- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

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Johnson & Johnson.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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[MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC] - All right, folks.

We have Julienne Cherry, President and CEO of a great organization called United Way.

You know the United Way, but this is the United Way of Greater Union County, New Jersey.

Julienne, great to see you.

- Nice to see you again, Steve.

- And I appreciate the subtle branding behind you that everyone can see, United Way Drive.

While we put up the website, tell everyone what the United Way is and the people you serve every day.

- Sure.

So the United Way, we are a nonprofit located in Elizabeth.

We serve the Greater Union County that are all the cities within Union County and South Plainfield and North Plainfield.

It is our mission to strengthen the families by providing them access to resources.

So we're just not just a funder of 25 plus community partners, but we also provide access to direct services like our New Jersey Youth Corps program and our Family Success Center.

- Julienne, let's talk about...

When I said who you serve, it just struck me 'cause one of our producers just said to me, you know, "Steve, we often underestimate or don't appreciate the importance of not having diapers."

Someone says, "Why are you bringing up diapers?"

Because to a family with young children, with babies, this is a huge issue.

And to assume everyone has access to diapers, particularly given the economy and inflation, it's just not accurate, please.

- Yeah, so, Steve, through our Family Success Center, you know, the services and the people that we provide access to look very, very different.

So it may look like to that baby or that youth providing access to diapers and maxi pads, to that father, providing access to rental assistance.

So what we know is that one in three babies don't have access to a clean diaper, and we know that they don't have those baby essentials.

So through one of our strong partners, Moms Helping Moms, we're able to provide those access, those resources to our communities.

- Julienne, let ask you this.

The food insecurity issue, again, the term gets thrown out there, both someone, a family's food insecure.

Make that real as to what that really... what it means to a family, A, and B, how the United Way helps folks who are dealing with not having enough healthy food, affordable food in their home, please.

- Sure, so what we know is that the poverty rate in 2011 was 4%.

In 2023, the poverty rate right now in Union County is 11%.

So that means one in 11 people, one in 11 neighbors in need don't have access to nutritious foods just for them to make... for them to meet the ends of their families.

So what we do at the United Way is that we do weekly food distributions to provide them access to food.

We also provide gift cards to the local grocery store just so that our neighbors in need have access to those resources.

- You call it a healthy family.

I'm curious about this.

The term, healthy family, is thrown out a lot.

How do you define a healthy family and how is the United Way, quote unquote, reimagine what a healthy family means, please, Julienne?

- Sure, so when a family structure comes to our center, we sit down in front of them and we assess all of their community needs.

And when I look at health, health is not just access to physical health, but it's also the, do you have access to food?

Are you able to pay your rent?

Is your child enrolled in health insurance or do you have access to education?

Because when a parent or a struggling mother has to decide whether providing access to food or paying their rent or going to...

It's a decision that no one should ever have to make.

So we look and we strive to make sure that our family structure is healthy.

- So housing costs are ridiculous.

- Going up.

- Right?

They're just ridiculous.

So when it comes to renting, I mean buying a home, owning a home, that's one thing.

And that's a wonderful thing when people, when families are able to do that, but let's talk rental, rental assistance and then assistance on the utility side to paying your utilities, please.

- So, just to give you some numbers, last year, we served almost 500 families.

This year, we were settled to serve roughly about 500.

We've seen 780 families for rental assistance.

What we know is that the rent is going up.

There is no tap...

There's no rate for them to just, you know, tap out.

But what we do at the United Way of Greater Union County, we provide access to those resources.

So it may be the utility assistance, it may be any type of assistance for our families to be successful.

- It's interesting the term, sustainability, is thrown around in a lot of different settings where you're talking about climate change or the sustainability.

But sustainability as it relates to the work of the United Way.

What does sustainability mean and is that about food insecurity again, or is it something different?

- Everything.

So we no longer are going to look at and providing band-aid solutions for our families.

We're going to follow our families from beginning to end.

So if a parent comes in front of us and says she's struggling to pay her rent, but we also know that she may not have access to employment, but we also know that educational and resources, you know, such as, you know, parenting classes we could provide her, we will provide her access to resume building through our Success Center.

So it's providing her everything for her to be sustainable, that we want that parent, we want that family unit to come back to us so that family can thrive.

- Julienne, I ask every not-for-profit leader about the money end of things because there are a whole range of studies out there, a lot of research that shows, plus anecdotally we know it's true, that nonprofits are struggling for so many reasons, which impacts the people they serve every day.

Question, state government resources funding key to the United Way, A, and B, where else does your money come from?

- Absolutely.

We apply to foundations, county and state.

We cannot do it without our community allies.

You know, when someone asks me, "What can I do to support your organization?"

I usually tell them three things.

It's your time, your talent, and your treasure.

You can easily come and volunteer with us.

You know, we do weekly food distributions.

Provide your talent.

If you're part of a corporation and you could provide some type of training through our Family Success Center, absolutely, we'll take that.

Maybe resume building or interviewing skills for our New Jersey Youth Corps program.

And then your treasure, every dollar that you donate.

comes to us for programming.

You know, in Union County, we have a lot of nonprofits that struggle to meet payroll.

We have a lot of nonprofits that struggle to just keep employees.

So when a person donates to an organization like United Way, we're able to help more people.

- Julienne, last question on my end.

You didn't start out in the not-for-profit world?

- I did.

I've worked 26 years in non-profit.

- Oh, 26 years in not-for-profit.

- 26 years.

26 years.

10 of those years, I've worked at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey as a director of the agency overseeing all the community partners.

And then from there, I've led organizations like Summit Health Cares, CASA of Union County, just providing access to health and wellness and advocacy.

So this is nothing that's new to me.

I know where the pockets of poverty are.

I know the solution.

We just need community allies to jump on board with us.

- Important stuff.

Julienne Cherry, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of Greater Union County.

Julienne, we appreciate you joining us.

Thanks so much.

- Thank you so much, Steve, for having me.

- You got it, stay with us, we'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by Mary Ellen Roberts, who's the chair of the graduate department of nursing at Seton Hall University College of Nursing.

Seton Hall University, one of our higher ed partners.

Mary Ellen, good to see you.

- Oh, same here, nice to see you.

- You got it.

2024, the state of nursing in the state of New Jersey is, please finish that.

- Somewhat chaotic.

- (chuckles) But hold on.

If I asked you the same question, Mary Ellen, in 2022, and 2023, would it be any different or is it a different kind of chaotic?

- I think it would be the same.

- What makes it so chaotic, A, and B, is it... Well, I'm not gonna try to answer my own question.

What contributes to the chaotic nature of nursing in your view, please?

- We have a nursing shortage.

We have a staffing shortage.

And because we have these staffing shortages, we then have a very large nurse to patient ratio, which decreases the quality of care that we can give to our patients, particularly those in the hospital.

- So Mary Ellen, a lot of our work in programming focuses on public policy.

Help us understand the public policy, particularly in the state legislature of New Jersey.

What effort is underway, and how serious is that effort, Mary Ellen, to establish clear nursing ratios, nurse to patient ratios?

Do we have that now?

- We don't have that now, and we need legislation that's gonna give us those clear nurse patient ratios.

The other thing that's in the legislature now is a full practice authority bill for nurse practitioners.

- Can we talk about that?

That is fascinating to me.

Full practice authority, follow this, folks.

And if I have this wrong, Mary Ellen will correct me.

So there's legislation floating around the State House that would allow for certain nurses who have advanced degrees that they would then have the permission to treat a patient and prescribe medications for certain basic, quote unquote basic health issues.

Right now they do not have that.

And if I'm not mistaken, Mary Ellen, there are physician groups fighting against that.

- Oh, absolutely, yes.

The Medical Society of New Jersey is fighting against it.

Full practice authority means that we won't keep what's called our joint protocol or collaborative agreement so that we can go and we can practice on our own.

During the COVID pandemic, the governor did waive that joint protocol so that we were able to practice without joint protocol or physician collaboration.

- So I wanna be clear.

The joint protocol, as I understand it, a nurse had to go to a physician to get sign off on certain prescriptions or certain medical procedures, and that was put aside during when COVID was really bad.

And now it still exists that you need that prior approval or whatever the heck it's called.

And there's an effort underway to do away with that.

But the Medical Society, as they've testified, Mary Ellen, has said, they've said, you know what?

That would also, if you allowed advanced practice nurses to do this, it could potentially negatively impact patient care.

You say?

- I say it doesn't.

We have much data out there that shows the quality of care that nurses give, that nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses give to patients in the state of New Jersey, we have data that shows that we prescribe less than physicians do.

And I think that based on what happened during the COVID pandemic, we proved ourselves that we certainly can do this without any type of physician oversight.

- Let me ask you this, then.

If you believe the evidence, the science, the experience of COVID proves what you just said, then what would be the possible rationale for organized groups representing physicians in this state, fighting against it?

What would be their rationale?

- So I've been doing this a long time.

I've been fighting physicians for a long time, and I really think that it all becomes a turf battle.

- Turf over what?

- Patients, that we're gonna take patients away from them.

There's plenty of patients out there for everybody to be able to, - so, hold on, Mary Ellen.

But, P.S.

let's make sure, I'm telling our producers in real time, let's make sure we have a representative from the Medical Society so they can make their case about this.

But now patients become turf?

- Well, it's becomes, yeah, it's a turf battle.

It's, you know, I open a practice on one block, and the physician opens a practice on another block.

We're all vying for the same patients.

- So it's economic.

- It's economic, it's definitely economic.

And they don't feel that we're safe.

They really don't think that we're safe, and we have data that proves otherwise.

- Mary Ellen, you're the chair of the graduate department of nursing at Seton Hall University.

Again, one of our higher ed partners is the College of Nursing.

But you're also, you're a practicing nurse as we speak?

- Yes, I practice one or two days a week as well as do my full-time position at Seton Hall.

- Why do you still practice?

- Because I think it's important that...

I'm a nurse first, and I think it's really important for students to see that the people that are teaching them are still on the front lines, still practicing in the areas in which we're teaching them.

And students appreciate that.

Students really appreciate the fact that we are still practicing.

All the faculty members in the graduate department are still practicing.

- There's a shortage of nurses.

It impacts obviously negatively the nurse patient ratio.

But my understanding is there's evidence that the number of people going into the field of nursing has increased since COVID.

And what's happening at the graduate level?

Are there more nurses, fewer nurses?

What's going on there?

- So at the graduate level, actually numbers across the country have gone down in terms of enrollments.

And there's a lot, I recently did a study of registered nurses across the country.

And what we found in that study was, and it was registered nurses who were on the front lines during COVID.

And what we found doing that study was that nurses are burnt out.

That many of them want to go back to school, but they just don't have the emotional capacity at this point to go back.

That's gonna turn around.

- It is, but let me ask you this, if travel nurses, the nurses who go from hospital to hospital are making so much more money than staff nurses, why would someone choose to be a staff nurse if they can make more money as a traveling nurse, not on staff, moving around?

- That's a good question.

And there are many staff, there are many people that are doing that, the travel nursing.

And that's part of the issue, that you don't have the stability on your unit of somebody who's on your unit full-time that is dedicated to that particular unit or that particular hospital.

- I promise our audience we'll continue to do programming, looking at the field of nursing, the impact it has on patient care and how it evolves over time.

And again, we will have a physician leader talking about this issue of the full practice authority for nurses in another segment.

Mary Ellen Roberts, chair of the graduate Department of Nursing at Seton Hall University College of Nursing.

Mary Ellen, thanks so much.

- Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by Dr. Beth Simone Noveck, who's the Chief Innovation Officer in the state of New Jersey.

Good to see you, doctor.

- Hi, nice to be back.

- Great to have you back.

Also, I wanna make it clear that you were the former, the first deputy chief technology officer in the White House during the Obama administration, 2009, 2011.

Beth, let me ask you something.

There's a task force that has been put together in the state of New Jersey.

Governor Murphy signed an executive order for this AI, Artificial Intelligence Task Force.

What is it?

And how will we know a year from now how effective it's been?

- So the task force is set up really to address how we can take advantage in New Jersey of both the tremendous benefits from these powerful new technologies surrounding AI, and also how we can mitigate the risks.

So we're bringing together leaders from all across government, economic development, labor, education, all across the government, to really address what we should be doing in the state of New Jersey especially to realize those benefits.

And we're starting to meet already.

We have working groups that are focused on issues like jobs of the future, and how we build the innovation economy around AI in New Jersey, how we promote literacy and equity, but also how we safeguard security and privacy.

So we're addressing a whole range of issues and meeting already.

And we're gonna work pretty quickly to try to come up with recommendations over the course of the coming months, and in the next year to really address what we should do.

And, again, it's a very fast-moving set of technologies.

There's obviously other governments looking at this, also, in Washington.

And we understand what we need to do in New Jersey to safeguard our residents and realize the benefits.

- Beth, let me try this.

I'm a student of leadership and you cannot separate innovation.

The greatest leaders are always innovators, and thinking what's next?

And I always like to call it connecting the dots and trying to strategically and intentionally be where you need to be.

There's a question here.

So for those who are just freaked out, like, that AI, artificial intelligence, like, I can't talk about it.

I can't think about it.

It's gonna take my job.

Okay, and we were just joking here with our great camera operator, Scarlyn, about who's gonna take his job, who's gonna take my job?

We can obsess over that, or we can embrace it, but what does it actually mean from your point of view, Beth, to embrace AI when there are so many unknowns?

And we are afraid of losing our jobs.

Help us.

- Look, with very good reason, I don't think we should be afraid, but we should be mindful and we should be critical.

And we should be asking ourselves, what do these mean for us?

I would suggest, first and foremost, you should turn off the news and go ask your 13-year-old to help you try these tools for yourself.

I think when you sit down with them, whether it's a Google Bard, or OpenAI's ChatGPT, or whether it's Anthropic's Claude, or one of these other so-called generative AI tools that are now freely available and easily accessible to us.

When you try them, you begin to realize the power of what they can do in terms of the ability to create new kinds of content, to analyze content, but don't forget, AI is already all around us, even without you trying any of these new tools with your kids.

- Example.

- Siri, I better not say her name out loud.

She's gonna start talking to me in a second.

- Siri is AI.

- Of course, she's AI.

So is my Alexa is AI.

When I go onto Google Translate to translate that letter I'm gonna write to my relatives in the home country, that's AI.

When I'm typing on my computer and it autocorrects my spelling because I mistyped in some way, didn't get that I before E except after C. That's AI doing the work.

So AI has been with us for a long time.

When you mail a letter through the post office in your, you know, my chicken scrawl, because I'm so used to typing at a computer, I can barely write by hand.

Thank goodness there's some AI in use in the post office that's actually using computer vision to scan what I've written and translate that into something a machine can understand and route my letter to the right place.

So it's already all around us.

If you're on Duolingo learning French or Spanish, for example, or another language, it's gonna personalize those lessons for you.

All of that is AI.

It's around us, we should try it.

And familiarize ourselves both with the benefits.

And then we can also talk about what are the risks and what are the dangers in sober conversation.

- And I wanna talk about those risks in this way.

The one thing that got not just my attention, but countless others in the state of New Jersey and the region and the nation.

This case in Westfield High School.

I mean, this incident in Westfield High School where a group of students used AI, artificial intelligence, to fake pornographic images of certain girls in the school.

I mean, how is a school system supposed to deal with that, A?

And what do we say to parents of those children and those children themselves?

Those girls who were victimized and bullied in ways that I can't even comprehend or imagine, like, that's AI.

- Look, without speaking to this specific case, because obviously it's an ongoing situation.

The school is trying to decide what they're doing, law enforcement.

- There's litigation.

There's a court case, yes.

- So without speaking to the details of this particular case, I think it's a great example of where on the one hand we have powerful tools for doing things like creating images more easily.

With those images I can, you know, make better pictures for my book report.

If you've maybe seen David Beckham's campaign against malaria on YouTube, he's talking in 10 languages.

That is what you might call a deepfake in the sense that that's not David AI, I'm sorry, David AI.

That is David Beckham.

It's not David Beckham speaking in Spanish or Russian or Chinese.

That is AI helping to do that.

Training videos that we make to educate people about AI.

We use AI to make it faster and easier to create those.

So, again, positive uses for those tools, but obviously negative uses in the same way that we've seen people using Photoshop over the last generation to create fake images, create fake content.

We're gonna see that both in the educational context, in the election context, and other contexts where we're deeply worried about that.

And that's why we have to think about how do we safeguard the positive and beneficial uses, those creating pictures for my book report, and prevent against those harms?

And in many cases, we have laws that already exist to protect us, but in many cases, jurisdictions are enacting new policies.

And that's why we've created this task force to try to address exactly those questions and separate out the panic from the reality and figure out what are the things we need to do in New Jersey.

- Beth, we had a minute left, but I'm curious about this.

Is it fair to say that regardless of what the task force concludes, that there's got to be more aggressive, more timely, more relevant government regulation and involvement as it relates to AI?

Regardless of what that is, the status quo is not gonna protect people enough.

Is that a fair assessment?

- Look, we're seeing that the world over with actions already being taken in Washington, an executive order that came out of the White House on AI, that's 20,000 words on this topic.

The EU that's just enacted regulation around AI.

- The European Union, right.

- Everybody recognizes we have to act, but we have to act carefully and thoughtfully, even as we're needing to re-engineer the plane while we're flying it.

These tools are still evolving and that's why we have already enacted interim guidance, for example, in New Jersey.

We're not saying it's the last word, but it's the first word on what we need to do right now to ensure, for example, that we're using these tools for good in this state.

That we're using them to deliver better services to residents, and ensure at the same time that we're not doing things like misusing personal identifiable information, safeguarding people's privacy, et cetera.

So lots of great stories to tell about the benefits.

And we have to keep an eye on this and stay vigilant.

- And AI ain't going away.

That's one thing we know for sure.

And you just listened to Dr. Beth Simone Noveck, who's the Chief Innovation Officer of the great state of New Jersey.

Thank you so much, Beth, we appreciate it.

- Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

- And we appreciate you watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

The North Ward Center.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Johnson & Johnson.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

PNC Foundation.

And by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

The North Ward Center continues to expand their services and outreach in Newark, from the childhood years to the golden years, Offering programs like preschool, youth leadership development, Casa Israel Adult Medical Day program our Family Success center, as well as a gymnasium.

And most recently Hope House, a permanent home for adults with autism, supporting and nurturing our autism community with Hope House 2 coming soon.

The North Ward Center.

We’re here when you need us.