The Sweeney Center Event Calendar

Innovative Models, Unmet Needs: Expanding Congregate Housing Options for the Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled 

Rowan University, Chamberlain Student Center, Eynon Ballroom
Tuesday, September 24
Program: 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

This statewide conference focuses on the challenges faced by state officials, providers and advocates in developing congregate housing services for the intellectually and developmentally disabled adults with acute needs.The conference is the fifth sponsored by the Sweeney Center for Public Policy on critical public policy issues facing the state.

Speakers will include:

• Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, chair of the Legislative Disabilities Caucus 
• Paul Aronsohn, NJ Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Their Families 
• Jonathan Seifried, NJ Assistant Commissioner, Division of Developmental Disabilities
• Chad Bruner, Rowan University Board Chair and Gloucester County Administrator
• Guy Davidson, Chair, Academy for Neurodiversity, and Dean, Academic Achievemnt & Special Services, Rowan College of South Jersey
• Eric Eberman, Executive Director, Devereaux Advanced Behavioral Health New Jersey
• Amanda Duva Gannon, Director of Community-Based Bahavioral Health Stabilization Homes, YAI
• Cyndy Hayes, Founder and CEO, Autism Wellbeing
• Mary Hurley, Medford parent advocate 
• Frederick Keating, President, Rowan College of South Jersey
• Christopher Manente, Executive Director, Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services
• Lisa McCauley Parles, Partner, Parles Rekem LLP
• Steve Sweeney, former NJ Senate President
• Tom Toronto, President, Bergen County United Way
• Linda Zani Thomas, Ringwood parent advocate

The conference is free to both in-person and virtual attendees. To sign up, please register here 

________________________________________

Restructuring Higher Education in New Jersey: Thirty Years of Change, Future Challenges

Rowan University, Chamberlain Student Center, Eynon Ballroom
Tuesday, October 15
Program: 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

This statewide conference examines the impact of the 30-year-old Higher Education Restructuring Act that freed New Jersey's public universities and colleges to compete and chart their own courses by replacing the central authority of the Chancellor and Department of Higher Education with a Council of College Presidents and Secretary of Higher Education. The conference also assesses the effectiveness of the 2012 law that merged the state's medical schools into Rutgers and Rowan universities, explores the challenges facing New Jersey's higher education sector in the years ahead, and reviews whether current governance structures are adequate to meet those challenges.  

Speakers include Brian Bridges, New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education; Senator Joseph Cryan, chair of the Senate Education Committee; Rowan University President Ali Houshmand; Fairleigh Dickinson University President Michael Avaltroni; Frederick Keating, President of Rowan College of South Jersey; Kathy Scotto, Vice Chancellor of Research, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, and former Thomas Edison State University President George Pruitt, the first President of the Council of College Presidents.

The conference is sponsored by the Sweeney Center for Public Policy and the Rowan University College of Education.

The conference is free for both in-person and virtual attendees. To sign up, please register here

________________________________________

New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference: Shared Services and Regionalization 

Atlantic City Convention Center (Room TBD)
Thursday, November 21
Program: 10:45 a.m. to 12 noon

For the third consecutive year, the New Jersey Division of Local Government Services and the Sweeney Center for Public Policy are presenting "New Trends and Developments in Shared Services and Regionalization."

Panelists are expected to include New Jersey Community Affairs Commissioner Jacquelyn Suarez; Richard Richardella, Chief of the Bureau of Local Government Assistance, NJ Division of Local Government Services; Mark Magyar, co-chair of the Rowan School Regionalization Institute; Shared Services Czars Jordan Glatt and Nic Platt; and Marc Pfeiffer, Associate Director of the Bloustein Local Government Research Center, Rutgers University.