Image
Faculty Fellows
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.
Senior Faculty Fellow
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.
Faculty Fellows
Dr. Ana B. Amaya
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
-
Professor Inbal Abergil
Image
Professor Inbal Abergil is an Associate Professor of Art in Dyson College of Arts and Science. She is the author of N.O.K-Next of Kin. Her research focuses on the aftermath of war and the human cost of conflict, using photographs with testimony to examine loss, grief, and healing. Most recently, she was nominated for the Smithsonian Artist Fellowship (2020), the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant (2018), a finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019) and the 2018 Documentary Essay Prize in Photography, at Duke University. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museum and gallery exhibitions in the US, South Korea, Ireland, Amsterdam and Israel.
In her role as a Faculty Fellow, Professor Abergil aims to engage faculty from each College/School of the University in interdisciplinary conversation and share art resources in research and pedagogy. Art can engage us intellectually and emotionally and at the same time motivate and promote ideas that lead students to critical thinkers and shape public opinion.
Dr. Marcus Braga-Alves
Image
Dr. Marcus Braga-Alves is an Associate Professor of Finance at Lubin School of Business. Since earning his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Braga-Alves has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Corporate Finance and Investments. His pedagogical interests center on using technology to optimize students’ experience and learning outcomes in online, on-campus, and hybrid classes. He is also interested in using simulations that bring real-world challenges to the classroom, capturing students’ attention and inspiring them to learn.
In his role as a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Braga-Alves promotes the use of technological resources and pedagogical practices via Pace’s learning management system to create a cooperative learning environment with an effective interaction between educators and learners.
Dr. Sophie Revillard Kaufman
Image
Dr. Sophie Revillard Kaufman is Assistant Dean for Grants and Strategic Initiatives in the College of Health Professions, and Adjunct Associate Professor. Since joining Pace in 2002, Dr. Kaufman has facilitated the acquisition of millions of dollars of external grant funding, guiding faculty in seeking research and programmatic grants, and fostering international partnerships for CHP faculty and students. She has taught International Management and European Management in the Lubin School of Business and teaches Mindfulness and Cultural Intelligence and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in CHP. Dr. Kaufman is a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher.
In her role as Faculty Fellow, Dr. Kaufman seeks to foster interdisciplinary initiatives, promote DEI, and expand opportunities for CHP faculty to develop their scholarship.
Dr. Marcy Kelly
Image
Dr. Marcy Kelly is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Biology in Dyson College of Arts and Sciences. Her efforts as a change agent in undergraduate biology education were recognized in 2015 by the NSF, National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIH-NIAID), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) when she was invited to become a Partnership in Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) Fellow. Through her work with PULSE, she engages with biology faculty throughout the US to adopt best practices in undergraduate education to ensure all students succeed.
In her role as a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Kelly engaged the Pace STEM faculty in conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion in the STEM classroom to enhance the success and retention of all STEM students.
Dr. Kelley Kreitz
Image
Dr. Kelley Kreitz specializes in print and digital cultures of the Americas as an Assistant Professor of English. Her research combines media studies, hemispheric studies, and U.S. and Latin American literary studies. She is currently completing a book called Mediating Change: A Hemispheric History of the Present in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture. Prior to joining Pace, Kelley was a postdoctoral visiting scholar in Comparative Media Studies at MIT and a visiting researcher at the Center for Martí Studies in Havana, Cuba. She has also worked as a reporter for several nonprofits dedicated to broadcast and digital media production and as the director of the Idea Lab at Root Cause, a nonprofit committed to advancing social innovation.
Dr. Jessica A. Magaldi
Image
Dr. Jessica A. Magaldi is the Ivan Fox Scholar and Professor of Business Law in the Department of Legal Studies and Taxation at Lubin. She has been recognized with numerous awards for her research, teaching, and service, including the national Jefferson Award for Public Service. Dr. Magaldi is most proud of being honored by Pace alumni with the Homer and Charles Pace Faculty Award in recognition that she is a positive role model, inspires her students, and goes above and beyond to ensure that they are able to achieve the most out of their Pace education.
In her role as a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Magaldi concentrates on the intersection of pedagogy and technology, offering programs to assist faculty in better engaging students through the use of technology. Dr. Magaldi is a mentor in the Academic Portfolio Workshop and is happiest when supporting and uplifting faculty as they learn how to come into their own and discuss the impressive work they are doing for their students, university, and discipline.
Dr. Christelle Scharff
Image
Dr. Christelle Scharff is a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean in the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. She has a Ph.D. in Symbolic Artificial Intelligence (Theorem Proving and Automated Deduction) from INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. Her current research focuses on global software engineering, mobile for social change and deep learning.
In her role as a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Scharff is interested in promoting interdisciplinary initiatives, engaging in conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion in computing, and discussing practices and tools for scaling computing education.
Professor Emily Gold Waldman
Image
Professor Emily Gold Waldman serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Operations in Elisabeth Haub School of Law. She joined the Pace faculty in 2006, after clerking for the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Professor Waldman teaches Constitutional Law, Law & Education, Employment Law Survey, and Civil Procedure. She has also served for many years as the Faculty Director of the law school's Federal Judicial Honors Program, which places students in externships with federal judges.
