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SIPA Faculty
Ester Fuchs
International Affairs Building, Room 1430A
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science
Phone: 212-854-3866
ester.fuchs@sipa.columbia.edu
Fax: 212-854-4782
ef25@columbia.edu
Biography:
Ester R. Fuchs is Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science and Director of the Urban and Social Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She served as Special Advisor to the Mayor for Governance and Strategic Planning under New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from 2001 to 2005. Prof. Fuchs was chair of the Urban Studies Program at Barnard and Columbia Colleges and founding director of the Columbia University Center for Urban Research and Policy. Prof. Fuchs recently received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Queens College; Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs Award for Outstanding Teaching; and NYC’s Excellence in Technology Award for Best IT Collaboration among Agencies for Access New York.
Currently, Professor Fuchs serves as Director of the WhosOnTheBallot.org, an online voter engagement initiative. Whosontheballot.org website is designed to improve voter turnout through a single online portal that provides easy access to customized sample ballots, polling place locations, and candidate information. It is being piloted in New York City and its technology and outreach strategy will be made available nationwide and globally.
While at City Hall, Prof. Fuchs coordinated three significant mayoral initiatives: the restructuring the City’s delivery of Out-of-School Time (OST) programs to children, youth, and families; the Integrated Human Services System Project (Access New York) to streamline the screening and eligibility determination processes, case management, and policy development and planning functions within and across the 13 human services agencies through the use of technology; and the merger of the Department of Employment with the Department of Small Business Services to align the City’s workforce development programs with the needs of the business community.
Prof. Fuchs was the first woman to serve as chair of the NYC Charter Revision Commission in 2005. She currently serves on the NYC Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board, NYC Economic Opportunity Commission, the NYC Workforce Investment Board, the NYC Commission on Women’s Issues, and the Advisory Board for NYC’s Out-of-School Time Initiative. She is appointed to the Committee on Economic Inclusion of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a member of the boards of the Fund for the City of New York, the Citizens Union, the Museum at Eldridge Street, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the International Board of the Hebrew University Rothberg School. Since 2007, Professor Fuchs has organized and moderated annual international summits sponsored by the Office of the Mayor of New York and New York City Global Partners. The conference brings together mayoral delegations from cities around the world to discuss important urban policy issues, learn from one another, and share best practices. Most recently, Prof. Fuchs coordinated the “Business Innovations and Entrepreneurship Summit,” (November, 2011) and the “Public Integrity: Anti-Corruption and Good Governance Summit,” (June, 2012).
In September 2012, Prof. Fuchs published Innovative Programs in Workforce Development: The UMEZ Career Opportunities in Health Care (COH) Program, a case study that documents an unprecedented strategy for partnering with community-based organizations to break the cycle of chronic unemployment that affects many individuals in the distressed communities of Upper Manhattan. Prof. Fuchs has been the recipient of many grants including the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the Wallace Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Greater London Enterprise, the US Department of Justice the National Health and Human Service Employees Union AFL-CIO, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation. She has consulted for business and governments and on numerous political campaigns. She is a frequent political commentator in print, broadcast and new media and lectures internationally. She received a B.A. from Queens College, CUNY; an M.A. from Brown University; and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago.
Search Categories: global cities, urban policy, politics and governance, New York City politics, New York City policy, community development, economic development policy, workforce development, education and afterschool policy, environmental and economic sustainability, social policy, political participation, women’s vote, civic engagement, political parties and elections.
Selected Publications:
Mayors and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 1992)
“The Web Can Inform Voters and Speed Them Up,” NYTimes.com, Room for Debate, November 8, 2012
“The Internet Can Inform and Motivate Voters,” NYTimes.com, Room for Debate, June 26, 2012
“Governing the Twenty-First Century City,” Journal of International Affairs (April 2012)
Innovations in City Government: The Case of New York City’s Workforce Development System. Report prepared for the NYC Department of Small Business Services, November 5, 2008
"Governance in London and New York," in London-New York: the Economies of Two Great Cities at the Millennium. (Corporation of London, June 2000; with Tony Travers)
Translating Your Vision Into Success: Basic Manual for Preparing a Business Plan Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, Jan. 1998; (with Sasha Soroff et.al.)
"Social Capital, Political Participation, and the Urban Community," chapter in Susan Saegert et.al. eds. Social Capital and Poor Communities (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2001 with Robert Shapiro and Lorraine Minnite)
Political Participation and Political Representation in NYC with a Special Focus on Latino New Yorkers. B-C Center for Urban Policy/Hispanic Education and Legal Fund Opinion Research Project, Dec. 1997 (with Lorraine Minnite and Robert Shapiro)
"Win, Place, Show: Public Opinion Polls and Campaign Contributions in a New York City Election" Urban Affairs Review (March 2000; with E. Scott Adler and Lincoln Mitchell)
"The Future of New York: 1898, 1998," Fordham Urban Law Journal (October 1999)
"The Permanent Urban Fiscal Crisis," chapter in Julia Vitullo-Martin, ed., Breaking Away--Innovations in Urban America Essays in Memory of Robert F. Wagner Jr. (The Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1996)
"Urban Community Initiatives and Shifting Federal Policy: The Case of the Empowerment Zones," chapter in, Alfred J. Kahn and Sheila B. Kammerman eds., Children and Their Families in Big Cities: Strategies for Service Reform. (Cross-National Research Program Columbia University School of Social Work, 1996 with J. Phillip Thompson)
"Racial Politics in New York State," chapter in J. Stonecash, J. White and P. Colby eds. Governing New York State, 3rd. ed. (SUNY Press, 1994 with J. Phillip Thompson)
"City-State Relations in the Criminal Justice System," chapter in G. Benjamin and C. Brecher eds. The Two New Yorks: State-City Relations in the Changing Federal System (Russell Sage Foundation, 1988)
New Voices in State Fiscal Policy. Report prepared for the Ford Foundation, March 2000 (with J. Phillip Thompson and William McAllister)
Implementation of National Voter Registration Act in NYS Social Services Offices.Report for the U.S. Department of Justice, February 1998( with Robert Shapiro and Peter Messeri)
"Government Performance as a Base for Machine Support," Urban Affairs Quarterly (June 1983 with Robert Y. Shapiro)
The Continuum of Care: A Report on the New Federal Policy to Address Homelessness US Department of Housing and Urban Development, December 1996 (with William McAllister).