Commencement Speakers

Responding to the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, Dr. Matos Rodríguez oversaw within a week the transition of nearly all of CUNY’s 50,000 course sections to distance education. To ensure the success of CUNY students who lacked the resources to participate in distance modalities, the University quickly purchased thousands of laptops and tablets, and paused classes on most campuses to safely distribute the devices to those who needed them.

In April 2020, the University announced the Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund to provide urgent support to students facing financial hardship amid the pandemic. Launched with $3.25 million in initial donations, the fund has provided grants of $500 each to thousands of CUNY students, including undocumented students who were excluded from financial relief by the federal government.

Prior to his appointment as Chancellor, Dr. Matos Rodríguez was president of CUNY’s Queens College from 2014 to 2019 and of CUNY’s Eugenio María de Hostos Community College in the Bronx from 2009 to 2014, making him one of a select few U.S. educators who has led both a baccalaureate and a community college.

While at Queens College, Matos Rodríguez introduced “QC in 4,” an initiative that helps students complete their bachelor’s degrees within four years; he significantly increased the college’s endowment; and he created accelerated graduate programs that allow students to save time and money as they work toward master’s degrees.

At Hostos, Matos Rodríguez and his leadership team were responsible for dramatically improving the college’s retention and graduation rates and doubling its fundraising. These accomplishments made Hostos one of the finalists for the prestigious Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence in 2014.

From 2006 to 2008, Matos Rodríguez served as Puerto Rico’s Cabinet secretary of the Department of Family Services. In this position, he formulated public policy and administered service delivery in such programs as Child Support Enforcement, Adoption and Foster Care, and Child and Elderly Protection. He oversaw a $2.3 billion budget and over 11,000 employees. Earlier, he had been Senior Social Welfare and Health Advisor to the Governor of Puerto Rico.

A cum laude graduate in Latin American Studies from Yale University, Matos Rodríguez received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. He has taught at Yale, Northeastern University, Boston College, the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, City College and Hunter College, and was affiliated with the History department at the CUNY Graduate Center. At Hunter, he also directed the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, one of the largest and most important Latino research centers in the United States.

Dr. Matos Rodríguez has used his extensive regional and national networks and board memberships to advance the visibility and recognition of CUNY. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chancellor sits on the governing board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). In 2021, he joined the board of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and was named co-chair of the New York City Regional Economic Development Council (NYCREDC). He also serves on the boards of Phipps Houses and the United Way of New York City, and he is a member of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools steering committee. In 2020, the Chancellor was named by the American Council on Education (ACE) to a national task force focused on improving transfer of credit practices and to New York City’s Education Sector Advisory Council, which is to guide the reopening of schools and other aspects of the city’s pandemic response.

Dr. Matos Rodríguez has an extensive publication record in the fields of Women’s, Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latino Studies, and Migration. He is the author of “Women and Urban Change in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1820-1868”; co-author of “Pioneros: Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1896-1948”; editor of “A Nation of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out / Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer by Luisa Capetillo”; co-editor of “Puerto Rican Women’s History: New Perspectives”; co-editor of Blackwell Reader on the Americas; and co-editor of “Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City.”

The Chancellor received the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association and his work has been published in such peer-reviewed journals as the Journal of Urban History, The Public Historian, Latin American Research Review, Centro Journal, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, and the Boletín de la Asociación de Demografía Histórica, in addition to having chapters in several anthologies. He was the founding editor of the series New Directions in Puerto Rican Studies, published by the University Press of Florida.

He is married to Dr. Liliana M. Arabía, a dentist, and they have two sons.

Mayra is a current Trustee of The City University of New York’s (CUNY) Board, where she is committed to making CUNY a college system accessible to all New Yorkers. Along with her colleagues in early 2019, she assisted in appointing the first Latin-American CUNY Chancellor.

In 2011, Mayra was appointed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo as the Director of Latino Affairs where she advocated for issues that impacted Latinos from access to education, affordable housing and health and employment. In this role, she helped established the New York State Office of Trade and Tourism in Puerto Rico.

Mayra was also the Founder and CEO-president of the MayLin Group. Inc., a public affairs & community relations firm that specialized in corporate and community partnerships. She also served as a Democratic District Leader for the 72nd Assembly District from 2001 until 2011.

Mayra graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a B.A. in Political Science and Community Leadership. She is a Latina of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent originally from Washington Heights and currently lives in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx with her husband and three children, her greatest inspiration.

Ms. Linares-Garcia is a member of the Board’s Committee on Facilities, Planning and Management and the Committee on Student Affairs and Special Programs.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Talha took action when he saw his fellow students struggling to make ends meet. Remembering his family’s struggles to pay for groceries upon arriving in New York City, he looked for ways to alleviate this stress point for students who lost income during the pandemic. He initiated a student-led drive, in partnership with LaGuardia’s Student Government Association (SGA), to support LaGuardia’s food pantry, which helps put meals on the table for LaGuardia students and their household members. The food drive raised $3,400 and brought in dozens of canned goods for LaGuardia CARES, which runs the pantry.

Wanting to help people beyond LaGuardia, he became a volunteer with Rescue Leftover Cuisine, working on weekends to deliver leftover restaurant food to local shelters.

Talha’s career aspiration is to start a nonprofit helping immigrants acclimate to their new communities and overcome food insecurity.

At first Lely enrolled in the ESL program at LaGuardia Community College, then matriculated into the college where she faced many obstacles. She had no understanding of the U.S. educational system or what the business world would look like. She had to learn from scratch how to be a student and how to balance work with academics. This included learning how to use technology, register for classes, and access resources such as financial aid, academic advising, mental health support, and community services. More importantly she had to learn how to be a social human being again; to cultivate relationships with faculty and administrators and even make friends.

LaGuardia Community College was a turning point in Lely’s life, giving her confidence in herself and in a future with hope and purpose. She was selected as a President’s Society Ambassador which gave her an ongoing opportunity to engage with business leaders, donors and mentor other students to help facilitate their success. LaGuardia gave her a sense of communal belonging and taught her many life-lessons that define the person she is today.

After receiving an associate in arts degree, Lely went on to pursue a CUNY Baccalaureate in Anthropology, Children & Youth Studies, and Public Affairs. To make ends meet she worked 2 to 3 part-time jobs while attending classes across three different CUNY colleges and earning a 3.5 GPA to maintain scholarship eligibility. She graduated magna cum laude from CUNY’s BA program in the spring of 2020 and is currently pursuing a Master’s in International Affairs at Baruch College.

Lely has made it her life’s mission to pursue a career serving and advocating for children who are either in foster care, juvenile detention, or have refugee status. She wants to ensure that children who are lost like she once was can get the help they need. She wants to empower them and give them the message that they are not alone, that it’s possible to rebuild their lives for the better and recognize their full potential. Most recently, Lely landed her dream job at Sheltering Arms as Executive Administrative Assistant to the CEO. For nearly 200 years Sheltering Arms has been delivering innovative programs and compassionate services that enhance the education, well-being, and development of children, their families, and communities in the New York metropolitan area. She is thrilled to pay it forward for all that she has received to these youth and families.