Staff Bios
Harvey M. Rice, Esquire
Executive Director
Mr. Rice joined PICA as Executive Director in January 2014. Prior to this role, he served as the City of Philadelphia’s First Deputy City Controller and Chief of Staff. He was responsible for the management and oversight of 125 employees in the nine divisions within the Controller’s Office. Under Mr. Rice’s leadership, the City Controller’s Office uncovered more than $500 million in revenues and savings for the City of Philadelphia through audits, reports and investigations. The Controller’s Office also has received numerous national awards for its performance audits under his direction.
Prior to his appointment as City Controller, Mr. Rice served as the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Safe Schools Advocate for the School District of Philadelphia. He was appointed by then Governor Tom Ridge. As the Safe School Advocate, Mr. Rice was responsible for monitoring the School District’s compliance with the Safe Schools Act, as well as assisting and advocating on behalf of victims of school violence and ensuring the quick removal of violent and disruptive students from city schools.
Mr. Rice is an attorney with a law degree from the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. He served as Co-Chair for the Philadelphia Coalition for Victim Advocacy, and as a member of the Collaborative Response to Crime Victims.
Rob Call
Deputy Director
Mr. Call joined PICA as Deputy Director in February 2023. Prior to joining PICA he worked for Philadelphia City Council. He began working in City Council first as a Housing Policy Fellow and then as a Fiscal Policy Analyst, where he staffed council's Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation and the Special Committee on Retention and Hiring of Municipal Workers.
A native of the Atlanta area with a background in housing policy and community organizing, Mr. Call came to Philadelphia after receiving his Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Suzanne Staherski
Research and Policy Analyst
Ms. Staherski joined PICA as a Research and Policy Analyst in May of 2023. Prior to accepting this role, she served as a Research Assistant at Villanova University and the Biden School of Public Policy. She has worked on a variety of economic research projects, studying fiscal policy, monetary policy, and income and wealth inequality.
Ms. Staherski holds an M.A. in Political Science from Villanova University, where she completed a Graduate Research Fellowship, and a B.A. in Sociology and Political Science from Eastern University, where she received the Sociology Award for outstanding scholarship in the field of sociology.