Libraries and Digital Resources Committee

Sara Coffield (GS’25) is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of General Studies, where she studied Art History and Sociology. Her senior thesis on the graphic works of the Bibiena family began with research in the Avery Classics Collection, where she later served on a Collections Acquisition Advisory Cohort. At Columbia, Sara also participated in the Justice-in-Education Initiative’s Rikers Education Program, facilitating a book club for incarcerated people.

Sara has experience in art book publishing, worked at the Metropolitan Museum’s Thomas J. Watson Library, and is a member of the Bibliographical Society of America. Most recently, Sara completed a curatorial internship at the Morgan Library & Museum in the Printed Books & Bindings department, where she was tasked with responsibilities relating to collection management, acquisitions, exhibitions, and teaching.

Prior to academia, Sara danced professionally for a decade, performing internationally with Ballet Dortmund, Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, and the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Sen. Oren Pizmony-Levy is an Associate Professor in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. He holds a BA in political science and MA in sociology of education from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD in sociology and comparative and international education from Indiana University-Bloomington. Pizmony-Levy is the Founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Futures and is an affiliated faculty at the Columbia Climate School. His research and teaching focus on the intersection between education and social movements, including test-based accountability and international large-scale assessments (e.g., TIMSS and PISA), LGBTQ+ education, and environmental sustainability education. His current projects revolve around exploring how educators engage with climate change education and examining the international landscape of organizations that are actively involved in climate education and communication.

Sen. Nasser Odetallah is an MFA student in Film at the Columbia School of the Arts. Originally from Oklahoma, he holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia School of General Studies (’25), studying English, film & media studies, and Mediterranean studies, and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University (’20), studying chemistry and molecular biophysics & biochemistry. 

While at Yale and General Studies, Nasser served in many leadership roles, supporting students and representing student interests to staff, administration, and faculty, most notably serving as Columbia General Studies Student Body President during the 2023-2024 academic year. Nasser is primarily interested in strengthening the voice of and engagement with students on central university issues including freedom of speech and academic freedom; financial support for students; campus access and space; expansion of key student services such as dining, health services, housing, and study spaces; and accountability from faculty and administrators in repairing institutional trust and integrity. Coming from Palestinian-American, Puerto Rican, LGBTQ+, and first-generation, low-income (FGLI) backgrounds, Nasser has experience working across student populations and interests to effect positive and long-lasting change at the university-level. Nasser looks forward to working with the other students on the University Senate to create positive change and continue to add the student voice on critical university-wide issues.

Maria Luisa Gozzi is a senior lecturer and has taught at Columbia University since 1993. She has twice served in the University Senate and on the Lecturer Advisory Committee.

Dr. Gozzi has taught Italian language courses at all levels, and thematic courses on Italian cinema, opera, linguistic and cultural diversity, literature and war, Dante, stylistics, and the senses. She has published articles on Italian cinema, Italian literature and language pedagogy, and has created several websites for Italian language and culture acquisition. Dr. Gozzi came to the United States after graduating from the University of Florence, Italy. She holds a Ph.D. in Italian from Rutgers University and an M.A. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University. 

Sen. Keith Gessen is a founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books. He is the editor of three nonfiction books and the translator or co-translator, from Russian, of a collection of short stories, a book of poems, and a work of oral history. He is also the author of two novels, All the Sad Young Literary Men and A Terrible Country, as well as a book of essays, Raising Raffi.

Most of Gessen's journalistic work has focused on the effects of the collapse of communism on the countries of what used to be the Soviet Union. His New Yorker article on the insoluble problem of Moscow traffic -- a legacy of militant Soviet urban design combined with the anti-planning ethos of hypercapitalism — was included in Best American Travel Essays in 2011. His New Yorker story on the opening to shipping of the Northern Sea Route above the Russian Arctic as a result of global warming was included in Best American Science and Nature Writing in 2013. He has written about the wars and revolutions in Ukraine, as well about the experts in the U.S. government who work on the region.

Gessen began his career as a book reviewer for the early online magazine FEED, and subsequently contributed review-essays to Dissent, The Nation, and The New York Review of Books. He started n+1 with Mark Greif, Chad Harbach, Benjamin Kunkel, Allison Lorentzen, and Marco Roth in 2004.

Gessen was born in Moscow and grew up outside of Boston. He graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in History and Literature in 1998, and subsequently received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Syracuse University. In 2014-2015 he was a fellow at the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library.

Sen. Katherine Brooks is a Collection Analysis Librarian in the Columbia University Libraries. In this position, she analyzes electronic resource usage data to support strategic collection development and management in the Libraries while also serving as a science librarian. On the University Senate, Katherine co-chairs the Campus Planning and Physical Development Committee and the Libraries and Digital Resources Committee. Before joining the Libraries, Katherine was a Frontiers of Science postdoctoral fellow in the Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Science Department and instructor in the College.

Sen. Jeffrey Wayno is a historian of the European Middle Ages who works as a librarian and curator in the Columbia University Libraries. As the Collection Services Librarian at The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, he is responsible for both Burke’s general and rare collections, as well as the ancient, medieval, and religious studies collections at Butler Library. An alumnus of Columbia’s doctoral program in medieval history, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the University Libraries before taking up his current position in 2018. He also regularly teaches Literature Humanities in Columbia College’s Core Curriculum.

Sen. Jacob Benoist is a graduate student at the Columbia Climate School, where he studies the interrelationships between climate change and society. As the University Senator representing one of Columbia’s newest schools, he is dedicated to strengthening connections across the university and ensuring that climate has a meaningful place in campus-wide dialogue and decision-making. Jacob earned his B.A. in Individualized Studies from New York University in 2024, where he explored how environmental studies can be leveraged for effective and inclusive sustainability within business and governance. His professional and research experiences span education, policy, and finance, informing his current academic focus on climate communication – aligning corporate sustainability incentives with community-driven action.

Elisha Dura (she/her) is a senior in Columbia College majoring in English and pursuing a minor in Education Studies. Her research and academic interests include writing center studies, first-year writing instruction, and rural education. Elisha currently works as the Columbia Libraries Peer Fellow at the Writing Center and as a freelance book editor. Previously, she has interned at an NYC charter school and a student leadership nonprofit organization in her home state. On campus, Elisha serves as a senior staff writer at Bwog Columbia Student News and dances with Orchesis, the largest dance organization at Columbia.

Sen. David Lurie is Associate Professor of Japanese History and Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and also teaches in History and in the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Sen. Lurie's first book, Realms of Literacy: Early Japan and the History of Writing, won the Lionel Trilling Award in 2012, and he received the Marc Van Doren Teaching Award in 2022. He has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies, as director of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture and of the University Committee on Asia and the Middle East, and has been on many departmental and Arts and Sciences committees, including ARC (Academic Review Committee) and PPC (Policy and Planning Committee). Sen. Lurie was the founding president of the Columbia chapter of the AAUP (American Association of University Professors—please join!!), serving until summer 2024.

Sen. Benjamin Bostick is a professor of geochemistry at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and has been a dedicated member of the Columbia University faculty for over 15 years. His research focuses on environmental systems, and he has collaborated extensively with colleagues across Columbia’s campuses. Sen. Bostick recognizes the vital role that research officers play in advancing the University’s mission. As a University Senator, he is committed to implementing changes that bridge the divide between instructional and research faculty. He advocates for stronger connections across academic units and ranks to foster a more integrated and supportive Columbia community. He places a high value on enhancing engagement between research faculty and students and is deeply committed to supporting the research staff who are critical to the University’s scholarly success. Additionally, Sen. Bostick is passionate about expanding the University’s connection with the broader New York City community through research and academic life.

Sen. Ann Thornton is Vice Provost and University Librarian for Columbia University in the City of New York, where she is responsible for one of the top five academic research library systems in North America with world-class physical and digital collections and expert staff in support of research, teaching, and learning. On the University Senate, Vice Provost Thornton serves on the Libraries and Digital Resources Committee, and the Elections Commission.

She came to Columbia in June 2015 after serving for nearly two decades at the New York Public Library, where she was most recently the Andrew W. Mellon Director, a position she held since 2012, with responsibility for research and reference services, collection development, preservation, fellowships, and exhibitions. Vice Provost Thornton’s previous roles at the New York Public Library included Director of Reference and Research Services, Associate Director for the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, and Assistant Director of Electronic Resources for the Science, Industry and Business Library.

Early in her career, Vice Provost Thornton served as a systems librarian at the University of Houston Libraries. She was a Leadership Fellow in a program sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries and subsequently served on the board of that organization. Additionally, Vice Provost Thornton has chaired the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation and has served on the New York State Education Department’s Board of Regents Advisory Council on Libraries and on the Council of Experts for the National Academic Library and Information Systems Foundation of Bulgaria. She currently serves as chair of the board of governors for the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium.

Sen. Abosede George is the Tow Associate Professor of History at Barnard College. She teaches courses on African migrations, urban history, childhood and youth, and women, gender, and sexuality in African History. A native of Lagos, Nigeria, and a self-identified life-long migrant, she has lived in Zaire, Mali, the United States, and The Netherlands, and she has traveled as an African woman through five of the seven continents. Her articles have appeared in the American Historical Review, the Journal of Social History, Meridians, and The Washington Post among other publications. Her prize-winning book, Making Modern Girls: A History of Girlhood, Labor, and Social Development, was published in 2014 by Ohio University Press. She is currently working on a history of free Black migration from various parts of the African diaspora to Lagos, West Africa across the nineteenth century. Follow The Ekopolitan Project on FB, IG, or Twitter to learn more.