Albany – The State University of New York
today announced five new faculty who will join SUNY campuses in the Fall as
part of a new program administered by its Office of Diversity and Educational
Equity, which was established in 2007.
“This program enables SUNY to assist campuses in recruiting stellar faculty
from different backgrounds who will contribute to advancing diversity and
academic excellence,” said Dr. Pedro Cabán, Vice Provost for Diversity and
Educational Equity. “The recipients of these awards are outstanding scholars
who have attained a record of distinction early in their academic careers and
demonstrated promise for continued productivity of the highest quality.
"It is my pleasure to welcome our new colleagues to the SUNY
faculty. I congratulate the University at Albany, Buffalo State
College, Farmingdale Technical College, and Stony Brook University for their
success in securing funding from the Faculty Diversity Program.”
The Faculty Diversity
Program authorizes the Office of Diversity and Educational Equity to loan
faculty lines, at the assistant professor level, to state-operated campuses for
a period of three years and provide campuses with 60 percent of the faculty
members’ salary for that time period. The maximum salary contribution provided
for an individual faculty member is limited to $40,000 annually. Campuses are
also eligible to receive up to $25,000 to develop competitive startup packages
for faculty appointed under this initiative.
The five faculty receiving
these inaugural awards are as follows:
Dr. Luis Ortiz, who will join Stony Brook University’s Department of Computer
Science as an Assistant Professor in September 2008. Dr. Ortiz
received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 2002 in the field of Computer
Science. His expertise spans the range of applications of artificial intelligence
(AI) and machine learning, including computational game theory, economics,
finance, electronic commerce and computation biology. He is a world class
expert in tools of AI such as graphical models, computational probability and
statistics. Dr. Ortiz is characterized by several prominent professors who
wrote letters of reference on his behalf as “the best catch of the year” and “a
winner in both research and teaching dimensions”. He has been an invited
speaker at international workshops on Computational Biology and Theoretical
Computer Science and has made presentations at the 2002 and 2006 Neural
Information Systems Processing Conferences and the 2003 ACM Electronic Commerce
conference. Dr. Ortiz has been the recipient of a National Science Foundation
Minority Graduate Fellowship (1997-1999), National Physical Science Consortium
Ph.D. Fellowship (1995-1996), NACME-IBM Corporate Scholarship (1994-1995), and
a National Hispanic Scholarship (1994-1995). Dr. Ortiz’s research has been
published in Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Applied Artificial
Intelligence, and IEEE Intelligent Systems as well as in numerous conference
proceedings.
Dr. Jeffrey Santa Ana will
join Stony Brook University’s
Department of English as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Santa Ana,
who received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003 in
the field of Ethnic Studies, has devoted his career to exploring
multiracialism, transnationalism and global migration. He studies the pain of
being an outsider, and the social and economic implications of being out of
place. His teaching about the real-life consequences of racial and ethnic
differences will provide an important learning experience for Stony Brook’s
diverse student body. Dr. Santa Ana’s interested in multiracialism and
diversity has extended into curriculum reform. He has been an invited
participant at national conferences on the future of minority studies, the
future of ethnic studies, studies of the Americas, and Asian Pacific American
Studies. Dr. Santa Ana was the invited keynote speaker at Cornell University’s annual conference in March 2006 and has been the recipient of a Ford Foundation
Dissertation Fellowship for Minorities (2003-2004), Dean’s Dissertation
Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley (1999-2000), and an Outstanding
Teaching Award, Graduate Division, University of California, Berkeley (1999).
Dr. Santa Ana has a book in progress “Racial Feeling: Emotions and the Politics
of Mixed Race in Asian America.”
SBU President Shirley Strum Kenny said, "Stony
Brook applauds this new SUNY program to encourage faculty diversity. Dr. Luis
Ortiz, a computer scientist, and Dr. Jeffrey Santa Ana, a specialist in Ethnic Studies,
are both top of the line. They add luster to our faculty, from Engineering to
English."
Dr. Marya Howell-Carter
will join the Psychology Department of
Farmingdale State College. She received her Ph.D. in 1998 from Northwestern University in Counseling Psychology where she was honored with the Illinois
Consortium for Equal Opportunity Fellowship. Dr. Carter will receive an
appointment as Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Farmingdale
State College. She is presently the President of the Westchester Psychological
Association, Academic Division and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in the
State of New York. Her research interests reside in the broad area of positive
psychology as it relates to the prevention and treatment of mental health
problems. Specifically, she is interested the subareas of optimism and
resilience as protective factors in mental health. Her other broad areas of
research interests relate to teaching about diversity, cross-race
mentoring/supervisory relationships and bi-racial identity development. Her
numerous clinical/counseling experiences have been with very diverse
populations. Additionally, her identity as a bi-racial woman, combined with her
professional training and her intense interest with regard to matters of race
and identity have influenced Dr. Carter to specialize in teaching courses on
diverse populations. One of her passions in teaching is presenting courses
related to the particular challenges of assessment and treatment of diverse
populations. These abilities complement the needs of Farmingdale State
College’s diverse student population quite well and will be a source of
inspiration to others.
Dr. W. Hubert Keen, president of Farmingdale
State College, said, “The Farmingdale State College community will be greatly
enriched through the appointment of Dr. Marya Howell-Carter to the Department
of Psychology. Diversification of our faculty to match the high diversity
of our students is a high priority for Farmingdale. This initiative from SUNY
is most welcome, especially as we launch our new bachelor’s program in Applied Psychology.”
Mr. Carlos Jones will join the Theater Department at Buffalo State College
at the rank of Assistant Professor. He received the MFA in dance from the
University of California-Irvine in 1996. With extensive background as a
choreographer, dance teacher and performer, he has wide-ranging knowledge and
training in modern and jazz dance techniques, and in dance for the musical
theater. Having developed a breadth of experience, teaching at eight colleges,
in three professional studios, and in two non-profit arts companies, Mr. Jones
also founded a dance company and a non-profit studio for advanced high school
students seeking a career in dance. In addition to instructional and
performance roles in previous college positions, Mr. Jones has developed
curriculum, served as an academic advisor, and overseen senior theses and
senior projects. Passionate about serving as a role model for the diverse
student population at Buffalo State College, he is committed to working with the
College’s 800 Educational Opportunity Program students and to working in a
department in which 40 percent of the majors are from underrepresented minority
groups. Supplementing his talents in dance, Mr. Jones brings expertise in
acting, directing and teaching the business of the arts. He has appeared on
film and has garnered multiple credits for appearances on such prominent
television programs as The Howie Mandell Show and The Drew Carey Show. Through
his multidisciplinary talents, Mr. Jones will contribute to Buffalo State
College’s degree programs in dance, theater, communication, and television
arts.
“Buffalo State College is dedicated to diversity of
thought, experience and values, and Assistant Professor Carlos Jones, through
his breadth of knowledge and qualifications, embodies those ideals,” said
Buffalo State College President Muriel A. Howard. “We are immensely
pleased that Mr. Jones is joining the ranks of Buffalo State’s richly diverse
and esteemed faculty, and fortunate for the support of the new SUNY Faculty
Diversity Program that assisted us in recruiting Professor Jones to our
campus.”
Jason
D’Cruz will join the University at Albany’s Department of Philosophy as an
assistant professor in September 2009. He obtained his B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University in 2000, and will receive his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Brown University in 2008. His dissertation analyzes the role of emotions and the imagination in
explaining intentional actions, and the imaginative component to moral
emotions. His primary areas of specialization are ethics (moral psychology) and
action theory. He also has strong interests in normative ethics, applied ethics
(especially bioethics), philosophy of mind, and political philosophy. Mr.
D’Cruz has experience teaching to a diverse student population, having served
during his years at Yale as a tutor in English and mathematics to inner-city
high school students. He was also a visiting teacher at the Zhejiang Institute
in the People’s Republic of China in 2000-2001. Mr. D’Cruz received a
Distinction in Philosophy Award from Yale University and was the recipient of
two Teaching Fellowships and a Dissertation Fellowship from Brown University, as well as two Summer Fellowships to study German in Berlin. He worked with
Dr. Martin McKneally at the Joint Center for Bioethics, University of Toronto, on a qualitative research project about informed consent and trust. Together, they
co-authored (with Martin and Ignagni) “The Leap to Trust,” Journal of the American College of Surgeons v.199, issue 1.
"Dr. D'Cruz is an exceptional scholar and
educator," said University at Albany Interim President George M. Philip.
"His experiences teaching and studying in diverse cultural environments
afford him a global view that will significantly enrich the learning experience
for UAlbany students."
About the State University of New York
The State
University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 427,000 students in 7,669 degree and certificate
programs on 64 campuses. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity,
visit www.suny.edu
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