Author Biographies

 

Editors

 

Ryan Coughlan

[No bio included]

 

Mary Gatta

Dr. Mary Gatta joined the faculty as an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College at CUNY in August, 2015. Prior to her appointment at CUNY, Mary served as a Senior Scholar at Wider Opportunities for Women in Washington DC, and as Director of Gender and Workforce Policy at the Center for Women and Work, and Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University. In addition, she recently served on New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s Labor and Workforce Development Transition Team. At Guttman, Mary teaches social science courses and served as the Faculty Coordinator of Ethnographies of Work, a key component of Guttman’s First Year Experience. In addition, Mary has lead a series of evaluation of workforce and education programs including US Department of Labor programs, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development programs, along with various education and workforce programs. Her book Waiting on Retirement: Aging and Economic Insecurity in Low Wage Work, on the experiences of older low wage workers as they march toward a semblance of retirement, was released in October 2018 from Stanford University Press. Mary has explored the experiences of women as they navigate One-Stop Career Centers, which led to Mary’s book, All I Want Is a Job! Unemployed Women Navigating the Public Workforce System. She is also the author of Not Just Getting By: The New Era of Flexible Workforce Development and Juggling Food and Feelings: Emotional Balance in the Workplace and is the editor of A US Skills System for the 21st Century: Innovations in Workforce Education and Development. In addition to books Mary has published numerous academic articles, policy papers and op-eds.

 

Alia R. Tyner-Mullings

Dr. Alia R. Tyner-Mullings is an Associate Professor of Sociology and founding faculty member at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College. Dr. Tyner-Mullings earned a doctorate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she researched alternative educational models. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on sociology, deviance, statistics, and education. After finishing her doctorate, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University, in the Sociology and Education Program and then an assistant professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. A former high school math teacher, Dr. Tyner-Mullings serves on assessment committees for three small high schools. She has also worked as a statistical or academic consultant for several colleges and universities. Her research interests include the sociology of education, communities, sports, and cultural studies. Dr. Tyner-Mullings recently authored Enter the Alternative School: Critical Answers to Questions in Urban Education (Paradigm Publishers, 2014), an in-depth examination of public school alternatives to traditional educational models. She is also the co-editor of Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform (Information Age, 2012) and co-author of Writing for Emerging Sociologists (Sage Publications, Inc., 2013).

 

 Additional Authors

 

Kristina Baines

Dr. Kristina Baines is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the relationship between traditional ecological practices and health in indigenous communities, primarily in Belize and the US. She is committed to using innovative methods in her teaching and also in making anthropology relevant and accessible to a wide audience.  She is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Guttman Community College, CUNY and Director of Anthropology for Cool Anthropology.

 

Samuel Finesurrey

Dr. Samuel Finesurrey, an adjunct professor at Guttman Community College, collaborated with students to found the Guttman Community College Undergraduate Oral History Project. He received his Ph.D. in Cuban History with a specialization in Oral Histories from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2018. Utilizing his background in Oral Histories, Finesurrey became the Director of Oral Histories on a five year longitudinal inquiry by faculty, undergraduates and high schoolers studying Latinx students moving through the New York City’s public high schools. Further, Finesurrey has served as an advisor who, with a select group of his students participated in the Texas based HBCU Truth & Reconciliation Oral History Project, led by Black Christian organizations and Historically Black Colleges, dedicated to gathering stories of marginalized communities. By working with undergraduates and youth researchers to collect and archive oral histories Finesurrey seeks to encourage students to become producers of knowledge and scholar-activists who focus on social (in)justice, racial, gendered and transnational journeys, in building a new local digital canon. This kind of academic engagement revealed to students and Finesurrey not only the relevance of historical study to their own lives, but also the diversity of experiences existing within the same classroom, campus community, city and region.

 

Nicole Kras

Nicole Kras, Ph.D., HS-BCP is an Assistant Professor of Human Services and Program Coordinator at Guttman Community College, City University of New York. She received a BA in psychology and a MA in art therapy from Albertus Magnus College and a MS in education and a Certificate of Advance Graduate Study as a Classroom Teacher Specialist from Southern Connecticut State University. Nicole received her Ph.D. in adult learning and development from Lesley University. Her current areas of research are exploring the benefits of nature-based experiences on community college campuses and human services program design and development.

 

Maureen Sheridan

[No bio included]

 

Camila Torres Rivera

            Camila Torres Rivera is a member of the mathematics faculty, having joined the Guttman community in September 2012.  In addition to teaching statistics courses, Camila acts as Guttman’s Area Coordinator for Academic Support and the Title V Grant Coordinator. She also teaches graduate courses at Hunter College’s School of Education in the Department of Educational Foundations and the Department of Curriculum and Teaching.

During her 22 years of teaching experience, Camila has acquired extensive experience in pedagogy, curriculum writing, and professional development. After earning her M.A. in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Quantitative Research Methods from Hunter College, she parlayed her pedagogical and mathematics content knowledge into the field of educational research. She has successfully led program evaluation work for numerous Guttman Community College grants (Complete College Innovation Fund, EDUCAUSE, The Gates Foundation, Title V, and Perkins) and for READ East Harlem (funded by the Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Public Education).

Her research interests include the use of alternative instructional models, teachers’ perceptions and adherence to standardized evaluations, classroom assessment practices, and the use of technology in the feedback cycle.