Touro LINKS Fall 2023

FROM TO

TOURO EXTRAORDINARY

SOCIAL WORK ALUM STEPHANIE SMILEY EMPOWERS STUDENTS AND SAVES A FAILING SCHOOL. P 16

THE DIVISIONS OF GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES • FALL 2023

IN THIS ISSUE OF TOURO LINKS, WE CELEBRATE THE INNOVATIONS, SPIRIT AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR TOURO ALUMNI. FROM RESEARCH TO PATIENT CARE AND EDUCATION, TOURO ALUMS ARE INNOVATING IN EVERY FIELD . SUPPORT TOURO UNIVERSITY TOURO.EDU/GIVING

MESSAGE FROM DR. PATRICIA SALKIN

As alumni of the Graduate and Professional Divisions, you well know how innovation is fostered, encouraged and promoted at Touro University. In this issue of Touro LINKS alumni magazine, we chose a theme that epitomizes Touro University—innovation for the sake of helping others. Touro University is a leader in higher education precisely because of the innovative and entrepreneurial mindset that flourishes among faculty, administration, students and of course, our alumni.

This issue highlights the extraordinary achievements of our alumni who use their creative talents and professional expertise to develop effective solutions to meet the needs of their patients, clients, students and society at large. The stories of the extraordinary alumni and faculty on these pages are illustrative of the many Touro graduates who use the knowledge they acquired at Touro to change lives.

As a University, Touro’s willingness to implement innovative curricular reforms has led to countless opportunities to support people in reaching their career and professional goals. The Flex-JD program highlighted in this magazine is one such example. Touro now also offers a fully online MSW program and other flexible teaching and learning modalities that maintain highly rigorous yet accessible educational opportunities for students across the country, and across the world.

As you read this issue of Touro LINKS, take pride in the achievements of your alma mater and your fellow alumni who are innovating for the sake of improving and impacting lives for so many in a diverse array of fields. It is my honor to serve you as Provost for the Graduate and Professional Divisions and I invite you to reach out to me at patricia.salkin@touro.edu to share news of your personal and professional accomplishments. I also extend a special thank you to Dr. Nadja Graff, Vice President Emerita of the Graduate Division, who spearheaded this publication since 2014. Looking forward to connecting with all of you.

With warm regards,

Patricia E. Salkin, JD, Ph.D. Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Provost, Graduate and Professional Divisions

THEY SEE RED

A Touro internist and researcher inspires her medical students to study the source of life

EVERYONE CAN LEARN

SPECIAL ED TEACHER PROVES THAT HIGH SCHOOL

KIDS WITH AUTISM CAN ACE COMPUTER CODING

hile working on her master’s degree at Touro’s Graduate School of Technology (GST), Khalilah Summers made a decision. This is a woman who doesn’t simply decide something. She drives that decision at high speed, and everyone better get on board or get out of the way.

Summers told her principal at The Brooklyn Transition Center, which provides specialized instructional support to special needs high school students, that she wanted to teach her students— most on the autism spectrum—how to code. While attending Touro’s GST, she realized she no longer wanted to teach social studies. She wanted to prepare her special needs high schoolers for 21stcentury jobs.

“The school has great labs to teach the kids all sorts of work skills, like operating a hydroponics lab, taking food orders, cleaning or working at a drugstore, but I wanted to reach higher for their futures,” says Summers, who graduated in June 2022 while teaching full time. “I knew these kids could learn coding concepts, how to create apps, robotic and virtual reality fundamentals.”

The principal said to go for it and off Summers went, vroom, vroom.

She raised money through grants and found and charmed donors. With resources in hand, Summers filled the lab with computers, 16 robots, 20 Oculus Quest 2 and much more. “Coding and other computer work can be repetitive and that melds perfectly with students on the autism spectrum because they can really hone in on coding concepts and they thrive on repetitive tasks,” she says. “You should see what they can do! I’m filled with pride at their accomplishments and their joy. I’ve had some kids come in on their lunch break because they love what they’re doing so much, they want to do it all day.”

It was Touro that gave Summers the confidence, the education and the guidance that helped realize her life’s ambition. “I already had an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in teaching from other schools,” explains the married mother of four, who worked for JPMorgan for many years before deciding to become a special education teacher. “The minute I walked into Touro, I had two thoughts: I knew I was in the right place, and I wished I’d gotten all of my degrees from Touro. The classes were relevant, not a lot of fluff… it’s geared toward working and succeeding in the real world,” continues Summers, who got her GST degree in instructional technology. “They treated students as adults and that’s how we saw ourselves, partners and equals.”

Summers, an only child, was reared by her nurse mother in New York City. Still, says Summers, her father was “an amazing dad, who was hellbent on my getting an excellent education.”

Though she was an A student, Summers suffered with ADHD that wasn’t diagnosed until she was an adult. Two of her children also struggle with ADHD, so their mother, the teacher, has learned what works best for her own kids, as well as her other 62 children—her special needs students. “I learned this at Touro and as a parent: Everyone can learn,” she says. “I just have to figure out ways and strategies to teach each of my students so they can reach their unique potential.”

Khalilah Summers uses technology to reach her special needs students

H A N DI

WORK

A TOURO OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST CREATED A COMFY HAND SPLINT—AND A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY

earning in the classroom is important, but putting that knowledge to practical use in the real world can be life-changing.

Case in point: Chavi Perelman, who graduated from Touro’s School of Health Sciences in occupational therapy, took what she learned as a student and created a lighter, agile and more affordable hand splint that she uses on her patients at Montgomery Orthopedics in Maryland.

“The Touro program really focused on creativity and innovation,” says Perelman, 33, who graduated in 2014 and more recently co-founded the company, Hook Splint. That’s in addition to her clinical work as an occupational therapist, who is a certified hand therapist. “In every class, it was ingrained that no goal was out of reach for our patients. It’s not ‘Can I?’ but ‘How can I?’”

In Perelman’s case, the hand splint idea sprung directly from the creativity and imagination of a child. Her child. Three years ago, her daughter Chaya, then 6, made her mother a braided pipe cleaner bracelet. Perelman began playing with the pink, purple and blue gift and experienced a light bulb moment. She took her hand splint idea—okay, her and Chaya’s idea—to Dr. Harrison Solomon, a top hand surgeon in Maryland. He was not fond of what was then on the market. He heard complaint after complaint from his patients on hand splints made of heavy and irritating, thermoplastic material that required the laborious process of having to be heated and molded. Worse, they felt bulky and unwieldy on the fingers.

ENTER HOOK SPLINT

“It was during the pandemic and the clinic was so slow that we had time to think about it and work on it and perfect it,” Perelman says. They consulted with engineers and came up with a new silicone coated band that feels like an Apple Watch band or silicone ring. “We

Chavi Perelman confers with a colleague

started off with one size and now we have three sizes and thicknesses and are working on a fourth. We’ve also launched a hand and arm roller. Patients love our splints and wear them longer because they’re so comfortable and light and they do the job they were meant to do. It makes me happy to see patients’ recovery made easier.”

Initially, Perelman and Solomon focused on re-inventing the relative motion orthosis (RMO), which is used in treating a variety of conditions, including finger stiffness and hand pain. An RMO is a splint that places one finger relatively extended or flexed compared to the adjacent fingers. By playing with the pipe cleaner bracelet, she and Solomon spent two years working on Hook Splint. What they came up with are coated bands, which are easy to make and ready to use out of the bag. No heat is required to mold them like the alternative options. Thousands of the hand splints have been sold in the U.S. and Canada and as far as Australia and New Zealand. “Our patients are wearing their splints much longer, as they don’t have to deal with skin irritation since the Hook Splint is much more hygienic than what is on the market.”

Perelman’s success has not gone to her head. Daughter Chaya, now 9, has seen to that. “She chose me when writing an essay about someone she admires,” says Perelman, laughing with maternal delight. “But she also admires herself for presenting me with a gift that gave me the idea.”

“OUR PATIENTS ARE WEARING AS THEY DON’T HAVE TO THEIR SPLINTS MUCH LONGER DEAL WITH SKIN IRRITATION.”

flexit

One of Aron Pirov’s favorite professors at Touro Law Center is Myra Berman. Decades separate the student from the professor in age, but coincidence and life circumstances are irrevocable binders.

Pirov graduated in 2022, as a member of the inaugural class of Touro Law Center’s FlexTime program, perhaps the only such initiative in the country where students attend classes on Sundays only—including mandatory summer semesters— and receive their law degree in four years. Some students even fly in from other cities for their classes, finding that commute easier than having to

attend school four nights a week.

Pirov could not be prouder or more grateful for the FlexTime program. He is a husband, a parent and a full-time social worker for the City of New York.

And now, at age 43, he is a lawyer. “I’ve wanted to, and tried to, go to law school for a very long time,” says Pirov, who came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan as a teen. “Even part-time evening law schools were impossible. Work all day, long commute and then sit through classes into the night and then travel home, do homework, sleep and do it again and again. Impossible. This is one reason I

TOURO HAS CREATED A TRULY FLEXIBLE JD PROGRAM, TRANSFORMING DREAMS INTO REALITY FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO STUDY LAW

love Professor Berman, besides that she is a very good teacher and human being. She understands what I’ve gone through.”

Perfectly.

Berman did manage the impossible, attending Touro Law in the evenings while working full time, graduating in 2005. Today she is a professor as well as Touro Law’s associate dean for experiential learning and special programs, which includes FlexTime. “I attended law school when I was 52,” says Berman, who was a single mother who waited until her two children were grown to realize her dream. “I worked full time as a social worker just like Aron. It was hard and exhausting with the commute and a demanding job, but I did it. What I would have given if this program existed then. I’m just happy that Aron and others get this opportunity to study the law. I’m proud to say that these FlexTime students are not your average students, and they are excelling in class and fulfilling their dreams.”

They’re generally older, have established careers and their life experiences enable them to appreciate the privilege of being able to attend law school. There were 17 students in the first graduating class

of May 2022—the majority were eager to begin their second career as attorneys.

“They are more mature, and the learning curve is so different from the average law student,” says Berman, who teaches constitutional law, family law and criminal law. “Our FlexTime program student body includes nurses, social workers, high-ranking members of the New York Police Department, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and so many others—such a diversity of experiences and knowledge, which in turn make such an impact on every other student and on myself as their educator. They are passionate to learn about the language, the knowledge and practice of law.”

The law is a language in which Pirov is now fluent. He hopes to work as a lawyer for the city agency where he’s been employed as a social worker and supervisor since 2005. “Everyone warned me about how difficult it would be to pass the bar exam,” he says. “I passed it on my first try. I am not trying to brag. I am proud. I thank the kind and wonderful Professor Berman and everyone at Touro Law. They make possible what was for so many people, impossible.”

Top Right: Professor Berman hoods Aron Pirov at graduation

Failing SAVING A SCHOOL

TOURO SOCIAL WORKER SAVES A STRUGGLING HIGH SCHOOL BY HELPING STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES

hen former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a Town Hall at August Martin High School in Queens to announce new programs for local kids, Stephanie Smiley stepped up to the mic with a very specific ask: “You’ve visited our school a few times, but haven’t seen our football field, which needs a complete overall. Will you give us the money to fix our school’s dilapidated football field?”

“He said, ‘Ms. Smiley, I’m definitely going to do that. I promise you,’” recalls Smiley, who was school secretary but functioning like the school social worker—the position she holds today.

Smiley completed her MSW degree at Touro Graduate School of Social Work in 2022, and credits Touro with building her confidence to apply for the social worker position and believing that her degree—coupled with experience—would meet the challenge.

“I’m grateful for the opportunities afforded to me by Touro and the amazing professors who reinforced my longing to advocate not just for others, but for myself,” she says. “The professors taught me to add value to the work we do, and I’m doing that by applying theories and critical thinking strategies.”

A FAILING SCHOOL…

At the time of the former mayor’s visit, August Martin had come full circle from being designated a failing school targeted for closure. After meeting benchmarks that showed improvement, it was removed from a list of schools slated for receivership. It had met or exceeded targets for attendance, college readiness scores and graduation rates, which previously hovered at 23 percent.

Smiley was trying valiantly to restore faith in the school among students, their families and the local community. She reached out to her extensive contacts and rallied public officials to engage in the effort.

“I strongly believe social workers must be positive disrupters,” she says. “A failing school affects the

entire community. Once you’re on the list for closing, no one is looking to give you new science labs and football fields. They had written us off.”

…AND A LOYAL ALUMNA

Smiley also happens to be a loyal alumna of August Martin, which has a rich history dating back to 1942 and was known for its aviation program. She excelled at the school and enjoyed her time there. Though proudly raised in Brooklyn, she loved her school enough to commute to Queens. She is also a long-time and active member of its south Queens neighborhood, where she lives today with her husband and three sons.

“I always wanted to go back and contribute,” she recalls. “As a teenager, members of the school community saw more in me than I saw in myself. They invested and advocated for me during my adolescence, and I wanted to be that champion for someone else.”

She had the backing of the new principal, who recruited her for her community ties and experience during a 15-year career as a teaching assistant and parent coordinator. But she always aspired to be a social worker, which became official after starting her studies at Touro.

“I was the face of a rebranding. I told the story of what August Martin once was, and I’m living proof of what can occur when someone cares and invests in our community,” she says. “There was a lot of mistrust,” and changing attitudes and behavior “was like triaging in an emergency room.”

HONORED FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE

At her Touro graduation, Smiley was honored with a Community Service Award for her tireless efforts. She empowered the students, referred to as “scholars” under the new administration. They were fighting and skipping school, and if they attended, “no one was taking notes,” she recalls. “There was no structure and the school community had been labeled ‘failing’ for so long, they began to believe the reports.”

Smiley’s theory was to reframe the fighting by teaching them that they were worthy of fighting for a better future for each other. This helped ignite a passion to better themselves and the school. The scholars designed new uniforms with the school logo and definition of ‘scholar’ on the back of polo shirts. They accompanied Smiley to recruitment events and community board meetings as school ambassadors who advocated for their needs.

She was moved by their modest and heartfelt wishes. “They wanted good teachers,” she says, “and someone to believe in them.”

Smiley also reached beyond the classroom. Services overlapped and scholars didn’t always know where to go for help. Changes were made to broaden support and “social-emotional learning” competencies—government-mandated curricula designed to help students identify and manage their feelings—were infused into lesson planning.

She also introduced some fun by resurrecting a step dancing program to promote self-esteem and leadership, and became an advisor to My Sister’s Keeper, a mentorship group that provides social and emotional support for girls. During the pandemic, when scholars were discouraged and feeling down about school, she created a humorous video about attendance, “Spotty,” to encourage them to

“A FAILING SCHOOL AFFECTS THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY. NO ONE IS LOOKING TO GIVE YOU NEW SCIENCE LABS AND FOOTBALL FIELDS.”

stay on track.

“It’s not just about learning,” she explains. “It’s also about whether students are hungry, getting over coping with the loss of a loved one and balancing trauma they’re dealing with while learning. That became my passion, getting them to trust the school and the process.”

Today, August Martin still offers training academies in aviation and other vocational careers, like culinary arts. Smiley proudly takes credit for restoring valuable school partnerships with the Federal Aviation Administration, JetBlue and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Enrollment and attendance are up, and the graduation rate last June stood at 98 percent.

Recently, her dedication and support in the community was recognized with an award from New York State Senator James Sanders Jr., and NYC Department of Education Chancellor David Banks visited the school and observed the social emotional learning circle. And something amazing came out of an exchange between a NYC politician and an aspiring school social worker: Smiley now serves on a committee designing an $11.2 million state-of-the-art sports facility for baseball, track and soccer and, of course, a brand new football field!

Top: Stephanie Smiley with former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio as she requests funds to rebuild the school’s sports facility

Bottom: This award-winning professional is impacting education as well as mental health

They See Red e

A TOURO INTERNIST AND RESEARCHER INSPIRES HER MEDICAL STUDENTS TO STUDY THE SOURCE OF LIFE

“I am teaching them to be patient, very, very patient—the best quality, the highest quality in research is patience,” says Wollocko, an adjunct clinical associate professor of internal medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM). Turns out, she adds, “they are teaching it to me, as I teach it to them.”

By anyone’s standard, Wollocko seems to have an abundance of patience beyond her role at Touro; she is president and CEO of OxyVita, Inc., whose mission has been to create a blood substitute that can be used safely and effectively as an alternative to blood transfusions. For 15 years, she has been conducting studies on blood substitutes, with OxyVita product, which is a polymeric hemoglobin. “We are close,” says Dr. Wollocko, who hopes OxyVita will soon enter clinical trials for FDA approval. “Again, patience and careful, precise research are key.”

Blood shortages are a constant and people are regularly asked by the Red Cross and other organizations to roll up their sleeves. The reason is that blood has a short shelf life. Regulatory statutes allow blood to be transfused for up to 42 days. Then it must be discarded.

But many of the more recent studies, as well as scientist and physician recommendations suggest that the ideal transfuse-by date is closer to 19 days, Wollocko says. “Side effects of using blood older than that can include stroke and heart attack, among other problems. It’s a risk we take when using older blood. We have to pray there are no side effects.”

r. Hanna Wollocko loves working with Touro students because, she says, they are curious, careful, confident and persevering.

All Photos: Dr. Wollocko with her student researchers in the lab and classroom at TouroCOM

“They make me love the work even more than I do already because I see it through their eyes.”

That isn’t the only research that carries real-world medical and scientific benefits that the TouroCOM Middletown students turn their research skills to, boasts their professor and mentor. Take Vitamin C, as just one example: “The popular belief is that Vitamin C is critically beneficial to our organism, and we are treating it as a supplement in the form of candy,” she says. “But take too much, say three to five times the daily recommended dose, and the research actually shows it reduces the beneficial interaction with hemoglobin, which is the protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to tissues and organs in the body.”

The students also work on researching and writing study findings for publications. “The Touro students are smart, and they have an enthusiasm to work toward making changes in today’s medicine, as well as improving and bringing innovations to medical treatments,” says Wollocko, a wife, mother and grandmother. “For example, in all the work we do, the oxygencarrying capacity of hemoglobin could give us breakthrough treatments in diseases that blood transfusions aren’t applied to, such as sickle cell anemia. The students want to know everything about everything. They make me love the work even more than I do already because I see it through their eyes.”

Wollocko says many of her students want to be physicians who both see patients and do research. “As a researcher, as a doctor, as a teacher,” she says, “I could not ask for more.”

fai r

CARE

AN INNOVATIVE FELLOWSHIP TRAINS DENTISTS TO CARE FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

he brothers desperately needed to have their teeth examined, but instead planted themselves on the hallway floor and refused to budge, no matter how their parents tried to reassure them.

Dr. Alex Dorrough was warm, welcoming and waited without a hint of crossed arms or toe-tapping impatience. Eventually—with all that the word implies—Dorrough was rewarded. “We got one kid to brush his whole mouth,” says Dorrough, now a dentist with a focus on treating individuals with special healthcare needs at Hudson Valley Cerebral Palsy Association. “With the other kid, we got to brush two teeth. I consider that a win. Two teeth this time four teeth next time and then the whole mouth. All without traumatizing or terrifying them.”

When Dorrough graduated from Touro College of Dental Medicine (TCDM) in 2020, he hadn’t a clue about the disparities individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities face when it comes to seeking routine and specialized dental care. Nor did he know that in 2022, he would be back at TCDM as the first fellow in an innovative yearlong program that trains postgraduates in special needs care. Fellows manage the complex needs of people with disabilities through diversified experiences by rotating through Touro Dental Health’s pediatric clinic, the Westchester Institute for Human Development and the operating rooms at Westchester Medical Center.

In New York State, the wait for many patients with special healthcare needs can be six months to two years. Often many suffer severe mouth pain from infections and other tooth-related problems while they wait. Worse still, some patients are non-verbal and unable to describe the pain they are

Alex Dorrough treats a pediatric patient at Touro Dental Health

experiencing, which can lead to increased fear and frustration. Many dentists do not feel comfortable or don’t have the behavioral skills to treat individuals with differing needs. Those patients often end up being referred to a hospital, where they must be put under general anesthesia for dental treatment.

These are among the facts Dr. Dorrough learned as the recipient of the 2021-22 New York State Academic Dental Centers (NYSADC) Fellowship to Address Oral Health Disparities, which was funded by The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation through a grant. In 2022, each of the six dental schools in New York received funding from the state to train one dentist for the fellowship. TCDM and the other centers hope the program will be funded annually by the state. That’s six new individuals each year trained to address the oral health needs of this marginalized population. Fellowship duties include spending 20 percent of their time teaching current dental students about the social, medical and advocacy needs of their current and future patients.

“Pretty soon, the dentists become advocates and ambassadors for future students to understand and confidently assume the responsibility of the profession to provide essential care to patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” explains TCDM’s Assistant Professor & Director of Special Needs Dr. Susan DiSenso-Browne, who along with Assistant Professor and Director of Anesthesia and Pain Control Dr. Raquel Rozdolski, co-designed and runs the fellowship program at TCDM. “The focus is on closing the huge gap on this health disparity with this very vulnerable population,” says Rozdolski. “Whatever the diagnosis, the important thing is to teach dentists the skills and the accommodations needed to care for all patients and have the patients and their families benefit from the program.”

Some already are reaping the benefits. “Thanks to Dr. Dorrough, my daughter, an adult with intellectual

and developmental disabilities, no longer dreads appointments,” said one patient’s mother. “Dr. Dorrough was not only able to assess and put into action a qualitative dental care plan for her, but he did so in a most thoughtful, gentle and kind manner, quickly gaining her trust and putting her (and me) at ease. Despite the fact that she is intellectually challenged, it did not prevent Dr. Dorrough from engaging her in conversation and encouraging her to share about herself during her frequent visits for dental care. These exchanges fostered a sense of inclusion and made her dental treatments something she actually looked forward to!”

Helping patients like this and others is deeply satisfying to Dorrough, who upon completion of his fellowship year, has been hired part time at TCDM to continue teaching students how to be comfortable treating patients with differing needs. “It’s a calling,” says Dorrough. “It’s a career, of course, and an important and rewarding one. But for me, it’s a calling.”

MEDICAL MATTERS

A PASSION TO HELP PATIENTS LEADS A PHARMACY SCHOOL GRADUATE TO A BIG JOB AT A TOP PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY

Those who suffer from migraines can take comfort in the fact that Dr. Nino Barayev, along with a global medical team, works daily to help ease their pain. At just 29, Dr. Barayev is a medical senior manager on the Global Medical Migraine Team at Pfizer.

Women are three times more likely to get migraines than men, says Dr. Barayev, who is one of them, though she says her migraines are mild compared to most. “Due to the lack of awareness of the debilitating impact, people who suffer with migraines are highly misunderstood, which adds stress in the workplace as well as in personal lives,” says Dr. Barayev, who was born in the Republic of Georgia and came to the U.S. at 17. “I applied for this team because migraine is the second most disabling neurological disorder in the world and yet there is a huge unmet need.”

On the Global Medical Migraine team, she leads patient-centered initiatives that help bring patient voices from across the globe into the fold. “Their voices and experiences are incorporated into every aspect of what we do. They provide vital information that helps us help them.” she says.

In addition to her full-time work, during the pandemic lockdown, Dr. Barayev published a phone app called Same Page, designed for those dealing with various emotions, including isolation and loneliness. “In a world of hashtags, likes and followers, Same Page makes it easier to find likeminded people and allows people to build genuine friendships,” she says. The app guides people to a page where they can join conversations with others with similar experiences: “On Same Page, people can make real connections, share their feelings, emotions, stories, major life events and

be connected with those who understand and can relate.”

It was Touro College of Pharmacy that helped Dr. Barayev develop her entrepreneurial leanings and her passion for helping people who suffer from mental or physical pain. A 2020 graduate, she credits the school not simply for what she considers to have been an excellent education, but for exposing students to the myriad opportunities open to pharmacists. “I learned about so many different paths; there are internships, rotations, residencies and fellowships that help students find their paths. That’s how you learn what your professional passion is,” she says.

She wasn’t shy about seeking out opportunities to learn about the vast field of pharmacy through volunteering, internships and the fellowship she landed after graduating. From working as a pharmacy tech at Mount Sinai Beth Israel—“I was so inspired by what they did and how much they cared about getting treatments right for the patients!”—to her third year in pharmacy school, when she completed a rotation at Pfizer, then a Rutgers Pharmaceutical Fellowship and ultimately, a dream job at Pfizer. “I had an awakening,” recalls Dr. Barayev, who lives with her husband and dog, Gobi, in New York City. “I wanted to work with these people. I wanted to be one of them. I love what they do. And now I do it, too.”

LEARN MORE | tcop.touro.edu

MINING THEIR OWN MINDS

AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

PRINCIPAL SHOWS HER STUDENTS THAT CRITICAL THINKING IS REWARDING— AND FUN

Rakiya Adams watched in wonder as her college professor father prepared lectures and exams for his banking management students. “I was a little girl, and he made such an impression on me,” says Adams, who was born in New York City to parents who emigrated from Ghana. “He’d practice his lectures and work on his accent, and he’d let me staple his exam papers for the student tests. He was the first teacher I admired, but he certainly wasn’t the last.”

The admirer has become the admired. At 40, Adams is the principal of Bronxville Elementary School, in Westchester County, NY. She was promoted to her new post recently after serving three years as the school’s assistant principal. In her former school in New York City, Adams pushed STEM education for girls, bringing in the founder of Girls Who Code, female software engineers and other women who succeeded in technology. “They see that there are countless possibilities for girls in STEM,” she says. “If we want girls—and boys—to realize their potential, their uniqueness, we have to show them real, live adults who have found passion and success in their professional lives.”

Adams, wife and mother to two girls, completed Touro’s Graduate School of Education in 2011. She credits Touro’s program and its professors for where she finds herself today. “Touro literally provided me with a pathway to get the degree I needed, to do what I’ve always wanted to do,” says Adams, who has been an instructional math coach and STEM specialist as well as a classroom teacher. “It was the perfect setup. I could work full time and still get my

master’s degree. I was aspiring to become a certified early education teacher, and that would never have happened without the excellent education and support I received.”

She is paying it forward. Adams didn’t create the school’s motto—The Bronxville Promise: Innovate. Lead. Think Critically. Engage the World—but she has breathed life into those tenets. She has received the support of the teachers and staff to team up to help the students discover themselves and others utilizing Project Based Learning (PBL). Students in each grade decide on a class topic. They talk about it, research it, make recommendations, offer solutions. The fifth graders’ PBL unit, titled Be The Change, for example, takes on real-world problems like homelessness, equity and inclusion for all, or the staggering incarceration rate for men and women of color, and came up with solutions to lower those numbers. The first graders’ topic was recess. “Recess is where so many social issues happen from negotiations, conflict resolution, friendship, how to treat others, playing fair,” Adams says, adding that the first graders put their rules for resolving problems on posters displayed on the playground. “All our students present their topics, research and findings to the entire community of parents and our school family. It’s a wonderful, fun way to teach critical thinking and problem-solving to kids. And it doesn’t hurt that we adults can learn from them, too.”

Top Left: Rakiya Adams empowers young women

AN

RABBI IN ISRAEL CONNECTS AND INSPIRES STUDENTS ACROSS THE GLOBE

The only constant in Rabbi Gidon Shoshan’s career is change. And his instrument for innovation is developing hands-on connections with students, young adults and fellow educators.

For the past eight years, Shoshan, a Touro grad who took a number of courses at Touro College in Israel (TCI), has served as the deputy managing director for North America and the U.K. at Olami, a global organization offering programs to Jewish students and Jewish young professionals including trips, mentorship, networking, learning and more. Since 2020, he has made the time to return as a teacher at TCI’s Department of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Before Olami, Shoshan’s career included 12 years as a rebbe, or teacher, at Shapell’s/Darche Noam, the premier institution in Jerusalem dedicated to helping college graduates and young professionals grow in their Jewish life and learning.

During his time at Shapell’s, Shoshan also managed with aplomb to earn a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. To Shoshan, the best teacher is the student, and at the moment, he is both. Along with a full-time career, as well as a wife and five children, he is studying remotely for a master’s degree at Touro’s Graduate School of Jewish Studies. “When I was young, Touro in Isra-

el gave me the amazing opportunity to study at night while I was studying at yeshiva during the day, thereby providing me the means to realize my rabbinical dreams,” he says. “In my current experience as a 47-year-old student, I’ve been really, really impressed by the professors, who are warm and wise and knowledgeable, and there’s an environment of curious and intelligent students.”

At Touro, Shoshan is studying Jewish history, with a special interest in the last three centuries. “The lessons of history and of Jewish societies teach us a great deal not only about yesterday, but about today,” says Shoshan, explaining how his classroom education translates into the work he does today. “I am dealing with people and with communities every day. Learning, especially about humanity and society, creates perspectives that help us understand life and the world around us.”

At Shapell’s, for example, Shoshan created a new form of student recruitment. “I focused less on international speaking tours to create broad awareness and spent more time on developing personal relationships with educators in North America, who sent their students to study with us on account of the connections they felt with the yeshiva, and the trust they had in me and my colleagues.”

Shoshan’s commitment to his students shows up

Rabbi Shoshan addresses the crowd at a global outreach conference

"NONE OF WHAT I'VE DONE WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT TOURO."

even when he’s on the road, including recently when he set his alarm for 2:45 am in an Austin, Texas hotel room to teach his students in Israel.

Even COVID didn’t slow down Shoshan, who grew up in Chicago. Long before the pandemic, Shoshan and his Olami colleagues had discovered the world of remote meetings. When the virus struck, his group was Zoom-savvy; they pivoted seamlessly to conducting professional education programs to students full time online.

“Today, our educators and our administrators from around the world are even more integrated than they were a few years back,” he says. “A rabbi in Palo Alto who has colleagues with whom he works, and on whom he depends, in Orlando and Tel Aviv interacts with them whenever he wants.”

Shoshan is particularly proud of a program in the U.S. and Israel called Olami Scholars, which brought some 20 organizations to Jerusalem in 2022 for a first-ever job fair. Another tradition born: The second job fair was held on February 14, 2023.

It’s no small achievement either, that since becoming part of Touro’s faculty in 2020, enrollment in his class has grown each of the three years so far. “None of what I’ve done would have been possible without Touro,” he says. “Touro has been a key part of my professional and personal life for more than 25 years. I am now a Touro student, an alumnus and a faculty member. I am very fortunate and proud.”

Rabbi Shoshan shares Jewish outreach opportunities at the Olami Job Fair

Rabbi Shoshan interacts with students at a retreat in England

"THE LESSONS OF HISTORY AND OF JEWISH SOCIETIES TEACH US A GREAT DEAL NOT ONLY ABOUT YESTERDAY BUT ABOUT TODAY."

GLOBAL GO GETTER

TOURO MBA MAKES HIS MARK ON AMAZON AND THE WORLD

orian Lubonja is one of those people who inspires envy in mere mortals: He is focused, industrious and relentlessly optimistic. While many others may have curled into fetal positions of fear and dread in the first year of the COVID pandemic, Lubonja completed Touro’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), earning an MBA in half the usual time.

“Yes, it’s true,” says Lubonja, now 34 and living in New York City. “When COVID hit, I decided to put my time and efforts into something good. I wanted something positive to come out of that terrible year.”

He has more than met his goal.

Today, Lubonja holds the position as an industry leader at Amazon. He and his team create and implement sophisticated, yet easy-to-understand data and analyses for vendors that sell through the corporate giant. The sellers are granted access to invaluable information from Amazon to increase their customer base, scale up their profits and launch new products. Put more simply, Lubonja explains, “Say you sell pencils through Amazon, but you only have yellow pencils and your sales have peaked. Turns out people want other colors, or pencils in bulk or thicker pencils. We’ve designed dashboards and other means for sellers to see and gain insights about their customers’ needs and wants. That helps vendors shape the future of their businesses. Before they were so in the dark. I’m deeply passionate about creating innovative standardized solutions and scaling them globally.”

Like the company he works for, Lubonja thinks globally because he has lived and traveled the world. “I am an adventurous traveler who has been to more than 40 countries so far,” he offers joyfully.

Lubonja’s father is retired from the State Department and his mother is a businesswoman

who has run global non-profits focused on women’s and children’s rights. “I received my business acumen and my passion for volunteering from my mother,” says Lubonja, a board member of an international foundation that aids people in poverty in developing and war-torn countries.

Lubonja was reared in several European cities, including the United Kingdom, Denmark and Italy. He came to the U.S. in 2015 at age 26, and quickly set about earning a bachelor’s degree in business, with a concentration in advertising and marketing, from Touro. He completed his studies in 2020 and spent the next year racing through Touro’s GSB.

“Touro aligned perfectly with my goals,” says Lubonja. “There’s a real culture there of empowering the students. You are seen, you are heard, you are respected and you are encouraged to go out into the world and make what you want to do a reality.”

In addition to his role as an Amazon industry leader, Lubonja is deeply involved in another project for the company. It’s called Amp, a mobile app which allows people to make their own radio shows to be distributed online for free. “Everyone has something good to share that’s interesting or unique,” says the optimist. “Whether it be their playlists, their take on sports, whatever it is that interests them. It’s a kind of community and cultural hub.”

Since it’s clear by now that Lubonja is no lay-about, it’s not surprising to discover he has his own Amp show: “It’s called Dorian Lubonja, and I usually play music or I talk about trends in finance and the economy, new technologies. Whatever interests me, and I hope interests others.”

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