Faculty Fellow

Biography

Debra Borie-Holtz is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the Bloustein School where she also received her master’s degree in Public Affairs and Politics and her doctorate in Planning and Public Policy. Borie-Holtz has been an instructor at Rutgers teaching writing, public policy, and method courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level since 2006. At The Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, she directs special survey research projects for public, non-profit and academic clients ranging from local planning studies to national research on attitudes about climate change.

Her academic research interests include policy formation, implementation and politics, legislative leadership and governing in the states, regulations and rulemaking processes, women in government and gendered leadership, as well as methods.

Prior to returning to graduate school in 2005, Borie-Holtz worked in federal and state government. She held a Presidential appointment as an agency director during the Clinton Administration and also served as New Jersey Assistant Secretary of State during the Florio Administration. In addition to her executive service, Borie-Holtz served as the chief of staff to the New Jersey Senate Majority Leader and chairman of the New Jersey Senate Energy and Environment Committee for more than a decade.

Her executive and legislative areas of specialization focused on environmental and energy policies, as well as agriculture and conservation, education finance, labor/management relations, campaign finance and ethics reform and state and federal budgeting. Read more here.

Fellowship Project

State by State, Vote by Vote: Reclaiming the Power of the American Voter addresses challenges related to voter confusion, administrative barriers, misinformation, and widespread disillusionment by equipping citizens with accessible, evidence-based information, practical participation tools, and state-specific analyses that strengthen civic knowledge, restore confidence in democratic participation, and demonstrate the measurable impact of individual voter engagement.

With the renewal of her 2025-2026 Democracy Fellowship, Debra plans to build on the successful completion of Phase I of her project, transitioning into Phase II for the 2026-2027 year. During Phase I, Deb recruited and trained undergraduate research assistants, established project teams, verified election laws and voting procedures across all 50 states, developed the foundational dataset for the 50-State Democracy Index, and implemented standardized quality assurance and project management systems. Phase II will transform these verified data into publicly accessible resources that strengthen civic knowledge and democratic participation. Research teams will complete the 50-State Democracy Index, produce Citizen Guides for all 50 states, develop county and legislative district-level analyses, create interactive maps illustrating voter registration burdens and electoral competitiveness. Phase II will produce visual analyses of the implications of the proposed SAVE America Act and recently adopted state election laws while creating similar evidence-based resources for every state developed during Phase I. 

Phase II will culminate in the publication of the 50 Citizen Guides, the national Democracy Index, interactive maps, scholarly reports, and digital educational materials. A prototype Citizen Guide developed during Phase I will serve as the standardized template for all 50 state guides, ensuring consistency, accessibility, and broad public impact.