Richard W. Roper, a public policy consultant, retired in 2010 as director of the Planning Department at The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In this capacity, he directed the department to anticipate emerging needs, significant threats, and future opportunities for the agency, its partners, and the people it serves, and assist its leaders in devising effective responses. The department brings a regional perspective, analytic rigor, and planning expertise to the agency’s long-range strategies, investments and policy choices.
Roper began his public affairs career in Newark, NJ where he was director of the Office of Newark Metropolitan Studies, and prior to that was the Legislative Aide to Newark’s first African-American Mayor, Kenneth Gibson. Earlier in his career, Roper served as a special assistant to the director of the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services; as an education program director at the Greater Newark Urban Coalition; and as assistant to the Vice Chancellor of the New Jersey Department of Higher Education. Roper has had a long and extensive career in public affairs, during which he has held senior level positions in local, state, regional, and federal government agencies and has had experience in nonprofit organizations, and in academic research, teaching, and administration.
His many civic engagements have contributed to the development of the social, political and cultural infrastructure of urban New Jersey, particularly Newark. He was a founding trustee of Newark Emergency Services for Families. He was a co-founder of many organizations to include: New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute, Inc., co-founder of New Jersey future, and Leadership Newark. In addition, Roper was a founding Trustee of Newark Public Radio, Inc., the licensee of radio station WBGO-FM, Jazz 88, the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice, and University Heights Charter School.
Roper currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at SUNY, a Visiting Associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, on the Board of Trustees at the Fund for New Jersey, a public policy-oriented philanthropy, is president of the board at La Casa de Don Pedro, a social welfare organization serving the Latino community and others, a member of the Board of Directors with the NJ Coalition for Diverse and Inclusive Schools, and a member of the Board of Governors, Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey. Additionally, his service to Rutgers includes membership on the Rutgers University – Newark Advisory Board and the Rutgers Future Scholars Development Committee. He is also chairman of the Board of Deacons at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, NJ.
Roper is the author of several articles and publications addressing social, economic, governmental, and political issues of import to urban New Jersey, the state of New Jersey, and the New York Metropolitan region.
Roper earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey at Newark and a Master’s in Public Affairs degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
A resident of Maplewood, NJ, he has been married to the former Marlene Peacock since 1969 and is the father of two sons, Jelani and Akil, both of whom are lawyers.