LaGuardia Community College Welcomes Nine New Faculty Members
LONG ISLAND CITY, NY (September 4, 2024) — LaGuardia Community College/CUNY welcomes nine new full-time faculty members, who will share their expertise and guide associate-degree-seeking students to academic success.
Dr. Billie Gastic Rosado, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, said LaGuardia students will benefit from the new faculty members’ academic expertise, industry and disciplinary engagement, and unique perspectives shaped by their varied experiences and backgrounds. “These new faculty members reflect the diversity of our students,” she said. “Our faculty are key to students feeling connected to their field of interest and our college, and to having leaders to turn to as mentors.”
“I plan to bring my global business insights into the classroom, leveraging the corporate expertise and network I have built to enhance students’ understanding and success both in the classroom and in the corporate world—domestically and internationally,” said Aarti Maharaj, who joins LaGuardia as a lecturer in the Business and Technology Department.
Ms. Maharaj spent over a decade promoting business ethics among multinational companies as Vice President of Global Partnerships and Managing Director (Asia) at Ethisphere, a corporate research and data firm.
“My role at Ethisphere equipped me with a broad perspective on doing business across various cultures,” said Ms. Maharaj, who will be teaching BTM106: Business Communication and BTM104: Principles of Marketing to students pursuing Business Administration, Business Administration: Healthcare Management Option, and other business-related majors.
Ms. Maharaj holds a Master of Arts in public communications from Fordham University and a bachelor’s in journalism from Brooklyn College. She spent her early and formative years in the Caribbean, emigrating to New York to further her studies. She plans to draw on her personal experiences as an immigrant to connect with LaGuardia students.
Travis Alvarez, Ph.D. is also excited to bring a global mindset to the classroom, drawing from his personal background to relate to and uplift students.
Dr. Alvarez, a psychologist, will be teaching general psychology and developmental psychology with the Social Sciences Department. His expertise includes cognitive psychology and neuroimaging. Growing up in East New York, Brooklyn, in a Caribbean immigrant household, Dr. Alvarez credits the community he found at City Tech/CUNY with building his confidence as a scholar and giving him the courage to explore pursue different fields to find his passion.
“I earned my A.A. at City Tech, initially majoring in accounting, then computer science, and finally liberal arts. One of the biggest lessons City Tech taught me was the value of mentorship and building your community. It’s where I found friends to collaborate on resurrecting the Black Students Union (BSU) on campus and building out novel programs in the Black Male Initiative (BMI),” said Dr. Alvarez.
“After City Tech, I transferred to Brooklyn College, where I found my enthusiasm for psychology and neuroimaging. I was working two to three part-time jobs as a full-time student. Thankfully, one of my professors noticed my lack of energy in class and directed me to apply for campus scholarships,” added Dr. Alvarez. “I received a scholarship that enabled me to drop all my part-time jobs and focus solely on my studies. This allowed me to conduct clinical and neuroimaging research with professors at NYU during Spring/Fall sessions, and Stanford during the summer session.”
Dr. Alvarez earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Brooklyn College, followed by a Master of Science and Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
“Within the classroom, I aim to offer students supportive guidance by creating an inclusive, innovative, and empowering learning environment. The pursuit of knowledge should be fun, and my goal as an educator is to foster this excitement for both my students and myself. Mentorship and community were foundational for me, and I will continue to incorporate these two necessities in my professional and personal work as a scholar,” said Dr. Alvarez, who has founded non-profit organizations to provide mentorship and educational opportunities for young people, as well as an Community Forge, an LLC dedicated to equitable access and opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities.
hephzibah strmic-pawl, Ph.D. (*lower-case name at faculty member’s request), a sociologist who specializes in the study of race, racism in the United States, and contemporary social inequality, is interested in the everyday institutions that affect individuals’ social mobility and will bring related topics to LaGuardia students in her classroom. This fall, Dr. strmic-pawl will be teaching Introduction to Sociology and Urban Sociology with the Social Sciences Department.
“I study racism because it is one of the largest problems facing our society. In every place I’ve lived, which includes both rural and urban areas, there exists economic and racial inequality,” said Dr. strmic-pawl, who earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Virginia, a master’s from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Dr. strmic-pawl has authored four books on racism, Race and Ethnicity: Constancy in Change — co-edited with Milton Vickerman (Cognella, 2022), Multiracial: The Kaleidoscope of Mixedness (Polity Books, 2022), Understanding Racism: Theories of Oppression and Discrimination (Sage College Publishing, 2020), and Multiracialism and Its Discontents: A Comparative Analysis of Asian-White and Black-White Multiracials (Lexington Books: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).
As did Dr. Alvarez, Dr. strmic-pawl got her start in an associate degree program. “I attended four community colleges in my 20s (in Boston, Chicago, and Charlottesville, Va.) because I was lost and didn’t know what I wanted to do. Community college gave me the ability to explore many different topics. It also allowed me to save money and pay for only two years of my bachelor’s degree. I’m glad I took this path; it’s aided me in connecting with students from a range of backgrounds. I tell students to be patient with themselves and to be open to different subjects.”
Additional educators joining LaGuardia’s full-time faculty roster include:
Maribel Arias, Lecturer (Business and Technology) — Ms. Arias is an accounting expert, with specialized knowledge in taxation and business management. This fall, she will be teaching courses for the Accounting program, including topics on personal financial literacy, in addition to teaching the First-Year Seminar. She holds a master’s in business management and leadership from the CUNY School of Professional Studies, and a bachelor’s in business administration with a concentration in accountancy from Baruch College.
Chelsea Encababian, Lecturer (Natural Sciences) — Ms. Encababian is a Bronx-born urban agriculturalist and composter. She will be teaching courses in soil science and sustainable vegetable production for the Sustainable Urban Agriculture option of the Environmental Science major, in addition to first-year seminar courses NSF101 and LMF101. She holds a master’s degree in Sustainability in the Urban Environment from the City College of New York (CCNY/CUNY) and completed her undergraduate studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where she focused on food systems in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
Ms. Encababian has over a decade of experience in environmental education and a passion for farming that began in Ecuador, where she led gap-year students in agricultural projects. Her work in urban agriculture began with composting and waste management in public schools through GrowNYC’s Zero Waste Schools program, later expanding to the creation of closed-loop gardens in community green spaces throughout Queens during her time as Compost Project Manager at Queens Botanical Garden.
“I am dedicated to connecting people to the food system, reducing waste, and fostering resilient, sustainable communities,” said Ms. Encababian. “I’m excited to be bringing my experience and passion to the LaGuardia community.”
Andreas Karras, Lecturer (Social Sciences) — Mr. Karras is a political science lecturer who has been an adjunct at LaGuardia for many years, teaching SSP101: Power and Politics, SSP245: American Law and Human Rights, and SSP250: Political Ideas and Ideologies. He earned a master’s in political science at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a bachelor’s in political science from Temple University.
Sungsu Lee, Ph.D., Lecturer (Natural Sciences) — Dr. Lee will be teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology courses for Health Sciences majors. He completed a post-doctoral research position in biological sciences at St. John’s University, where he earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences. He also holds a Master of Science in biology from Adelphi University, and a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Konkuk University in his native Korea.
Adam Thomas, Ph.D., Lecturer (Social Sciences) — Dr. Thomas is a specialist of early American, Caribbean, and African American history, with a focus on the history of slavery and emancipation. At LaGuardia, he will be teaching U.S. and African American history. Dr. Thomas is originally from the U.K. He earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Irvine, a master’s at University College London, and a bachelor’s at the University of Leeds in the U.K. He previously taught at The Ohio State University, Miami University (Ohio), Western Carolina University, and in the NYC High School system.
Cuiyuan Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science) — Dr. Wang’s expertise is in machine learning, financial sentiment analysis and blockchain technology. This fall she will be teaching three courses: MAC101: Introduction to Computer Science, MAC227: Introduction to Cryptography and Applications, and MAC286: Data Structures. She holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the CUNY Graduate Center, a master’s in computer science from Queens College/CUNY, and a bachelor’s in international business and trade from Xiamen University in Xiamen, China. Dr. Wang is from Henan Province in China.
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LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, located in Long Island City, Queens offers more than 50 associate degrees and academic certificates, and more than 65 continuing education programs to prepare New Yorkers for transfer to senior colleges and rewarding jobs and careers. An institution of the City University of New York (CUNY), the College reflects the legacy of our namesake, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the former NYC mayor beloved for his advocacy of the underserved. Since 1971, LaGuardia’s academic programs and support services have advanced the socioeconomic mobility of students from Queens, NYC and beyond.
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