Publications

Nwede Chiamaka Stellamaris is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science degree in Public Affairs and Community Development at Rutgers-Camden.   I recently had a conversation with a Pre-K student in Camden, New Jersey who I noticed often seems distracted or tired, and at times, would not eat her lunch. Through my chat with […]

Agriculture has long been a vital element of New Jersey’s economy and food system, providing fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy, and products such as milk, cheese, and jams to local and regional markets. Despite its small geographic size, New Jersey remains one of the country’s most agriculturally productive states, with nearly 10,000 farms generating billions in […]

The purpose of this project is to identify and create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey that have been altered by human development, with a focus on areas with a history of flooding and areas with combined sewer overflow (CSO) systems and explore the spatial relationship between these historical water bodies and both local flood vulnerability and CSO locations.

Internet access restrictions for prisoners have long been a complicated topic, particularly regarding the overarching goals and whose interests are served by these restrictions. By examining existing literature, we hope to grasp a better understanding of the purpose behind these restrictions and evaluate their implications on prisoners’ rights, rehabilitation, and societal reintegration. It is presumed […]

Perinatal depression is a significant public health issue in New Jersey and in the United States, with wide disparities by race and socioeconomic status. Evidence shows that perinatal depression adversely affects a range of children’s health and developmental outcomes and is correlated with negative health outcomes for mothers, yet little is known about potential policy […]

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted K–12 education. School staff across the country were faced with the unprecedented task of delivering high-quality instruction amidst a global health crisis. In New Jersey, approximately 15% of K–12 public schools managed to improve proficiency rates in math and/or English language arts (ELA) on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment […]

This blog continues a series examining Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, active in 32 states and the District of Columbia, which enable residential and commercial property owners to undertake energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy, and resiliency improvements. PACE programs provide the upfront financing for these projects by using the borrowing authority of municipal […]

In this fourth blog post on our research into corporate and investor ownership of New Jersey’s one- to four-unit residential properties, we present some preliminary findings from our analysis of property ownership from 2012 to 2022. Investor ownership, particularly by corporate entities, has become a growing concern for housing advocates and policymakers. Research suggests that […]

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people turned to search engines like Google for information. A recent study, “Language disparities in pandemic information: Autocomplete analysis of COVID-19 searches in New York” by Singh et al., highlights how these autocompletes can shape public perception and amplify health disparities. This is crucial for informing the IMPACT-NJ […]

Chiamaka Nwede is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science degree in Public Affairs and Community Development at Rutgers-Camden.   In today’s technology-driven world, the role of cell phones in education has become a subject of heated debate. While mobile devices offer numerous benefits, their unrestricted classroom use has been linked to academic decline, […]

This ongoing project involves the collecting and coding of all appellate decisions in which New Jersey’s higher courts conceded prosecutorial misconduct between 2010 and 2015. Over this five-year period, hundreds of appeals brought before either the Superior Court Appellate Division or the Supreme Court of New Jersey involved concessions of prosecutorial misconduct by the higher […]

Traffic safety is a critical concern in New Jersey where annual traffic crashes typically exceed 200,000, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), with many of them resulting in non-fatal injuries that have lifelong impacts on victims. Currently, this data is not easily accessible. Researchers, advocates, and the public have an interest in […]