Head of new university institute has world view of region

Karen Jezierny at helm of Policy Research Institute for the Region.

By: Jeff Milgram
   While pedaling to her office in Princeton University’s Wallace Hall one day, Karen Jezierny began to think about the traffic problem.
   The university, she thought, could help ease traffic congestion if it considered where an employee was commuting from, as well as where the employee worked, when assigning a parking place.
   Thinking of problems — and finding data and experts to come up with possible solutions — is what she loves to do. It’s also part of her job as director of Princeton’s three-month-old Policy Research Institute for the Region, or PRIOR, part of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
   While other institutes and centers at the Woodrow Wilson School look at national and international policy issues, PRIOR focuses in on the tri-state area of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.
   Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter has given PRIOR the motto "Public Service Begins at Home," Ms. Jezierny said.
   "My real goals are to build relationships," Ms. Jezierny said.
   Starting a new institute from scratch is no easy thing. What did she do first, after moving in to her new office?
   "You look at the faculty," she said. "You talk to the faculty about what they’re doing or what they wish they were doing."
   She hopes to find "ways to bring the research resources of the university to bear on problems facing the region, by providing research opportunities for students and faculty, by providing outlets for existing or ongoing research and by generating new research initiatives."
   So far, PRIOR has tackled two issues important to New Jersey municipalities — smart growth and property taxes — convening symposiums on both issues.
   "I’ve had governmental organizations call and say, ‘I need help with this (problem),’" Ms. Jezierny said. "I also hope to use the broad ‘convening’ power of the school and the university to focus attention, and action, on specific issues, and I plan to find ways to advance the university’s efforts in experiential learning and community service to benefit the state and region, as well as the students and faculty," Ms. Jezierny said.
   With so many pressing issues, how does she decide which to tackle?
   "You read the paper," Ms. Jezierny said. "You find out what issues are on people’s minds."
   Once she has identified an issue, Ms. Jezierny tries to find a member of the Princeton faculty who has an interest in the subject.
   When it came to suburban sprawl, Ms. Jezierny broke it down to smaller pieces, talking to natural scientists on the environmental aspects, and faculty at the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering.
   With the university’s Office of Community and State Affairs, Rutgers’ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the Regional Planning Partnership, PRIOR will host a symposium on property tax reform from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 11.
   "It’s an enormous issue," she said.
   PRIOR may look into homeland security, another issue that can be broken down into component parts.
   "It means a lot of things to a lot of people," Ms. Jezierny said.
   With major ports in Philadelphia and New York City, PRIOR may study port security.
   "What could Princeton do to make these particularly vulnerable places safer?" she asked rhetorically.
   PRIOR also may look into bioterrorism, how to deal with naturally occurring infectious diseases and health care affordability.
   "We started in New Jersey because it was the obvious place to start," Ms. Jezierny. But the institute will go over well with officials in Pennsylvania and New York, she believes.
   "There’s an enormous number of Princeton alumni in policy-making roles in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania," she said.
   This is not the first Woodrow Wilson School attempt to deal with New Jersey issues. From 1980 to 1992, Princeton had an academic Program in New Jersey Affairs and a Council on New Jersey Affairs, which supported it. The program ended after its chairman, Richard Roper, resigned to take a job with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
   Ms. Jezierny has divided her career between Princeton and state government. In the 1980s, she worked as a "generalist" on the staff of the General Assembly. From 1986 to 1990, she was the university’s director of community and state affairs.
   In 1990 and 1991, Ms. Jezierny served as assistant state treasurer. The next year, she joined the Woodrow Wilson School as assistant dean for graduate career services and executive education. She was promoted to associate dean for administration in 1999.
   Ms. Jezierny lives in Princeton with her husband, Gregg Smith, a computer science teacher at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and their daughter, Dana, 7, a student at Community Park School.
   In the three months PRIOR has been in existence, it already has received calls from government officials asking for help.