How Kean’s “Urban Impact” Podcast is Providing a Voice for Urban Communities

By Tyra Watts | Published March 30, 2023

Urban research is essential, especially for Kean University. Ever since Kean was named New Jersey’s First Urban Research University, the university has put in efforts to express the importance of urban research.

In an effort to do that, Kean launched a podcast “Urban Impact” to discuss challenging issues within urban communities. These issues are analyzed through meaningful conversations with scholars, community leaders, and others participating in change. 

“Urban Impact” is hosted by Michael Salvatore, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Administration, and Barbara George Johnson, J.D., Vice President of External Affairs and Urban Policy.

According to Salvatore, he became the co-host of “Urban Impact” as a volunteer at the request of university president Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D. Salvatore believes that Repollet liked the chemistry between himself and Johnson in terms of presentation and delivery.

“He suggested to University Relations to reach out to see if Barbara and myself were interested in co-hosting,” Salvatore said. 

Salvatore also added that he and Johnson are both passionate about urban matters and they both represent that field very well in terms of asking the right questions and getting the right people in front of them.

When it comes to the importance of urban issues, Salvatore says that it’s been his life. He grew up in an urban community, and after college, he worked in an urban city for 25 years. Salvatore realized that everything was interconnected within urban communities, urban centers, education settings, and economics. 

“It’s all something I’m really passionate about because I know it has a tremendous impact on particularly children, but children who need it most and families who need the resources and advocacy more than anybody,” Salvatore said. 

With the goal of “Urban Impact,” Salvatore says that it started around the research agenda on what topics students, faculty, and extended Kean community members wanted to explore, particularly in urban settings, with the help of the Provost. He provided an example of this by mentioning an episode of “Urban Impact” where they had a guest and they talked about education in urban communities as well as evaluating the education system. 

As for plans for “Urban Impact,” Salvatore says that they figured that they’ll start with the Provost because it sets the academic agenda at Kean. Their goal is to go to every element of each urban community and what the most impactful areas are.

Salvatore then mentioned that there has been a tremendous interest in faculty to be on “Urban Impact”.

“We’ve launched our first two shows and we had a bunch of respected faculty reached out and say, ‘Well I’m doing this research in this community and I really like to talk to you about it.’ So we actually have a list of people now who are really interested in being guests on the show,” Salvatore said. 

Salvatore also added that he wants students, faculty, and people in the community that do community service to be guests on “Urban Impact” as well and have them address how they address issues such as food and housing insecurity. 

When it comes to “Urban Impact” and its future, Salvatore says he sees it as a platform not just to share information, but to enlighten people and inspire some change. He also expressed that while every podcast kind of is a platform for someone’s voice, Salvatore doesn’t know if they all have a goal of inspiring other people to put something in motion.

 “I would hope that in time that Barbara and I both learn to take whatever’s in front of us and then kind of transition that attitude or call for action or some inspiration of change so that we can not just impact what’s in front of us, but to impact the people around us too,” Salvatore said. 

As for any favorite episodes or guests on “Urban Impact,” Salvatore said that he loved the episode where the guests were experts in K-12 education, specifically early childhood, because he was a former teacher, principal, and superintendent.

“I loved that episode because we were able to kinda talk about how do you start changing the mindsets of children, who maybe are in a cycle of poverty or generational cycle of poverty, that you know your words, your lessons have an impact to maybe help them to get to a different place and break that cycle,” Salvatore said.

He then added that he also liked the episode about sustainability and climate change because he was able to ask the guests about the people who do not believe in climate change and wanted them to share why. 

Salvatore also liked the episode about invasive species.

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