennis R. Judd) of the 10th edition of City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (Routledge, 2018), as well as the 11th edition of the newly titled City Politics: Cities and Suburbs in 21st Century America (Routledge, 2022), and co-editor (with James M. Smith) of the recently published 8th edition of American Urban Politics in a Global Age (Routledge, 2024). Hinze is a member of the editorial board of Urban Affairs Review, and a member of the Fordham University Press editorial board. She is also the co-editor of the International Political Science Review, the flagship journal of the International Political Science Association. Annika recently completed a research project on the persistent segregation of recreational space in the NYC metro area, and she is currently working on another book manuscript, A Country Behind A Wall: Immigration Policy, Public Discourse, and the Reality of the Borderlands, which she is hoping to complete this year.

Annika studied English, North American studies, and modern history at Humboldt University and Free University in Berlin, Germany; holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois, Chicago; and has done field research in cities in Canada, Germany, Turkey, and the United States.