Join the Holder Initiative for a conversation on the housing crisis in the United States. We will be joined by housing experts Paula A. Franzese, Visiting Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, and Robert Stern of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition. Their presentations will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Lunch will be served.
Registration for this event is required.
More on the speakers:
Professor Paula Franzese is the Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Barnard College and her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Teaching Fellow, International Fellow, and recipient of the Rosenman Prize. Since her time in law school she has been deeply committed to housing justice and landlord-tenant law reform, serving at Morningside Heights Legal Services and as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Housing Court Reform. Her scholarship and empirical work on the struggles of low-income tenants facing eviction has been widely cited and formed the basis for statutory reform. She has critically examined how the aims of the Fair Housing Act have been frustrated by alarming declines in stocks of affordable housing, neglect, betrayal of habitability standards, exclusionary zoning, and gentrification. Her most recent work aims to expand the right to counsel for tenants facing eviction. A nationally renowned government ethicist, she has served as Special Ethics Counsel to the NJ governor, Chair of the State Ethics Commission, Vice-Chair of the Election Law Enforcement Commission and counsel to various state and local government ethics reform initiatives, including those advanced by former Newark Mayor and now Sen. Cory Booker. She is the recipient of the National Council on Government Ethics Laws (COGEL) Award, the highest honor conferred by the organization, in recognition of her "significant, demonstrable and positive contributions to the fields of campaign finance, elections, ethics, freedom of information and lobbying over a significant period of time."
Robert Stern is a Board Member of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition, and the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee. He is passionate about preserving the quality of life in Morningside Heights. Robert retired from a career in the telecommunications industry, where he had been a Director of Business Development for a large telecommunications software development and consulting firm. He had previously worked in documentary films. He holds a BA from Vassar College and an MBA from NYU. He also did graduate work in Stanford’s creative writing program. Robert grew up in the same Morningside Heights building where he currently lives.
