Announcing our 2022 Public Impact Scholars Cohort

The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is excited to announce our 2022 Public Impact Scholars cohort. This is the second year of the Public Impact Scholars program, which equips BU faculty with new skills and knowledge to influence local and state policy and discourse for positive societal impact. Through the program, faculty gain new perspective on state and local government, evidence-based policymaking, and effective community-engaged research. The program also provides an opportunity to be part of a peer group of like-minded BU faculty from a variety of disciplines.

The cohort met June 13–15, 2022 at the IOC.

Public Impact Scholars — 2022 Cohort

Brandy Barents
Full-Time Lecturer, Writing, College of Arts & Sciences
Expertise: Irish and Bostonian poetry, literature and film

Phillipe Copeland
Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Expertise: Antiracist Education; Health Equity; Carceral systems; Social change

Jonathan Feingold
Associate Professor of Law, School of Law
Expertise: Affirmative action; Anti-discrimination law; Critical race theory; education law, property law

Yasuko Kanno
Associate Professor and Chair, Language and Literacy Education, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Expertise: Multi-lingual learners; Immigrant English learners’ access to education

Catherine M. Klapperich
Professor, Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Scientific Director, BU Clinical Testing Laboratory
Expertise: Medical devices in low-resourced settings; Physiological monitoring; Women’s health

Elaine Nsoesie
Assistant Professor, Global Health, School of Public Health
Expertise: Chronic and infectious disease surveillance; Global health; Healthy inequity

Caterina Scaramelli
Research Assistant Professor, Anthropology and Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences
Expertise: Anthropology of environment, science and infrastructure; Environmental history; Wetlands

Karin Schon
Assistant Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology, School of Medicine
Expertise: Brain plasticity, Cognitive neuroscience of memory and aging; Impact of racism on cardiovascular and brain health in older Black adults

Yesim Sungu-Eryilmez
Assistant Professor and Director ad Interim, City Planning and Urban Affairs, Metropolitan College
Expertise: Urban planning; Public policy; Social, economic and environmental sustainability of cities