The Chairs

Dr. William Hunnicutt is the Associate Director of the Carleton Laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. He completed a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Will oversees research and teaching operations within the Carleton Lab, and conducts research in the area of cementitious materials, with a specific interest in construction materials used in nuclear power plants and their degradation due to radiation, as well as experimental measurement of nano- to millimeter scale mechanical properties.

Sen. Ulrich Hengst, PhD, is Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology (in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain) and Associate Vice Chair for Research and Training in his department. His research focuses on the cell biology of neurodegeneration and neuronal resilience. He is co-director of a training grant for advanced neuroscience graduate students and of a post-baccalaureate program for students from institutions that do not provide significant research experiences. Dr. Hengst holds a PhD from the University of Basel (Switzerland) and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Bochum (Germany).

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.

Susan Witte is a social worker and Professor at the School of Social Work, where she teaches courses in the clinical and advanced generalist methods of the master’s program, as well as in the doctoral program. In 2019, Dr. Witte was selected as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Provost’s Senior Faculty Teaching Scholars in recognition of her outstanding achievements in both teaching and research. Dr. Witte’s research and teaching involve prevention and treating HIV/AIDS, other STIs, intimate and gender-based violence, alcohol and drug use, and related social determinants of health and mental health.

Sen. Sarah Hansen is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. Since joining Columbia in 2004 she has taught introductory chemistry lecture/laboratory courses and supports pedagogical development through graduate seminars and workshops. Her aim is to foster a collaborative approach to learning, shifting the teacher into the role of facilitating meaningful engagement between students while decreasing the distance between chemistry in and out of the classroom. Dr Hansen was the 2024 recipient of the Division of Natural Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence.

Her research focuses on reflection, visual engagement, and laboratory learning. She co-edited Eye-tracking for the Chemistry Education Researcher (2019) and serves on the advisory committee for Columbia’s Science of Learning Research Initiative.

From 2020-2023 she served on the Lecturer Advisory Council from 2020-2023, chairing for two years. Through advocacy and committee work she actively seeks opportunities to ensure the unique and vital perspectives of untenured faculty at the University are included in Governance and Policy decisions.

Sen. Ovita Williams is Executive Director of the Action Lab for Social Justice and Lecturer in Discipline at Columbia School of Social Work. Dr. Williams worked with survivors of intimate partner violence in the forensic social work arena with ten years of experience in the Counseling Services Unit at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. Prior to this position, Dr. Williams was a child and family therapist at the Children’s Aid Society. She is currently involved in racial equity facilitation and committed to social justice and ending gender-based violence. Dr. Williams has developed and facilitated interactive workshops for social workers, managers, and practitioners on facilitating courageous dialogues around our intersecting identities. At Columbia, Dr. Williams collaborates with students, alumni, faculty and administrators on the development of the course Decolonizing Social Work through a power, race, oppression, privilege (PROP) framework. The course centers undoing anti-Black racism and dismantling white supremacy culture.

Sen. Nicole B. Wallack (B.A., McGill University, 1988; M.Sc., University of Edinburgh, 1989; Ph.D., New York University, 2004), is the Director of Columbia University’s Undergraduate Writing Program and a Senior Lecturer-in-Discipline in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She teaches seminars on writing pedagogy, writing studies theory, American literature and film, creative nonfiction and literatures of fact, public intellectuals, and undergraduate essay-writing courses.  As a Senior Associate at the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, she conducts intensive seminars on writing-based teaching for educators across disciplines to enhance their intellectual lives and devise inherently purposeful curricula from kindergarten through graduate school.  

Her scholarship focuses on the history, pedagogy, and aesthetics of the American essay; rhetoric and composition; writing studies; writing program administration; teacher education; and educational history.  She also writes on the literature and film of city life. Her articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in collections as well as Fourth Genre, Essay Daily, and Public Books. Her recent book, Crafting Presence: The American Essay and the Future of Writing Studies (Utah State University Press, 2017), offers theoretical and pedagogical arguments for how an essay-based pedagogy in high school and college can enact the goals of a liberal education more effectively and ethically than “college and career readiness” paradigms.

She is the Vice President of the Council of Writing Program Administrator’s Metro-Affiliate group in New York; she has served on the Committee for Contingent Labor in the Profession for the Modern Language Association (2012-2015) and the Editorial Collaborative for The Profession (2016-). She has represented non-tenure eligible faculty in the Humanities on the Faculty Affairs Committee of Columbia University’s Senate since 2013. In 2017-2018, she was the Co-Chair of the Lecturers Study Committee for the Arts & Sciences, which has produced the first comprehensive report and recommendations on the status of lecturer-rank faculty at the university.  

Monica Goldklang, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Medicine (in Anesthesiology) in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Goldklang’s main area of research interest is in translational studies investigating the pathogenesis of smoking related lung disease. Her work involves understanding the mechanisms of protease upregulation in lung injury. She is currently working on a project investigating factors that alter MMP-13 expression and activity in lung disease. Moving forward, Dr. Goldklang has received NIH K08 funding to investigate the role of ion channels in smoking related lung disease. 

Sen. Matthew Beck is a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science SEAS studying 2-D materials. Matthew is from Monmouth County, New Jersey, and earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rowan University. At Rowan University, Matthew served in several university leadership roles, including Student Government Association (SGA) President and Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs. Matthew also has several years of industry experience working at Lockheed Martin in advanced electronic packaging. While at Columbia, Matthew has served as a department representative for the Engineering Graduate Student Council and as Ph.D. Career Chair for the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association. On the University Senate, Matthew co-chairs the Student Affairs Committee and serves on the Alumni Relations and Executive committees. 

Sen. Marc Younker is a 3L representing Columbia Law School. Marc currently Marc co-chairs the University Senate Rules Committee and serves on the Student Affairs Committee. He is from West Orange, New Jersey, and earned his B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University, graduating magna cum laude. Outside of Columbia, Marc serves on the board of Garden State Equality, New Jersey's largest LBGTQ+ advocacy organization.

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. Julie Crawford, Mark Van Doren Professor of Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, has been teaching at Columbia for almost 25 years. She earned her BA from McGill University and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in the literature and culture of early modern England, with additional expertise in the history of reading, the history of sexuality, and feminist political thought. She has served as the Chair of Literature Humanities and the Committee on the Core (2014-2018), as well as on the COI, the EPPC (where she chaired a Subcommittee on Adjunct Labor in 2018-2020), as a DUS in both IWGS (now ISSG) and English, and as a director of the MA program in English and Comparative Literature. A strong advocate for faculty governance and due process, she would welcome the opportunity to serve in the principal representative university body dedicated to those aims.

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. John Santelli, MD, MPH is a Professor of Population and Family Health and Pediatrics at Columbia. He joined Columbia University in 2004 after 18 years in public health research in Baltimore and at the U.S. CDC. Santelli trained in Adolescent Medicine and Public Health in Baltimore. He has conducted policy-related research on adolescent health including HIV/STD risk behaviors, teen fertility, socioeconomic determinants, prevention programs, and research ethics. He has been a national leader in ensuring that adolescents have access to medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education, and are appropriately and ethically included in health research. Since 2009, Santelli has been the principal investigator on five NIH-funded projects at the Rakai Health Sciences Program on HIV risk among youth including empirical research bioethics and social determinants of health. He is a past President of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine and was a member of the planning committee for the 2016 Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing.

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. 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. Huda Paracha (BC ‘26) is a rising senior at Barnard College, majoring in religion, with a focus on Islam, and on the pre-medical track. As a first-generation, low-income student from Queens, New York, Huda empathizes and stands with her peers as the student body fights to make their voices heard. She is proud to serve on the University Senate and advocate on behalf of Barnard’s diverse student population, and the wider Columbia University and Harlem community. In addition to serving as University Senator for Barnard College, Huda works to give back to her community, spending her time volunteering at Mount Sinai’s Oncology Center for the American Cancer Society. On the University Senate, Huda co-chairs the Student Affairs Committee, and serves on the Executive and Education committees. 

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. Helen Han Wei Luo is a Philosophy PhD student whose dissertation centers the relationship between ethics and etiquette, following the Confucian tradition. Her research is partly supported by the SSHRC doctoral fellowship. Raised in Vancouver, she holds a B.A. in French and Political Science from Simon Fraser University and a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia. A creative writer in her spare time, some of her representative work is featured at the CBC Literary Prizes, in The Plentitudes Journal, and in the Best of Canadian Poetry 2023 anthology. On the University Senate, Helen is Vice Chair of the Student Affairs Committee, co-chairs the Commission on Diversity, and serves on the Executive 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. Gerard A. Ateshian is a SEAS senator representing tenured faculty. He was an undergraduate student at Columbia (SEAS), from 1984 to 1986, and a graduate student until 1991, after which he assumed a faculty position in Mechanical Engineering. He served on the Senate as a non-tenured representative of SEAS faculty in the late 1990s. He is a faculty member in mechanical engineering and in biomedical engineering, and his research focuses on understanding mechanical factors in osteoarthritis, and assisting with the development of treatment methods for this degenerative joint disease.

Sen. Elizabeth Adeoye (she/her) is a Columbia College student majoring in political science, with a minor in sociology and a special concentration in business management. She previously served on the Columbia College Student Council as Pre-professional Representative and currently sits on the boards of several cultural and pre-professional organizations, including the African Students Association. She is also a Resident Adviser, supporting undergraduate students throughout their time in University housing. Coming from a Nigerian-American background, Elizabeth advocates for increased support and resources for FLI students, international students, and students of color. She also dances on two teams, Raw Elementz and the Columbia University Dance Team, remaining active in Columbia’s cultural life.
 

As a University Senator, Elizabeth plans to push for clearer communication between students and administration, more equitable resource distribution, and stronger representation for underrepresented communities in university policy. She brings to the role a strong track record of leadership, cross-campus collaboration, and a deep investment in equity and inclusion at Columbia.

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. Carlos V. Cruz ’88CC was raised in the Marcy Avenue projects in Brooklyn and in South Texas by immigrants from Panama and Mexico and learned the beauty of bringing diverse people together and the power of community, an outlook that he put into practice in his vast extracurricular involvement at Columbia.  As multi-year President of Columbia Pride, and Vice President, Development, and Communications Chairs of the Latino Alumni Association, sometimes simultaneously, he takes great pride in helping amplify and support everyone in the Columbia community.  In his many interactions with Columbians, he is always inspired by our ideas, accomplishments, and character.  After a few great years working with the wonderful team at Columbia Undergraduate Admissions right after graduation with a concentration in Economics, Carlos embarked on a career in supply chain, product development, sourcing, and merchandising where he has risen to positions of leadership at Gap, Inc. and Target, helped structure startups, and consulted. Carlos currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Columbia College Alumni Association and the 1754 Society and the Columbia Alumni Association Board.

Brendan O’Flaherty is Professor of Economics. On the University Senate, he serves as parliamentarian, co-chairs the Senate Structure and Operations Committee and is a member of the Elections Commission.

Professor O'Flaherty's research focuses on homelessness, race, and the economics of cities. Before coming to Columbia in 1987, he spent two years as an aide to Kenneth Gibson, the first black mayor of Newark, N.J. He previously served as acting director of finance for the City of Newark and chaired the Program and Planning Committee of the Arts and Sciences at Columbia. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard. 

Sen. Ben Orlove, an anthropologist, has conducted fieldwork in the Peruvian Andes since the 1970s and also carried out research in Africa, the Italian Alps, and the Pacific Northwest in the US. His early work focused on agriculture, fisheries, and rangelands. More recently he has studied climate change and glacier retreat, with an emphasis on water, natural hazards, and the loss of iconic landscapes. In addition to his numerous academic articles and books, his publications include a memoir and a book of travel writing. He has served as a Lead Author on two reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and is active in climate policy work.

Orlove taught for many years at the University of California, Davis. At Columbia University, he is a professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, and also teaches in the Climate School. He is a Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and has served as one of the four co-directors of the Center for Research in Environmental Decisions.

Sen. Anil K. Lalwani joined the faculty of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2012. On the University Senate, Lalwani serves on the Honors and Prizes Committee, and served previously on the External Relations and Research Policy Committee. 

Dr. Lalwani is considered one of the leading ear surgeons for children and adults in the country. His clinical specialties include cochlear implantation, middle ear implants, chronic ear disease, cholesteatoma, facial nerve disorders, otosclerosis, superior semicircular canal dehiscence, glomus tumors, cerebellopontine angle tumors (e.g. acoustic neuromas), and skull base surgery, and gamma knife therapy. 

Dr. Lalwani earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1985 and subsequently completed is internship in General and Thoracic Surgery at Duke University Medical Center and his residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UCSF. Following subspecialty training in Neurotology and Skull base surgery, he served as Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of Health.