Faculty & Staff Accomplishments
We are excited to share recent accomplishments from faculty and staff members at our campuses around the world.
Accomplishments are listed by date of achievement in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.
Sebastien Marion
LibrarySebastien Marion, M.L.I.S., M.B.A., librarian III, and Eduardo Rivera, librarian III, have been awarded a Long Island Library Resource Council (LILRC) grant as co-principal investigators. The project, "Building AI Fluency Through Prompt Engineering: A Scalable Model for Long Island Libraries," was awarded on February 11, 2026, and will pilot Long Island’s first shared Prompt Engineering Literacy Toolkit, aligned with the Association of College and Research Libraries AI Competencies.
Colleen Kirk
School of ManagementColleen P. Kirk, D.P.S., professor of marketing, co-wrote an article on science news site The Conversation. It focused on using AI to write Valentine's messages. The article, Is having AI ghostwrite your Valentine’s Day messages a good idea?, was also published in Fast Company magazine on February 8, 2026. The research suggests that having AI fully ghostwrite heartfelt Valentine’s messages can backfire by triggering guilt and reducing authenticity (a “source-credit discrepancy”). The article recommends using AI for brainstorming while ensuring the final note is meaningfully one's own. Her research, on the same topic, was cited in a Washington Post article on February 9, 2026.
Jonathan Goldman
College of Arts and SciencesJonathan Ezra Goldman, Ph.D., professor of English, Department of Humanities, published an article "Luis Muñoz Marín: Boricua Modernism between Poetics and Politics" in the collection "Jim Crow Modernism" (Oxford Universty Press), on February 6, 2026. The article analyzes the 1920s fiction, verse, and journalism of Luis Muñoz Marín, written two-plus decades before Marín became the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico.
Kate E. O'Hara
College of Arts and SciencesKate E. O’Hara, Ph.D., associate professor of interdisciplinary studies, presented “Age is Only a Number: An Exploration of Intergenerational Learning” at the 10th World Conference on Qualitative Research, on February 3, 2026. O’Hara’s autoethnographic study positions intergenerational learning in higher education as a transformative space where shared experience, reflection, and action merge to promote civic engagement, digital literacy, and social activism. Additionally, the study reflected findings on the health and wellness that emerges through social interaction, knowledge sharing, and emotional support.
Colleen Kirk
School of ManagementColleen P. Kirk, D.P.S., professor of marketing, was interviewed by Long Island newspaper Newsday on January 23, 2026, about why so many of us feel compelled to rush to the store for groceries before a storm hits. In the article, titled Why Long Island shoppers still buy milk, bread and eggs before a storm. Kirk discussed how stocking up is not just about practical preparation, but also about restoring a sense of control when the weather, and our routines, feel uncertain.
Robert Amundsen
College of Engineering and Computing SciencesRobert N. Amundsen, Ph.D., associate professor and director of energy management, presented “Unconventional Energy Storage: Paving the Way for Renewables” at the third International Conference on Future Challenges in Sustainable Urban Planning and Territorial Management, held January 20–22, 2026.
Eugene Kelly
College of Arts and SciencesEugene Kelly, Ph.D., adjunct professor in the Department of Humanities, published a paper, Spirit and Mind: Hartmann’s Das Problem des Geistigen Seins, in the Kultura i Wartości, on January 14, 2026.
Jessica Varghese
School of Health ProfessionsJessica Varghese, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor of nursing, was quoted in MDLinx, a healthcare news outlet, in an article about PFAS (forever chemicals) and food safety, titled, Industrial chemicals in our food and water are reshaping our gut microbiomes, published on January 12, 2026. MDLinx reaches an audience of approximately 150,000 healthcare professionals each month.
Jonathan Ezra Goldman
College of Arts and SciencesJonathan Ezra Goldman, Ph.D., professor of English, Department of Humanities, was appointed to the Advisory Board of Joyce Studies Annual, an academic journal published at Fordham University, on January 11, 2026.
Jonathan Ezra Goldman
College of Arts and SciencesJonathan Ezra Goldman, Ph.D., professor of English, Department of Humanities, published "'Paris, Past and Present': A Report on 'Joyce in Paris,' Irish Embassy, Paris, 14–16 June 2025." The paper was published in James Joyce Quarterly on January 6, 2026.