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Senior Contributors

  • Alex Armlovich

    is a senior housing policy analyst at the Niskanen Center and a member of the Rent Guidelines Board.

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  • Neil Barsky

    is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and the Wall Street Journal and the director of the documentary "Koch" (2012).

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  • Richard Buery Jr.

    is the CEO of Robin Hood.

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  • Vishaan Chakrabarti

    is an architect, urbanist and author based in New York City. He is a Vital City contributing writer. His latest book is "The Architecture of Urbanity" (2024). He is also the author of "A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America" (2013).

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  • Aaron Chalfin

    is an associate professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania.

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  • Jelani Cobb

    became the dean of the Columbia Journalism School in 2022. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015 and is the author of "The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress" and other books.

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  • Brandon del Pozo

    is an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School and research scientist at Brown University Health. He was chief of police of Burlington, Vermont, and served with the NYPD from 1997 to 2015.

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  • John Della Volpe

    is director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics and founder and CEO of Social Sphere, a public opinion research firm. He advised on the Biden 2020 campaign.

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  • Jennifer Doleac

    is executive vice president of criminal justice at Arnold Ventures. She is an economist who specializes in the economics of crime and criminal justice policy.

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  • Cara Eckholm

    is the host of Borrow & Steal, a new interview series from Vital City. She is a fellow at Renaissance Philanthropy and runs AKA Urban, a planning firm.

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  • Ingrid Gould Ellen

    is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and faculty director at the NYU Furman Center. She specializes in housing policy and residential segregation.

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  • Barry Friedman

    is the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law and founding director of the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, a nonprofit research center promoting public safety through transparency and democratic accountability.

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  • Edward Glaeser

    is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is the author of "Triumph of the City."

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  • Sherry Glied

    is a professor at Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and was dean of the school from 2013 to 2025.

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  • Gloria Gong

    is the executive director of the Government Performance Lab at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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  • Henry Grabar

    is the author of "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World."

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  • Arpit Gupta

    is an associate professor at NYU Stern and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

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  • Anna Harvey

    is president and CEO of the Social Science Research Council and a professor of politics at New York University. She directs the Public Safety Lab and is co-director of the Criminal Justice Expert Panel.

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  • Nancy La Vigne

    is dean of Rutgers School of Criminal Justice.

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  • Errol Louis

    is the political anchor of Spectrum News NY1, where he hosts Inside City Hall, a nightly prime-time show that focuses on New York politics. He is a Vital City contributing writer.

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  • Jens Ludwig

    is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and Pritzker Director of the Crime Lab. He co-directs the Education Lab and NBER’s working group on economics of crime.

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  • John MacDonald

    is a professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

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  • Tracey L. Meares

    is the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor and founding director of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. She was previously a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

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  • Peter Moskos

    is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the author of four books, including "Back from the Brink," an account of New York City's 1990s crime drop.

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  • Alex R. Piquero

    is professor and chair in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar at the University of Miami. He is also the former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (appointed by President Biden in June 2022).

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  • Kerri M. Raissian

    is an associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut and director of the ARMS Center for gun-injury prevention. She is a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center.

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  • John K. Roman

    is a senior fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago. He also serves as the co-Director of the National Prevention Science Coalition.

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  • Julie Sandorf

    is president of the Revson Foundation. For the 2026-27 academic year, she will be a distinguished practitioner fellow at the Moynihan Center at CCNY, and is currently a Fellow at the New York Historical.

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  • David Schleicher

    is the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law at Yale Law School.

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  • Harry Siegel

    is a contributing writer for Vital City, a senior editor at the newsroom The City, a columnist at the New York Daily News and the executive producer and co-host of the FAQ NYC podcast.

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  • Martha Stark

    is a clinical professor at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Finance.

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  • Carl Weisbrod

    is a senior advisor at HR&A Advisors, former chair of the New York City Planning Commission and former president of the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association.

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  • Claire Weisz

    is the founding partner of WXY, the New York City-based architecture, urban design and planning firm.

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  • Bruce Western

    is a professor of sociology and director of the Justice Lab at Columbia University.

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All Contributors

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