Carl E. Van Horn, Ph.D.
Carl Van Horn, professor and director, is a widely recognized expert on workforce, human resources, and employment policy issues with extensive experience in public and private sector policymaking. Van Horn is the founding director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. At Rutgers, he is a member of the graduate faculties of public policy and planning, political science, management and labor relations, and education. From 2006 to 2010, he was the Chair of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. In 2010, he was appointed by New Jersey governor Chris Christie to the state's Council of Economic Advisors.
His publishing credits include more than 90 articles and 15 books, including Working Scared (Or Not at All): The Lost Decade, Great Recession, and Restoring the Shattered American Dream; No One Left Behind: Economic Change and the American Worke; and A Nation at Work: The Heldrich Guide to the American Workforce. His status makes him a noted speaker at national and regional conferences, as well as a frequent source on labor, workforce, and economic issues for the national media.
Prior to founding the Heldrich Center, Van Horn held several senior-level positions in government and higher education, including those with policymaking responsibility. He has been director of policy for the State of New Jersey, senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, and chair of the Public Policy Department at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Van Horn was appointed by President Clinton to a Presidential Emergency Board to mediate disputes between labor and management in the railroad industry.
He has advised and consulted with a myriad of public and private organizations on human resources, training, education, and management issues including the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, the National Commission for Employment Policy, and the National Science Foundation. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in public service from Muskingum College. He is also a Research Fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College.
Van Horn earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in honors Political Science and Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Recent Publications:
Working Scared (Or Not at All): The Lost Decade, Great Recession, and Restoring the Shattered American Dream (March 2013)
Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America in the Great-Recession Era (February 2013)
Left Out. Forgotten? Recent High School Graduates and the Great Recession (June 2012)
Chasing the American Dream: Recent College Graduates and the Great Recession (May 2012)
Categorizing the Unemployed by the Impact of the Recession (December 2011)
Identifying Gaps and Setting Priorities for Employment and Training Research (October 2011)
Out of Work and Losing Hope: The Misery and Bleak Expectations of American Workers (September 2011)
Voices of the Unemployed (September 2011)
Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy (May 2011)
Older Workers, the Great Recession, and the Impact of Long-Term Unemployment (February 2011)
Unemployed Workers and the Great Recession (February 2011)
American Workers Assess an Economic Disaster (September 2010)