Carl Van Horn is Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the founding director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. During the 2014–15 academic years, Van Horn is a visiting, nonresident scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is also the codirector of the Heldrich Center's Work Trends national surveys of American workers, which received the 2013 Policy Impact Award from the American Association of Public Opinion Research for research on long-term unemployment.
He is the author or editor of 17 books and over 150 scholarly articles and reports on American public policy and the American labor market, including Working Scared (or not at All): The Lost Decade, Great Recession, and Restoring the Shattered American Dream; Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century ; and Improving Education and Training for Older Workers .
Van Horn has also held senior positions in government at the state and federal levels, including director of policy for the state of New Jersey; chair of the board of directors of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority; senior economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress; and member of the Presidential Emergency Board to mediate labor management disputes in the railroad industry, to which he was appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Van Horn graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in honors political science and sociology and earned a master of arts and doctorate in political science and public policy from Ohio State University.
Nyerere Hodge, Stuart Andreason, and Carl E. Van Horn. "The Labor Market, Then and Now: The First Two Decades of the 21st Century, Part Two." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Workforce Currents (November 8, 2023).
Nyerere Hodge, Stuart Andreason, and Carl E. Van Horn. "The Labor Market, Then and Now: The First Two Decades of the 21st Century, Part One." Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Workforce Currents (September 7, 2023).
Jane Oates and Carl Van Horn. "Can Lessons from the Great Recession Guide Policy Responses to the Pandemic-Driven Economic Crisis?" Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Workforce Currents (June 16, 2020).
Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century, eds. Carl Van Horn, Tammy Edwards, and Todd Greene. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (2015).
Cal Van Horn with Paul Krutko. "What Workers Really Think: Perspectives from the Front Lines." Economic Development podcast. October 28, 2013.