THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR SUBURBAN STUDIES AT HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY

In 35 years as a reporter, editorial writer, columnist and PBS host, Lawrence (Larry) Levy won many of journalism’s top awards, including Pulitzer Finalist, for in-depth works on suburban politics, education, taxation, housing and other key issues. As a journalist, he was known for blending national trends and local perspectives and has covered seven presidential campaigns and 15 national conventions. In his leadership role at NCSS, which he was invited by President Rabinowitz to create in 2007, Dean Levy has worked with Hofstra’s academic and local communities to shape an innovative, interdisciplinary agenda for interdisciplinary suburban study, including a new Sustainability Studies degree. Over the years he has forged research alliances with other academic institutions, including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Boston College, Virginia Tech, New York University, Exeter, and Maynooths, as well as consulting relationships with not-for-profit groups, businesses and government agencies. One recent partnership of note, with the world-renown Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, resulted in the heralded exhibition “Black Suburbia: From Levittown to Ferguson.” Along with Academic Director Christopher Niedt, NCSS has promoted the importance of studying suburbs nationally and internationally and has generated nearly $4 million in grants, gifts and contracts. Dean Levy was recently invited to lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Harvard Medical School on the challenges of the changing suburbs and gives about 30 talks a year to academic, civic and business groups on a variety of topics. As a member of a Brookings Institution advisory panel, he was a featured speaker at a Brookings Metro Policy Summit in Washington, DC. He was recently appointed Chairman of the Community Research Advisory Board at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, one of the world’s leading such centers.

NCSS has collaborated on a number of local, national and international scale conferences on aspects of suburban life, from diversity and housing, to ecology science and health care. The center also has participated in major consulting studies on sustainability, demographic change and education and health care challenges in suburbia. At NCSS, Dean Levy has co-authored major regional studies, including the LI2035 Sustainability Action Plan, all five Long Island Regional Economic Development plans, and many of the post Sandy recovery reports for Suffolk County communities. Before joining Hofstra, he was Senior Editorial Writer and Chief Political Columnist for Newsday; cohost of the PBS show Face-Off, and remains involved in the world of journalism and politics. Levy has been a guest contributor to BBC.com, CNN.com, Politico, Newsday, Citiwire, Hearst Newspapers and wrote about presidential campaign issues for the New York Times.com Campaign Stops blog. (Most of these articles and some of the media appearances can be found at the NCSS website www.hofstra.edu/ncss). He appears regularly on local and national television. He is a graduate of Boston University’s School of Communication. He’s especially proud of organizing the Hofstra Celebration of Suburban Diversity, which annually brings together hundreds of people from different races, religions and other backgrounds and has raised more than $1 million for diversity related scholarships, research and community engagement. At the same time, the event, which has featured the region’s most influential business and labor leaders as keynote speakers, has dramatically raised Hofstra’s profile as a place that values diversity. He also is pleased to be able to “give back” by mentoring many young people in journalism and public life regardless of their ideological or political allegiance.

A partner in shaping the center’s mission and priorities, Christopher Niedt is currently an Associate Professor of Applied Social Research in Hofstra’s Department of Sociology. He brings to NCSS a passion for suburban studies and strong academic credentials earned as a researcher, writer, and teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in geography. He has special expertise in fields of labor and housing, and has conducted research on the living wage; gentrification; and the politics of class, race, and geographic inequality in older suburban communities.