NYU Steinhardt's newest faculty members include educators, scholars, musicians, activists, writers, and more.
Related Department
Media, Culture, and Communication
239 Greene Street, 8th floor
New York, NY 10003
212-998-5191 | contact
Huda Hassan
Visiting Assistant Professor
Huda Hassan is a writer and cultural critic whose work examines Black/African cultural expressions in diaspora, utilizing methods and tools from gender studies, literary and cultural studies, and media studies. Her research interests include Black cultural and feminist studies, African diasporas, countercultures, and the politics of difference. Her current research project includes a qualitative study into the history of Somalis in 19th and 20th century New York, and broader examinations of Black diasporic sensibilities shaping the 20th century Harlem Renaissance. Before her role at NYU, Hassan taught courses on music and African diasporas, Black feminist literature, and feminist theories and methods.
Edward B. Kang
Assistant Professor
Edward B. Kang’s work sits at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and sound studies, with a specific focus on the sociotechnical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems and the communities, cultures, and practices through which they are enacted. He is currently writing a book on the epistemological boundaries of AI technologies that apply ML techniques to process the voice for predictive analytics and biometric identification.
Joaquín Serpe
Visiting Assistant Professor
Joaquín Serpe is a media and cultural studies scholar whose research interest focuses on how the transition from broadcast to digital media has transformed media pedagogy and the dissemination of political thought. His new project, “Disinformation Platforms: Reactionary Media in the Americas,” explores right-wing media culture through a transnational and hemispheric lens. Before NYU, he worked at Emerson College teaching the history of cinema, television, and the media arts more broadly.
Jiwon Woo
Visiting Assistant Professor
Jiwon Woo is a multidisciplinary designer, engineer, and researcher with extensive experience in both industry and academia. She integrates human-centered design methods and data driven analysis to solve complex problems and collaboratively build unprecedented products that substantially improve people's lives. Prior to NYU, Woo was a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania teaching courses in design and digital culture, a researcher at MIT Design Lab, and a design and marketing specialist at Ginkgo Bioworks.
Related Department
Teaching and Learning
Department of Teaching and Learning
239 Greene Street, Sixth Floor
New York, NY 10003
Tel: 212 998 5460
Benjamin R. Lowell
Clinical Assistant Professor
Benjamin R. Lowell (he/him) is a clinical assistant professor of science education, residency director, and science content mentor in the Teacher Residency program. Lowell is interested in how teachers learn to teach science as a process of figuring out the natural world. Prior to NYU, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston College, an instructional coach in Boston, and a high school science teacher and department chair in Sunnyvale, California.
Natalia Ortiz
Clinical Assistant Professor
Natalia Ortiz is an educator, scholar, activist, and facilitator with sixteen years of experience in varied roles. She is a former founding social studies teacher at a transfer high school in Brooklyn, NY. She has coached professors as a Writing Across Curriculum Fellow at LaGuardia Community College, as well as students at Hunter College and Barnard College. In addition to higher education experience, Ortiz served as the director of programs at the Center for Racial Justice in Education (CRJE) and as an equity transformation specialist with Courageous Conversation working with educators in developing a racial equity practice.
Alexis D. Riley
Assistant Professor
Alexis D. Riley (she/her) is a Black feminist science teacher-educator and writer. Her research has prioritized the legacy, innovations, and healing of Black women teachers by placing their instinctual and improvisational teaching skills at the center of science education. Riley has been faculty at California State University - Los Angeles, Barnard College, and Relay Graduate School of Education as an assistant professor and adjunct assistant professor, respectively. Her research and scholarship are heavily informed by her decade of experience as a secondary science and history teacher and a curriculum and instruction specialist in public and charter schools in Harlem and Brooklyn.
Sarah L. Schlessinger
Clinical Assistant Professor
Sarah L. Schlessinger is a teacher educator and scholar of inclusive education. Her research and teaching focus on social justice as it is enacted through inclusive classroom practices, specifically referring to notions of normalcy, marginalization, and exclusion and the intersections of ability, race, and class. Schlessinger has held previous appointments as a lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University and an assistant professor at Long Island University - Brooklyn.
Rachel Elizabeth Traxler
Clinical Assistant Professor
Rachel Elizabeth Traxler’s research and teaching focus on how dominant ideologies that communicate ableism, racism, and English language dominance impact students’ experiences in schools. Recently, Rachel has sought to understand transition across the lifespan, inquiring into barriers and facilitators of success for disabled youth and their teachers. Previously, Traxler was earning her PhD in Teaching and Learning with an emphasis in Special Education from Steinhardt, where she was a special education adjunct professor and a Teacher Residency adjunct instructor.
Related Department
Music and Performing Arts Professions
35 W. 4th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012
212-998-5424
mpap@nyu.edu
Meghan Bennett
Music Assistant Professor
A flutist, Meghan Bennett has been a guest soloist with Chamber Music International in Dallas, TX, and has performed with the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and more. Passionate about collaborating with communities of color through classical music, Bennett completed residencies in Chile and Ghana at Centro Cultural San Antonio and the Matic Music Club where she taught flute, music theory, and pedagogy classes. Bennett previously served on the faculties of California State University - Fresno, Northern Kentucky University, Prairie View A&M University, and OrchKids.
Adriana Diaz-Donoso
Music Assistant Professor
A Latina bilingual woman of color, Adriana Diaz-Donoso seeks to address social justice issues through the lens of the arts. Her scholarship focuses on equity and access to music education, the role of arts organizations in community building and social change, and diversity issues in music teacher preparation. Diaz-Donoso has over 15 years of experience designing and implementing diverse and inclusive programming as well as educational curricula to better engage students from various backgrounds and experiences. Prior to joining NYU, Diaz-Donoso was the WeBop manager at Jazz at Lincoln Center and adjunct assistant professor of Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Alan Turry
Assistant Professor
Alan Turry teaches in NYU Steinhardt's music therapy graduate program and serves as the Faculty Liaison to Steinhardt's Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy. As the Principal Investigator on key research projects at Nordoff-Robbins, he is spearheading the development of the Music Engagement Scale, a research instrument designed to measure a client’s engagement in music. Well known for his innovative contributions to the Nordoff-Robbins approach, Turry has engaged in pioneering research studying the improvisation process and linking elements of music with the verbal-lyrical content of improvised songs. He has published numerous chapters and articles on contemporary developments in Nordoff-Robbins music therapy and is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in music therapy clinical technique.
Related Department
Occupational Therapy
Pless Hall, 82 Washington Square East, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212-998-5825
Email: occupational.therapy@nyu.edu
Follow Our Department!
Alison M. Rangel
Clinical Assistant Professor
Alison M. Rangel is a scholar, educator, higher education professional, and occupational therapist. Prior to joining NYU, Rangel had an extensive clinical career, working first with the NYU Langone School of Medicine at Bellevue Hospital Center and later serving as a senior occupational therapy clinician for the Department of Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Morningside Hospital (formally known as St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital). In addition, she has held adjunct faculty appointments at Long Island University and NYU Steinhardt and has managed the fieldwork program for NYU’s Department of Occupational Therapy in her former full-time administrator role.
Lisa Raymond-Tolan
Clinical Assistant Professor
Lisa Raymond-Tolan is an educator, researcher, and pediatric occupational therapist. Raymond-Tolan’s research includes students creating social media and podcast content as learning tools and innovative learning approaches. She has spent 15 years at Community Roots Charter School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, a K–8 school devoted to racial justice work and inclusive practices, where she continues to consult on screenings and intervention for at-risk students. Prior to joining NYU, Raymond-Tolan was a clinical associate professor of occupational therapy at Pace University.
Related Department
Nutrition and Food Studies
411 Lafayette Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212-998-5580
Email: nutrition@nyu.edu
Follow Our Department!
Ethan Balk
Clinical Associate Professor
Ethan K. Balk, PhD, RDN, CDN, ACSM-EP is a clinical dietitian and scholar in the field of nutrition, bariatrics, and weight management. His research focus centers in the psychosocial and socioeconomic barriers to weight management in minority post-bariatric surgery patients and the overall social injustice of the obesity pandemic through a post-neoliberal and feminist theory lens. Prior to joining Steinhardt, Balk was an associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Exercise Science at Western Connecticut State University.
Related Department
Communicative Sciences and Disorders
665 Broadway, 9th floor
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212-998-5230
Follow Our Department!
Si On Yoon
Assistant Professor
Si On Yoon’s research interests take a cognitive science approach to the study of complex language processes. She examines how people use social-pragmatic information in conversation, such as how speakers design what they say depending on their partner’s knowledge, and how previously-discussed information influences language production and comprehension in the moment. Yoon is also interested in how this ability varies across populations (e.g., adults with/without severe memory impairment or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s). Before joining NYU, Yoon was an assistant professor at the University of Iowa.
Related Department
Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities
Kimball Hall, 246 Greene Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10003
212-992-9475
Klint Kanopka
Assistant Professor
Klint Kanopka is an applied statistician who applies computational models to problems in educational and psychological measurement. His recent work includes the development of a mixture item response model that accounts for effects caused by variation in item position, innovations in model comparison methods for polytomous item response models, and the use of flexible machine learning models to combine behavioral data and item response data. Before coming to NYU, Kanopka was completing his doctoral studies at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Prior to that, he taught high school physics in the Philadelphia School District.
Related Department
Administration, Leadership, and Technology
Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology
82 Washington Square East, 7th floor
New York, NY 10003
Tel: 212-998-5520
Email: alt@nyu.edu
Trisha Beck
Clinical Assistant Professor
Trish Beck is clinical assistant professor of education leadership and policy studies and the program director for Steinhardt’s EdD in Leadership and Innovation. Beck’s research centers on leadership theory and development, and she has a passion for education, having created numerous learning curricula throughout her career with a focus on leadership and innovation. She has extensive leadership experience within the nonprofit healthcare sector in roles such as chief operating officer and associate chief nursing officer. Beck is also a board-certified Nurse Executive, a board-certified Healthcare Executive, and a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
George Spencer
Assistant Professor
George Spencer’s research broadly regards two related areas of inquiry: understanding students’ educational pathways from high school through college and evaluating the effectiveness of policy levers intended to improve college readiness, access, and completion. Prior to joining NYU Steinhardt, Spencer was an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, and he was a Dean’s Faculty Fellow at Steinhardt through NYU’s Postdoctoral and Transition Program for Academic Diversity.