June 2025

A Message from the Director

The School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University is a community of doers and dreamers, who think and act locally and globally.

The work of the Policy School—whether on urban resilience, social justice, climate change, multilateralism, or public service—remains more urgent than ever. Our challenges are real, but so is our ability to respond with purpose and resilience.

I am proud of the work highlighted below, which captures how our faculty and students are helping to build a just, sustainable, and resilient world.

Maria Ivanova

Director of the Policy School

CONJUNCTION JUNCTION

Mapping the Future of Rail and Freight Systems

“If we want to build freight and rail systems that are efficient, reliable, and built to last, we need research that bridges policy, infrastructure, and innovation,” says Prof. Serena Alexander. “My work is driven by the goal of helping planners and decisionmakers design smarter, more coordinated transportation systems that support both freight and passenger mobility.”

VETTING THE FARMS

Uncovering Gaps in Federal Safeguards for Farmworkers

“We’re finding that the regulations designed to protect some of our most vulnerable workers may be failing them in systematic ways,” says Prof. Kaitlyn Alvarez Noli. “There’s a gap in the literature evaluating the Worker Protection Standard and its components. And the little research that does exist supports what farmworker advocates have been saying all along – that the standard is inadequate.”

RAGE ROAD

Transforming Anger into Climate Action

"This is a call for us to turn to anger; to pick it up and embrace it; to recognize that anger, just as much as hope, is going to be central to our community response to climate change, and in many ways much more effective provided it is aimed at the right targets," says Prof. Anncy Thresher. "It is a tight balance to strike—anger can create good things, but when action is frustrated by an inability to create change, or a lack of hope, it can also push us back towards despair and a return to paralysis. Conversely, however, for those who find themselves gripped by the overwhelming existential dread of climate change, we can offer a clear solution: get angry.”

URBAN LEGACIES

Reckoning with Injustice through Reparative Design

"Urban built environments are material cumulations of past decisions and actions across multiple scales—of agency, space, and time,” says 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award

recipient Prof. Lily Song. “Past wrongs and injustices outlast the human lifespans of victims, perpetrators, and witnesses—reified in physical structures and scars on the land.”

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Upholding Civil Equality

Four Policy School students were honored with mayoral citations from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu at the Boston Pride celebration for their Capstone project. Lucas Sensius, Alexandria Bethune, Alyson Mullings,and Marie Stephens collaborated on a comprehensive resource guide aimed at helping Boston residents navigate the complex network of city and state agencies that handle discrimination and civil rights complaints.

Northeastern University

School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Bluesky – @nu-policyschool.bsky.social

Linkedin – @Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

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