Part-Time Faculty

E-mail: christopher.adams@baruch.cuny.edu

Dr. Christopher J. Adams serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Higher Education Administration in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Currently, Dr. Adams serves as the Chief of Regionals and Special Projects at Long Island University where he oversees the University’s regional campuses and works on special projects assigned by the President, including the following academic programs: Society of Presidential Descendants, Global Service Institute, and the Roosevelt School. Previous to this position, Dr. Adams served as the Vice President for Student Affairs at the largest community college in New York State, Suffolk County Community College following two and a half years as the Executive Assistant to the President and the Chief of Staff for the Office of the President.

Dr. Adams also served as the Executive Administrator of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project – Columbia University and in several administrative positions at Hofstra University. He holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Administration, Professional Diploma in Educational Administration, Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration and a Master’s Degree in Counselor Education. Dr. Adams also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Southern Connecticut State University.

Dr. Adams began teaching at Baruch College in the spring of 2005 until the fall of 2011. Dr. Adams returned to teaching at Baruch College in the fall of 2017 and was promoted to the rank of Adjunct Associate Professor and teaches Student Affairs in Higher Education and the Community College.

Email: emanuel.agu@baruch.cuny.edu

Emanuel Agu is a labor economist specializing in social policy and demography with over 15 years of experience working in the private sector and higher education. Emanuel has authored several technical reports on living conditions, well-being, and population trends for faculty and government officials at the national and local levels.

With a focus on social inequality, Emanuel has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on public economics and urban economics and currently serves as an Adjunct Lecturer of Economic Analysis and Public Policy at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs of Baruch College. His current research explores the impact of social and physical environmental factors on economic mobility and equality of opportunity. He has been a junior scholar with the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the CUNY Graduate Center and a research fellow with the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research.

Emanuel holds an MA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He earned an MPhil in Economics and a Certificate in Demography from the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is completing a PhD in Economics.

E-mail: gregg.bishop@baruch.cuny.edu

Gregg Bishop is currently the Executive Director of the Social Justice Fund, an initiative funded by The Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation. The Social Justice Fund centers its work around racial justice and economic mobility for BlPOC populations in Brooklyn.

Before this role, Bishop served as the Interim Executive Director of Coro New York, an organization that believes meaningful change comes from collaboration: people in business and communities, schools and unions, government and nonprofits, working together to find creative solutions, and strengthen our democracy.

Bishop has over 13 years of government experience, serving under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio. From 2015-2020, he served as the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), where he was charged with running a dynamic City agency focused on equity of opportunity, leading to economic self-sufficiency and mobility for New York City diverse communities. During his tenure, he connected small businesses to over $200 million in capital, certified a record 9,000 Minority and Women business enterprises, connected over 100,000 New Yorkers to good-paying jobs, and invested over $10 million in capacity-building programs across the five boroughs. In addition, over 10,000 city residents were trained with new skills in the technology, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, and hospitality sectors. He also developed and launched several initiatives aimed at structural barriers minorities face, including Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC) and Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WE NYC).

Bishop has a strong track record in the nonprofit and private sectors. He served as the Senior Manager of Workforce Development at NPower, where he was responsible for doubling the capacity of Technology Service Corps, a nationally recognized technology training program for young adults aged 18-25. He has worked at several startups, including TheStreet.com, Oxygen Media, and VIBE Magazine.

Bishop is an adjunct professor at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs and serves on several boards including Red Hook Initiative, Junior Achievement of New York, Pursuit (formerly New York Business Development Corporation), The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and The Association for a Better New York (ABNY). He also serves on the Hebrew Free Loan Society Microenterprise Committee, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Local Advisory Committee and is the Vice President of the Alpha Gamma Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

E-mail: Jeremy.Block@baruch.cuny.edu 

E-mail: tom.bonnett@baruch.cuny.edu

Tom Bonnett has had an extensive career in public policy, as a state legislator, a consultant and author, an advisor to public officials and nonprofit organizations, and an educator. He was as teaching assistant while in graduate school and, after a gap of two decades, returned to teaching for the School of Public Affairs in 2003.

He was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1974, and reelected in 1976. In Washington, DC during the 1980s, Bonnett worked for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and a New York member of Congress (Ted Weiss). In New York, he was the executive director of a community-based nonprofit in Queens, and held several research and management positions in NYC government. He served in the Koch, Dinkins, and Bloomberg administrations (in the latter as an Assistant Commissioner of a small city agency.)

From 1992 to 1997, he worked for the Council of Governors’ Policy Advisors, an affiliate of the National Governors’ Association, which published several of his books including TELEWARS in the States: Telecommunications Issues in a New Era of Competition (1996).

He has written books, commissioned monographs, three book chapters, a law journal article, and many shorter articles on public finance, telecommunications, and economic development. Amazon.com lists eleven of his titles.

Professor Bonnett is interested in the development of user-generated content (such as You Tube) and the new forms of social media (such as Facebook), and their effects on public opinion and politics; a topic on which he has collaborated with the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia University.

E-mail: Howard.Buxbaum@baruch.cuny.edu

Howard Buxbaum is a principal at PHB Consulting which specializes in assisting not for profit organizations with financial and administrative issues. PHB has worked with a number of higher education, membership and social welfare organizations.

Mr. Buxbaum served as CFO of several public and private Colleges including Bank Street College of Education, New Jersey City University, Bloomfield College and Drew University. Mr. Buxbaum also held administrative and planning positions at Rutgers University.

Prior to his higher education service, he served with New York State Government in the Budget Division, Health Department and the Governor’s Office.  He was involved in the launch of the WIC program and the enactment of New York’s special education overhaul in 1976.

Howard serves on several not for profit boards and has several volunteer positions.

Mr. Buxbaum received his MA in economics at SUNY Binghamton where he was a teaching assistant and his BA was in economics from SUNY New Paltz. Howard completed the Harvard University Leadership Development Program.

Howard teaches the Financing of Higher Education and has created a new contemporary case study and timely articles for his students.

E-mail: Barbara.Caress@baruch.cuny.edu

Barbara Caress has over 40 years of experience as a union, non-profit, and public agency manager, consultant, and administrator. Most recently she served as Director of Strategic Policy and Planning for the SEIU Local 32BJ Funds. Ms Caress has consulted to the NYC and NYS Health Departments, the Community Service Society, Local 1199, SEIU, and the United Hospital Fund. She has served as a member of NCQA’s Standards Committee, the NYC Primary Care Improvement Project Advisory Board and the NQF’s MAP Hospital Workgroup. Author of a wide range of health policy reports and reviews, Ms Caress received her undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Chicago.

Email: sophia.fox-dichter@baruch.cuny.edu

Sophia Fox-Dichter (she/her) is a researcher focusing on rental housing and social safety net policies. She holds a B.A. in Chinese, a B.F.A. in Fashion Design, and an M.S.W. in Social Work with a specialization in research, all from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently working on her doctorate at Rutgers University in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Prior to pursuing her degree in social work, she worked at a South Bronx community-based organization as a benefits enrollment specialist. There, she primarily helped members apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program using the New York City Human Resources Administration’s Paperless Office System. In addition to her teaching experience at Washington University and Rutgers, she serves as a coordinator for the Rutgers Teaching Assistant Project (TAP). As a born and raised New Yorker, she is happy to be the second member of her family to teach at a CUNY college and the fourth to work in public education in New York City.

E-mail: Thomas.Kapusta@baruch.cuny.edu

Thomas Kapusta is the current Managing Director of Bedlam, a theater company based in New York City. Tom is a theater director, producer, and fundraiser specializing in classical theatre, unexpected collaborations, and connecting new audiences to arts experiences. As founding Artistic Director of Corkscrew Theater Festival, he oversaw the artistic development and production of over thirty new plays in the festival’s four years. For seven years, Tom served as chief operations officer for Ricochet Group LLC, a boutique consulting firm specializing in nonprofit arts institutions, higher education, and commercial theatre. He holds a BA in History from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Arts Administration from the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College where he received the Marlow Prize in Arts Leadership. He served as Assistant Secretary-Treasurer of Royal Shakespeare Company America from 2012-2022.

E-mail: yvette.lagonterie@baruch.cuny.edu

Yvette LaGonterie has retired from a lengthy career with the U.S. government, where she held senior positions in immigration, international affairs, and homeland security, including Senior Policy Advisor and Director of International Operations for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a variety of senior positions in the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), including Deputy Director for International Affairs, Immigration Regional Attaché for Latin America and the Caribbean, Asylum Office Director in New York City, and Special Assistant to the INS Commissioner. Yvette has represented the United States as an immigration expert in many multilateral bodies, including a member of the Migration Experts Group of G-8, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Asian Pacific. She co-led the U.S. delegation to the Regional Consultative Group on Immigration for several years. Yvette was also the sole immigration expert assigned to the White House team that planned the Department of Homeland Security.

Yvette serves on several nonprofit boards, including Trustee for the Pan American Development Foundation; Advisory Board Chair of Migration Immigrant Refugee Rights (MIRR) Alliance; Vice Chair of the Board of Reading Partners DC; and she is a Director on the Board of the City Tavern Preservation Foundation. In addition, Yvette is a lay historian who is frequently invited to speak on her research subjects. Her essays have appeared in several publications, including Salon magazine, the Annals of Genealogical Research, Genealogy Today, and Washington City Paper.

Yvette holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from SUNY Buffalo and a MPA from Baruch College. She has completed post-graduate work at the Federal Executive Institute and Cornell University.

E-mail: Anni.Luneau@baruch.cuny.edu

Anni Luneau has been a nonprofit professional for 25 years, serving as a fundraiser for arts organizations such as New York City Ballet, 92NY, and The Joyce Theater.  She currently serves as the CEO of Umlaut – Modifications Emphasizing You, a consulting firm dedicated to helping small arts nonprofits leverage their assets to reach their highest productivity.  She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law, obtained with the intent of becoming a nonprofit professional.

E-mail: Samantha.MacBride@baruch.cuny.edu

Samantha MacBride teaches Urban Environmentalism and Public Management at the Marxe School of International and Public Affairs, Baruch College, CUNY and is a professional in public works management of garbage and sewage. She has a doctorate in sociology from NYU and studied biology as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins. Samantha’s interests center on discards measurement and characterization methods, biological materials flows, plastics pollution, composting and land access, corporate hegemony, and waste colonialism. Samantha has also recently begun research on the contemporary UFO phenomenon in the West, and its relation to questions of technology, religion,  knowledge, and ecology.​

Email: michael.massiah@baruch.cuny.edu

E-mail: aisha.powell@baruch.cuny.edu 

Dr. Aisha Powell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Strategic Communications at Morgan State University. Her research interest explores cultural phenomena in new media technologies, the Black nexus on digital media, and health disparities. Dr. Powell’s research primarily focuses on Black international migration, particularly Black women’s experience in Russia from the 1930s to the present day. In addition to health communications, especially health disparities for vulnerable populations that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her recent publications can be found in New Media and Society, Text and Performance Quarterly, Communication Quarterly, The Journal of African American Studies, and the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, respectively.

Before joining academia, Dr. Powell was a journalist, reporting on underrepresented communities like the Black diaspora, students in high-needs school districts, and low-income residents. Her journalistic work can be found in Forbes Media, the Miami Herald, the Journal News and the Haitian Times.

Dr. Powell earned her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Innovative Entrepreneurship from the Pennsylvania State University; her Master of Science from the Columbia’s Journalism School; and her Doctorate of Philosophy from Howard University’s Department of Communication Culture and Media Studies.

Email: ian.rasmussen@baruch.cuny.edu

Ian Rasmussen is the principal and founder of Urban Cartographics. He started the firm with the goal of arming land use attorneys with a way to effectively communicate their arguments using maps and graphics. Prior to transitioning to Urban Cartographics full time, Ian practiced zoning law in New York City, most recently with the Law Offices of Marvin B. Mitzner, and he remains on the City Bar’s Land Use Planning and Zoning committee. Ian holds a B.B.A. in Economics from Baruch College and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. He is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

E-mail: Linda.Shatzer@baruch.cuny.edu

Linda Shatzer has held several positions at CUNY’s Central Office including the Change Management Lead for the CUNYfirst Project and Manager of Productivity Initiatives for the University. Her experience has provided insights into how the management of administrative services impacts the operations of the University and the academic experience for students. Linda  has taught online classes for Central Michigan University and Southern New Hampshire University in Communication and Change Management at the graduate level. She has written several articles on distance learning.​

E-mail: Ronald.Spalter@Baruch.cuny.edu

In his more than 45 years as a higher education administrator, Ron Spalter was employed in cabinet level administrative positions at Graduate, Baccalaureate, and Associate Degree granting institutions. He provided leadership to finance, facilities, information systems, HR, and auxiliary services teams. He has had successes in grant applications and management, and in securing major philanthropic gifts for CUNY. Ron retired in 2019 after serving for more than a decade as Deputy Chief Operating Officer at the City University Chancellory. In that position he had responsibilities for pursuing University-wide goals with respect to productivity and efficiencies, emergency management, sustainability and energy conservation, and change management in support of the introduction of new information systems and practices.

Ron has taught Business Management at Borough of Manhattan Community College and Higher Education Leadership at the graduate level at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University. He has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the Marxe School since 2006.

Ron holds a BS from Long Island University and an MBA from New York University.

Email: azack@jjay.cuny.edu

Dr. Zack conducts research in the areas of American foreign policy, national security strategy, global conflict, political violence, intellectual history, and the history of international politics. He is the author of Hegemonic War and Grand Strategy: Ludwig Dehio, World Politics, and the American Future, a contributing author to Is the West in Decline? and Equilibrio o Egemonia. Quattro secoli di conflitti per la supremazia in Europa, and has also published in scholarly journals.