Budget Committee

Sen. Tiffany Bryant has held a number of roles in government, including working for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the State of New York.  She currently works as a political consultant. She is the Chair of Columbia College Women and on the board of the Columbia Alumni Association. Previously Sen. Bryant served as the Vice President of Columbia's Black Alumni Council. She received her Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Columbia College in 2008.

Sen. Niall Bolger is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences. He served as Department Chair from 2010 to 2013. He has broad academic interests, ranging from couples' stress physiology to statistical theory to the history of science. He teaches a two-course statistics sequence to psychology graduate students. He has co-taught with Geraldine Downey a Data Science Institute-sponsored undergraduate course called Laboratory in Justice Data Science.

Sen. Naveen Anupoju is a master’s student in the Mathematics of Finance Program at Columbia University. Before joining Columbia, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and worked as a quant at an international bank, focusing on developing and refining risk models. Outside his academic and professional interests, Naveen enjoys practicing yoga, exploring music, cooking simple comfort meals, and finding new relaxing spots around New York City. He is excited to contribute to the Columbia community through his role in the University Senate.

Sen. Michael Thaddeus was brought up in Morningside Heights.  He spent his student years at Harvard College and the University of Oxford and was then a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.  He has been a faculty member at Columbia since 1997, first as Associate Professor, then as Professor of Mathematics.  He has served on the Executive Committee of GSAS and the Committee on Science Instruction.  In the Department of Mathematics, he served as Director of Graduate Studies in 2009–12 and as Department Chair in 2017–20.

He has long advocated for transparency in University affairs, especially regarding enrollments, staffing, and finances, and for a powerful faculty role in decision-making.  A motion that he presented to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2021 has led to the annual release of Arts and Sciences operating budgets to the Faculty.  Likewise, his 2022 investigation of Columbia's U.S. News ranking has led to the annual release of Common Data Sets by our undergraduate schools, making public a wealth of numerical information.

In 2023, he was elected to a two-year term as vice-president of the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors.  In that role, and as a University Senator, he continues to advocate for transparency, shared governance, academic freedom, and the rule of law.

Sen. Michael Mitsanas is a Master of Science candidate at Columbia Journalism School, a Toni Stabile Fellow in Investigative Journalism, an Officer of the Graduate Student Government, a University Senator, and a freelance investigative reporter. His coverage has appeared in TIME Magazine, CNN International, NBC News, and other outlets, often revealing how decisions made in the halls of power shape the lives of real people. Michael has interviewed small business owners in Busan, a seaside port city in South Korea, to understand how U.S. trade policy affects their revenue streams; documented the Myanmar junta’s use of hunger as a “weapon of war” in Rakhine State; chronicled South Korean activists’ decades-long push for anti-discrimination legislation; and co-authored a TIME investigation exposing how central government data restrictions hamper local suicide prevention policy programs in South Korea. As a breaking news reporter, Michael covered stories at the nexus of law, politics, and global affairs. His reporting spanned the special counsel’s indictments of President Donald J. Trump, the 2024 GOP primary, the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden, Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of military promotions, the Sudanese Civil War, state-level election law battles, the 2023 NATO summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s diplomatic visit to China, the indictment of former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Michael holds a B.A. in International Studies from the American University School of International Service, and he is a member of the Overseas Press Club (OPC), Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), and the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists (NLGJA). He speaks intermediate Korean and basic Greek.

Sen. Jeanine D’Armiento, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine in Anesthesiology, Director of the Center for Molecular Pulmonary Disease in Anesthesiology and Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, and Director of the Center for Lymphangiomyomatosis (LAM) and Rare Lung Disease. On the University Senate, Dr. D’Armiento chairs the Executive Committee and serves on a number of other committees. In 2008, Dr. D’Armiento completed a two-year appointment as Associate Dean for Gender Equity and Faculty Development, where she concentrated on professional development programs for women faculty. Dr. D’Armiento served as Executive Director of the Summer Program for Under-Represented Students at CUIMC for close to two decades. She serves on the Executive Board of the Alpha-1 Foundation, which she has chaired. Dr. D’Armiento also serves as a consultant to the Director of the Office of Rare Disease at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. 

Sen. Holger A. Klein is the Lisa and Bernard Selz Professor of Medieval Art History and Archaeology. He was educated in Art History, Early Christian Archaeology, and German Literature at the universities of Freiburg, Munich, London, and Bonn. His research focuses on the history and historiography of Late Antique, Early Medieval, and Byzantine art and architecture, especially the cult of relics and issues of cultural and artistic exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean. Professor Klein joined Columbia in 2000 and served the university in various academic leadership positions, namely as Chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Art Humanities, Director of the Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies, and Faculty Director of Casa Muraro. He is the recipient of the 50th annual Mark Van Doren Award, the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award, and the Wm. Theodore de Bary Award for Distinguished Service to the Core Curriculum.

On the University Senate, Sen. Klein is Vice Chair of the Executive Committee. He co-chairs the Faculty Affairs, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee and serves on the Budget Committee. 

Sen. Greg Freyer is Professor and Faculty Director of Graduate Education in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health.  He directs the DrPH and MS Toxicology programs and the Certificate in Toxicology. Dr. Freyer has been a member of the University Senate since 2011. He co-chairs the Faculty Affairs, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee and serves on the Budget Committee, Structure and Operations Committee, the Commission on Benefits and the Commission on the Status of Health Sciences.

Dr. Freyer is deeply engaged in developing educational programs, teaches multiple courses and was recipient of both the Mailman School of Public Health Excellence in Teaching Award and the Columbia University Presidential Teaching Award in 2014. Dr. Freyer’s research has focused on cellular responses to environmental insults, particularly related to DNA damage. 

Sen. Elisa E. Konofagou designs and develops ultrasound-based technologies for automated estimation of tissue mechanics as well as drug delivery and therapeutics. Her group has worked on the design of algorithms that can estimate minute deformation as a result of physiological function, such as in the heart and vessels, and displacements induced by the ultrasound wave itself, such as in tumors and nerves, while she maintains several collaborations with physicians in order to translate these technologies to the clinical setting. She has also developed novel techniques in order to facilitate noninvasive brain drug delivery as well as modulation of both the central and peripheral nervous systems. 

Dr. Konofagou received a B.S. in chemical physics from Université de Paris 6 in 1992, an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Imperial College (London, U.K.) in 1993 and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Houston in 1999. She is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and in 2007 she received the NSF CAREER Award. In 2021, Dr. Konofagou was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. On the University Senate, Dr. Konofagou serves on the Budget Committee.

Sen. Daniel Wolf Savin is Senior Research Scientist in the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory. Dr. Savin's work addresses cutting-edge questions in astrophysics, planetary science, and solar physics through observations coupled with laboratory astrophysics studies in atomic, molecular, condensed matter, and plasma physics. On the University Senate, he represents Professional Research Officers and chairs the Research Officers Committee. He serves on the Executive Committee, co-chairs the Structure and Operations Committee, and serves on the Budget Committee. Dr. Savin is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Astronomical Society, and the American Physical Society. In 2026 Dr. Savin was awarded the Laboratory Astrophysics Prize of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.

Sen. Clarisa Long’s current research focuses on the intersection of intellectual property law and competition policy. She serves on the committee of The Center for Cybersecurity at Columbia University’s Data Science Institute and is a former faculty director of Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology. She is a registered patent prosecutor with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to joining the Columbia Law faculty in 2005, Professor Long was the Class of 1966 Research Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. She has been a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a fellow at Harvard Law School, and an associate at Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C.

Before becoming an academic, Long was a molecular biologist who conducted research in New Zealand and the United States, including at the National Institutes of Health. Her books include Genetic Testing and the Use of Information (AEI Press, 1999) and Intellectual Property Rights in Emerging Markets (AEI Press, 2000).

Sen. Christopher Munsell is the Glascock Associate Professor of Professional Practice of Real Estate Development Finance at Columbia GSAPP. Chris has been featured for his innovations in the hybrid learning environment and for his research on artificial intelligence. He is a regular speaker on capital markets, climate finance, structured finance, and real estate pedagogy with organizations that include PropTech Norway, the Asian Real Estate Association of America, Boston University, the American Real Estate Society, Women in Real Estate Development (WiRED), the Penn Club of New York, Opal Group, MSRED Alumni Inc. and the Center for Teaching and Learning at Columbia University.

Chris has over fifteen years of real estate finance experience working for large institutions and middle-market investors. He has structured and managed more than $3 billion in real estate across all asset types and in more than 20 states. Chris is an Executive Board Member of the Real Estate Network of the Columbia Alumni Association, as well as a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the Columbia Alumni Global Sustainability Network. Chris holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Boston University.