October 1, 2020
Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) welcomed new faculty for the Fall 2020 semester to a September 25 virtual meeting that introduced the faculty page feature on the BMCC website and other resources to support instruction and help build community at the college.
BMCC President Anthony E. Munroe joined the meeting and engaged each of the faculty members in a conversation about their experience and areas of scholarship.
The professors included Jason Bravo, Monica Stanton-Koko and Anika Thrower in the Department of Health Education; Paula Lewis and Christy Solorio in the Department of Nursing; Ayan Hill in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, and RaShelle Peck in the Center for Ethnic Studies.
Each new faculty member brings a unique background to the classroom.
“My areas of specialty are Black diasporic studies, gender theory, and the cultural studies of music and performance,” says Center for Ethnic Studies Professor RaShelle Peck. “Currently, I am completing a project about Nairobi underground hip hop. My next projects focus on Afrofuturism and Black women’s R&B in the U.S. I am very excited to be here at BMCC and I look forward to sharing my work with the BMCC community.”
“I am elated to be a part of the BMCC family and to serve within the CUNY system,” says Health Education Professor Anika Thrower, who has taught at Southern Connecticut State University and Springfield College in Massachusetts. She has also served as both a council member and co-chair on the City of New Haven’s Food Policy Council, and was instrumental in developing the City of New Haven’s first Food Action Plan.
“My hope is to nurture students’ ability to explore worldwide viewpoints and build a network of connections which speaks to higher levels of personal wellness, professional development and service within the most vulnerable populations,” Thrower says. “My personal mantra inside and outside the classroom is ‘We are our environment,’ and I am honored to join the faculty of a college that boasts, ‘Start here. Go anywhere!'”
Resources include faculty pages, OER and more
The online gathering provided an introduction to the BMCC faculty pages by Office of Public Affairs Web Content Manager Cynthia Blayer.
“Faculty pages provide a platform for professors to showcase their publications, grant-funded research and areas of expertise,” says Blayer. “They provide a venue for current and future students as well as the general public to learn more about what BMCC has to offer. The Office of Public Affairs can assist professors with their faculty pages. They can also find, on the BMCC website, a faculty page guide on the Faculty/Staff Resources page under the Resources column with step-by-step instructions.”
Associate Dean of Faculty Jim Berg noted that faculty pages are the best way for instructors to communicate with students before they show up in their classrooms.
Also presenting at the virtual gathering was Open Knowledge Librarian Jean Amaral, and Tom Harbison of E-Learning.
Armaral discussed CUNY Academic Works, a service of the CUNY Libraries. Among other resources, that site provides links specific to BMCC on Open Educational Resources (OER) and publications by BMCC faculty.
Other resources for faculty are available on the BMCC website.
These include the Faculty Affairs page, which presents information on faculty mentoring, the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship (CETLS) and more.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- New faculty gather for virtual introduction to resources at BMCC
- These include faculty pages, where they feature their own bios, publications and more
- Others include Open Educational Resources (OER)
