CUNY CREST Institute Retreat 2022

On November 17th, 2022 the CUNY CREST Institute hosted their 3rd annual retreat at the Grove School of Engineering. The retreat served as a way of having an open discussion to define the Institute strategic plan and strengthen the CUNY CREST Institute pillars. Participants included faculty and scientists from City College, Brooklyn College, Graduate Center, New York City College of Technology, Bronx Community College, LaGuardia Community College(LGCC), CUNY Graduate School of Public Health, Borough of Manhattan Community College(BMCC), and Queensborough Community College(QBCC). The CUNY CREST Institute Strategic Pillars serve as a foundation of the institutional organizational framework. Each pillar had their internal meetings during October and November 2022. Those meetings resulted in electing and appointing Director and Associate Directors for each pillar. The retreat, was designed to summarize goals and objectives of each pillar and develop an organizational structure for the Institute moving forward. Listed below are the names of the newly elected Directors and Associate Directors for each strategic pillars.

Research and Application

Directors:

Jennifer Cherrier, the Brooklyn College, CUNY

Maria Tzortziou, the City College of New York, CUNY

Associate Directors:

Naresh Devineni, the City College of New York, CUNY

Nir Krakauer, the City College of New York, CUNY

1.Education and Training

Director:

Tarendra Lakhankar, the City College of New York,  CUNY

Associate Directors:

Neal Phillip, the Bronx Community College, CUNY

Dugwon Seo, Queensborough Community College, CUNY

2. Business Development and Entrepreneurship

Director:

Harry Cikanek, the City College of New York, CUNY

Associate Director:

Indrani Pal, the City College of New York, CUNY

3. International Collaboration and Global Networking

Directors:

Juan C. Mercado, the City College of New York, CUNY

Neal Phillip, the Bronx Community College, CUNY

Associate Directors:

Paramita Sen, the Bronx Community College, CUNY

Nir Krakauer, the City College of New York, CUNY

4. Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach

Director:

Joyce Freeling, the City College of New York, CUNY

Associate Directors:

Hamidreza Norouzi, New York City College of Technology, CUNY

Reginald Blake, New York City College of Technology, CUNY

5. Environmental Justice

Director:

Kaveh Madani, the City College of New York, CUNY

Associate Directors:

Marzieh Azar, New York City College of Technology

Kyle McDonald, The City College of New York

The Pillar Directors shared their goals and vision for their respective Pillars, including  short-term goals and long-term goals. Fellow faculty, scientists and staff were then able to ask questions and communicate any necessary information through open discussion. We are grateful to all the attendees who were able to participate in-person, or virtually. The retreat was very productive and led the way to many new ideas of cross  engagements between pillars which will strengthen the mission of the CUNY CREST Institute.