Doctoral Students
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Jaclene Begley
Jackie Begley is a doctoral student at NYU Wagner and a doctoral fellow at the Furman Center. She received her master’s degree in city planning from UC Berkeley and her undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame. At UC Berkeley, Jackie worked as a research assistant for the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a commercial real estate acquisitions analyst for the investment groups of Jones Lang LaSalle and RREEF/ Deutsche Bank. She also spent time at a nonprofit working on community development projects. Her research interests are in real estate, land use, and housing policy. Currently she is part of the Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP) team and the wealth and homeownership research team at the Furman Center.
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Rachel Brooks
Rachel Brooks is a doctoral student studying urban policy at Wagner. She holds a master’s degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania and bachelor’s degree in economics from West Chester University. Prior to joining the Furman Center team, Rachel worked as a research analyst for Econsult Corporation, an economic and public policy consulting firm in Philadelphia. Her work there included evaluation of economic development programs, economic and fiscal impact analysis of local industries and institutions, and strategic planning for economic development authorities. She also constructed models for feasibility analysis of development projects, cost-benefit analysis of economic development programs, and expenditure analysis for labor contract mediation. Currently, Rachel is assisting with Furman Center research on the low income housing tax credit.
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Jacob Faber
Jacob Faber is currently working towards a PhD in sociology at NYU, with a focus on racial inequality and segregation. Jacob graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Master’s degrees in Telecommunications Policy and Urban Studies and Planning and a Bachelor’s degree in Management Science. He has extensive experience researching a diverse set of racial justice issues, such as the digital divide, rebuilding policies after Hurricane Katrina, regional strategies for inner city economic growth, how to talk effectively about race, and the disparate impact the Great Recession has had on communities of color. Between stints at graduate school, Jacob worked as a Senior Researcher for the Center for Social Inclusion, a racial justice policy advocacy organization. Jacob also gained experience researching urban economic issues at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.
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Michael Gedal
Michael Gedal is a doctoral student at Wagner and a doctoral fellow at the Furman Center. He has been with the Furman Center since 2005. He has been a key member of the team focused on supportive housing. He also was one of the authors of the analysis of the gap between housing supply and demand in New York City that was the core chapter in our State of the City’s Housing and Neighborhoods 2005. In addition to New York City, Mike’s work and studies have taken him to Atlanta, Boston, Argentina and France. Mike has a B.A. in economics from Emory University and a Masters in Public Administration from the Wagner School.
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Keren Mertens Horn
Keren Mertens Horn received her masters in the Urban Planning program at Wagner, and is now in the Doctoral Program. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Wagner, she worked on urban health issues in Philadelphia for a nonprofit called the Urban Nutrition Initiative, where she helped low-income high school and elementary school students improve their access to and knowledge of healthy foods. Keren then worked for The Reinvestment Fund, a well-known Community Development Financial Institution, where she focused on access-to-capital issues, working to improve nonprofit developers’ and small business’ access to bank and other mainstream financing. During her first year at Wagner, she interned at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development, where she reviewed the effectiveness of HPD’s Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program. She is interested in urban housing and economic development issues.
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Johanna Lacoe CV
Johanna Lacoe is a doctoral student at NYU Wagner and a doctoral fellow at the Furman Center. She received her M.P.A. from Wagner in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science from Brown University in 2002. Before coming to Wagner, Johanna was a Policy Analyst at Social Policy Research Associates in Oakland, CA, where she contributed to research and evaluation projects focusing on youth and workforce development, access to education, youth organizing, and racial and ethnic diversity. She then worked as a Program Analyst at Esperanza/Hope, an alternative-to-incarceration for juvenile offenders and a demonstration project of the Vera Institute of Justice. Her research interests center on the impact of disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile and criminal justice systems on neighborhood and community well-being.
