Welcome to the reimagining of Pace Magazine, a digital publication that helps celebrate and connect the Pace Community. The shift to digital is reflective of the changes happening at Pace and the needs of our community. As we look to the future, we’re striving to make an impact now.
As we continue to position the University for the future and think about the ways to be most relevant to the students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends in our community, we’ve realized that nearly all important communication today happens online. So that’s where we’re putting the compelling and thoughtful content you’ve come to expect from Pace Magazine. Starting now, you’ll be able to read the profiles, features, updates, and class notes contained in every issue at your convenience—and without having more paper pile up.
This digital edition of Pace Magazine, like the issue itself, looks to that future.
In our feature stories, you’ll learn about student veterans at Pace who are finding new ways to serve by working to support the mental health of their fellow veterans, both in and out of college. You’ll also find out how researchers from the School of Education have partnered with a major urban school district to improve training of substitute teachers, a critical need as schools rebound from the pandemic.
You’ll also see snapshots of life across our campuses and our alumni community. Lubin faculty unveil two major initiatives: the Pace Entrepreneurship Studio, and a new focus on ESG practices for small business at the Pace Center for Sustainability. Haub Law launches a partnership for a call-in legal clinic in White Plains. In Pleasantville, professors Jane Collins and Emilio Fernandez, the outgoing and incoming faculty-in-residence, talk about the benefits of living and learning together. Plus news about Setter athletes’ successes, big new faculty research grants, and the amazing accomplishments of our alumni.
It’s a really exciting time at Pace, and we’re glad you’re a part of it.
Marvin Krislov
President
Rob Sands, JD ’84
Chair, Board of Trustees
The transition into higher education is always bumpy but can be especially challenging for veterans and those leaving active service. A sense of community not only bridges the civilian-veteran gap, but can also improve veteran’s mental health and sense of purpose after service. Three veterans from the Pace Community weigh in on the importance of inclusivity, community, and what it means to be a student veteran.
Through interdisciplinary collaboration, the School of Education and Dyson's Film and Screen Studies departments are helping a major school district in Florida tackle the challenges of today’s teacher shortage head-on.
From amazing stats to stellar students and alumni, here are just a few of our favorite things.
Meet Tasha Darbes, PhD, a Pace School of Education professor with a passion for the transformative power of education.
Meet Tasha Darbes, PhD, a Pace School of Education professor with a passion for the transformative power of education. “I’m an educator that is all about creating a space where people can find their own voice,” she says. “Where people can think through problem and issues, express themselves, and have an impact on communities that are facing a lot of difficulties and be a part of that process of social change.”
In our increasingly polarized political world, Dyson Assistant Professor Courtney Gosnell, PhD, and Sarahlouise Baldwin ’22 are researching what makes people maintain relationships with those who have different political views than their own.
Pace's Maria Escobar is the co-founder of the World Without Exploitation National Youth Coalition—a network of young people dedicated to ending human trafficking—and she’s presented at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
Meet Lubin student Aishna Kumar '22, a Pforzheimer Honors College student originally from Japan, who studied abroad in Barcelona, landed a dream internship at Nike, and took on a leadership role in Pace's chapter of the American Marketing Association.
Lubin alumna Julia Melissinos '20 joins The Lubin Link to discuss how her interest in advertising and social media helped her land a job at a digital agency, where she handles strategy, insights, and measurements.
Julia Melissinos '20 talks about how her interest in advertising and social media helped her land a job at a digital agency, where she handles strategy, insights, and measurements for social media clients.
This episode was recorded on January 17, 2023.
Tune into the Lubin Link podcast to hear how guests went from go-getting Lubin students to successful entrepreneurs, social media mavens, directors, CEOs, and beyond. They offer their best tips to students and share how you can make the most out of your #LubinLife.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce that Professor Uché Ewelukwa Ofodile will be a Visiting Professor with the Law School for the Spring 2023 semester. While at Haub Law, she will be teaching Corporations and International Business Transactions.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce that Professor Uché Ewelukwa Ofodile will be a Visiting Professor with the Law School for the Spring 2023 semester. While at Haub Law, she will be teaching Corporations and International Business Transactions.
Professor Ofodile is the E.J. Ball Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law (Arkansas Law) in Fayetteville, AR where she teaches in the intellectual property law, international law, food law, and business law fields. Additionally, she is an affiliated Professor of African and African-American Studies and with the Department of Political Science at the University of Arkansas William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Professor Ofodile is a lifetime member of the Council of Foreign Relations and an Honorary Fellow of the Asian Institute of Financial Law in Hong Kong. From 2021-2022 she was a Senior Fellow of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Scholar-in-Residence at NYU Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Professor Ofodile also held the Arkansas Bar Foundation Professor at Arkansas Law from 2014 to 2016.
“We are thrilled to welcome Uché Ewelukwa Ofodile to Haub Law as a Visiting Professor,” said Horace E. Anderson, Jr., Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. “Professor Ofodile’s expertise in the law of international business will bring a unique and broadened perspective to our students at Haub Law. When we have a Visiting Professor with diverse experience like that of Professor Ofodile, the entire law school community benefits from it.”
Professor Ofodile has published widely in top journals where her scholarship focuses on international law and human rights, intellectual property law, as well as business, corporate and commercial law. She is currently completing two books under contract: Legal Aspects of China-Africa Trade and Investment (OUP) and Business and Human Rights in Africa (Routledge). Professor Ofodile has advised numerous governments, international organizations, and businesses on issues relating to international trade and investment, artificial intelligence, intellectual property, food security and corporate social responsibility.
An active member in the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law, Professor Ofodile has held numerous leadership positions and also in the American Society of International Law. She is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of International Legal Materials, a publication of the American Society of International Law, is a book review editor for The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals, a leading peer-reviewed journal on international adjudication, and is the Deputy Head of Research & Documentation Committee of the Nigeria Bar Association Women Forum. She also serves as a Blog Moderator for the African Arbitration Association and from 2013 – 2016 served as the Secretary General of the African Society of International Law.
Professor Ofodile has been featured in Law360 (‘Breaking IP Barriers’) and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including awards from the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, the American Bar Association Section of International Law, the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law, Harvard University, the Albert Einstein Institution, the Women’s Giving Circle (University of Arkansas), the British Council, and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (Nigeria).
Professor Ofodile earned her LLB at the University of Nigeria, her LLM in International Business Law at the University College London, an LLM at Harvard Law School, and her SJD at Harvard Law School.
Professor and NYC Design Factory director Andreea Cotoranu is teaching students how to solve tomorrow’s problems. In partnership with major corporations and international collaborators, students have pitched ideas like noise-absorbing drones, massive-scale food cooling systems, and a modern take on teen furniture design.
We are one of just 30 design factories in the world working to find what’s needed for the workforce of tomorrow.
For Seidenberg professor Andreea Cotoranu, Pace feels like home (for her even more than for most). “I have a long history here. I started as an undergrad, earned my degree in information systems, got a position with the University, went on to get my master’s, and have moved between different roles in the Seidenberg School of CSIS. Now, I work in the same department that I graduated from.”
Cotoranu came to Pace from Romania as an international student and volleyball player. At the time, her priority was making sure she could go to a college where she could study as well as continue to play as an athlete. Once she arrived at Pace, she started to focus on her academic and career interests—and a love of IT and cybersecurity took hold. “My interest in cybersecurity started in grad school. I had great professors and hands-on lab work. It was exciting. I’ve always been interested in science and technology, and I saw opportunities to develop the programs here. I’ve used my own experience to build out programs for other students.”
“We use design thinking, systems thinking, and futures thinking. They are designing solutions for 2030.”
Since those days, Cotoranu has had a big presence in Seidenberg. She’s served as assistant dean for academic innovation, is the principal investigator on an NSA-funded grant aiming to expand cybersecurity education at the high school level, and she’s the director of the New York City Design Factory at Pace—an innovation hub for students, faculty, international collaborators, and industry partners, one that designs solutions to modern challenges and promotes innovative teaching and learning. “In the Design Factory, we bring the process and the context for learning to the forefront. It’s interdisciplinary and involves undergrads, grads, and international students. We are one of just 30 design factories in the world working to find what’s needed for the workforce of tomorrow.”
Pace’s NYC Design Factory is part of the Design Factory Global Network, a consortium of innovation hubs at universities around the world. Through this network, student teams work together on global issues. “Our staple programs are the field studies with international collaborators. We travel to their institutions, and they come to us. Right now, our host is CERN in Switzerland, and our focus is on health.”
Students participating in the field study conducted research on health and healthcare in New York and in the US, and then went to CERN to trade information with the CERN students who were studying health and healthcare in Switzerland. “Connecting with other teams is an important part of the process—we call it a two-week intensive. And it is really intense: 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. every day, including Saturdays. Pace students pitch ideas to the CERN students, get feedback, go back and refine—and vice versa.”
Students are also pushed to think beyond the current moment and design for problems of the future. “We use design thinking, systems thinking, and futures thinking. They are designing solutions for 2030.” Pace students have developed, pitched, and prototyped ideas like noise-pollution-absorbing drones and cooling systems that can preserve fresh food supplies at a massive scale. “Forcing students to think about what’s needed in the future creates a safe space for them to experiment, to explore, and to let their imaginations go wild.” And for Cotoranu, that’s the best part—seeing her students learn and grow. “It’s the typical educator answer, but having the opportunity to have an impact on a student’s life, to help them grow, and to build them up, it is genuinely the most fulfilling.”
From internships at Nickelodeon to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Amoreena Crispino is well on her way to conquering the media world.
Mock Trial. NYC Design Factory. Alpha Lambda Delta. Pace Computing Society. Karl Eshwer ’21 is as much an innovator as he is an experienced leader, and he’s paving the way for some pretty impressive things.
Economics major Noelle Howard ’19 has been busy: she’s an Honors College student, Model UN award winner, and—get this—a former competitive ballet dancer. Her ambition is on pointe!
Umair Saleem is a practicing advocate of High Courts in Pakistan. He handles advisory and transactional work, arbitrations, and litigation pertaining to diverse areas of laws for commercial clients and government sector entities. After receiving degrees from prestigious universities in Pakistan and then Belgium, Umair decided to pursue a second LLM at Haub Law and follow his growing passion for environmental law.
Umair Saleem is a practicing advocate of High Courts in Pakistan. He handles advisory and transactional work, arbitrations, and litigation pertaining to diverse areas of laws for commercial clients and government sector entities. After receiving degrees from prestigious universities in Pakistan and then Belgium, Umair decided to pursue a second LLM at Haub Law and follow his growing passion for environmental law. Despite completing his LLM during the COVID-19 pandemic, Umair left Pace having fulfilled his goal to acquire the tools and vision to actively work towards establishing a strong foundation of environmental law within Pakistan.
What was your path to law school?
I have always been a keen learner and an astute observer of the systemic injustices prevalent in the society I grew up within and that has fostered my desire to pursue many educational pathways. I always envisioned a future where human rights were not violated, and society offered its best to all individuals equally. Once I had avowed to set on this journey towards bringing a change in the oppressive structures of the society, law arrived as an easy conclusion. I completed my college education at Government College Lahore and had a stellar academic record, which eventually led me to receive a scholarship at one of the most prestigious universities in Pakistan—Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). After graduating with a degree in law, I was fortunate to find the right opportunities to work in corporate law firms and with prominent legal minds in Pakistan for five years. This helped me discover my passion for different fields of law. At this point, I decided to undertake an LLM from KU Leuven in Belgium in International and European Public Law. After that, I began my second LLM program in Energy and Climate Change Law from Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law because of my true passion for environmental justice. My time at Haub Law radically shaped my career pursuits and my vision for the future.
What inspired you to choose Pace to pursue an LLM?
After graduating from LUMS, I worked with two prominent environmentalists in Pakistan, Justice Jawad Hassan and Dr. Parvez Hassan, who fueled my passion for environmental law. Justice Jawad Hassan is also an alumnus of Pace and played a significant role in my decision to choose Pace for furthering my vision and goals. Pace is also the top environmental law institute in the United States. For all of these reasons and more, I enthusiastically decided to attend Pace to complete my LLM, which became a formative step in my vision to actively work towards establishing a strong foundation of environmental law within Pakistan.
What experiences stick with you from your time at Pace?
When I joined Pace, the COVID-19 pandemic was on the rise so there was no on-campus interaction at the time. However, the positive school ethos of the institute became evident to me in the way my distant learning experience was mediated and encouraged through facilitated interaction and understanding among not just peers but also professors. It proved equally fortifying to my growth not just as an academic but also as an individual and lawyer in Pakistan. The professors at Pace were always eager to help me work towards my goals and this became one of the most exciting parts of my journey and still proves invaluable to my growth in the field. In particular, Professors Nicholas Robinson and Katrina Kuh had the most defining impact on my growth and shaping my direction and passion for environmental laws.
How did your experience at Pace influence your outlook on environmental law?
Pace had a life changing impact on me—before completing my LLM, I only possessed a fleeting understanding of the environment, but it shaped my in-depth understanding of environmental and legal issues embedded within our everyday lives and practices. Furthermore, my understanding was further enriched when I engaged with legal aspects and approaches globally through my interaction with a diverse group of people from all over the world. My time at Pace instilled even more passion and optimism within me. Upon my return, I approached it with newfound vigour and environmental law took a precedence over other facets of my practice. I continue to draw and utilize insights from my experience at Pace during professionally challenging situations even today.
Can you speak a bit about your current career?
I am a practicing advocate of High Courts in Pakistan and handling advisory and transactional work, arbitrations, and litigation pertaining to diverse areas of laws for commercial clients and government sector entities. A typical day in my life starts early morning with court hearings, drafting for matters I am working upon, meetings with current and prospective clients and managing my associates.
What benefit does an LLM degree hold in today’s world?
The growing impetus of change demands that you broaden your horizons and are open to learning from people belonging to various social strata and cultural backgrounds as it would enhance your understanding of legal issues in the future. It also enhances your understanding as you get a comparative outlook of different legal systems and their handling of various issues.
What are some of your future goals?
I am thrilled to share that I aspire towards contributing to policymaking and eventually enforcement through judicial work and to become one of the future green judges in Pakistan. I want to give a multiplying effect to the environmental training that I have received at Pace by leading environmental litigation, teaching, writing books and articles and pave way for a greener future within Pakistan.
What are some of your passions aside from the law?
Since my initial motivation of studying the law was also to change the existing imbalances within society, I always strive towards changing that through other arenas of my life. I engage in volunteer and community work to try to give back to society largely and specifically my local community where people lack an awareness of career prospects to be able to change their futures. It gives me true joy to be able to make a difference within my community. When I am not working or researching, I also enjoy hiking, traveling and exploring new sites and places. I enjoy interacting with people from diverse cultures and communities and learning from their unique experiences.
Jessica Bacher, Executive Director of the Land Use Law Center at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, was one of 28 members named to the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for New York State’s Master Plan for Aging.
Jessica Bacher, Executive Director of the Land Use Law Center at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, was one of 28 members named to the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for New York State’s Master Plan for Aging. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the stakeholder committee in December, which will be tasked with advising the Master Plan for Aging Council – the group responsible for developing the state's first-ever Master Plan for Aging, a guiding document to help ensure older New Yorkers can live healthy, fulfilling lives while aging with dignity and independence.
The Stakeholder Advisory Committee will provide expertise on age-friendly policies, supports and health services to guide the Master Plan for Aging Council as it develops a comprehensive roadmap for meeting the socioeconomic needs of all generations of New Yorkers as they age. Ms. Bacher will provide a valuable role sharing her perspective in land use and local government to support a more holistic Master Plan that takes into consideration topics like Smart Growth, affordable housing, open space and transportation.
TikTok has become one of the most popular apps in the world — especially among young people. But critics warn it poses unique security and mental health risks, so much so that a number of nations have even banned the Chinese app, describing it as a 'weapon' by software experts. In this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks to Dr. Darren Hayes, a professor at Pace University and expert on digital forensics and cyber security.
Pace University’s Lubin Professor Larry Chiagouris was featured in WalletHub's piece about VISA credit cards.
Are there any good reasons for people to seek out a Visa credit card in particular?
No, it is not "bad" given Visa is accepted in most places and by more retailers, but some consumers believe that to be sure they can receive credit anywhere and everywhere, it is good to have a "backup" credit card from another bank or financial institution.
In addition, some consumers seek to stagger credit card payments by having more than one credit card.
In China, “people get angry,” said Sheying Chen, a professor of public administration and social policy at Pace University in New York. “They say, ‘I worked full time and made it to retirement age; you want me to work more?’”