Professor Scharff working with students.

Faculty Fellows

Senior Faculty Fellows

Dr. Jennifer Pankowski

Dr. Jennifer Pankowski is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for Alternative Certification Programs and Special Education in the School of Education. Her background is as a childhood and childhood special education teacher and has an Educational Doctoral Degree from Long Island University. Dr. Pankowski has recently been able to develop and received approval for an MST IN visual arts along with Dr. Peter McDermott.

“As a mom of 2 little girls I hope they will develop a love of learning and explore fields that are currently underrepresented by women.”

Dr. Pankowski’s school based work with the Faculty Fellows focuses on the use of mixed reality and was recently able to secure funding to create the Pace University Avatar Lab which is physically located in NYC, but available to all schools at Pace University for both campuses. The avatar lab allows for the use of mixed reality simulations in a controlled classroom or research environment in order to expose students and faculty to the experiential teaching and learning of otherwise difficult to replicate scenarios.

Current Faculty Fellows

Historically led by staff, the Faculty Center is now headed by Faculty Fellows who represent a mix of faculty expertise and career paths. Faculty members have faced unprecedented challenges, demands and responsibilities which call for new support systems going forward. It is therefore time for the Faculty Center to respond through transformative and innovative curricular of opportunities aligned with established paths of career development. The Faculty Fellows work within their schools and colleges as well as collaboratively to support Faculty Success and Opportunities for Professional Development.

Dr. Ana B. Amaya

Dr. Ana B. Amaya is Associate Professor at Pace University with appointments at the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She is also Treasurer of the Board of Directors of Health Systems Global and Member of the Editorial Board for Public Health Challenges. A specialist in global health policy, her research examines multi-level governance for health with a focus on understanding the impact of new global health institutions on the health systems of low- and middle- income countries. Her recent work has explored regional organizations in the Global South and the effect of global inequities on health systems.

As Faculty Fellow, she aims to advance Pace University’s anti-racism goals by supporting initiatives that promote a more inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff.

Dr. Eric Chang

Dr. Eric Chang is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Physical Sciences on the New York City Campus of Pace University. He was formerly a scholar in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) (K12) program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he received formal pedagogical training in STEM while performing biomedical research. As a faculty member at Pace, he served as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Scientific Teaching Mentor, training other STEM faculty in pedagogical practices to engage students in the classroom. Eric is an active member of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and was responsible for the Biochemistry B.S. major at Pace receiving ASBMB accreditation, an honor held by only a hundred other institutions nationwide.

As a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Chang aims to develop and facilitate a mentorship program for incoming tenure-track and clinical faculty to help build community among new faculty members and give them the tools and information needed to navigate the tenure and promotion process. Dr. Chang also plans to recruit postdoctoral scholars from groups underrepresented among higher education faculty to participate in a shadowing program at Pace to support the development of their pedagogical skills, teaching identity, and ability to obtain and thrive in a faculty position. Ideally, he plans to collaborate with departments looking to hire new faculty members in subsequent academic years so that the shadowing program participants can apply to open faculty lines at Pace.

Dr. Darren Hayes

Dr. Darren Hayes, is the Founder and Director of the Pace University Digital Forensics Research Lab. Hayes has been listed as one of the Top 10 Computer Forensics Professors, by Forensics Colleges. He continually conducts research, with his students, in support of law enforcement agencies both domestically and internationally. Hayes was selected as the recipient of the 2020 Homeland Security Investigations New York Private Sector Partnership Award. He has consulted on numerous cases involving digital evidence in both civil and criminal investigations. He has also been declared as an expert witness in U.S. federal court.

Hayes has served as a visiting professor at Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, University College Dublin, and New York University. He has served as Extern Examiner for the Master of Science Degree program in Forensic Computing & Cybercrime Investigation at University College Dublin. He is also a professional consultant in computer forensics and cyberlaw for the Department of Education, New York. In late 2020, he published “A Practical Guide to Digital Forensics Investigations” and his fifth book, “CISSP Certification Guide”.

Dr. Brandyn Heppard

Brandyn Heppard, PhD is an assistant professor of philosophy in the Philosophy & Religious Studies Department. He received his PhD in philosophy from the New School for Social Research. Brandyn's research explores the nexus between philosophy, politics, and comedy. He is particularly interested in the liberatory and revolutionary power of comedy. His most recent article, “Revolution or Illusion: Dave Chappelle, Comedy, & Late Capitalism,” is indicative of the way his research bridges Africana, continental, feminist, and Latin-American philosophy. Brandyn is also a musician, performing solo, as well as with his band, Universal Rebel.

Margot Pollans

Margot Pollans is the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law. She is also the Faculty Director of the Pace Food Law Center. She joined Haub Law’s faculty in 2015. From 2020–2002, she was the Shamik and Adrienne Trivedi Faculty Scholar from 2020–2022. She teaches several classes including Agriculture Law and the Environment, Food Systems and the Environment Law, and Administrative Law.

Professor Pollans is an accomplished scholar whose primary research interests lie in the areas of food and agriculture law, administrative law and social justice. Her academic work has appeared in a variety of journals including in the California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, the Ohio State Law Journal, the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, and the Harvard Environmental Law Review. She is also the co-author of a casebook, Food Law: Cases & Materials. In 2022, she was named the recipient of Haub Law’s distinguished Goettel Prize for Faculty Scholarship for her article, "Eaters, Powerless by Design" published by Michigan Law Review (120 Mich. L. Rev. 643 (2022)).

During her time at Haub Law she has been a leader in building the national reputation of the Pace Food Law Center. She is also part of the Farm Bill Law Enterprise, a national partnership of law school programs working toward a farm bill that reflects the long-term needs of our society, including economic opportunity and stability, public health and nutrition, climate change mitigation and adaptation, public resources stewardship, and racial and socioeconomic justice. In 2017 she was named “40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Food Policy” by the NYC Food Policy Center.

Before joining Haub Law, Professor Pollans was the inaugural academic fellow at UCLA School of Law’s Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy. Previously, she was a Staff Attorney and Clinical Teaching Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Public Representation, where she worked on a range of environmental litigation and supervised student clinicians. Following law school, Pollans clerked for the Honorable David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.