Printable brochure 

Constructive Action 

Meet the Faculty of the School for Public Affairs and Administration

Dean Humphrey A. Crookendale (BS, Queens College; JD, Howard University School of Law) ext. 2600

Dean Humphrey A. Crookendale has been a member of the faculty at MCNY since 1983 where he was a key architect in the development and articulation of the Master of Science in Administration degree, the original graduate degree at the College. In the development of the original program, Dean Crookendale was also the principal author of the Systems, Values and Ethics and Self and Others dimension course outlines. He became the Associate Dean in the Audrey Cohen School for Human Services in 1989. Under his direction, Dean Crookendale secured the Master of Public Administration degree program at the College and later became Dean in the School of Public Affairs and Administration.

Professor Crookendale continues to be an instrumental agent in the School of Public Affairs and Administration. He is actively engaged in the recruitment of new faculty to the school. He is also involved in the strategic planning of the National Association of School of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), the professional association that represents and accredits schools in the field of public affairs and administration. As a teacher, Professor Crookendale’s principle areas of interest include the analysis and development of national, state and local governmental policy and how such policy impacts the lives of citizens and organizations alike.

Oren M. Levin-Waldman (BA History, Temple University; Ph.D. Political Science, Temple University) ext. 2220

Prior to his appointment at MCNY, Professor Levin-Waldman held the Henry J. Raimondo Endowed Chair in Urban Research and Public Policy at New Jersey City University, and was for many years a Resident Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, where he also taught public policy. Additionally he served as a consultant to Public/Private Ventures, having conducted a study of New York City's labor market, with specific emphasis on income inequality.

He specializes in public policy and political economy, with strong interest in political philosophy, and has written extensively on policy issues ranging from welfare reform and workforce development to labor market issues including unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, and other issues relating to income security.

His latest book is The Political Economy of the Living Wage: A Study of Four Cities (M.E. Sharpe). He is also the author of Plant Closure, Regulation, and Liberalism: The Limits to Liberal Public Philosophy (University Press of America); Reconceiving Liberalism: Dilemmas of Contemporary Liberal Public Policy (University of Pittsburgh Press); and The Case of the Minimum Wage: Competing Policy Models (State University of New York Press). He has been published in Policy Sciences ; Review of Social Economy; Journal of Economic Issues; Challenge; Rhetoric & Public Affairs; Public Affairs Quarterly; Review of Policy Research; and Regional Labor Review ; as well as having written several applied public policy studies. Currently, he is exploring the relationship between wage policies such as the minimum wage, wage contours, income inequality, and ultimately the impact that wage policy may have on the democratic process. A member of the Editorial Board of the International Encyclopedia of Public Policy, which is connected with the Global Political Economy Research Unit, he has contributed several pieces. Professor Levin-Waldman has been an NEH Summer Humanities Fellow at Princeton University.

Dr. Oren Levin-Waldman has recently been mentioned in a multi-part series on minimum wage in the Indiana Econimic Digest. Read part one, part two, and part three of four.

In October 2007, Dr. Levin-Waldman will be speaking about his living wage research as part of the Thomas J. Anton/Fred Lippit lecture series at Brown University. He will also be participating in a workshop on "Work Justice" in Zurich --- at the University of Zurich in November. His paper is expected to be titled: "Minimum Wages and Competing Ethical Conceptions."

In addition, Professor Levin-Waldman writes a blog for the Labor and Employment Relations Association: http://levin-waldman.lerablog.org/

Philip M. Nufrio (BA, Rutgers University; MPA in Public Administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University; PhD, Rutgers University) ext. 2435

Dr. Nufrio has served on the faculty of Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Long Island University and Seton Hall University. He teaches a broad array of courses in public and business administration, including leadership, organizational theory and behavior, public policy, research methods, and management information systems and applications. As a consultant he has advised numerous public and private sector organizations since 1975. For ten years he served as a management analyst to 3 cabinet federal agencies including the President’s Reorganization Project.

Jasmina Spasojevic (BS Economics,University of Belgrade; MA Economics, Central European University; MA Economics, University of New Hampshire; PhD, City University of New York) ext. 2603

Dr. Spasojevic is a new MCNY faculty member. Her fields of expertise are economics of human resources and international economics. The issues of health and education are her current research interests. In her doctoral research, she investigated the causal effect of education on adult health in Sweden. Before coming to the U.S., her research pertained to the issues of the economies in transition.

Louis H. Tietje (BA, Concordia University; M.T.S., Lutheran School of Theology; PhD, Union Theological Seminary) ext. 2601

Louis Tietje has served on the faculty of the Master of Public Administration program at Metropolitan College of New York since the program’s inception over ten years ago. He is currently teaching courses in organizational behavior, ethics, social problems and policy as well as program planning. He also contributes to the administration of the MPA program and the Urban Dialogues. Dr. Tietje’s research interests include applied ethics, social policy as well as social and political philosophy.

Prior to joining MCNY’s faculty, Dr. Tietje managed the financial analysis and planning services of a law firm and served as an independent consultant in management and finance to a variety of professional clients. He has also been an elementary school teacher and orchestral conductor for a theater company. His projects and publications include an entry in the Encyclopedia of Bioethics, a major monograph on manageable student educational debt levels as well as a contribution to the production of the documentary film, Changing our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -