Greetings Lesley Alumni!
The fall semester at Lesley has just begun. Students arrived and began their classes last week. We have a wonderful group of about 350 first-year and transfer students with 32 percent of them self-identifying as people of color.
Unlike previous years when we held Convocation on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend (“Move-in Day”), we held Convocation on the second day of classes to make it easier for commuter students as well as residential students to attend. Jennifer Serowick, Assistant Vice President for Adult Learning Programs set the tone of the event when she welcomed all students, saying that, “No matter who you are, or where you were born...No matter the color of your skin, your beliefs and faith, your gender or who you love. No matter what your strengths are and no matter what your challenges are…you are in the right place, in the right seat, with the right people, right now.”
New Faculty
We welcomed five new core faculty:
- Tatiana Cruz (Humanities) – PhD in History from the University of Michigan
- Grace Ferris (Natural Sciences and Mathematics) – PhD in Organic Chemistry from Boston College
- James Mason (Business Management) – MBA in Global Business from Cornell University; PhD in Socio-Technical Systems from the Stevens Institute of Technology
- Uma Millner (Psychology and Applied Therapies) – PhD in Counseling Psychology from Boston College
- Nafisa Tanjeem (Social Sciences) – PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University
In addition, André Ruesch, formerly of the Photography Department in Lesley University’s College of Art and Design has taken a joint appointment with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Art and Design and will be a member of the Humanities division.
We are thrilled to have these impressive people join the College. They bring incredible experience and expertise from a wide range of fields.
CLAS Reads
This summer, as part of the CLAS Reads tradition, the incoming first-year students read bell hooks’ book, Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice. Students will be discussing this book in their English Composition and other courses this fall. In addition, this fall, we will have faculty-led panel discussions of this book. Though published in 2013, dr. hooks’ essays on examining white supremacy and what it means to live in a “post-racial” world when racism so clearly exists, are as timely as ever.
Alumni Accomplishments
I always enjoy meeting or hearing about what Lesley alumni are doing. I just learned that Danielle Boudreau ’17 has taken a job teaching in the Republic of Namibia. The school is on the animal sanctuary where Danielle had been volunteering since graduating.
Rebecca Hsieh ’14 and Rachel Silva ’14 (along with David Morimoto, Chair of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division, and Jean-Luc Gilles, from Haute Ecole Pedagogique, Switzerland) are the lead authors of a book chapter published this month on their collective work with impoverished highland communities in Bolivia on cultural preservation and conservation of the endangered Polylepis forest, Cochabamba Mountain-Finch, and other bird species.
Beau Morimando ’13, a middle school teacher and fitness competitor is featured in the Stories section of our new website—check it out! If you know of a graduate (including yourself) that you think would be interested in being profiled on the site, please let us know!
Staying Connected
And, I encourage you, if you're interested, to come back and share your experiences with our current students. We’d love to have you! And, as you know if you've read my previous messages, I welcome memorabilia that represents Lesley to display in the Dean's office. I currently have some incredible art work on my office walls on loan from students and alumni who completed their capstone in Art Therapy.
Feel free to contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office at 617.349.8903 or CLAS_OfficeoftheDean@lesley.edu.
When you're in the area, please come by and introduce yourself. I would love to hear about your experiences at Lesley and your thoughts about our future, especially during this year of university-wide strategic planning.
Best wishes for an enjoyable and interesting autumn,
Steven S. Shapiro
Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences