Carl Van Horn

Founding Director, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development

Carl Van Horn is an 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, one of the nation’s leading academic centers on workforce policy and practice. Van Horn is Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Since 2013, he has been a Visiting, Non-Resident, Scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is also Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning in the Office of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.At Rutgers, Van Horn is a member of the university’s graduate faculties of planning and public policy, education, management and labor relations, and political science. Van Horn is the author or editor of 18 books and over 150 scholarly articles and reports on American public policy and the American labor market including Working Scared (Or not at All, (2014); Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century (2015); and Investing in America’s Workforce (2018). Van Horn has held several senior level policymaking positions in government and universities including Chair of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Director of Policy for the State of New Jersey, and Senior Economist at the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. He was appointed by President Clinton to a Presidential Emergency Board that mediated a contract between labor and management in the railroad industry. Van Horn 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 and the National Science Foundation.He earned a B.A. in Honors Political Science and Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in Political Science/Public Policy from Ohio State University.