Student Spotlights and Profiles

PARTIAL LIST OF CURRENT STUDENTS.

Henderson Pritchard

After earning his Master's Degree in Biology, Henderson "Hendy" Pritchard worked for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. It was in this job that he met one of his future dissertation advisors, Lee Breckenridge (NU School of Law), who was then in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. They worked together on one of the largest Superfund cases ever pursued in the Commonwealth. Following his years with the DEP, Hendy worked, as a consultant, cleaning up underground oil spills and hazardous waste sites for 12 years until he landed a faculty position at Wentworth Institute of Technology in the Environmental Engineering program. A condition of his employment was that he complete a PhD degree in his teaching field.

Knowing of Hendy's views that environmental problems often require political as much as technical solutions, a friend and member of the NU civil engineering technology program suggested that LPS would be a good fit, because of its focus on law and public policy and its interdisciplinary orientation.

LPS has been a great fit and Hendy defended his dissertation, Class Race and Environmental Equity: A Study of Disparate Exposure to Toxic Chemicals in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in July, 2009. The thesis compares exposure to industrial toxic chemicals in poor minority neighborhoods to better-off communities. Hendy found that in the last decade there has been marked improvement in disparate exposure, but that disparities still exist for reproductive and persistent organochlorine based toxins. His recommended policy changes included focusing regulations to reduce specific chemicals that are prevalent in environmental justice communities, greater oversight of environmental permitting, and more health-based tracking of chemical exposure. Hendy is now working with his advisor, Daniel Faber (a sociologist who focuses on environmental justice) on submitting journal articles for publication. He is planning his next research project, which will combine his dissertation data with community health-based data to further explore the connections between specific diseases, such as asthma, cancer or reproductive disorders, and specific chemicals. Hendy is an associate professor of environmental engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

Sarah Abbott-Carr

Sara received her M.A. in Criminal Justice in 2000 at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA. Prior to that she received her B.A. (hons) in Community Studies in 1992 at Bradford and Ilkley College, Ilkley, England.

She is currently the Program Director for the Framingham Jail Diversion Program at the Framingham Police Department, MA

Sara also does volunteer work as a Clinician for Critical Incident Stress Management team in Central MA, providing a variety of critical incident stress debriefings to first responders exposed to critical incidents.

Michael Burns

Master of Business Administration, Northeastern University (1988)
Master of Science in Taxation, Northeastern University (2000))
Master of Science in Financial Planning, Bentley College (2006))

Currently Mike is working at Sun Life Retirement Services in Boston. He has worked in several mutual fund companies, banks, and software companies, in technical and communications roles, most recently as a tax researcher and writer, policies and procedures manager, and product developer for financial institutions.

Mike's interests are in political economics and moral and political philosophy, especially concentrating in social welfare and most specifically, taxation policies.

Sarah Damberger

Originally from Minnesota, Sarah moved to Boston in 2006 and shortly afterwards joined the Law, Policy and Society Ph.D program. Her primary interests are researching cultural and public policy, with a particular focus on the role that cultural organizations play in promoting community health. She received an M.A. in Arts Administration from Saint Mary's University (2005) and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Minnesota (2002). In addition to her studies in the LPS Ph.D program, Sarah recently joined Northeastern's Doctorate in Law and Policy program as a Doctoral Fellow specializing in two areas: research models, analysis, and applications, and law and policy. Sarah also serves as editor for Northeastern's new peer-reviewed journal, the E-Journal of Applied Law and Policy.

Professionally, Sarah has broad experience in nonprofit and cultural management, including experience in fundraising, marketing, evaluation, and board relations. Among her current projects, Sarah is creating a teacher's manual for the upcoming edition of Elementary Statistics in Social Research: The Essentials, by James Alan Fox and Jack Levin. She serves as a volunteer Gallery Associate for the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts and provides guidance for a variety of nonprofit establishment and funding projects.

Fabio De Sa E Silva

Fabio earned a Law Degree in 2002 at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and a Master's Degree in Law in 2007 at the University of Brasilia (UnB). He practiced civil and criminal law at my own small firm from 2003 to 2004, when he was invited to work for the Ministry of Justice, at the National Department for Prisons Policy. Fabio worked there from 2004-2006 and was especially assigned the task of developing educational programs for correctional officers and criminal justice officers. I think we can do a better job in building a more egalitarian society, but I guess it will demand a new set of attitudes and therefore a new educational background. It is this alternative pedagogic framework that I currently try to come up with, based on the analysis of public interest programs in the United States. Considering the daunting scene that public interest practitioners have been facing, one can say that this will not be a very easy task. But here I am to resist -- and I am happy I am not alone in Northeastern.

Jerome Dean

Jerome earned his BS in Urban and Regional Studies and his Masters in Regional Planning from Cornell University. His current interests are in the connections between social policies and social movements of the past few decades and their effects on labor market outcomes. He has worked over the past decade and a half in workforce development in primarily in Boston. He currently works at Northeastern University.

Sara Deritter

Sara is Assistant Director & Program Coordinator at Northeastern University's Center of Community Service she has her degrees in M.A. Energy & Environmental Analysis, Boston University, B.A. Economics and Environmental Analysis & Policy, Boston University

Dante Gatmaytan

Dan is an Associate Professor in the University of the Philippines, College of Law. He has a degree in Management (B.S.) from the Ateneo de Manila University and a law degree (LL.B.) from the University of the Philippines. He holds a Masters of Studies in Environmental Law (MSEL) from Vermont Law School and his Master of Laws ( LL.M.) from the University of California, Los Angles.

Before he entered the academe in 1998, he practiced law through public interest law offices involved in environment and natural resources law, indigenous peoples' rights, agrarian reform, and local governance. His research interests focus on the interplay of law on gender, the environment, and politics.

Jennifer Greenwood

Jennifer is in the LPS JD/MS program and is currently a first year student at Northeastern Law School. She graduated from BU in 2000 with a BA in Economics and Political Science. Jennifer is also currently a part time Princeton Review LSAT teacher.

Anne-Marie Hakstian

Anne-Marie Hakstian is an Associate Professor at the Bertolon School of Business at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts where she teaches courses in "Business Law." She holds a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.

Anne-Marie's research interests focus on race and gender discrimination. Both independently and in collaboration with co-authors, Anne-Marie has published articles in the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law (2006), the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing (2005), the Law Enforcement Executive Forum (2005), the University of Michigan Journal of Race and Law (2003), the Boston College Third World Law Journal (2003). Her research was in the NAACP's "friend of the court" (amicus curiae) brief filed with the United States Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in Arguello v. Conoco (September 2003). She has presented findings of her research in venues across the country and internationally.

Prior to joining academia, Anne-Marie worked as a consultant to federal government agencies on all aspects of Equal Employment Opportunity law and policy. In addition to investigating claims of discrimination and writing Final Agency Decisions, she designed, developed, and conducted customized training sessions for public and private client organizations.

Elizabeth Hayden

Elizabeth has a BA in English and Psychology from the College of Holy Cross. She has a MA in Community Psychology with a concentration in Program Evaluation and Development from the University of New Haven. In addition, she has done graduate work at Harvard University in Irish Studies. Elizabeth teaches Research Methods at Bridgewater State College. She is a also a consultant and program evaluator for Non-Profit organizations. Her most recent evaluation project involves the Northeastern University Center for the Study of Sport in Society, in particular the "Project Teamwork" program which is a conflict-resolution program offered to middle school and high school students.

Her research interests include welfare law and policy, developing evaluation theory, post-structural practices and theory, Bayesian methodology, and international as well as cross-cultural evaluation.

Erin Hoffer

Erin Hoffer is Industry Programs Manager with Autodesk Inc, where she fosters awareness in the trends in design and practice based on her years of experience in the field. Previously, she was Executive Vice-President for the Boston Architectural College, overseeing programs for students pursuing professional design degrees. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and member of the AIA. Erin received a Master in Architecture from UCLA, an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and is a registered architect in California. Her specialization/interest areas are Technology Policy and Sustainability Policy for Design and Construction.

Tej Kumar Karki

Tej is a PhD candidate at Northeastern University's Law Policy and Society Program, Boston. My dissertation research is on "Smart Growth Policy for Housing Supply in Massachusetts: Chapter 40R and S". I have a Masters degree in urban Planning from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. For many years I have worked for town planning office and urban development department at senior level.

In 2003 and 2007, I presented papers on the Urban Research Symposium organized by the World Bank, DC. I have lectured graduate students at Boston University, City Planning and Urban Affairs Program and published three articles in the Habitat International, Environment and Urbanization and Plenum Publishers, NY.

I gave a talk programs at Metropolitan Area Planning Council in 2008 and at MIT�s Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) in December 2005. The first topic was on "Experiencing Planning Cultures of two Different Places: Massachusetts and Nepal", and the second talk was about "What it takes to be a good planning practitioner?"

Sonya Larrieux

Sonya Larrieux, is the director of the post baccalaureate doctor of Physical Therapy programs at Northeastern University. As faculty member in NU's PT department she teaches in courses addressing the foundations of Physical Therapy, human development, neurological management and PT professional seminars. Sonya attained her undergraduate degree, in Physical Therapy and Psychology from Hunter College and master's degree in Applied Physiology from Columbia University. She has practiced in various areas of Physical Therapy but pediatric rehabilitation; specifically the developmentally and neurologically impaired child ; is the focus of her clinical practice and she consults with a Boston early intervention program.

Sonya's focal points of interest lie in disparities in health and health care and the delivery of culturally competent health care. A significant amount of the service component of her work has an emphasis on workforce development among secondary school students via enrichment an acculturation to potential medical and health professions as a means to address these compelling issues in healthcare. Through programs and initiatives with the Boston Public School's Health Careers Academy, she coordinates a Meet the Healthcare Professional speaker series, an NU/HCa Shadowing Day and will be initiating a mentor program between Bouve College and HCa students in Fall 2007. Sonya hopes to pursue this area of interest for research in the LPS program

Cielo Magno-Gatmaytan

Cielo is a Fulbright scholar from the Philippines. She graduated with a degree in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines in 1998 and a Masters degree in Economics in 2001 from the same university. She has worked with private institutions, different non-government institutions, the House of Representatives, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Finance in the Philippines. She is currently a research fellow at the Insitute of Urban Health Research.

Rich Maloney

Richard Maloney is Assistant Director/Assistant Professor of the Arts Administration graduate program at Boston University where he teaches classes in performing arts management, marketing, fundraising, and cultural policy. He holds a B.A. in European History from Bates College, a B.M. in Professional Music from Berklee College of Music (jazz guitar), a Graduate Diploma in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music (lute), and a M.S. in Arts Administration from Boston University.

As a professional musician, he plays the lute, lavta, oud, guitar, and hand percussion with several Boston area early music ensembles including, most recently, Capella Clausura. As an arts administrator, he served as General Manager of the Boston Camerata and worked for the Boston Early Music Festival and New England Conservatory.

Maloney is also a certified tennis professional (PTR) with 15 years of teaching experience at three Boston area tennis facilities. He has competed locally and nationally and has coached at Babson and Regis Colleges (Division III) and Boston University (Division III).

Maloney's dissertation research examines the use of the arts as an economic development tool in midsized municipalities in Massachusetts.

Christopher Mathias

Christopher Mathias is a Ph.D. candidate with degrees in criminal justice and law. He has taught undergraduate and graduate students in areas including leadership, legal writing, and Law, Policy and Society. Procedurally, he is a multi-disciplinarian who incorporates social science research into our understanding of law and public policy. His substantive interests are numerous. Currently, he is conducting research on state homeland security policy, the role of commercial speech in the childhood obesity epidemic, and the nexus between social entrepreneurship and public policy. He is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and former law clerk to the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Along with his wife, he lives in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.

Prema Popat

Patrick Michael Ryle

Patrick Michael Ryle is an attorney with experience in both the public and private sectors. Attorney Ryle obtained his B.S. from the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Boston (Accounting) in 1992, a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1995, an LL.M. in Taxation from the Boston University School of Law in 2004, and an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2005, as well as an LL.M. in Trial Advocacy from the Beasley School of Law at Temple University in 2007. His interests include taxation and government fiscal policy, criminology, and dispute resolution.

David Wesley

David Wesley is the Research Program Manager for the College of Business Administration�s case research program. He joined Northeastern University�s College of Business in 1999 from the Richard Ivey School of Business where he was Latin America Program Director. Mr. Wesley�s case studies have appeared in 20 management textbooks. He has helped several US and European universities develop their business research capabilities and he has provided advice on the creation of two successful Executive MBA programs. He is a founding member of the Institute for Global Innovation Management and is one of four faculty and staff members at the Northeastern University to be awarded the first National Science Foundation grant in the College of Business Administration�s history. He has written a book with Prof. Gloria Barczak titled �Marketing and Innovation in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap,� which will be published by Gower Publishing later this year.