Hofstra Magazine - The Year in Review 2017-2018

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Nursing Ambition First Class of Nurse Practitioners Graduates

The Year in Review 2017-2018 | INSIDE: SCHOOL OF ROCK | A BRONX TALE | ATHLETICS

Features President Stuart Rabinowitz Vice President for University Relations and Publisher Melissa Kane Connolly ’89, ‘17 Assistant Vice President for University Relations and Executive Editor Karla Schuster Assistant Vice President for Creative Services Francis A. Rizzo III ’99, ‘16 Creative Director Kelvin Fonville Editorial Director Linda Merklin University Photographer Philip Hinds ‘17

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NURSING AMBITION

Contributors Debra Cohen Stephen A. Gorchov Ginny Greenberg ’90 Aliyah Harith-Bey Neena Samuel Karla Schuster Leonard Skoros Carley P. Weinstein

University Archivist Geri Solomon Facebook “f ” Logo

CMYK / .eps

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Facebook: @hofstrau Twitter: @HofstraU LinkedIn: Hofstra University Instagram: @hofstrau

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

LIFE LESSONS

SCHOOL OF ROCK

Graphic Artist Denise Sarian

Contributing Photographers Trent Campbell ’19 Nick Castelli ’21 Raj Chidambaram ’18 Arthur Fredericks Salim Haruka Gerald ’20 Jonathan Heisler Jacqueline Yajing Huang ’18 Scott Murry Jim Sheehan

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ENCORE PERFORMANCE A BRONX TALE

BUILDING A CAREER Brick by Brick

Flickr: Hofstra University

Hofstra Magazine is published once each year by Hofstra University. Our goal is to provide the Hofstra community with exciting and informative news about Hofstra University and its alumni, students, faculty, and staff.

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Hofstra University is committed to extending equal opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national or ethnic origin, physical or mental disability, marital or veteran status in employment and in the conduct and operation of Hofstra University’s educational programs and activities, including admissions, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs. For more information, visit hofstra.edu/eoe.

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Features

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GETTING A HEAD START ZARB SCHOOL and IBM LAUNCH NEW PARTNERSHIP

@HOFSTRAU ON SOCIAL

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FUERZA PUERTO RICO

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360-DEGREE EDUCATION

CREATING CONVERSATIONS FALL FEST featuring DNCE

MEET @DEANLUK

34 36 ATHLETICS

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For the latest news about Hofstra, go to news.hofstra.edu

PROMOTING UNDERSTANDING

| President’s Letter Hofstra

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See page 4.

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A Letter From

President Stuart Rabinowitz Dear Friends, We’ve had an extraordinary year at Hofstra University, and there are even more exciting developments ahead. I’m very proud to announce that we recently concluded a capital campaign that raised $232 million for scholarship funding and continued investment in enhancing our technology and academic programs and facilities.

This issue of the annual magazine captures the essence of Hofstra with stories about new programs, and about the contributions that our faculty, students, and alumni are making in the classroom and in our community.

You will read about our students’ community service work, including a trip to Puerto Rico to help the island recover from the devastation of hurricanes Maria and Irma.

You’ll meet Mark Lukasiewicz, a former NBC News executive who joined Hofstra as the new dean of The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication this summer. Dean Lukasiewicz helped pioneer the NBC News network’s multiplatform storytelling and brings to Hofstra nearly four decades of experience covering the biggest stories across the globe.

We’re also delighted to welcome new Athletic Director Rick Cole Jr., who comes to Hofstra from Iona College. He shares with readers some of his goals for the Pride.

At the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, we are launching a new partnership with IBM Global University that will enhance Hofstra’s technology curriculum and provide training and certification in high-demand digital skills to our students and the surrounding community. As this groundbreaking alliance gets underway, we are preparing for the historic opening of our new business school building in January 2019.

This magazine also chronicles the success of our co-op program at the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science. More than 80 percent of students who participated in the program have received job offers from their co-op companies.

As we begin a new academic year and head into the November midterm elections, we are launching a campaign called Hofstra Votes, designed to encourage the entire campus community, especially students, to register and vote. This effort, which includes campus voter registration drives, as well as lectures, panels, and other events about various policy issues, builds on Hofstra’s robust tradition of civic engagement. It also fulfills an essential part of our mission: to inspire students to be active participants in the democratic process.

As members of the Hofstra family, I encourage you to participate by joining us at a Hofstra Votes event this fall, by posting about your civic activities on social media using #HofstraVotes, and, of course, by voting.

In these pages, you will also find compelling stories about the work of our faculty, and how that work changes their students’ lives, as well as their own.

Dr. Genevieve Weber recounts her powerful personal journey grieving the loss of her brother to opioid addiction. An associate professor of counseling and mental health professions, Dr. Weber explains how sharing her grief changed the way she teaches and helped her heal.

And you’ll meet a trio of men from the same Bronx neighborhood – Education Professor Alan Singer, alumnus Pablo Muriel, and student Dennis Belen Morales – whose relationship transcends generational, cultural, and ethnic lines.

This magazine reflects the creativity, compassion, and character of the Hofstra community, and celebrates the values that define us: Pride and Purpose. No matter where we are, we share a connection to Hofstra and to one another. This is your magazine, and Hofstra will always be your home. We encourage you to visit and reconnect with your University family.

Sincerely,

Stuart Rabinowitz President, Hofstra University

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Hofstra University Spring 2018 Commencement

UPCOMING ALUMNI EVENTS

For information, call 516-463-6636 or email alumni@hofstra.edu.

Alumni Day/Fall Festival

Annual Alumni Awards Dinner

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Thursday, September 27, 2018

NYC Alumni Holiday Party

North Campus

The Garden City Hotel, Garden City, NY

Monday, December 10, 2018

Register online at hofstra.edu/alumniday

Register online at hofstra.edu/alumniawardsdinner

Club 101, New York, NY

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2017 Financial Report c Components of Revenue 2016-2017

Net Tuition & Fees 62.6%

Sales & Services of Educ. Depts. 0.6% Shared Services 1.6% Other Sources 2.0% Contributions 7.8% (including endowment) Government Grants & Contracts 2.6% Return – Operations 1.2%

Auxiliary Enterprises 9.8% Return – Endowment Available Return – for Spending 4.1% Endowment Reinvested 7.7%

Components of Expenditures 2016-2017 v

Instruction 48.8%

Research 0.5% Public Service 4.0%

Auxiliary Enterprises 11.2%

Academic Support 6.5%

Hofstra University relies on the generosity and philanthropic support of alumni and friends. This investment in the University is critical to Hofstra’s long-term success.

Here’s why: v Alumni support is measured by U.S. News & World Report and has a direct impact on the University’s ranking.

Participation is critical. Our goal is to increase alumni participation each year. v Hofstra remains a university largely reliant on tuition. Your support and the growth of our endowment allow Hofstra to undertake new initiatives to maintain its excellent reputation. v Your gift provides for student scholarships, faculty support, and program initiatives, and overall operations at Hofstra. v Your investment in Hofstra will allow the University to reach its annual and long-term goals.

We need your help — every gift makes a difference!

Student Services 14.3% Technology & Telecommunications 3.6% Public Safety 2.7% Public Relations 2.3% Development 1.4% Finance & Audit 1.9%

Other Institutional Support 0.2% Executive Office 0.9% Legal & Human Resources 0.4% Insurance 1.3%

Total Institutional Support 14.7%

Scholarships 55.0%

c Endowment Market Value August 31, 2017

Facilities 22.6%

Other 6.6% Medical School Support* 1.6% Centers & Lectures 3.1% Endowed Professorships 3.1% Law School Support* 3.6% Endowed Chairs 4.4% *Excludes endowments specifically designated for scholarships, chairs, and professorships.

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2017 Financial Report Hofstra’s financial strength reflects increased fundraising activities, strong endowment growth, strengthened operating margins, and enhanced control over expenses, particularly relating to health care and post-retirement benefits. Financial resources have increased by 151 percent during the last 10 years, and Hofstra continues to enjoy debt ratings in the A category from both Moody’s and Standard & Poors.

Growth of Endowment in Support of Scholarships

Tuition Scholarships and Fellowships

ofstra University endowment investments grew H to $553 million by 2017, increasing by 450 percent in the last 15 years. The University’s fundraising goals are aimed at providing enhanced scholarship funding to better compete with institutions with significantly larger endowments.

The University continues to make the growth of tuition scholarships a top priority. During the past 10 years, the University has increased scholarship funding by 186 percent to approximately $139 million. The increase in scholarships is reflected in the changing makeup of the student body:

Millions of Dollars

Fall 2000

Fall 2017

1061

1222

Average high school GPA (first-time, first-year)

2.8

3.6

Top 10% high school class (first-time, first-year)

12%

28%

Selectivity (acceptance rate as percentage of all applicants)

80%

64%

First-year students from outside NYS

32%

50%

600 550

Average SAT score* (first-year students)

Endowment Investment Market Value

500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150

*Critical Reading and Math

100 50 0

1935

1974

1984

1994

2004

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STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

As a recipient of a music scholarship at Hofstra, I was provided with the opportunity to pursue and grow in both of my passions – singing and performing as well as business and finance. I discovered my passions and skill sets, and Hofstra did all it could to financially make it possible for me to attend.

— Nevin Shah

Having a scholarship gave me the opportunity to be here at this school that I love, and also gave me the opportunity to not stress out about money.”

—G abriella Muñoz

BA, Computer Science ‘15 MBA, Business Analytics ‘18

BBA, Finance ‘18 Hofstra

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2017 Financial Report

A CAPITAL EFFORT Hofstra University has raised $232 million as part of a capital campaign that led to the naming of five schools and generated significant scholarship funding, President Stuart Rabinowitz and Hofstra Board of Trustees Chair Alan J. Bernon announced in April.

Begun in 2011, the campaign included the naming of the Maurice A. Deane School of Law; the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication; the Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs; the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science; and the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Alan Bernon, who was chair of the capital campaign, set the pace with one of the earliest gifts: $5 million to enhance scholarship support for the University, including matching donations to selected initiatives.

The campaign has produced substantial funding for student scholarships, a vital resource to keep college affordable, and to attract and retain the most talented young scholars in the nation. In addition, the campaign supported continued investments in the enhancement of Hofstra’s facilities, technology, and academic programs.

“The success of this effort is a testament to the remarkable generosity of our donors, and their support for Hofstra’s mission,” President Rabinowitz said. “In particular, Alan Bernon – as chair of the Board of Trustees and of this campaign – set an extraordinary example with his unrivaled energy and commitment to ensuring Hofstra students have the very best educational opportunities.”

Bernon, an alumnus of the Class of 1976, was honored for his dedication to the University at the 2017 Hofstra Gala.

“It’s a privilege to continue to be part of this University as it has grown into a school of international reach and reputation,” Bernon said. “I want to thank everyone who supported this campaign for investing in the future of Hofstra and our students.”

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“ It’s a privilege to continue to be part of this University as it has grown into a school of international reach and reputation. “ I want to thank everyone who supported this campaign for investing in the future of Hofstra and our students.”

— Alan J. Bernon Board of Trustees Chair

NURSING

“It’s been quite a challenging journey, but now it’s nice to see all of our hard work come to fruition. I hope to put this degree and training to use to make a stronger impact in health care and on patient outcomes.”

– Christian Velez

Ambition

Twenty-eight registered nurses completed their advanced practice studies at the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies, becoming the school’s first graduating class of nurse practitioners.

The graduates, most of whom worked full-time at Northwell Health hospitals while pursuing the three-year, part-time program, earned Master of Science degrees with a specialty in either adult-gerontology acute care nursing or family nursing.

“I can’t believe that this day has finally come!” said Christian Velez, a critical care nurse at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital who has volunteered on Ebola response teams as well as in relief efforts during Hurricane Harvey in Houston last year.

“It’s been quite a challenging journey, but now it’s nice to see all of our hard work come to fruition. I hope to put this degree and training to use to make a stronger impact in health care and on patient outcomes.”

Kathleen Gallo, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, the school’s founding dean, was joined

by Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz and Northwell Health President and CEO Michael Dowling at a special convocation on May 18 honoring the inaugural class, which drew a standing-room-only crowd of family members, friends, and other well-wishers. The students graduated two days later.

Dean Gallo, who is also senior vice president and chief learning officer at Northwell Health, thanked her students for their three years of dedication to the rigorous program, in which they also became collaborators with faculty, offering feedback on the new curriculum.

“Remain steadfastly collaborative, creative, innovative. Lead and pursue excellence,” she told the graduating class. “You have exemplified humanism and have embraced the commonalities and differences among health care teams and consumers alike.

Never forget that you are the one and

only inaugural class, and you have an awesome responsibility.”

The students graduated at a time when there is a growing demand for highly skilled nurse practitioners in the region, particularly as baby boomers age and retire. The state Labor Department predicts a 32 percent increase in the number of nurse practitioner jobs in New York from 2014 to 2024. Among the graduates, 18 specialized in adult-gerontology acute care, while 10 are now family nurse practitioners.

The Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies was launched in 2015, expanding the University and health care system’s successful medical school partnership. It continues the holistic, patient-centered approach pioneered by the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/ Northwell, an educational model that focuses on treating people, rather than illnesses, and emphasizes communitybased care.

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“ More than

80 percent of

students who’ve graduated from the program have received job offers from their co-op companies,” said Program Director Philip Coniglio.

TRICKS

of the

Making the transition from school to work was easy for industrial engineering major Michael Spencer – because he made it before he earned his degree.

Spencer ’16 was among the first students in the co-op program at the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science. After working at Black Knight Financial Services in Los Angeles for seven months during his junior year, he was hired as a data analyst at Property Insight, a division of Black Knight, immediately after graduation.

“I’ve been able to hit the ground running and take advantage of opportunities that would not have been available to me if I hadn’t done the co-op,” said Spencer, who now works as an analyst/developer at Oaktree Capital.

Now in its third year, the co-op program offers students the opportunity to gain paid, hands-on experience in a field related to their major before they graduate. As of spring 2018, the program has placed 78 students at firms nationwide.

“More than 80 percent of students who’ve graduated from the program have received job offers from their co-op companies,” said Program Director Philip Coniglio. More than 150 corporate partners participate in the program.

“The knowledge and guidance I receive from engineers in the workplace is far different from what professors in a classroom impart.

Combined, they provide the experience needed to stand out and be successful in my career.”

Jay Gersten ’19 BS, Mechanical Engineering Co-op Experience: National Grid

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“The co-op program available to engineering and computer science students is the most valuable program you can involve yourself in during your undergraduate years.”

Michael Spencer ’16 BS, Industrial Engineering Co-op Experience: Black Knight Financial Services Post-graduation: Data Analyst, Property Insight, a division of Black Knight; Analyst/Developer, Oaktree Capital

Students get work experience, competitive edge from co-op program.

“The co-op gives our students exposure to real-world engineering and computer science work and a competitive edge to kick-start their careers,” Coniglio said.

The co-op is a competitive program open to all undergraduate and graduate students in engineering and computer science. Undergraduates must have a GPA of at least 3.0; graduate students need a GPA of 3.2 or higher.

Students create a professional resume with assistance from Hofstra’s Career Center, and may go through several rounds of interviews before receiving an offer from a co-op partner.

“Even if you’re unsure about whether or not you want to participate in the co-op program, a lot of experience can be gained just from going through the interview process.”

Students say they also develop soft skills that are necessary to succeed in a professional work environment.

“There are certain skills businesses expect you to know—responding and managing email, working in Excel, setting deadlines, managing projects — that you simply don’t learn in school,” Spencer said. “Working for eight months helped me develop those skills and

TRADE Co-op students are not enrolled in regular classes during their employment, so participating could push back graduation by a semester.

For mechanical engineering major Robert Dwyer ’17, the tradeoff was more than worth it.

“The exposure and experience I gained working in a professional environment was worth taking a semester off from college,” said Dwyer, who scored a full-time job with Lizardos Engineering in Mineola after doing his co-op there.

gave me theopportunity to figure out what it is that I really enjoy doing every day.”

Mechanical engineering major Frank Tricouros ’19 is a co-op student at Oerlikon Metco, a global coating and surface enhancement technology firm with offices in Westbury. Tricouros is currently working on the development of a new pressure-fed feeder.

“We definitely learned a lot of relevant engineering principles in class,” Tricouros said, “but nothing compares

to working hands-on and having to adapt and solve real-world problems.”

The payoff is clear for companies.

The program provides them with a steady stream of talented young engineers and computer scientists, as well as an opportunity to evaluate a student’s performance and integrate them into the corporate culture over an extended period of time.

“There’s a huge benefit to working with co-op students,” said Christian Bauer, a principal engineer at Oerlikon Metco and Tricouros’ mentor. “When it comes to engineering and testing work, we always need manpower. Co-op students are helpful because they bring what they’ve learned in class to us.”

Mihir Desai ’17 graduated with an MS in computer science and was hired for a co-op position at CCSI (Contemporary Computer Services Inc.), a Long Island-based technology firm. CCSI offered Desai his current job as a web developer three months before graduation.

“The co-op was a wonderful experience for me. I gained a lot of hands-on experience, which helped me secure a full-time job,” Desai said. “Being an international student, the co-op has changed my life here.”

“Through my co-op, I was introduced to software engineering in a business setting. By the end of the internship, I’d contributed a lot of code that the company still uses now.”

“Doing the co-op gave me the competitive edge I needed.”

Maya Williams ’17 BS, Mechanical Engineering Co-op Experience: The LiRo Group Post-graduation: Mechanical Engineer, Henderson Engineers

Benjamin Weiss ’17 BS, Computer Engineering Co-op Experience: Lockheed Martin Post-graduation: Software Engineer, Lockheed Martin

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Life LESSONS “ My brother was the star of everything.

He was handsome as hell, great at sports, and everyone wanted to be his friend or date him.”

— Genevieve Weber

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Samantha Smith took her usual seat near the front of the class, relieved that her first semester as a graduate student in the School of Health Professions and Human Services was nearly done. The Army veteran had been nervous about coming back to school, but she was learning a lot and enjoyed interacting with her professors, especially Dr. Genevieve Weber, who had a specialty in substance abuse counseling.

When Weber walked in, Smith sensed something was not right.

“Rough day?” she asked.

“More like a rough week,” Weber replied.

The two women locked eyes for a moment.

“Oh Sam, I wasn’t going to say anything,” Weber began, before telling the Counseling and Helping Relationships class the devastating news: Her older brother, Todd, had died a week earlier of a heroin overdose.

The revelation momentarily stunned the class. They listened intently as Weber reflected on her family’s lifelong struggle to help her brother overcome his drug abuse. Countless interventions. Stays in rehab.

All to no avail. He was found dead at age 42 on his mother’s kitchen floor in the northern New Jersey home where they had grown up.

Some students cried, others began opening up about their own experiences with family or friends battling addiction.

“As a teacher, she completely captivates you and draws you in, but now we were seeing her in her humanity, going through these raw emotions of loss,” Smith said. “I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling. Here she was, so good in this field, and I wondered if she was thinking, ‘But I couldn’t help my own brother.’”

Todd Weber played football and baseball. He was popular and charismatic, with a wicked sense of humor that cracked everyone up. As young kids growing up in a close-knit family in Washington

Township, he and Genevieve would spend their days fishing together in a little row boat on the lake near their house.

“My brother was the star of everything. He was handsome as hell, great at sports, and everyone wanted to be his friend or date him,” she recalls.

“But he was also the drunkest guy at the party.”

There were middle-of-the-night calls from the police about Todd’s underage drinking, and by the time he started college, his substance abuse grew to include marijuana and cocaine. His parents pulled him out of school to attend rehab.

“After he was home from college, I kept telling my dad, ‘Todd’s on something different,’” she said.

Her parents never suspected it was anything other than marijuana until they found him in the basement, unconscious from his first heroin overdose.

She was 15 years old at the time. “I saw the signs – the change in skin color, the slowed speech, the nodding in and out. Ever since then, I’ve had this awareness, this way of knowing when someone is using. I can spot it from across the room.”

The experiences with her brother cemented her career path in mental health and substance abuse counseling, beginning with an internship at 17 at an in-patient drug rehab facility. She went on to earn graduate and doctoral degrees, and worked professionally in Pennsylvania and New York, before joining the Hofstra faculty in 2006.

All through those years, she and her family tried desperately to help Todd. His attempts at recovery were complicated by a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, which Weber said can be common among addicts as they self-medicate to stabilize their highs and lows.

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“ So much about addiction counseling is breaking the cycle of secrecy and encouraging communication and dialogue.”

— Genevieve Weber

“We did everything we could, used every resource we had, to help him, from multiple rehab stays to enrolling him in clinical trials, to interventions, estrangement, and even tough love where we had him incarcerated and limited his access to his child,” Weber said. “My brother tried many times to get sober. He wanted a healthy life, but his demons were too powerful.”

She was in a faculty meeting in Hagedorn Hall that Friday in May 2017 when an unfamiliar number kept ringing her cell phone. She silenced it, thinking it was a telemarketer. Finally, her older sister, Lynn, texted, saying it was an emergency. Weber stepped outside to take the call.

She gave herself five days to grieve before coming back to teach. In that time, she leaned heavily on her family as well as colleagues for support.

She spent many late-night hours talking to her friend and mentor, Professor Laurie Johnson, who has expertise in trauma and loss, about how best to help her mother, who was inconsolable after Todd’s death.

She also learned a lot about herself and the power of her own resilience.

“We know from the research that the ability to bounce back is what pulls us through tough times, and I had the opportunity to experience this in my own life for many years,” she said. Ten years earlier, in the midst of her brother’s troubles, her father lost his five-year battle to thyroid cancer just as her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Each bad turn fortified her resolve to keep going.

On the drive to work that first day back, she thought about whether she would tell her students, and if she did, how much she would reveal and when.

Counselors are typically taught not to share personal information with clients in most cases.

“When you consider self-disclosure, you always have to take a big step back and think about how helpful this disclosure will be, and usually, it isn’t as helpful as one thinks, but at other times, it might be beneficial,” she said. “In this case, my disclosure wasn’t about my own gain, but about helping my students really understand a real-life example of the issues that I teach them through the curriculum.”

Samantha Smith’s concern when she walked in the classroom, and the ensuing questions from other students, convinced Weber to be completely honest.

“So much about addiction counseling is breaking the cycle of secrecy and encouraging communication and dialogue,” Weber said. “Some of them wanted to know how to help friends in the same situation. We talked about resources, and even counselor self-care. Sharing my story gave them permission to talk about a subject that is often shushed.”

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Preparing a new generation of qualified health professionals who are poised to take on the growing challenges of mental health and addiction counseling has been a key mission of the School of Health Professions and Human Services since its founding in 2011. Within its Master of Arts in

In the days that followed, Weber was moved by her students’ overwhelming support.

“She was so transparent about everything she had been through, and we could see how every family is affected differently by addiction,” said Smith, who was so touched by Weber’s story that she signed up for another class with her this past spring. “She took her life experience and made it a teaching moment.”

Weber welcomes the interest because the need for compassionate, qualified counselors is great.

“When my brother died, his was the second body found that day in my town,” she said. “That same year, more than 500 families on Long Island got the same phone call I did, and nationally, more than 64,000 families lost someone to a drug overdose,” she said.

“Unfortunately, addiction counseling is a growing field. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a field where you can make a difference.”

After Weber’s sister, Lynn, recovered from breast cancer, the two vowed to always be there for each other. They now live in the same town, a half-mile from each other. Their kids go to the same school, and they take care of their mom, who has been unable to return to the house where her son died.

“It’s an energy that is beyond me,” she says of sharing her loss. “I was resilient, but I did not do it alone. My family, my colleagues, and my students gave me the strength to carry through, and it’s a story that I need to keep telling.”

Mental Health Counseling program, the school offers a specialized focus on alcohol and substance abuse counseling that allows students to meet New York state educational requirements for full certification as credentialed alcoholism and substance abuse counselors (CASAC) and have the opportunity to earn credit toward clinical experience and internship requirements.

Earlier this year, in response to the growing opioid epidemic in the country, alumnus Charles Hale ’71 established the Karen Keer Hale ’71 and Christopher C. Hale Annual Scholarship, named for his late wife and son, which will award $5,000 every semester for five semesters to one student pursuing the CASAC certification.

“Alcohol and substance abuse are issues that are increasingly touching so many people in society, and opportunities such as this scholarship will have a profound impact on a deserving mental health counseling student by allowing them to follow their passion to help others. Being able to recruit and retain stellar students benefits our communities and at the same time enhances our program’s reputation and prestige,” said Dr. Holly Seirup, dean of the School of Health Professions and Human Services.

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“Dance is a powerful tool for communicating ... It is not only an avenue for exercise but for thinking and for sharing. It can be diplomatic.

It’s a gift. And it can be an incredible art form to bring communities together.”

—Larry Keigwin ’94

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How choice and chance affect life direction was the premise of If/Then, the Broadway musical Larry Keigwin choreographed a few years ago.

But for Keigwin – a self-described “gotta dance kid” – there was only one path, and he knew it even as a child growing up in Wading River, Long Island.

“I was 5 years old, dancing on the front lawn for passing cars,” he said. “I knew from an early age that I wanted to perform and that I had a gift for dance.”

After years spent working on Broadway, offBroadway, and around the world with his own dance company, he returned to Hofstra in 2017 to choreograph “The Hunt,” a high-octane composition featured in the annual Fall Dance Concert.

“I learned so much at Hofstra,” Keigwin said during a rehearsal for “The Hunt” at the Herbert Hall dance studio. “I was a sponge in this program. The minute I walked back into the studio, I was flooded with memories – incredible memories, incredible camaraderie, lots of laughter.”

Even as he built an impressive resume, Keigwin maintained strong ties to Hofstra. He returned to campus to guest choreograph a previous work in 2009. For his frequent collaborations with the dance program, he was recognized with a 2017 Award for Alumni Achievement.

“I keep coming back because I love it,” he said.

Julian Donahue ’19, a dance and political science major, performed in “The Hunt.”

“It’s been awesome to work with him. Larry is fun and creative and very professional. Just knowing that he is also a graduate of the program has given me so much school pride.”

That Keigwin continues to leave a mark on Hofstra and its students comes as no surprise to Dance Professor Robin Becker.

“No one could forget having worked with Larry, because he leaves quite an impression. I always used to joke that I didn’t know how he made it to his other academic classes. He used to be in every single dance class here, on every level. He was passionate to learn and grow.”

Following graduation in 1994, Keigwin started creating his own work, assisting with the Radio City Rockettes and dancing on Broadway. Just four years after earning his degree, Keigwin won a Bessie, one of New York’s top dance awards, for his performance in Mark Dendy’s Dream Analysis.

In 1999, he was the associate choreographer and featured dancer in the off-Broadway production of The Wild Party. In 2002, he danced in the Broadway show Dance of the Vampires. Before joining the creative team of If/Then, starring Idina Menzel, Keigwin choreographed the 2011 off-Broadway revival of Rent at New World Stages.

And then there’s Keigwin + Company, the dance company he founded in 2003. “We’ve traveled the world,” he said, “recently spending a month in Africa, and we perform regularly throughout the U.S.” In “The Hunt,” Keigwin created an eight-minute contemporary dance piece, which incorporated elements of ballet, modern, contemporary, and hip-hop, and featured an 18-member cast. One section depicted pedestrian human behavior, and the other featured more predatory and animalistic movements. Keigwin also commissioned an original score composed by Adam Crystal and Curtis Macdonald.

“I’ve always had this fascination with animal behavior and human behavior,” he said. “Where do they intersect? How are they different? This is a quick, athletic, electrifying, very physical dance that really takes a look at our similarities and differences.”

Keigwin said he hopes the students he worked with over the period of about two months gained some insights about composition, collaboration, and the creative process. But most importantly, he hopes they embrace dance as a powerful tool that transcends the boundaries of the theater.

“Dance is a powerful tool for communicating,” he said “It is not only an avenue for exercise but for thinking and for sharing. It can be diplomatic. It’s a gift. And it can be an incredible art form to bring communities together.”

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BAD MARY lead singer Amanda Mac ’10, clad in flowered fishnets and combat boots, surveyed the audience at Hofstra’s annual Fall Festival. Eight years earlier, she’d been just another face in the crowd.

Now, she was on stage, microphone in hand, the hot pink cord wrapped around her arm.

“This is absolutely nuts,” she thought. “I’m playing the same crazy concert I went to as a student. This is surreal.”

Guitarist David Henderson was positioned stage right, his guitar hanging by a hot pink boa. Bass player Mike Staub ’08, ’10, stood to her left. Behind Amanda sat the drummer – Bill Mac ’06.

One was her professor. One was her husband. One was her dad.

“ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!” With that, Bad Mary launched into a powerhouse set of punk rock, in-your-face originals. wwwwwww

David Henderson, an associate professor of drama and dance, had been at Hofstra for six years when he started David and the Hendersons – a cover band composed of a group of rotating students that still exists today.

“Students and faculty work together artistically all the time at Hofstra,” David said. “You’re in the trenches together when working on a show or playing music. It’s a different experience.”

Amanda Mac and Mike Staub were thirdgeneration members of David and the Hendersons. Mike, who studied music and marketing, always gravitated toward the theater community, eventually carving out a place for himself in the Department of Drama and Dance. Amanda was a drama student who dreamed about joining David and the Hendersons as she sat in his costume history class sophomore year. She never imagined how the band would change her life.

When Amanda and Mike graduated in 2010, they and David couldn’t bear the thought of not playing together. So, they formed Madame X, playing covers all over Long Island. About a year in, after a few lineup changes, they found themselves in the market for a drummer.

Amanda immediately went to the best musician she knew.

“It blew my mind when she asked me to join the band,” said her dad, Bill Mac. “I asked if she was sure, and she just said, ‘Who else?’

So that was it. I was in. Now I’m 65 years old, retired, and playing in a punk band with my daughter. Top that.”

Music and family aren’t the only bonds Amanda and Bill share. They’re both Hofstra alums who attended at the same time.

One evening on his way home after class at Nassau Community College, Bill Mac spotted a sign on Hempstead Turnpike about enrolling at Hofstra. Three semesters later, Amanda, now 30 and a full-time actress and singer, joined him, beginning her first year at Hofstra.

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Their first full-length album, Better Days – self-produced and basement-recorded – was released in 2013. They would then go on to work with Studio G and Fred Kevorkian, who previously mastered for The White Stripes, Iggy Pop, and Debbie Harry. Bad Mary was living the dream– performing all over Long Island and New York City, and even scoring air time on U.S., U.K., and Australian radio.

Dad and daughter had different schedules and different majors (Bill was a rhetoric major, Amanda studied performance and literature), but their circles of friends overlapped.

“I’d see my friends hanging out on campus, huddled in a circle. I would walk over, and my dad would be in the middle,” Amanda remembers. “I used to joke that my friends would only hang with me to get to my dad.”

Bill Mac comes from a family of musicians and has performed with his daughter virtually her entire life.

They did community theater while she was growing up, and continued performing together at Hofstra, in the shows Cabaret and Footloose.

“I was always in the pit, and she was on stage,” Bill said.

“She’s just kickin’ it. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Not long after Bill joined Madame X, they decided it was time to write their own songs. But a new creative journey required a new name, something that would do the band’s high-energy punk vibe justice.

They went through countless options, Bubble Puppy and Atomic 36 among them. None felt right.

David was on his way to work one morning about 6:30 a.m. Stopped at a traffic light under the Unispan, it hit him.

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“I called up Mike and Amanda and said, “I got it! Bad Mary!” Cranky and half-awake, Amanda immediately hated it. But the name checked every one of their boxes:

4 Fun 4 Raucous 4 Easily understandable when yelled across a parking lot Amanda changed her mind. They became Bad Mary.

Drawing influence from bands like Blondie, The Ramones, and Green Day (one of Mike’s personal favorites), Bad Mary created a brand of punk they describe as “New York in the ’70s but with a modern vibe.”

Their first full-length album, Better Days – self-produced and basement-recorded – was released in 2013.

They would then go on to work with Studio G and Fred Kevorkian, who previously mastered for The White Stripes, Iggy Pop, and Debbie Harry. Bad Mary was living the dream – performing all over Long Island and New York City, and even scoring air time on U.S., U.K., and Australian radio.

“It was Christmas Eve 2014 or ’15. Mike, my dad, and I were standing in the kitchen, listening to Long Island 90.3 FM,” Amanda said. “The clock struck midnight and our version of ‘Silent Night’ started playing. My mind exploded.”

wwwwwww

It wasn’t a date. They’d known each other for years, after all.

That night in August 2010, Mike and Amanda had tickets to see the Broadway rock opera American Idiot. As friends.

After the show, they got drenched in a downpour. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

Four years after that first not-date, they got engaged. In 2016, they were married.

“When you work with people on something as personal and creative as music, you end up getting to know them more than you would otherwise,” said Mike, who works full time as a web coordinator for Midtown Comics. “Writing music is a doorway into who I am. And being able to share that with Amanda is great.”

“There’s nothing better than performing with the people you love,” said Mike.

“It’s caffeine. It’s nonstop energy.”

Bad Mary still practices in David Henderson’s basement in Kings Park, on the North Shore of Long Island. And they still make time for the place that brought them together.

Amanda still remembers the day they got the text from David with the news: Bad Mary had been invited to play Hofstra’s 2017 Fall Festival.

“It was a really cool feeling,” she said.

“I felt like I was going home.”

w The pink boa David Henderson wears during every performance is one his students surprised him with after his first one was stolen. w All four members of Bad Mary have worked at Hofstra.

David Henderson is a current faculty member. Amanda Mac was a tour guide as a student. Mike Staub worked in the Office of Admission, first as a graduate student and then as a full-time recruiter. Bill Mac, now retired, spent a few years doing recruiting for Hofstra’s School for University Studies after he graduated. w Bill Mac participated in Democracy in Performance during the first presidential debate held at Hofstra in 2008.

He played Henry Ward Beecher and spearheaded efforts to bring a carriage and two stallions to campus for the performance. w David Henderson learned how to play the guitar while he was grounded, at the age of 16. David bought a “how to play guitar” book with money he received from a drama award and used his father’s guitar. w After seeing it in 2010 on Broadway, Mike Staub and Amanda Mac have twice performed together in off-Broadway versions of American Idiot. w Mike Staub says Fall Fest 2017 was one of the best days ever.

He says once they brought out the Hofstra cookies, he knew he was home.

A BRONX

The recording runs in a continuous loop, piped through a beat-up speaker that sits on the sidewalk in front of a cell phone repair store at the corner of East 149th Street and Third Avenue.

“Welcome to the world-famous Bronx, New York ...”

It’s a sweltering summer afternoon, the first day of August, and this intersection – a triangular slice of the South Bronx known as the Hub, is a pulsing mass of people and sounds. Subway rumbling below.

Drivers laying on their horns. Pedestrians squeezing past street vendors, weaving through a maze of folding tables filled with DVDs, books, socks, and handbags.

It’s less than 30 miles from here to Hofstra University – under an hour if you hit the traffic just right. But if you grew up in this neighborhood, you know how easy it can be to get sidetracked, that geography isn’t the only thing standing in your way. rrrrr

One of the things that makes you a good teacher is being able to respect who your students are and where they come from,” Alan Singer said. “You have to find things in your experiences that connect with theirs.”

When Pablo Muriel first met the man who would change the course of his life – Education Professor Alan Singer – Singer was tinkering with a broken VCR in his office.

“I see this person lying on the floor. I thought he was the janitor,” said Muriel, BA ’01, MA ’03. “I just needed him to sign my schedule. It was supposed to be a few minutes.

It became an hour-and-a-half conversation.”

They discovered they’d both grown up poor in the South Bronx, just blocks from each other, and had even attended the same middle school, 30 years apart.

They’re both first-generation college students whose parents’ first language wasn’t English. Singer worked his way through college driving a cab. Muriel was working full-time nights at Kennedy Airport as a baggage handler and airline mechanic.

“One of the things that makes you a good teacher is being able to respect who your students are and where they come from,” Singer said. “You have to find things in your experiences that connect with theirs.”

A junior transfer student, Muriel was a history major thinking about law school because he had seen so many childhood friends end up in prison.

TALE

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“Alan said, ‘Why don’t you become a teacher, catch kids and help them before they need a lawyer?’ I started laughing,” Muriel said. “He told me, ‘You could be a different kind of teacher, go back to your community.’

It’s been 18 years now, and I’ve never looked back.”

rrrrr Eleventh-grade U.S. History was unlike any class Dennis Belen Morales ’20 had ever taken. The teacher, Pablo Muriel, questioned conventional interpretations of history, and challenged students to relate what they were learning to their own lives.

“When we talked about the Bill of Rights, he would ask us, ‘Is there a Student Bill of Rights; what should it be; what should it do?’” said Belen Morales, who attended Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical High School in the Bronx. “From there, we did petitions about removing the metal detectors at school or putting a policy in place about using them that wasn’t so arbitrary.”

They went to local community board meetings. They organized a forum with a private school in Midtown Manhattan, with students from each school spending a day at the other.

“Pablo believes in activism, and believes in using teaching to promote social justice,” Singer said.

“What is the role of a teacher? To introduce the material and raise questions and to have kids understand the world in a different 24

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way and realize they can change it.”

That’s Belen Morales’ plan too.

Muriel also makes a point of taking his students on trips out of the Bronx. One of his favorite destinations is Hofstra, where they attend lectures, events, and panel discussions about politics and history. For many students, it’s their first time seeing a college campus.

He’s a junior Honors College student, a history major with a Latin American and Caribbean studies minor, the recipient of a prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship who chose Hofstra over Yale. He’s also a member of the NOAH program.

“Almost from the beginning, as soon as he got his first job in the Bronx, Pablo started to bring his students to Hofstra,” Singer said.

“He works with students who often lack structure in their lives. He provides that very structured environment in which they can learn, but Pablo also offers himself as a big brother.”

Belen Morales’ first visit to Hofstra came during the University’s 2016 conference on the presidency of George W. Bush. He met several professors, including Singer, and spent some time exploring campus.

“I like to give them time to walk around campus on their own,” Muriel said. “I want to give them the idea – you need to apply to school, apply to the NOAH program (which provides academic and financial support for students from diverse backgrounds). “Just seeing somewhere so different from where they are from changes their perspective.”

Several of Muriel’s students have ended up at Hofstra, and two have become public school teachers in the Bronx.

Already, Belen Morales has taken a few classes with Singer. Eventually, he wants to work in education policy.

He is also considering law school.

But first, he wants to teach history.

Back in the old neighborhood.

“It’s where I grew up,” Belen Morales said. “I can understand the demographic. I wanted to be an engineer before I met Pablo.”

rrrrr The three of them – the 68-year-old college professor, the 41-year-old high school teacher, and the 20-yearold student – are deep in conversation, walking along Courtlandt Avenue toward the Hub. They look mismatched, but they share a bond that transcends generational, cultural, and ethnic lines.

“It’s not just that Pablo is Puerto Rican and male; it’s that he’s from here,” Belen Morales said. “It’s like when our class (at Smith High School) first met Alan, we were all like, ‘Who’s this white guy?’ but then he told us his story and that he grew up on Jesup (Avenue in the South Bronx).”

Together, they have presented lectures at the Museum of the City of New York, at Rutgers University, and before the New York State Council for the Social Studies on topics such as “Battling Against Metal Detectors and Criminalization in an Inner-City New York City High School” and “Promoting Student Activism as Citizenship Education.”

Singer was even the best man at Muriel’s wedding.

“He was a mentor to me, to all my students,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you one thing Alan did for me; I could tell you a million things he did.”

Muriel, now working toward a doctoral degree at Hofstra, is also an adjunct instructor teaching an introductory graduate course called Perspectives in Educational Practices. Belen Morales has spoken to Muriel’s class, and to Singer’s classes as well. Singer, in turn, has placed student teachers in Muriel’s school.

“I’ve had the opportunity with Pablo, and now with Dennis, to have an ongoing relationship of exploring ideas together,” Singer said. “I’m 68 years old – to have teachers and people at different stages of their lives who buy into the ideas about teaching and about social justice that I value is very, very important to me. It’s one of the great thrills of the job I have.”

rrrrr There’s no relief from the heat. The afternoon sun is blistering and the air hangs thick and heavy, like a musty drape.

But nothing can muffle the sales pitch blaring from the speaker on the corner: “Welcome to the world-famous Bronx, NY ... we fix everything!”

Muriel knows there are no such guarantees.

“I don’t do promises,” he said, “I just do ‘you’re not going to be alone. Dr. Singer is here, and I’m around.’

“I wanted to escape this neighborhood and never come back. I didn’t expect to be doing something like this,” Muriel said.

“But it’s been beautiful. It may seem small, but it’s a process. Alan taught me: Do what you need to do; just keep it moving down the line.”

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I wanted to escape this neighborhood and never come back. I didn’t expect to be doing something like this,” Pablo Muriel said. “But it’s been beautiful.

It may seem small, but it’s a process.

Alan taught me: Do what you need to do; just keep it moving down the line.”

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. . .

R E E R A C A G N I D K UIL C I R B Y B K C I BR

From the start, it was no ordinary job interview.

“The first thing,” Peyton Fletcher recalled, “they give you six pieces of LEGO brick and tell you to build a duck.”

She stared at the bright yellow plastic bricks, momentarily stumped.

“It was nerve-wracking, [but] the whole point is that everyone builds it differently. You build the duck however you build the duck,” said Fletcher ’14. “You can build it a bunch of different ways; it doesn’t matter how, as long as you have fun.”

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And that’s exactly what Fletcher, 26, marketing and sales executive for LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Boston, has been doing ever since.

From the moment she passes the giant giraffe in front of the building every morning, Fletcher enters another world: a dazzling, Day-Glo playground where just about everything – even the name plate on her desk – is made of LEGO bricks “At any point in the day,” she said, “I can take a break from my desk and walk through this amazing world of color and creativity, and it really helps put things in perspective.”

In her role, Fletcher supervises all marketing and social media for LEGOLAND. Oh – and sometimes she even helps with building.

“I didn’t play with LEGO as a kid, but my brother did,” she said.

“I actually do more building now than I did back then.”

It is not at all where Fletcher expected to be when she graduated from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business with a BBA in marketing.

She chose Hofstra because she always imagined she’d settle in New York, not back home in New England (she’s originally from Manchester, NH, about an hour north of Boston).

A rabid Boston sports fan (Bruins and Patriots), she envisioned a career working in sports marketing or public relations. Hofstra was also at the top of her list because its student-run radio station, WRHU-88.7 FM, is the only college station to serve as the flagship station for a professional sports franchise, the New York Islanders.

“I was all about hockey,” she said, “and nowhere did you get to work with a professional hockey team the way you did at Hofstra,” she said.

“I always thought I was going to go into sports.”

Instead, Fletcher spends her days developing new events and exhibits, like the time she asked a LEGOLAND master model builder to come up with a life-size replica of a baby gorilla to promote a new partnership with the Franklin Park Zoo. “We have master model builders across the world, and they’re amazing,” she said. “I just tell them what I’m thinking, and they make it happen.”

For Fletcher, the best part of the job is that no two days are the same. Well, that and when she got to plan a birthday party for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s son.

Islanders and the New York Lizards, the professional lacrosse team that plays at Shuart Stadium.

“I just wanted to take advantage of all the opportunities offered to me, so I explored different avenues, hoping to find my passion. I was involved with so many different things during my time at Hofstra, so I learned quickly how to best manage my time. That is definitely a skill I have kept with me.”

That, and some advice Fletcher remembers from her Hofstra orientation.

“The first piece of advice someone gave me at Hofstra was to try everything at least once because at least you can say you did it,” she said.

“You may discover something completely new that you love.”

“The first thing,” Peyton Fletcher recalled, “they give you six pieces of LEGO brick and tell you to build a duck.”

“There is no typical day at work,” Fletcher said. “It’s a fun, exciting environment that is constantly changing, and everyone here wears many different hats.”

Toggling quickly between different tasks is a skill she sharpened at Hofstra, where she was active with the student-run radio station, WRHU-88.7 FM; belonged to Hofstra’s chapters of the American Marketing Association and the Public Relations Student Society of America; worked as a tour guide for the Office of Admission and did marketing internships with the New York

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GETTING A HEAD START Two health care-related businesses and a service that provides law students with audio recordings of reading assignments took top honors at the 2018 Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge.

Ten finalists delivered five-minute pitches to a panel of judges for a share of $75,000 in cash and prizes as part of the sixth annual entrepreneurship competition, sponsored by Mike Seiman, a member of Hofstra’s Board of Trustees and CEO of Digital Remedy.

A wide range of programs, majors, and class years were represented among the 10 finalists, including entrepreneurship, marketing, management, psychology, liberal arts, computer science, and economics. A total of 27 teams entered this year’s competition.

“Year after year, the creativity and energy of our students never fails to impress and inspire me,” said Mark Lesko, vice president for economic development and executive dean of Hofstra’s Center for Entrepreneurship, which administers the competition. “Seeing the remarkable variety of ideas, coupled with the fact that several of our finalists are first- and second-year students, confirms that the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Hofstra is alive and growing.”

The annual Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge encourages students with business ideas to engage in business model generation, and provides students with guidance through a boot camp program, individual mentoring sessions, and pitch preparation with the Center’s entrepreneurs-in-residence. The goal of the Venture Challenge is to inspire students to launch their own startup businesses by leading them through the business model canvas and customer discovery process and teaching them effective communication skills. The center’s headquarters, known as the ideaHUb, will be based at the Zarb School of Business’ new building when it opens in January.

“This is everything – coming here, competing, making it to the finals, that’s really what being an entrepreneur is about,” said Seiman, who founded his company, formerly known as CPXi, when he was still a Hofstra student. “It’s about trying, it’s about having the conviction to continue no matter what. Have that passion, have that pride in yourself for what you’ve done here.”

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The 2018 winners were:

r First place, and a total prize package of $42,000: MedAux, an SMS-based patient assessment solution for post-acute care of heart failure patients created by a physician, Dr. Behzad Jazayeri, and a doctoral student in the School of Education, Elnaz Sarabchian. The MedAux platform provides a library of interactive patient education videos; automates the delivery of patient education materials before, during, and after each visit; and sends follow-up messages to patients. r S econd place, and a total prize package of $21,000: Lawdio, a service that provides audio of law cases to make it easier for law students who are short on time to complete reading assignments. The tech startup is the brainchild of Seema Rambaran, a third-year student at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law. (Lawdio also won the $500 People’s Choice Award, which was chosen via online voting by viewers who watched a livestream of the competition.) r Third place, and a total prize package of $8,000: SteriLocker, a patented garment sterilizer for hospitals that uses ultraviolet light technology. The system is designed to reduce infections and improve patient care while saving health care facilities money.

SteriLocker was created by Jonathan Preminger, a fourth-year medical student at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

Prize packages include cash and in-kind contributions from Digital Remedy, including summer incubator space at its Manhattan offices and a digital marketing package.

ZARB

ZARB SCHOOL and IBM LAUNCH NEW PARTNERSHIP The Frank G. Zarb School of Business and IBM Global University are launching a new alliance that will enhance Hofstra’s technology curriculum and provide training and certification in high-demand digital skills to students and members of the surrounding community.

The new program, which will be developed in the coming months, will be offered through the IBM Skills Academy. The Skills Academy is IBM’s worldwide academic initiative to help universities keep pace with the digital sector’s fast-evolving demands for job candidates with market-ready skills. Eventually, the program will be expanded beyond the Zarb School to other areas of the University.

Hofstra and IBM will begin the new partnership with an event on October 4, 2018, that will bring together IBM experts and University faculty to examine the applications for and impact of artificial intelligence on a range of business functions, including marketing, finance, and supply chain management. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at Hofstra University’s Mack Student Center.

The partnership with IBM is the first of its kind in New York state, and one of only a few in the nation, according to Naguib Attia, IBM’s vice president for Global University Programs.

The alliance will take shape as the Zarb School prepares to move into a new, state-of-the-art building equipped with a sophisticated behavioral research lab and an enhanced startup business incubator, as well as multiple student independent and collaborative work spaces.

“Universities are rising to the challenge of preparing students for the world of ‘smarter work.’ Their future in ‘smarter businesses’ will include intelligent digital platforms, intelligent systems and processes, and a new era of man plus machine with embedded AI and data everywhere,” Attia said.

“A major reinvention of education is underway. IBM is partnering in that transformation and pioneering a new model of education with the IBM Skills Academy.

“At IBM, we believe that expanding educational opportunities is a critical part of our mission,” he said. “We’re excited to partner with Hofstra to continue those efforts.”

The partnership with IBM is the first of its kind in New York state, and one of only a few in the nation. The alliance will take shape as the Zarb School prepares to move into a new, state-of-the-art building in January 2019.

“With the support of IBM, we will first enhance our programs in market research, in supply chain management, and in blockchain,” said Zarb School Dean Herman Berliner. “Alliances of the kind that we are embarking upon with IBM are what will set our students apart in a competitive global marketplace. This program will also provide the community with critical skills to take advantage of job growth in the digital sector.”

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360-DEGREE EDUCATION

In fall 2018, a joint one-credit VR Creation Lab will be offered, which will be cross-listed in Radio, Television, Film; Journalism; Computer Science; and Fine Arts, Design, Art History.

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Students are now spending class time fighting zombies and flipping through coloring books, thanks to a new course that lets them explore the art and science of virtual storytelling.

A collaboration between The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication and the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science, the course brings together students from diverse majors such as journalism, film, graphic design, and computer science to create digital storytelling projects using the latest in virtual reality and 360-degree video technology.

“The use of digital storytelling tools and techniques has exploded over the last decade, as the communication and electronics industries began merging game design and interactive web development,” said Aashish Kumar, associate professor in the Department of Radio, Television, Film, who teaches the class. “Journalists, in particular, now have the ability to bring stories from far and wide and allow audiences to be immersed in those environments – not just to read the text or look at photographs or watch a flat video, but to be in the center of the action.”

Students shoot and edit several short 360-degree videos on their own and then move on to work in interdisciplinary teams on projects that employ virtual reality in a computer-simulated 3D environment. When the videos are experienced through a VR headset, viewers get the sensation of physically being in the depicted scene.

“This is the first time I’m collaborating with people outside my major,” said journalism major Mackenzie Caldwell ’18, whose team worked on the zombie project, which takes a viewer through a dark warehouse inhabited by the living dead. “I’ve never been in a class where you have both a journalist and a game designer, and those two people make something.”

Caldwell says he jumped at the chance to try some of the cutting-edge equipment that is used by media outlets such as The New York Times and The Associated Press, both of which produce regular VR features that allow viewers experiences such as joining Iraqi forces in battle with ISIS or traveling inside the brain to see how Alzheimer’s disease develops.

Students in the class learn to shoot using Samsung Gear 360 cameras, edit photos and videos with Adobe Premiere Pro in the Herbert School, design interactive elements using Unity game design software in the DeMatteis labs, and learn how to display their finished work on platforms such as Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard.

“When I first came to Hofstra, I was really into writing,” said Caldwell. “But taking a class like this has really kicked down the door to everything else journalism could be. My idea of how to tell a story is different now.”

>> S tudents shoot and edit several short 360-degree videos on their own and then move on to work in interdisciplinary teams on projects that employ virtual reality in a computer-simulated 3D environment.

Senior Brandi Kinard said the VR course was “a perfect marriage” between her graphic design major and engineering minor, and provides a good foundation for graduate school.

“I aspire to be a consultant who can connect the tech world and the art world, and I think virtual reality can be a good tool to tell stories about others and even promote social change,” she said.

Her team’s project allows viewers to jump into the pages of a coloring book, view its contents from every possible angle, and add color to black and white images. Kinard is also working on adding virtual reality elements to a painting she did several years ago in an art class.

“VR takes you places you couldn’t have imagined. You’re transported into someone else’s shoes, or even places where people don’t live, like outer space or a digital world,” she said. “I was surprised that people with different backgrounds could work well with this kind of technology, but we’re all learning together.”

Kumar says it’s the blend of different disciplines that makes the projects so successful.

“One of the ideas behind team-based work in the VR environment is that you won’t have all the skill sets you need to create something in this medium,” he said. “So I’ve put people together who have different skills – graphic designers, coders, editors. It’s paramount that we start to taste what that interaction is like.”

The vision for the course began evolving in summer 2016, when Kumar met with then-Herbert School Dean Evan Cornog and DeMatteis School Dean Sina Rabbany, as well as Krishnan Pillaipakkamnatt, chair of the Computer Science Department, and Edward Currie, associate professor of engineering.

“Cross-disciplinary initiatives like this cannot take place without faculty and administrators working together,” Kumar said.

“Thanks to their encouragement and additional support from the Provost’s Office, we were able to secure space, equipment, and the cooperation of other faculty and administrators of the two units.”

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campus to s e m o lc e w fstra Each year, Ho ers for varied k a e p s f o e g a wide ran posia academic sym ces. and conferen

David Frum, es New York Tim or th au best-selling

John McPhee, ning author in Pulitzer Prize-w 32

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n, Masha Gesse ican er m Russian-A or, th au t, lis journa activist d translator, an

Kevin Willmott, independent filmmaker and director

C

mances r fo r e p d n a s Speaker 18 academic 0 -2 7 1 0 2 e h t during : the year included who spoke at of Mastercard,

Ellen Stofan, former chief scientist at NASA

CEO ld at the president and ership Series he ad Le s es r Ajay Banga, in us School of B Frank G. Zarb ry in Manhattan na Burke Morgan Libra hts activist Tara rig l vi ci d an ement founder er/comic, r #MeToo mov ican actor/writ er m raised in -A an nk il Sri La ender person m g Ta ns e ra th /t o, er ’L ue D

q a r s story of being who shared hi unity m m co d family an se experience an immigrant rman Jr., who Fo es m Ja or incarcerated e-winning auth ter school for ar ch ur a of r Pulitzer Priz er d Locking Up O ender, foun ired his book sp in as a public def le Ya at r w professo teens, and a la Black America Punishment in d an e e rim C n: Ow orruption of th ocracy: The C p um Tr of r o , auth r David Frum U.S.public Re an Americ ho discussed ha Gessen, w as M : How t ry lis to na is H ur re Is erican jo book, The Futu w r Russian-Am ne r he as l as wel Russian affairs sia Reclaimed Rus sm ni ed columnist, Totalitaria nalist, syndicat ur jo ng ni in -w es Everything: in, the award rs This Chang le el ts ump’s r Naomi Kle es b l na h: Resisting Tr internatio ug o of r En o th ot N au Is d an d No The Climate an eed Capitalism vs. e World We N th ng ni in W d an s d Shock Politic who spoke an John McPhee, riters, or W th at au re G ng ’s ni e-win of Hofstra t ar p as r Pulitzer Priz ng ni and book-sig did a reading s series Great Reading 2016) mean for at NASA (2013t is nt ie sc f ploration can ie ex ch e er ac rm sp o t F

ha r w who discussed Ellen Stofan, Earth yla Tharp, who innovation on ce legend Tw an d ng ni in -w blocks in the my Award come mental er ov r Tony and Em to w ho tivity and discussed crea ss ce Viverito, the creative pro Melissa Mark r ke ea Sp l ci ew York City’s York City Coun member for N l ci un co a r Former New as ted to serve first Latina elec 6-2017) CSA: The 8th District (200 who directed er ak m m fil t en that end ckumentary” ott, the indep a satirical “mo r Kevin Willm a, ic il War er iv C m A e th of ates eracy won ed nf o C e Confederate St th merica in which imagines an A

Tarana Burke, founder, #MeToo movement

Ajay Banga, president and CEO, Mastercard

Melissa Mark Viverito, former New York City Council speaker

Naomi Klein, award-winning journalist, columnist, and best-selling author Hofstra

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@HOFSTRAU on SOCIAL The Hofstra Pride took social media by storm during the 2017-18 year, posting #HofViews showcasing campus and celebrating its third #DayInThePride. Students, faculty, staff, administrators, families, and alumni across the globe participated, documenting the everyday and extraordinary things that happen during a single 24-hour period.

Mark your calendars for Day in the Pride 2018: Wednesday, October 24.

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The #HumansOfHofstra and #HUWorldChanger series gave the world an inside look at people in the Hofstra community and how they are making in impact in the world. For a look at Humans of Hofstra, visit @HofstraU on Facebook; and for HU World Changers, visit hofstra.edu/worldchanger.

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MEET

DEANLUK

Emmy Award-winning NBC News executive Mark Lukasiewicz, who helped pioneer the network’s multiplatform storytelling and produced live coverage of major news events, including four presidential elections and 10 presidential debates, joined Hofstra University this July as dean of The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.

Over a career that spans nearly four decades, Lukasiewicz spent 17 years at NBC, serving as executive-in-charge of the NBC News Group Transformation Project, senior vice president of NBC News Specials, and the news division’s first vice president of digital media.

His work includes producing NBC Universal coverage of national and international breaking news, as well as major planned events such as political conventions, inaugurations, state funerals, and papal conclaves.

Prior to NBC, Lukasiewicz spent 11 years with ABC News, where he was executive producer of Good Morning America, senior producer of World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and senior producer of PrimeTime LIVE with Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson.

He has produced numerous live and longform programs, winning 10 Emmys, two Peabody Awards, and the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, among other journalism and international film festival awards.

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Hofstra Magazine recently sat down with @DeanLuk (his Twitter handle) to talk about his career and his vision for the Herbert School.

You’ve had a very accomplished career in journalism. Why academia now, and why Hofstra?

Yes, this is a big career change for me, but I’m very excited about it. After the last election – it was the fourth or fifth election I’d done for NBC News – I took time to revisit what I was doing and I decided to take the opportunity to do something new. I’ve had these tremendous opportunities and I’ve learned a lot. In this next chapter of my working life, I wanted to give back. I did a little teaching at Columbia University a few years ago, and I really enjoy being around young people and the energy and passion they have for storytelling.

Why Hofstra? Like a lot of people in my business, I mainly knew Hofstra as the place where many debates had been held. Once I had the chance to come to campus, and saw the facilities and met with the faculty and students, I was very impressed. What’s rare here is that, compared to most other schools, we give students the ability to be hands-on from the minute they walk in the door. Not enough people know about what our school does, what it’s capable of, and that’s something very near the top of my list of priorities to address.

Part of my mission here is to be an ambassador for the University and for the Herbert School. I’ve been fortunate to develop a lot of contacts in the industry, and I want to spend time with those people telling our story, speaking at conferences, participating on panels, and making sure that the Herbert School is in the national conversation about communication and media.

After almost four decades of covering many high-profile stories, which ones stand out for you?

When I was starting out as a reporter for The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto, I got the chance to report from inside Poland during its martial law period and the government crackdown on the Solidarity trade union. They closed the borders under pressure from the Soviet Union, but I got in and operated undercover for three weeks. I wrote a front-page series in the newspaper and that was a tremendously exciting thing to do; it felt like we

were telling a really important story. I was reporting on what was going on behind the Iron Curtain in a country that had been brutally repressed. There were tanks in the street and curfews and no telephones. Ultimately, I had to turn my notes into handwritten letters, as though I was writing to friends, so that the border guards wouldn’t suspect I was a reporter. This happened at the start of my career, and I was a business reporter at the time. But I spoke Polish and had written about Poland, so I successfully argued with my bosses to give me a shot.

Going to Baghdad with Diane Sawyer to interview Saddam Hussein for ABC News was also a wild experience. We interviewed him two months before he invaded Kuwait. Two things made a strong impression: first was the degree of fear that he instilled in everyone around him. Imagine the most nervous assistant to some Hollywood star and multiply it by a million; they were just terrified they’d be dead if they displeased him. The second was his utter isolation from and ignorance of the West. I think it explains in part his significantly gross miscalculation to invade Kuwait.

I also did a project called Democracy Plaza, which is the first time we took live election coverage at NBC News completely outdoors – we created studios and a three-block exhibition on American democracy. There was a map on the ice [of the Rockefeller Plaza skating rink]. It was really quite a thrilling production and sort of broke the mold on how you do elections. The principle of it, which I was very happy we carried through, was that as divisive as an election gets between candidates, we can all join together to celebrate the fact that we have a democracy.

the values and ethics they need to uphold, and a strong liberal arts foundation. I want them to leave equipped and confident to deal with the change that is 100 percent inevitable in their business as platforms come and go. I don’t think there is any business, any field right now that is changing more rapidly than communication.

What’s your vision for The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication?

Initially, I plan to do a lot of listening. I want to talk to students, to faculty, to alumni, and to departments across campus, and hear where they think the school is, where they would like to see us go, and how we can take it to the next level. I have several broad priorities: first, get the word out about the Herbert School. There is a very vibrant global conversation going on about the role of communication, and we need to be part of that discussion. Second, I want to build on what is already a very strong network of alumni and friends of the school. Lawrence Herbert made a tremendous gift to the school; I’ve gotten to know him, and he remains keenly interested in helping us achieve our mission. That gives us a great launching pad to build great relationships so we have the resources to do even more. Finally, led by our faculty, I want to look at what we are teaching to make sure we are benefiting our students by staying at the cutting edge, offering innovative programs, and really opening both their minds and our own to new approaches. I want to make sure the faculty are supported in exploring new ways to teach and new curricula, as well as in their own research and academic pursuits.

What would you be doing if you weren’t in journalism?

Speaking of democracy, you’ve said that the growth of digital media and communication technology affects civic life. Why is that connection important?

Believe it or not, I might have been a professional musician.

I was very involved in musical theater as a college student, and a lot of my friends in Canada are still professionally involved in the theater business. The summer I got my first I’ve often said that communication has never been more job as a reporter, I also got my first union music gig. It paid central to American life. The stories we tell each other, more and it paid cash. Luckily it was a gig at night; I was a whether in film or video or audio or the written word, the business reporter, so I wrote my pieces conversations we have, are giving more during the day before the market closed, people a voice and having a greater impact PLAYING THIS OR and I managed to do both until 10 weeks on what happens in society. How we use THAT with later when the show closed. I bought my first communication to deal with social problems, car with my music earnings, and that was my to deal with one another and our differences, last union gig. I’m a traditionally trained and how we confront challenges such as pianist, but my weird skill is that I mostly play poverty, the environment, or education are Coffee or tea by ear – if I know a song well enough to hum critical. Storytelling sounds like a folksy term, Paintings or drawings it, I can usually play it. but if you think about it, it’s really core to all Books or movies human interaction in society. You don’t usually Early bird or night owl tell someone to sit down and “tell me an Vanilla or chocolate issue.” You say, “tell me a story.” That’s how Winter or summer you motivate change and make a difference.

Dogs or cats (My dog Now as we’re preparing a generation would kill me if I said cats!) of students who are going to be Star Wars or Star Trek communications professionals, they have a Call or text responsibility to make sure their craft also Ice cream or frozen yogurt serves the civic life of the nation. I want them (Not even close!) to leave Hofstra with a strong sense of the Game of Thrones or history of communication, a strong sense of Walking Dead

@DeanLuk

Friday-Sunday, September 28-30

THE

Featuring performances

by DNCE, EN VOGUE, and SAVED

BY THE 90s

A PARTY WITH

EN VOGUE

Stay tuned to hofstra.edu/fallfestival for ticket information and updates.

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#HofstraVotes hofstra.edu/votes

Hofstra Votes is a series of programs on democracy, politics, and the issues at stake in the upcoming election, including a voter registration drive and get out the vote effort. Designed for students and our surrounding community, the goal of Hofstra Votes is to educate people on the issues in the news and at stake, as well as motivate people to be active participants in our democracy. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

SELECTED FALL 2018 HOFSTRA VOTES EVENTS Monday, September 17 i Noon-2 p.m.

Thursday, October 4 i noon-2 p.m.

Tuesday, October 23 i 2:20 p.m.

Bringing the Non-Delegation Doctrine Back to the Supreme Court? A Moot and Discussion of Gundy v. United States with the Attorneys Arguing the Case

Are Trade Wars “Easy to Win” or Even Worth Having? A Debate on the Trump Administration’s Trade Policy

Why Elections Matter: The Environment and Your Future Are on the Ballot

Tuesday, October 9 i 6:30 p.m.

Monday, September 17 i 6 p.m.

The Economy and the 2018 Elections – Does it Matter Who Wins? featuring Paul Krugman, American economist; Distinguished Professor of Economics, Graduate Center of the City University of New York; columnist, The New York Times

The Ethics of Immigration: Is U.S. Policy Immoral?

The New Tax Law: Truth and Consequences Tuesday, September 25 i 12:40-2:10 p.m.

Policy and the 2018 Midterm Elections: The Challenge of Iran Wednesday, September 26 i 2:55-4:20 p.m.

Immigration and Deportation Tuesday, October 2 i 6:30 p.m.

International Day of Non-Violence featuring The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Thursday, October 11 i 9:35 a.m.-12:35 p.m.

How Did the 1968 Elections Change American Politics?

A 50-Year Retrospective on Elections and Foreign Policy Thursday, October 11 i 6:30 p.m.

Know Your Lines: Gerrymandering U.S. Elections

Wednesday, October 24 i 2:55-4:20 p.m.

Thursday, October 25 i 6:30 p.m.

The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America, With Shawn Rochester Monday, October 29 i 4:30 p.m.

The 2018 Donald J. Sutherland Lecture presents Relic: How Our Constitution Undermines Effective Government – And Why We Need a More Powerful Presidency featuring William G. Howell, Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics, University of Chicago Thursday, November 15 i 9:35-11 a.m.

How Will the 2018 Elections Influence Policymaking and the 2020 Race for the White House?

For more information on these and other Hofstra Votes events, go to hofstra.edu/votes. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

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a z r e Fu erto Rico Pu ents, , Hofstra stud rs a ye o tw st a than Over the p e logged more av h ff a st d n a faculty, service. of community rs u o h 0 0 ,0 0 12

aria r Hurricane M Six months afte winds and with 150 mph co Ri to er Pu students and ravaged up of Hofstra ro g a ll, fa in ra ortion of the 36 inches of the southern p to ed el av tr relief administrators ak helping the re B g rin Sp r d thei island to spen efforts. l ost meaningfu : ‘What’s the m es lv se ur o er d rm “We aske ia Andrade, fo w?’” said Claud no ht ervise the p rig su ce la ed p who help , ts en ud st of assistant dean erto Rico.” arts set on Pu he ur o d ha e trip. “W to Rico in family in Puer d te si vi d ha 9 ’1 Genesis Rivera ed to return. was determin d an , 17 20 er Decemb come ew I wanted to kn I d an n, tio the truc said. “One of “I saw the des e way,” Rivera m so in with h lp uc he g in to back and me was gettin to s g in th t y d an most import know somebo d letting them an at re he le p eo the p here and be th Getting to be . em th lp he is here to h.” ted me so muc person impac and cleared brush The students mes. They debris from ho all eaned a baseb painted and cl pare it for the stadium to pre ith on, working w upcoming seas so al who were former players nd the ballpark. A helping rehab es with the famili they bonded with d an the way, they met along each other. this who came on “The students y rised me ever trip have surp n ee hl at K ,” said step of the way d an cy udent advoca t director of st an st si cited as ex h, d lic an Lieb w willing ho y “b s, es aren st how gracious prevention aw in need and ju se o th lp he l week.” they are to ey’ve served al th w ho in n they’ve all bee Hofstra

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Congratulations to the following faculty on their recent publications, awards, and leadership appointments.

HOFSTRA FACULTY PUBLICATIONS ROBERT BRINKMANN

Professor of Geology, Environment and Sustainability; Vice Provost for Scholarship and Research; Dean of Graduate Studies and SANDRA GARREN Assistant Professor of Geology, Environment and Sustainability; Director of Sustainability Studies Editors, The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability Case Studies and Practical Solutions Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

ALAFAIR BURKE

Professor of Law The Wife Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017

CRAIG BURNETT

Assistant Professor of Political Science Government and Politics in New York State Sage Publishers, 2018

J. SCOTT COLESANTI

Professor of Legal Writing t Oral Advocacy: Style and Substance Carolina Academic Press, 2017 t Fairness, Inc.: The Origins (and Billion-Dollar Bonuses) of Rule 10b-5 as America’s Insider Trading Prohibition Carolina Academic Press, 2018

ROBERTO JOSEPH

KATIE SELL

ANDREA LIBRESCO

ALAN SINGER

Associate Professor of Teaching, Learning and Technology Co-editor, with Angela D. Benson and Joi L. Moore Culture, Learning, and Technology: Research and Practice Routledge, 2017 Professor of Teaching, Learning and Technology Notable Books, Notable Lessons: Putting Social Studies Back in the K-8 Curriculum ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017

VICENTE LLEDÓ-GUILLEM

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures The Making of Catalan Linguistic Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Times Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

KELLY MCMASTERS

HOFSTRA FACULTY AWARDS and LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS

GEORGE J. PAPAIOANNOU

Siggi B. Wilzig Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Rights Making Habeas Work: A Legal History NYU Press, 2018

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Finance and

AHMET K. KARAGOZOGLU

C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Finance and Investment Banking Underwriting Services and the New Issues Market Academic Press, 2017

ANDREA PERKINS NERLICH

Professor of Economics and Geography Eco-Capitalism: Carbon Money, Climate Finance, and Sustainable Development Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Associate Professor of Counseling and Mental Health Professions; Director, Rehabilitation Counseling Programs Co-editor, with Kathleen M. Glynn Psychology of Disability Aspen Professional Service, 2018

HOWARD HAUSMAN

STANISLAO PUGLIESE

ROBERT GUTTMANN

Adjunct Professor of Engineering Microwave Power Amplifier Design with MMIC Modules Artech House, 2018

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Associate Professor of History Knowledge, Power, and Women’s Reproductive Health in Japan, 1690-1945 Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

ALEXANDAR MIHAILOVIC

DEBORAH DOLAN

ERIC M. FREEDMAN

YUKI TERAZAWA

MARTIN WIND

Professor Emeritus of English A Letter to My Father: A Memoir Hamilton Books, 2017 Associate Professor of Library Services A Research Guide to Psychology: Print and Electronic Sources Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018

Professor of Teaching, Learning and Technology; Director, Social Studies Education Programs New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee: Essays on Slavery, Resistance, Abolition, Teaching and Historical Memory SUNY Press, 2018

Assistant Professor of English Co-editor, with Margot Kahn This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home Seal Press/Hachette Book Group, 2017 Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Russian The Mitki and the Art of Postmodern Protest in Russia University of Wisconsin Press, 2018

G. THOMAS COUSER

Associate Professor of Health Professions; Director, BS in Exercise Science Program Co-editor, with Brent A. Alvar and Patricia Deuster NSCA’s Essentials of Tactical Strength and Conditioning Human Kinetics, 2017

Professor of History; Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professor of Italian-American Studies Co-editor, with William J. Connell The Routledge History of Italian Americans Routledge, 2017

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Released his 11th album, Light Blue, spring 2018

ROBIN AKSELRUD

Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy; Academic Fieldwork Coordinator, Occupational Therapy Graduate Program t Appointed Leadership & Management Coordinator, Home & Community Health Special Interest Standing Committee, American Occupational Therapy Association

JASE BERNHARDT

Assistant Professor of Geology, Environment and Sustainability t Dissertation Medal in Applied Climatology, American Association of State Climatologists, 2018

PETER BOONSHAFT

Professor of Music; Director of Bands t Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center Fellow, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College

HOFSTRA FACULTY AWARDS and LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS continued CRAIG BURNETT

RUSSELL HARBAUGH

BEN BURRINGTON

DYANE HARVEY-SALAAM

Assistant Professor of Political Science t Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center Fellow, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy t Scholar Program, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, 2018-2021

JULIE BYRNE

Professor of Religion; Monsignor Thomas J. Hartman Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies t National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar, 2018 t Religion News Association Award for her book The Other Catholics: Remaking America’s Largest Religion, 2017

CHANDLER CARTER

Professor of Music t Awarded a commission by Opera for All Voices, a consortium of regional opera companies, to complete his opera This Little Light of Mine

RONALD J. COLOMBO

Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Distance Education t Authorship, beginning with 2017-2018 edition, of annual corporate law treatise Liability of Corporate Officers and Directors

GREGORY DeFREITAS

Professor of Economics; Director, Labor Studies Program; Director, Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy t Elected Chief University Representative, United Association for Labor Education

SUSAN DRUCKER

Professor of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations t Walter J. Ong Award for Career Achievement in Scholarship, Media Ecology Association, 2018 t Named Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor of Journalism

JOHANNA FRANKLIN

Associate Professor of Mathematics t Distinguished Teaching Award, Metropolitan New York Section of the Mathematical Association of America

NICOLE FRANKLIN

Assistant Professor of Radio, Television, Film t Lifetime Achievement Award, Reel Sisters of the African Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series, 2017

Assistant Professor of Radio, Television, Film t Director and co-writer of feature film Love After Love; Theatrical opening, IFC Center, New York City, March 2018 Adjunct Associate Professor of Drama and Dance t Bessie Award for outstanding performance during Dance Africa’s 40th Anniversary Season

HOWARD KASSINOVE

Professor Emeritus of Psychology t Recipient, Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Trust Award, 2017

MARILYN LEHMAN

Adjunct Professor of Music t Honoree, Usdan Summer Camp for the Creative and Performing Arts 50th Anniversary Gala

THEO LIEBMANN

Clinical Professor of Law; Director of Clinical Programs t Reporter, Ethics Compendium, American Immigration Lawyers Association

VALERIA LUISELLI Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures t Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award, for Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions t Arts for Justice Fund Bearing Witness Fellowship, to write about mass incarceration

WALTER MARKOWITZ

Assistant Professor of Health Professions t Appointed, Oyster Bay-North Hempstead Workforce Development Board

JOSEPH MASHECK

Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts, Design, Art History t Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art, College Art Association

DENNIS MAZZOCCO

Professor of Radio, Television, Film t Re-elected, National Board of Directors Guild of America t Emmy Award for work as stage manager on ABC’s Good Morning America, 2017

GEORGE NICHOLAS

Assistant Professor of Radio, Television, Film t Cinematographer and producer of feature film 7 Splinters in Time t Jury New Vision Award, Cinequest, March 2018 (also world premiere) t Theatrical release, New York City and Los Angeles, July 2018

CHRISTINE NOSCHESE

Associate Professor of Radio, Television, Film; Director and writer of the film Brooklyn Roses t Best Documentary Feature, FIC Autor (Author’s International Film Festival), Guadalajara, Mexico, 2017 t Best Documentary, Gulf of Naples Independent Film Festival, Italy, 2018 t U.S. premiere, Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, 2018

THE HONORABLE GAIL PRUDENTI

Dean, Maurice A. Deane School of Law t Honoree, We Care Golf and Tennis Classic, We Care Fund of the Nassau County Bar Association, 2018

ALEXANDER J. ROSKIN

Professor of Fine Arts, Design, Art History t Ongoing exhibit, Todd Merrill Studios, New York t Exhibited, Art Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 2017 t Exhibited, Design Miami, Miami, FL, 2017 t Exhibited, Design Miami/Basel, Switzerland, 2017

MICHAEL SALZMAN

Adjunct Associate Professor of Music t President, New York State School Music Association, 2018-2020

ANTHONY SANTELLA

Associate Professor of Health Professions t Appointed, Board of Directors, United Way of Long Island and The HIV League

WENDY C. SILVERMAN

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences; Director, SpeechLanguage-Hearing Clinic, Joan and Arnold Saltzman Community Services Center t Secretary, Greater New York Council of Academic Clinical Educators in Communication Disorders and Sciences

JOHN VACCARO

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering t Vice Chairperson-elect, Long Island Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2018-2020

ELLEN YAROSHEFSKY

Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics; Executive Director, Monroe H. Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics t Founders Award, Center for Constitutional Rights, 2018

EDWARD ZYCHOWICZ

Professor of Finance t Named Lawrence A. Stessin Distinguished Professor in Business History Hofstra

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HOFSTRA ATHLETICS

Rick Cole Jr.

GAME ON

Rick Cole Jr., former vice president of athletics administration at Iona College, was named director of athletics at Hofstra University on March 28, 2018, and began his duties on May 21. Cole has wideranging experiences in athletics administration, expertise in fundraising and marketing, and a fierce dedication to the success of student-athletes.

Prior to Iona, Cole served as vice president of athletics and athletic director at Dowling College, senior associate athletic director for external affairs at St. John's University, and associate athletic director for external affairs and advancement at Stony Brook University.

Cole earned a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in higher education from the University at Buffalo, where he played volleyball. He and his wife, Brooke, a former women’s basketball player at Buffalo and a former assistant basketball coach for the Pride, have three children – Taylor, Mackenzie, and Trey.

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=

A CONVERSATION WITH RICK COLE JR. attracted you to Hofstra University and the • What director of athletics position?

Hofstra’s history matched with the future potential of Hofstra, along with the institutional brand and its greatness in the region. It really is a perfect fit for me and my family. The leadership of the University is committed to winning in academics and athletics. They are also committed to a program that has integrity and student-athlete welfare as the priorities.

• I have had the opportunity to learn from a lot of great people.

Who are some of your mentors, and why?

I will start with Professor [William] Greiner, who was president at the University at Buffalo, because of his ability as a strong leader and an incredibly hard worker. He had a great broadbased vision for the institution yet was still able to reach people on an individual level. [Senior Associate Director of Athletics] Tom Koller was my first boss at Buffalo, and he taught me that you can work incredibly hard and be a great professional, but you need to find balance with your family and make them a priority. Dr. Richard Laskowski at Stony Brook University, Dr. Joseph E. Nyre of Iona, and Gloria Henn have been instrumental in my personal and professional development.

I have also been lucky to have some great peer mentors such as my teammates at Buffalo. We had the benefit of learning from each other, both personally and professionally.

have your past experiences prepared you • How for this job?

I think higher education continues to be a challenging and ever-changing environment. Having the diversity of working at institutions that were similar but in some respects different from Hofstra will provide me with the experience to meet the goals of our program. I believe my experiences have helped me have the courage and expertise to elevate a program during an ever-changing culture in higher education and intercollegiate athletics. I have been fortunate to experience some incredible successes and some incredible challenges along my professional journey. I think that each phase of my career has helped prepare me for where I am today, and for the challenges and opportunities that we collectively will face.

goals do you have for the Hofstra Athletics • What program?

I think the goals are to evaluate where we are and to develop the road map of how we move forward as an institution and an intercollegiate athletics program. I want to build on Hofstra’s history of producing incredible student-athletes who are successful and more than just the sport they play. I also believe we can have regional and national success that will strengthen and raise the profile of the University. I don’t think these goals are accomplished in a vacuum or by the work of one person.

I think success will happen because there is a clear vision that our staff, student-athletes, University leadership, alumni, fans,

and supporters will get behind and work tirelessly to achieve.

We will build a dynamic culture that is collective in its responsibility to our student-athletes’ success. Our goal will be to hold ourselves to the highest of expectations in academics and athletics.

are your feelings on the partnership •What between athletics and academics at Hofstra?

I feel that the primary objective of our student-athletes is to come to Hofstra for their overall growth – personally, academically, and athletically. Student-athlete success should drive our decision-making process. Our success measures are not just reflected on the scoreboard, they are also gauged by students’ success in preparation for life after Hofstra, the contributions they make to Hofstra and to their teammates while they are here, and the contributions they make following graduation. We will work with our faculty and staff to provide the vehicles for support as our student-athletes prioritize academic success.

are your thoughts on the Long Island community • What and how important they are for the Hofstra community?

I think Long Island and Hofstra are incredibly important to each other. We are one of two Division I programs on Long Island, and I think we have to engage our community, not just through service to the community or to have the community’s support, but to have a true partnership. The relationship needs to be strong and symbiotic.

there anything else that you would like to say to the •IsHofstra community?

We want to be an athletics program that truly makes a difference for our institution, for our community, and most of all, for our student-athletes. We have an incredible history at Hofstra and invite everyone to be part of our future success.

We strive to be a model program that puts student-athlete success at the forefront of everything we do. We want our alumni and fans to be proud of the Pride. We welcome your support and guidance, and look forward to seeing you at as many athletic events as possible. We will not succeed without the help of many. Please join us in supporting our student athletes – an incredible group of men and women that work tirelessly to represent us every day!

RICK COLE JR. STAT SHEET Favorite professional sports team: New York Yankees Favorite beach on Long Island: Rogers Beach (Westhampton) Favorite class in college: Financing Higher Education Favorite restaurant: Mannino’s (Oakdale, NY) Last book I read: Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life ... And Maybe the World

by Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy, ret.)

Favorite pizza topping: Vegetable Favorite Band/Musician: Anything country

Go Pride!

POSITIONED for SUCCESS WHEN HOFSTRA HEAVYWEIGHT WRESTLER MICHAEL HUGHES STEPPED UP TO THE ALL-AMERICAN PODIUM AT THE 2018 NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN CLEVELAND THIS PAST MARCH, HE WAS REALIZING A DREAM THAT WAS 17 YEARS IN THE MAKING.

“Freshman year was my first losing season,” Hughes said. “It was part of the big change and it was difficult mentally. I didn’t enjoy losing and I was questioning myself. I had to work my butt off to get back to where I was.”

But as Hughes rolled toward a New York state championship as a senior wrestler at Smithtown West High School on Long Island, and a 109-9 career scholastic record, he had a decision to make: which sport to pursue in college.

He credits Hofstra alumnus Luke Vaith with helping him turn things around.

He’d never had a losing season in wrestling but was an all-division and all-county selection in football, too.

“Even though I love team sports,” he said, “I also like the aspect of winning or losing on my own in wrestling.”

Hughes is a gentle giant, and the transition from high school to college was not easy. “I was a shy person entering college,” Hughes said. “Once I am used to the environment, I become more outgoing. My freshman year I really didn’t talk much. I had to adapt to a whole new situation, including competition, school schedule, practice, and studying. It was definitely a big adjustment.”

In fact, his rookie year was his only losing season at Hofstra (13-20), as an underweight heavyweight.

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“My success has been a whole group effort, and there is no way that I could ever repay all those who helped me,” Hughes said. “Luke Vaith was probably the biggest influence on me. Watching his work ethic and how much effort he put in at practice and pushing his body to be successful, was something I didn’t know how to do yet. He was a really big help getting that mindset going.”

And get going he did.

He improved to 22-11 as a sophomore under new coach Dennis Papadatos.

Hughes’ junior year saw him place third in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA), earn an NCAA Championship bid at Madison Square Garden, and post a career-best and NCAA-leading 41-10 record.

After a 29-2 redshirt season in 2016-2017, Hughes knew that much was expected of him in the next season.

He didn’t disappoint.

With the EIWA Championships at Hofstra, Hughes became the first two-time NCAA heavyweight qualifier since Don Mayorga (1974-1976). He was also Hofstra’s first heavyweight AllAmerican since Joel Kislin in 1973.

Hughes finished the season with a 39-6 record. His 19 wins by fall earned him the NCAA Division I Award for Most Pins in 2017-2018.

HOFSTRA ATHLETICS

“My parents signed me up for the kids wrestling program at the high school when I was 5 or 6,” Hughes said. “But growing up I played a bunch of sports.

By high school it was just wrestling, football, and track.”

Michael Hughes

Hughes, who served as Hofstra StudentAthlete Advisory Committee president in 2017-2018, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health sciences.

“My two high school coaches (Jim Giugliano and Ken Leverich) are both physical education and health teachers, and I always thought they were great role models,” he said.

He expects to earn a master’s degree in athletic training from Hofstra in 2019.

“My years at Hofstra were awesome,” Hughes said. “Having the studentathlete camaraderie and support system that Hofstra provides really made for a tremendous experience.

I look forward to completing my master’s degree while helping out the program next year.”

Go Pride!

2018 Guru Nanak Prize goes to Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding A nonprofit organization that promotes religious understanding in schools, workplaces, health care settings, and regions of armed conflict across the globe was awarded Hofstra University’s 2018 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize.

The Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, founded 25 years ago and based in Lower Manhattan, offers programs and resources that provide educators, physicians, and corporate leaders with practical tools for addressing religious differences and creating cultures that respect religious diversity. It was founded in 1992 by Dr. Georgette F. Bennett, in memory of her late husband, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, a humanitarian interfaith leader.

Through its Peacemakers in Action Network, Tanenbaum also facilitates and supports collaborations by a network of individuals from varied religious traditions who promote grassroots and interfaith peacebuilding efforts around the world. The Network currently consists of 28 individuals from 23 regions.

“Tanenbaum is an extraordinary organization that embodies the principles of Guru Nanak,” said Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz. “Tanenbaum empowers people with concrete strategies that lead to greater religious understanding and inclusion in societal institutions.”

Tanenbaum is also an inaugural member of the now 330+ participant CEO Action Diversity and Inclusion movement, and is in the third year of its public education campaign Combating Extremism, which aims to dispel stereotypes, inspire interreligious respect, and provide trustworthy information about current religion-related issues.

Dr. Benjamin Rifkin, dean of Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said: “Tanenbaum’s accomplishments and mission are a perfect manifestation of the vision for this award, which is based on the conviction that we have much to learn from the traditions of others.”

The $50,000 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize is bestowed every two years to recognize significant work to increase interfaith

understanding. The award was formally presented to the Tanenbaum Center at a banquet in April 2018.

The first Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize was awarded in 2008 to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. Since then, eight individuals and organizations have been recognized with the Guru Nanak Prize.

“Receiving the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize is an honor of the highest order,” said Tanenbaum CEO Joyce S. Dubensky. “To be recognized as an advocate for the same values embodied by Guru Nanak — justice, equality, respect, and compassion — is an affirmation of everything Tanenbaum seeks to achieve.”

The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize was established in 2006 by Ishar Bindra and family and named for the founder of the Sikh religion.

It is meant to encourage understanding of various religions and cooperation among faith communities.

In September 2000, the Bindra family endowed the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies at Hofstra University in honor of the family’s matriarch.

Tejinder Bindra, speaking on behalf of the Bindra family, noted when the award was inaugurated that Guru Nanak espoused a message of universal brotherhood at a time of increasing religious intolerance in India during the 15th and 16th centuries.

“It is in this spirit that the Guru Nanak Prize was initiated,” Bindra said. “If one can experience that universality, then there is absolutely no room left for differences in race, color, caste, creed, religion, or gender, and then as the Sikh scripture tells us, ‘I see no stranger.’”

“The award recipients may or may not be Sikh and may represent any of the multitudes of faiths or, for that matter, even no particular faith at all,” Bindra said. “It is their dedication that brings humankind to their shared destiny, common purpose, and roots that they honor.”

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Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Hofstra University

Hempstead, New York 11549 Vol. 30 No. 1 • The Year in Review 2017-2018

78814:09/18

hofstra.edu/votes #HofstraVotes

Hofstra Votes is a series of programs on democracy, politics, and the issues at stake in the upcoming election, including a voter registration drive and get out the vote effort. Designed for students and our surrounding community, the goal of Hofstra Votes is to educate people on the issues in the news and at stake, as well as motivate people to be active participants in our democracy.