NYU Steinhardt's newest faculty members are scholars, researchers, practitioners, and educators who are working at the intersection of culture, health, music, art, food studies, and social justice.
Nicole R. Fleetwood
James Weldon Johnson Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication
Nicole R. Fleetwood is a writer, curator, and art critic whose interests are contemporary black diasporic art and visual culture, photography studies, art and public practice, performance studies, gender and feminist studies, black cultural history, creative nonfiction, prison abolition and carceral studies, and poverty studies. She is the author Marking Time: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Harvard University Press, 2020), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. She is also the curator of the traveling exhibition, Marking Time: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration, which debuted at MoMA PS1 (September 17, 2020-April 5, 2021).
Fleetwood has co-curated exhibitions and public programs on art and mass incarceration at the Andrew Freedman Home, Aperture, Cleveland Public Library, Zimmerli Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, and Worth Rises. Her work has been supported by Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, American Council of Learned Societies, the Art for Justice Fund, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library, Whiting Foundation, NJ Council for the Humanities, Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, Ford Foundation, Puffin Foundation, and Denniston Hill Residency. She is the recipient of a 2021 MacArthur "genius" award.
Cat Schmitz
Visiting Assistant Professor
Media, Culture, and Communication
Cat Schmitz is a designer and technologist who works at the intersection of storytelling, product development, art, and experience design. Schmitz creates future-forward prototypes that explore how technology might impact specific environments and people, such as computer vision in the healthcare system or artificial intelligence in education. Schmitz is an award-winning video game developer and produced some of the world's first 5G games. In addition to her technology pursuits, Schmitz is an abstract artist with a textile design practice. Her work debuted at a solo show in 2020 and she is currently developing a new collection to be released in 2022. Schmitz has developed innovative technology prototypes for brands like Sesame Street, Verizon, History Channel, Capitol Records, IBM Watson, Google, and Facebook.
Jason Thompson
Visiting Assistant Professor
Music and Performing Arts Professions
Jason Thompson is scholar, researcher, educator, and agent of social change who believes that the values of equity, inclusion, and belonging are central to and indivisible from intellectual and artistic excellence. His research explores socially engaged practices in the arts, music participation as civic engagement, and the ways culture influences and mediates the musical experience. In his 20-year career, he has served as public school music teacher, university professor, community teaching artist, and administrator for equity and inclusion
Thompson's scholarship has been published in Music Education Research, Music Educators Journal, Missouri School Music, and Antiphon and has published choral scores through GIA Music and Hinshaw Music. He is currently co-editing the book, If Colors Could be Heard (Intellect Books), a collection of diverse perspectives from scholars, educators, and music makers that aims to paint a portrait of “the most wondrous tunes of music learning” and teaching currently occurring across contexts.
Angela C. B. Trude
Assistant Professor
Nutrition and Food Studies
Angela Trude is a researcher whose work examines the systemic roots of preventable chronic diseases by identifying and testing solutions for at-risk populations. She studies community-based interventions in low-resource settings, food policy strategies to ensure equitable access to affordable, nutritious food, and factors in early life that can maximize physical health and productivity. Trude is currently the principal investigator of a research project supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that evaluates online grocery purchase patterns among families receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she led the implementation and evaluation of a NIH-funded community-based randomized controlled trial to prevent childhood obesity. Lawton is the lead author of research articles published in Maternal & Child Nutrition, Public Health Nutrition, and The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Stacie Brensilver Berman
Visiting Assistant Professor
Teaching and Learning
Stacie Brensilver Berman is a researcher and educator who has worked extensively with high school teachers on developing curriculum for navigating the challenges around introducing potentially controversial issues in classrooms. She is the author of LGBTQ+ History in High School Classes in the United States Since 1990 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021) She is \the co-author of “Teaching War Crimes in a Comparative Perspective” in Teaching Recent Global History (Routledge, 2014), “Teaching the Port Huron Statement'' in Inspiring Participatory Democracy (Routledge, 2012), “The Civil Rights Movement'' in Teaching US History (Routledge, 2010), and journal articles on best practices for using project-based learning in social studies classes. Berman has presented her research at conferences throughout the United States and has worked with educators on teaching LGBTQ+ history, civil rights, students’ rights, and the women’s movement.
Pamela A. Lawton
Visiting Assistant Professor
Occupational Therapy
Pamela Lawton, DPS, OT, CHT, is a clinical educator, occupational therapist, and certified hand therapist. She is currently investigating the therapeutic intervention and management of the carpometacarpal joint osteoarthritis in adults and people with systemic lupus erythematosus. Dr. Lawton has taught as an adjunct instructor throughout her clinical career with a focus on instruction in clinical reasoning, assessment and therapeutic intervention. She has developed assessment and intervention education training modules for therapists interested in the hand therapy specialty area and co-lead a hand therapy clinical mentorship program for early-career therapists in hand therapy certification. Dr. Lawton has delivered papers at conferences and presented her research at poster sessions.
Marianne H. Mortera
Visiting Assistant Professor
Occupational Therapy
Marianne H. Mortera, PhD, OTR/L, is a scholar, researcher, and educator with clinical expertise in neurological and brain injury rehabilitation. Her research has focused on productivity in war veterans with traumatic brain injury, as well as the development and testing of assessment instruments to measure cognition and neurological function. She is currently researching the impact of pharmacological interventions on activities of daily living and the effectiveness of integrative medicine in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. Dr. Mortera has written several book chapters and journal articles on brain injury rehabilitation, cognitive assessment, and occupational therapy assessment and treatment guidelines. She has served on the occupational therapy faculty of Long Island University, Columbia University, Mercy College, A.T. Still University, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and Nova Southeastern University.