Information and Communications Technology Committee

Zahid Mehmood is the Associate Director of Information Security Risk Management at Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT).  With over 20 years in the field, his work centers on cybersecurity, cloud security, and enterprise tech risk. He works across Columbia’s academic and administrative units to maintain secure and reliable operations in a highly decentralized environment. Before joining the University, Zahid held technical roles in the financial services and telecommunications industries. He earned his MS in Technology Management from Columbia (SPS ’09).

Richard Hall is the Interim Vice President and CIO at Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT). He oversees all aspects of Columbia University's major information technology systems, which include applications, infrastructure, networking, telephony, cybersecurity, and IT policy. He heads the University's central technology management group (CUIT) and leads the IT Leadership Council, providing IT governance across all schools and major departments.

Executive Assistant: Toni Gunthrope-Hardee (tg2030@columbia.edu)

Nancy LoIacono is a Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. She is an environmental scientist and epidemiologist and has dedicated her career to understanding the effects of exposure to metals (in particular lead and arsenic) on children’s neurocognitive development and the development of adverse health outcomes (cardiovascular and lung disease and diabetes) in adults. She has worked on studies at both the molecular and population levels. She has been involved in several long-term prospective studies that have focused on identifying the adverse effects of exposure to metals, evaluating the effectiveness and safety of various interventions, and formulating strategies to reduce or eliminate these exposures and/or to mitigate their effects.

Maneesha Aggarwal has worked at CUIT since 2001 and was appointed to AVP of Academic and Research Solutions in June 2016. She added Emerging Technologies to her portfolio in 2018.

Maneesha oversees teaching and learning and research services for the University. She has successfully led large projects in partnership with schools/departments across the University, including upgrading CourseWorks (twice, to Sakai in 2011 and Canvas in 2016), managing the Sundial replacement project, and launching the University-wide online evaluation system. Maneesha has also spearheaded the launch of new services including Electronic Notebooks, Confluence, Zoom, Panopto, JuypterHub and more. Additionally, Maneesha provides strategic leadership in the areas of research computing including High Performance Computing, RASCAL and InfoEd teams.

Maneesha provides direction for CUIT's Emerging Technology Consortium (ETC), which she kicked-off in the fall of 2017. This group positions CUIT as an exchange place for cutting-edge work and knowledge sharing among researchers, faculty, students and industry partners. ETC is focused on fostering and developing applications of new technologies, such as voice-aided technologies, augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D scanners and printers. 

Executive Assistant: Anna Braude ([email protected])

Sen. Julia Hirschberg is Percy K. and Vida L. W. Hudson Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University (department chair from 2012-2018).  She previously worked at Bell Laboratories and AT&T Labs on text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) and then created their first HCI Research Department.   She has served on the ACL executive board, the ISCA board (2005-7 as president), the CRA-WP board, the NAACL executive board, the CRA Executive Board, the AAAI Council, and the IEEE SLTC as well as numerous awards committees.  She was editor of Computational Linguistics and Speech Communication and is a fellow of AAAI, ISCA, ACL, ACM, and IEEE, and a member of the NAE, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence.  She received the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award, the ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement, the ISCA Special Service Medal and the ACL Dragomir Radev Distinguished Service Medal. She studies speech and NLP:  TTS; false information on social media and its intent, multimodal humor; radicalization in online videos and social media; charismatic speech; entrainment, emotion and empathy production and recognition in conversation; deceptive, trusted and mistrusted speech; and code-switching in text and speech.

Sen. David Kessler is a Professor of Pediatrics and Vice Chair of Innovation & Strategic Initiatives in Columbia’s Department of Emergency Medicine. In this role, he works across teams to develop novel programs and lead strategic initiatives to solve complex healthcare challenges. After graduating from Princeton University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s global health track in Pediatrics, he completed Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship, and Emergency Ultrasound training at Bellevue Hospital, along with a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from NYU. Dr. Kessler is co-founder of INSPIRE (International Network for Simulation-based Pediatric Innovation, Research, and Education), fostering a global community of investigators dedicated to collaboration, mentorship, and advancing simulation scholarship. His career focuses on improving patient outcomes through innovative technology, with extensive experience in clinical research, grant-funded projects, and international leadership in Simulation and Emergency Ultrasound. He has a long track record of collaboration across the Columbia School of Engineering and Data Science Institute with current research exploring artificial intelligence for automated ultrasound interpretation, virtual and augmented reality for clinical skills training, and simulation-based professionalism education using natural language processing for performance assessment.

Sen. Bruce Fan is the University Senator representing the School of International and Public Affairs. Bruce is currently a first-year Master of International Affairs student at SIPA, concentrating in data science for policy. His academic and professional interests sit at the intersection of public policy, technology, and governance, with particular focus on AI governance, digital assets, and evidence-based policymaking. Prior to SIPA, he studied political science and has worked across government, policy research, and technology-oriented organizations. 

As University Senator, Bruce is focused on strengthening communication between SIPA students and the broader Columbia community, advocating for transparency in university governance, and advancing policies that support student well-being, academic flexibility, and cross-school collaboration. He is especially interested in ensuring that graduate student perspectives are meaningfully represented in institutional discussions that shape Columbia’s future. Bruce views student governance as both a responsibility and an opportunity to listen carefully, act thoughtfully, and serve with integrity on behalf of the SIPA community.

Sen. Anika Navaroli is an award-winning writer, lawyer, and researcher focused on journalism, social media, artificial intelligence, trust and safety, and technology policy. She is the Craig Newmark Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia Journalism School. Over the past decade, her work has ranged from law firms and think tanks to advocacy organizations and senior policy positions at Twitter and Twitch.

Sen. Andrew Puthumana is a student at Columbia College, majoring in financial economics with minors in sustainable development and history. He previously served as the pre-professional representative for the Columbia College Student Council, focusing on club reform and transparency regarding the student groups recruitment process. Andrew currently serves as the Financial Director of the Columbia Bartending Agency and as a Co-Executive Editor of Columbia’s Undergraduate Law Review, and remains active in other organizations related to research, student culture, and pre-professional development. 

As a University Senator, Andrew is interested in expanding dialogue around restoring student trust in the university administration and upholding shared governance–especially in Columbia’s current environment. With a dedication to work that impacts all Columbia students, he is passionate about ensuring student perspectives are recognized in university decision making and creating accountability for policy made outside of the University Senate.

Sen. Andrew J. Einstein is a cardiologist, cardiac imager, and researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He serves as Director of Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac CT, and Cardiac MRI, Director of the Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship, and a tenured Professor of Medicine, with primary appointment in the Department of Medicine and secondary appointment in the Department of Radiology. Born and raised in New Jersey, Dr. Einstein received an A.B. from Princeton University and attended Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he received an M.D. as well as a Ph.D. in the Department of Biomathematical Sciences. His graduate research focused on developing image analysis methodology in microscopy. He also received an M.S. in patient-oriented research/biostatistics from Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. After internship and residency in internal medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, he completed fellowship training at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Einstein’s clinical activities are centered on cardiovascular PET, SPECT, CT, and MRI, and he serves on the attending physician staff in the Heart Institute. His research, which uses each of these modalities, focuses on improving the use of imaging in cardiovascular medicine, with particular interests and current funded projects in quality of healthcare, radiation safety, global health, amyloidosis, artificial intelligence, and device development. It is funded by multiple NIH grants, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and industry.

Dr. Einstein is the author or coauthor of over 300 papers and abstracts, in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, Circulation, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. This work has been influential in affecting clinical practice, and has been widely reported in the popular media and cited over 16,000 times in the scientific literature. For it, Dr. Einstein has received the American College of Cardiology's Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s Hermann Blumgart Award, the American Federation for Medical Research's Junior Physician Investigator Award, and the Lewis Katz Cardiovascular Research Prize for a Young Investigator.

He is a member of the editorial boards of JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging and the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, and served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. He is frequently invited to lecture on subjects related to cardiovascular imaging, and has addressed organizations such as the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, European Society of Cardiology, International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Senate in an AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy briefing. He has served as a member of study sections of the Center for Scientific Review, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and National Cancer Institute. He is Chair of the Academic Cardiology Section of the American College of Cardiology, and a member of the boards of directors of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Cardiovascular Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. He serves as a member of the Congressionally-chartered National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes, and previously served as a voting member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Medical Imaging Drugs Advisory Committee. Dr. Einstein has served as a mentor to over fifty trainees at various stages ranging from high school to junior faculty.

Sen. Adam Cannon is Teaching Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science. Dr. Cannon joined Columbia in July, 2000. From 2000 to 2005 he was also a visiting scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Cannon came to Columbia after earning a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Cannon’s current research interests are in computer science education, machine learning, and statistical pattern recognition. He is a winner of the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, The Society of Columbia Graduates Great Teacher Award, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science Alumni Association’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.