President’s Cabinet
The President’s Cabinet is composed of the senior leadership of the College, including the provost, vice presidents, deans, the chair of the faculty senate, and senior members of the president’s office staff. The Cabinet meets weekly to address issues that affect the entire College. It is charged with framing policy and procedures, making recommendations to the president, and effectively implementing all decisions.
The Cabinet is also responsible for aligning the College’s strategic plans and available resources to ensure that the College fulfills its mission. Review minutes from past meetings.
S. David Wu
President
S. David Wu, PhD, was appointed Baruch College’s eighth president on February 3, 2020, becoming the first Asian American to lead a CUNY college. From 2014 until his appointment at Baruch, Dr. Wu served as provost and executive vice president of George Mason University. Under his leadership, Virginia’s largest public research university emerged as a top-tier national research institution-the youngest university to earn Carnegie research-one (R1) designation. Prior to Mason, Dr. Wu was dean and Iacocca Professor of the Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University where he had been a member of the faculty since 1987. He has served on numerous boards including Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering, the National Science Foundation, the Science Foundation of Ireland, the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, and the Science & Engineering Research Council of Singapore. Dr. Wu is an accomplished scholar in systems engineering and operations research and has published extensively in areas such as game theory, optimization, and econometrics.
Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Linda Essig, MFA, PhD, was appointed Baruch College’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs on July 1, 2021. She previously served as dean of the College of Arts & Letters at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) where she was responsible for nine academic departments, four centers, and the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery. Prior to Cal State LA, Dr. Essig was director of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Programs for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University (ASU) and founding director of its School of Theatre and Film. She also served as chair of the Department of Theatre & Drama and director of University Theatre at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Essig has authored four books and numerous articles and book chapters on both arts entrepreneurship and theatrical lighting design.
Katharine T. Cobb
Vice President for Administration and Finance
Katharine T. Cobb joined Baruch College in May 2012 as Vice President for Administration and Finance. She comes to Baruch from fellow CUNY Queens College, where she was the Vice President for Finance and Administration. Prior to her work at Queens College, Katharine Cobb served as Deputy Administrative Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan DA’s Office, and she was also Director of Legal Hiring. In her varied career, she was for many years a practicing lawyer in the District Attorney’s office; she also has been a consultant to the governments of Romania and Serbia and an adjunct professor at the Cardozo University School of Law. Kathy completed her BA at Brown University and received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Olga Dais
Assistant Vice President, Legal Counsel and Labor Designee
Olga Dais joined Baruch College in January 2015 as Assistant Vice President, Legal Counsel and Labor Designee. In that role she interprets and advises on College governance documents, Board of Trustees bylaws, and policies, regulations and rules affecting the staff of the College. Additionally, she administers and interprets employee collective bargaining agreements, and is responsible for assuring compliance with laws governing employment and contract interpretation. Previously she was Executive Director of Legal Affairs/Compliance Programs and served as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at CUNY’s York College for 15 years. Prior to that, she was the Corporation Counsel/Chief Legal Counsel for the City of Mt. Vernon, NY, and General Counsel/Chief Legal Counsel for New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Ms. Dais earned her BS from Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations and her JD from Hofstra University School of Law.
Paquita Davis-Friday
Interim Dean, Zicklin School of Business
Paquita Y. Davis-Friday is currently the interim dean at the Zicklin School of Business. Most recently, she previously served as the Senior Associate Dean, and she was also the Executive Director of Graduate Programs in the Zicklin School from April 2013 until December 2017.
Dean Davis-Friday earned her PhD in accounting at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor where her dissertation received the 1997 Outstanding International Accounting Dissertation Award from the American Accounting Association. Before entering the PhD program, she worked as an auditor for Deloitte in Detroit and as a tax accountant for Deloitte in Ann Arbor and was certified in 1992 by the State of Michigan as a public accountant.
She has taught principles of financial accounting, intermediate accounting and auditing to undergraduate students, financial reporting to MBA students and an international accounting research seminar to doctoral students. Her primary research interests are executive compensation and pensions and as a member of the American Accounting Association’s Financial Accounting Standards Committee, Dr. Davis-Friday was a principal author of the Committee’s responses to the FASB’s Exposure Drafts on Share-Based Payments and Pensions.
She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Pollyanna Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to helping institutions achieve their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
Elliott Dawes
Executive Chief Diversity Officer
Elliott Dawes was appointed Executive Chief Diversity Officer in August 2021. From 2016 to 2021, he was the CDO for Institutional Equity and Inclusion at SUNY Empire State College. Prior to that, Dawes served as the university director of The City University of New York Black Male Initiative (CUNY BMI) and assistant dean for Multicultural Affairs at the Hofstra University School of Law. He has experience as a lawyer and educator, including as a trial attorney, Educational Opportunities Litigation Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice and an associate professor, African American Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.
Dawes holds an LLM from Columbia Law School, a BA in Government and Africana Studies from Cornell University, and a JD from the New York University School of Law.
Arthur Downing
Vice President for Information Services and Dean of the Library
As Chief Librarian, Arthur Downing oversees library operations and an instructional program that includes a Minor in Information Studies. Under his direction the Newman Library received the prestigious Excellence in Academic Libraries Award from the Association of College and Research Libraries in 2003. As the College’s CIO, he provides leadership for IT services, systems, and infrastructure. Previously, at the New York Academy of Medicine he was concurrently the Academy Librarian, director of IT, and director of the Middle Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. He holds three degrees from Rutgers University (AB, MLS and PhD), as well as a master’s degree in Linguistics from NYU.
Mary Gorman
Vice President for Enrollment Management and Strategic Academic Initiatives
Mary Gorman currently serves as Vice President for Enrollment Management and Strategic Academic Initiatives. Before that, she served as Chief of Staff to four Baruch College presidents since her arrival in 2001. Ms. Gorman chaired the College’s Auxiliary Enterprise Corporation Board of Directors for eight years, managed the process that produced Baruch’s current strategic plan, and participated in CUNY’s Executive Leadership Development Program. Prior to joining Baruch College, she worked at New York University in a variety of roles including executive associate to the dean of the College of Arts and Science; director of orientation and freshman programs; academic advisor; director of an undergraduate honors program; and special events manager. Before beginning her career in higher education administration, Gorman worked as a researcher for the New York City Board of Correction and a writer for NYC Mayor Ed Koch. She holds a BA in Sociology and Religious Studies from New York University, where she also pursued graduate studies in Medieval History; she is currently working towards a degree in higher education administration.
Art King
Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students
Art serves as chief student affairs administrator at Baruch College. Before joining the College in 2014, he was Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at San José State University (SJSU). Prior to SJSU, he served as the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs for Diversity and adjunct faculty member in the College of Education at Towson University, and before that, he held progressively responsible higher education leadership positions and adjunct faculty roles at George Mason University (GMU) and Georgia Southern University (GSU).
A staunch advocate for student-centered learning and engagement, Art is the recipient of several awards for enhancing the student experience and promoting inclusive excellence. He underwent specialized management training in leading transformation and change through the Management & Leadership in Education (MLE) Institute at Harvard University. Art completed PhD coursework in Conflict Analysis & Resolution at GMU, earned a MEd in Higher Education Student Development and BS in Communication Arts from GSU, and received an AAS in Mass Communication from the Barbados Community College.
Jessica Lang
Dean, Weissman School of Arts and Sciences
Jessica Lang was appointed interim dean-designate of the George and Mildred Weissman School of Arts and Sciences in July 2020, and named dean in November 2021; her tenure began on January 1, 2022. Dr. Lang brings a wealth of academic, scholarly, and administrative experience to this position, and is advancing a number of critical initiatives, including flexible course delivery, on-track graduation, and supporting faculty research.
Formerly chair and professor in the Department of English, Dr. Lang joined Baruch in 2004 as an assistant professor of English. Her areas of specialization span early American fiction and Jewish American and Holocaust literature. Her numerous publications include Textual Silence: Unreadability and the Holocaust and Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism. Dr. Lang is the founding Newman Director of Baruch’s Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center.
As department chair, Dr. Lang created a peer mentoring program for pre-tenure faculty members as part of a larger effort to support and recognize faculty accomplishments. To expand students’ horizons, she developed a “micro-study abroad” program for January Intersession. Her Baruch accolades include the 2017 Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching. She holds a BA from Cornell University, an MA from Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD from Brandeis University. She served as a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University before joining the Baruch faculty.
Kenya N. Lee
Chief of Staff
Kenya Nyota Lee has served the Office of the President at Baruch College since 2004 and has more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration. Dr. Lee plays an integral role in the execution of the College President’s vision, overseeing strategic initiatives and projects. She is chair of the Auxiliary Enterprise Board, co-chair of College Senior Staff, co-founder of the Baruch Women’s Leadership Initiative and co-chair of the Baruch Employee Engagement Taskforce. In her multiple capacities she helps promote a campus culture of appreciation, leadership development, diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr. Lee’s professional experience also includes the magazine publishing and banking industries. Dr. Lee holds a BA in English from Queens College/CUNY and an MSED in Higher Education from Baruch College and is the Baruch College Institutional Representative for the ACE New York State Women’s Network. She earned her EdD from Northeastern University.
Terrence Martell
Chair, Faculty Senate
Terrence F. Martell, Saxe Distinguished Professor of Finance and Director Emeritus of the Weissman Center for International Business at Baruch College/CUNY, received his BA in Economics from Iona College and his Ph.D. in Finance from the Pennsylvania State University. He is Chair of the Baruch Faculty Senate.
Terrence Martell is chairman of ICE Clear US, a director of ICE Clear Credit, where he chairs its Risk Committee and vice chair of ICE Futures U.S. He is also chairman of the Board of VVC, an exploration and production company that is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Terrence Martell chairs the Audit Committee as a trustee of the PSC/CUNY Welfare Fund, which manages drug benefits for the employees of the City University of New York, serves as a board member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and is chair of several family trusts. He is a director and treasurer of One To World. He is also a director of Gresham Investment Management LLC, the Tara Emerging Asia Liquid Fund and Analog Gold.
From January 2007 until May 2016, he served as a director of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) where he was the chair of the Risk Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee. From May 2012 until May 2016, he served as chair of the University Faculty Senate and a trustee of the City University of New York and served on its Fiscal, Audit, and Investment Committees.
A resident of Pelham, New York, he served as President of the Pelham School Board and the United Way of Pelham.
Sherry Ryan
Marxe Dean, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs
Sherry Ryan, PhD, was named dean of the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs in June 2022 and began her tenure on September 1, 2022. She previously served as the Director of the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University. While at San Diego State, Dr. Ryan oversaw the growth of a number of its programs. She was a faculty member both there and at the University of Iowa.
Dr. Ryan’s joint academic and practice careers have allowed her to develop a professional foundation of great breadth, part exploratory research–part nuts-and-bolts planning practice. She served as project manager for multiple local and regional bicycle and pedestrian master planning efforts, including the award-winning San Diego Regional Bike Plan, the City of San Diego’s Bicycle Master Plan Update, and the City of Carlsbad Pedestrian Master Plan. She is a founding principal of Chen Ryan Associates (now CR Associates), a transportation planning and engineering firm dedicated to enhancing walking and cycling. Dr. Ryan holds a BA from Princeton University and MS and PhD degrees from the University of California, Irvine.
David Shanton
Vice President for College Advancement
David joined Baruch in 2005 as Executive Director of Development and served as Acting Vice President of College Advancement at Baruch from September 2008 to February 2009 before his appointment as Assistant Vice President in 2010. Previously, he was a senior consultant with Marts & Lundy for three years, assisting nearly 75 clients throughout the country with their diverse fund-raising needs. He began his development career at St. John’s University where he spent 13 years building leadership giving, stewardship and research operations. He was a member of the APRA Board of Directors from 2003-09. David holds a BA degree from Utica College, an MA degree from Rutgers University (Eagleton Institute of Politics), and an MLS degree from St. John’s University.