Online Bachelor of Arts Degree Completion Program

Faculty

Nurul Aman, Ph.D. candidate, Strategic Management in Information Technology, Capella University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Nurul Aman is a Financial Economist. His professional interests include Voice and Data Network Infrastructure and Management for Information Technology. He has eighteen years of teaching experience in Economics, Economic Development and Income Distribution, Money and Finance. Professor Aman is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Strategic Management of Information Technology, at Capella University in Minneapolis, MN. He earned his MA in Economics and MBA in Finance from Northeastern University, in Boston.
Currently, he is teaching in the Economics department at the University of Massachusetts Boston and at Harvard University. He has extensive experience in teaching on-line courses at UMB and UML. Professor Aman’s professional experiences include holding positions as Business Control Manager in high technology companies, financial and economic analysis, budgeting and forecasting, auditing revenue and expenses.
Luis Aponte-Pares, Ph.D., Urban Planning, Columbia University, Associate Professor, Community Planning
Professor Aponte-Pares has been teaching undergraduate courses in community planning and community service management at CPCS since 1994. His work includes development of collaborative projects with neighborhood groups in the Boston Metropolitan area for the Center for Community Planning. Professor Aponte-Parés is also the Director of Latino Studies, a multi-disciplinary and inter-collegiate Program of Studies. Research agenda focuses on (a) documenting attempts made by Latino community development organizations in Boston and New York City in envisioning and/or imagining their community in space in the increasingly complex and discontinuous post-industrial urban environments, and (b) research on issues of identity of Latino gays.
Jennifer Clifford, PhD, Economics, Northeastern University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Clifford is an environmental and natural resource economist specializing in economic valuation and environmental costs. She teaches sustainable development, environmental economics, environmental issues, economic distribution, and monetary theory. A consultant in resource conservation and valuation, Professor Clifford is currently employed by the Chinese government to conduct a contingent valuation study of the Miyun Reservoir. She has also worked extensively on coastal zone preservation for the government of Belize. In addition to the University of Massachusetts-Boston, she is teaching in the Chinese Leaders in Development Program at the Kennedy School of Government and has taught in environmental programs at Real Colegio-University of Madrid, Bentley College, and the Harvard Institute for International Development. Academic interests include wildlife conservation, food resources, and the environmental & public health costs of livestock agriculture.
Henry Codjoe, PhD International & Intercultural Studies, University o Alberta, Canada, Adjunct Professor
Professor Codjoe has a varied and interdisciplinary academic background, including international affairs, public administration, international education, and cultural studies. His academic and research interests are in the areas of race and ethnic relations in multicultural societies, intercultural education, sociology of education, Africana studies, and global studies. He has taught undergraduate courses in race and ethnic relations, multicultural education, socio-cultural perspectives and diversity in American society at Dalton State College. Since joining the College of Public and Community Service, Professor Codjoe has taught courses in Community Formation: Concepts of Community and Comparative Methods of Community Analysis. He has extensive publication record, which include book chapters, journal articles and essays in leading journals.
Caroline Coscia, Ph.D. candidate, Public Policy, McCormack School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Coscia teaches in both the College of Public and Community Service’s BA Online Degree Completion Program and in the Political Science Department. She has been teaching Community Portraits since 2001 and online since Fall 2006.
Professor Coscia is currently completing her dissertation at the McCormack School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She also holds an MPA from Suffolk University and a BA from Regis College.
Her research interests include state and local government, urban politics, community development, public policy and leadership development.
Prior to joining UMass, Professor Coscia's public service work included serving on the Town of Wakefield Planning Board and the Fair Housing Partnership Committee. She has also worked as a legislative aide to Massachusetts State Representative Theodore Speliotis and served as a community planner for non profit organizations. Her private sector employment includes fifteen years as a training and development professional in the financial services industry.
Ali Farhoodi, EdD, Educational Media and Technology, Boston University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Farhoodi is an adjunct faculty member at UMB. He is a media professional with significant experience in developing, producing and directing television programs. He won an Emmy Award for his interactive television program "Mission Mars," and the first place in New York Festivals for "Children Authors and Illustrators," among other professional recognitions. He is currently a fine art photographer and producer based in Los Angeles. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums and acquired by collectors. Prior to working at UMB, Dr. Farhoodi has held the following positions: Project Director at WGBH, Boston PBS station, overseeing a multi-million dollar project funded by Annenberg/CPB; Television Producer at Massachusetts corporation for Educational Telecommunication; Senior Producer at Wang Laboratories; adjunct faculty at Boston University. Professor Farhoodi projects explore the role of media in our society and specifically the inequality in corporate access versus public access to means of production and distribution of information.
Nettrice Gaskins, MFA in Art and Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Adjunct Professor
Professor Nettrice Gaskins received a BFA in Computer Graphics from Pratt Institute and an MFA in Art & Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As an artist she explores the intersection of art, technology and communities, as well as her heritage and the effects of capitalism unified into a common theme of identity, double-consciousness, and transcendence in virtual space. As Computer Arts Academic Liaison at MassArt she supports the use of digital technologies by students and faculty in all disciplines. Since 2002 Nettrice has taught media literacy and multimedia production at UMass Boston, especially for the College of Public and Community Service. Professor Gaskins is currently on the board of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture and is a media mentor and trainer for Adobe Youth Voices.
Phillip Granberry, Ph.D., Public Policy University of Massachusetts Boston, Adjunct Faculty
Phillip Granberry is a social demographer who specializes in unauthorized immigration. He worked with various community-based organizations assisting recently arrived U.S. immigrants before earning a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2007. He has done research in "The Formation and Effects of Social Capital among Mexican Immigrants" examined how unauthorized Mexican immigrants accumulate social capital in the United States, and how it helps explain both their economic and health outcomes.
Professor Granberry currently is working on research with newly collected data from Brazilian and Dominican immigrants in the Metropolitan Boston area. He has published several articles on demographic and economic trends among Latinos in New England and the impact of welfare and immigration policy reform on Latinos in Massachusetts. He currently teaches economics, demography, and community development courses at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Bridgewater State College.
Professor Granberry’s interest in community development springs from his previous academic experience studying theology. He holds a M.A. in Theology and a M.T.S. in Pastoral Studies from St. Meinrad School of Theology.
William Holmes, Ph.D., Sociology, Ohio State University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Holmes has been teaching undergraduate courses in criminal justice and human services at CPCS since 1992. His work includes research and publishing in family violence, capital punishment, and social services to children and families. He has served as an officer in professional associations and his research has been recognized by the American Sociological Association and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Robert Kelley, Ed. M., Technology in Education, Harvard University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Kelley is an adjunct faculty at UMB with prior experience in teaching and designing courses for the Instructional Design Department. He is also a trainer/analyst for MassONE, an educational portal sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education. He was a project coordinator for the Superintendents’ Academy; an online professional development program created at UMB and intended for K-12 school administrators. Prior to working at UMB, he was an educational television producer for TEAMS Distance Learning, a nationally recognized organization that pioneered the use of satellite television in public education. His early career as a television producer was highlighted by working as a freelance videographer for ESPN, and as a director for the Orange County News Channel. His lifetime passion about examining the effects of technology on communication and education led him to graduate school to attain a master’s degree.
Alexis Lay, PhD, Sociology, Florida International University, Adjunct Professor
Professor Alexis Lay teaches online for Lansing Community College and UMASS Boston. One of the areas she has focused on is how the built environment (including zoning), as well as culture, shapes our patterns of interaction. Dr. Lay has worked as a City Planner as well as conducted Sociological research. She has worked on City Planning projects for the cities of N. Charleston, SC and Houston, TX while she has worked on Sociology related projects in greater Miami FL She has a doctorate in Sociology from Florida International University and a Masters in Regional and Community Planning from Kansas State University. Her Master’s Thesis investigated "Tenants’ Perceptions of Housing and Landlords in Declining Rental Areas" while her doctoral research investigated Boundary Maintenance in Qatar: Interpretation of Domination, Segregation and Subordination.” For this study she used survey instruments and ethnographic interviews to study the experiences and cultural meaning systems of expatriates, or non-Qataris, living and working in Qatar. Professor Lay had taught Sociology courses at Florida International University and Michigan State University.
Kumari Navaratne, PhD, Geography, Kent State University, Adjunct Instructor
Professor Navaratne work focuses on issues related to regional planning, socioeconomic research and poverty alleviation and has 20 years of collective experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, and in academia. The unifying theme in her research interest includes household economic and demographic behavior, social protection, welfare issues, and income inequality with application of quantitative and qualitative research methods. In her home country of Sri Lanka, she worked in the field of poverty alleviation directing one of the largest poverty-alleviation programs in South Asia. Dr. Navaratne brings extensive experience from the public sector and the international development community, having participated in projects for organizations such as the United Nations Development Program, World Bank, Asia Development Bank and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). She currently teaches Research Methods, Debating Policy, and Global Context at the College of Public and Community Service’s Online BA Degree Completion Program.
David Ross Netherton, PhD candidate, University of Wales, United Kingdom, M.S., Harvard University, M.A., Boston College, M.Ed., Northeastern University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Netherton attended the University of Vienna and is a graduate of Boston University and is currently completing his PhD dissertation in philosophy in the United Kingdom. He is an adjunct faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he lectures in philosophy. He has also lectured on ethics and the environment and other areas that draw upon the disciplines of philosophy and development theory. David Netherton’s publication include articles on health policy and global development. He has been an advisor and lecturer on population-based research and health sector reform in Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. He is a director of Partners of the Americas, for Massachusetts-Antióquia, Colombia, an alumnus of the Salzburg Seminar, and a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is Founder and Executive Director of Hermes Corporation, where he has served as program advisor to the World Bank, United Nations, USAID, World Food Program, Canadian International Development Agency and other international aid organizations on community programs and health as a principle of global human development.
Joanne Spitz, Economics Department, UMB, Adjunct Faculty
Professsor Joanne Spitz has been teaching in the Economics Department of Umass/Boston since 1971. She was one of the first faculty members at UMASS Boston to teach online courses and began teaching courses for the Online BA Completion Program in 2007. A labor economist, Joanne’s original area of interest was the impact of unemployment on crime rates. In the past she has done career counseling in a women’s correctional facility and done research on manpower programs for incarcerated women. In addition to teaching, Professor Spitz is currently involved in several community projects in Boston.
Felicia Sullivan, Ph.D. candidate, Public Policy, McCormack School of Public Policy, University of Massachusetts, Boston., Adjunct Faculty
Felicia M. Sullivan is a community media advocate, educator and researcher living in Lowell, MA. She holds an MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research and has 16 years of community-based media and communications practice. She works with community media & technology centers as well as social justice and arts organizations to bring the power of communication, media and information technologies to communities. She recently was executive director of Organizers’ Collaborative which is dedicated to advancing social change through technology and prior to joining OC worked at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation in Lowell, MA as Director of the Lowell Community Technology Consortium. She has served on the national board of Community Technology Centers Network and is an active member of the Alliance for Community Media and the National Association of Media Arts and Culture. She is also a member of the International Communications Association and the International Association for Media and Communications Research. She speaks and writes frequently on issues of community communication in a connected age and the preservation of civic space in telecommunications.