External Education
Strategy Council

Josh Hartmann is the Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech. He leads efforts to establish the culture and programs of Cornell Tech, including studio-based education, product development and startup activities, and student engagement with organizations and practitioners. Mr. Hartmann has spent his career building and leading teams in the New York technology community. Prior to joining Cornell Tech, he was COO of Plusgrade, a technology company serving the airline industry; CTO of Amplify; CTO of Intent Media; and CTO of Travelocity. Mr. Hartmann received an S.B. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.

Paul Krause is the vice provost for external education at Cornell University and the Executive Director of eCornell.

Krause leads the university-wide effort to extend Cornell education to non-traditional students. He collaborates with academic units and faculty to plan and manage both open enrollment and custom learning programs.

Responsibilities include oversight of online professional development offerings through eCornell. The office also provides design, development, delivery, and recruitment operations for online and blended professional master’s degree programs. Cornell’s professional programs support lifelong learning for individuals who are interested in career advancement or pursuing academic interests. They also support organizational goals for workforce learning and development.

Since 2014, Krause has led Cornell’s efforts to drive online learning innovation and growth through eCornell. Previously, he worked as a senior leader in the EdTech and professional education industry.

He holds an MBA from the University of Rochester and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

Linda Nozick is Professor and Director of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She is a past Director of the College Program in Systems Engineering, a program she co-founded. She has been the recipient of several awards, including a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton for “the development of innovative solutions to problems associated with the transportation of hazardous waste.” Dr. Nozick has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, many focused on transportation, the movement of hazardous materials, and the modeling of critical infrastructure systems. She has been an associate editor for Naval Research Logistics and a member of the editorial board of Transportation Research Part A. Dr. Nozick has served on two National Academy Committees to advise the U.S. Department of Energy on renewal of their infrastructure. During the 1998-1999 academic year, she was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Dr. Nozick holds a B.S. in Systems Analysis and Engineering from the George Washington University and a MSE and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Linda Barrington is the Associate Dean for External Relations in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business as well as the executive director of Cornell’s Institute for Compensation Studies. Dr. Barrington’s published research addresses employee compensation, gender issues in the workplace, employees with disabilities, and workforce demographics.

Ariel Avgar is an Associate Professor at the ILR School at Cornell University and Associate Director for Research and Student Engagement with the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. His research focuses on two primary areas within employment relations. First, he explores the role that employment relations factors play in the healthcare industry. As such, he examines the effects of a variety of workplace innovations, including new technology, delivery of care models, and innovative work practices, on patients, frontline employees, and organizational performance. Second, he studies conflict and its management in organizations with a focus on the strategic choices made by firms. He seeks to better understand the consequences of conflict for employees and employers. In addition, his research investigates the adoption and implementation of organizational level conflict management practices and systems. His research has been published in a number of journals including: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, International Journal of Conflict Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Negotiation and Conflict Management Review, Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, Health Services Research and Medical Care. He received the 2008 Best Dissertation Award and the 2013 John T. Dunlop Scholar Award, both from the Labor and Employment Relations Association and serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the association. His paper (with Eric J. Neuman) titled “Blind spots and mirages: A dyadic approach to the study of team conflict” received the 2012 Best Paper: New Directions Award from the Academy of Management Conflict Management Division. He received a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the ILR School at Cornell University and a B.A. in Sociology and an LL.B in Law from Hebrew University. He served as Law Clerk for the President of the Israeli National Labor Court before being admitted into the Israeli Bar. Prior to joining ILR, he was an associate professor (2014-2016) and assistant professor (2008-2014) at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

We are delighted to announce that Mary Loeffelholz has been named the new dean of the School of Continuing Education (Cornell SCE), effective March 1, 2023.

A professor of English at Northeastern University and former dean of Northeastern’s College of Professional Studies, Loeffelholz will also hold a position as professor in the Department of Literatures in English in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.

As Cornell Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff notes in his announcement remarks:

“From its earliest days, Cornell — and SCE — has been a leader in continuing education, and Mary’s credentials as a visionary thinker and strategic administrator make her an ideal fit to build upon the school’s rich academic tradition… Mary brings to SCE an impressive track record for designing and implementing innovative academic programs, guiding strategic growth in enrollment, and advancing university initiatives in support of faculty and students.”

Read more about Loeffelholz and her vision for SCE in the Cornell Chronicle.

Loeffelholz received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University and a doctorate in English and American literature from Yale University. Upon graduating in 1986, she became an assistant professor in English, women’s studies, and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 1988, she joined the faculty at Northeastern.

Among her academic administration appointments, Loeffelholz has served at Northeastern as dean of the College of Professional Studies (2016-2021); vice provost for academic affairs (2008-16); special adviser to the president (2007-08); associate dean for the graduate school and faculty affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences (2006-07); and chair of the Department of English (2001-06).

In her role as the Associate Dean for Education, Dr. Korich oversees curricular design, delivery, and monitoring for the College. Working in collaboration with the entire Educational Support Services team, her goal is to ensure that all faculty have the support and resources needed to meet their instructional goals. Her professional interests include technology-enhanced teaching, adaptive learning, curriculum design, and organizational management. In her spare time, Jodi enjoys spending time hiking and planning/tending her flower garden.

Nancy Wells is an environmental psychologist who studies people’s relationship to the built and natural environment through the life course.  Her studies have focused on residential environments — housing and neighborhoods — and more recently schools.  Dr. Wells completed a joint PhD in Psychology and Architecture at the University of MIchigan; and then NIMH post-doctoral training at the University of California, Irvine.

Kathryn Caggiano received a B.S. in Mathematics from the College of William and Mary in 1990 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1998. Prior to returning to Cornell in 2007, Professor Caggiano was an Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Outside of academia, she worked for several years in technology and supply chain consulting with Price Waterhouse and PeopleSoft Supply Chain Solutions. In her current role as Director of Master of Engineering Studies, Professor Caggiano is actively involved in the professional preparation and development of ORIE students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Under her leadership, the ORIE MEng program was selected as a finalist for the 2012 UPS George D. Smith Prize, INFORMS’s flagship award for the outstanding practical preparation of OR students.

Maria D. Fitzpatrick’s research focus is on child and family policy, with a particular interest in the economics of education. Specific studies have focused on early childhood education policies, higher education, teacher compensation, benefits and labor supply, teacher pensions and retirement, child maltreatment, incarceration’s effects on children and mothers, and the effects of retirement on the health of older Americans.

Professor Fitzpatrick is also Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Brooks School and Associate Vice Provost for Social Sciences in the Cornell Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Professor Fitzpatrick is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, as well as an Affiliate in the CESifo Research Network, the Cornell Population Center, and the Center for the Study of Inequality.

Before arriving at Cornell, Professor Fitzpatrick was a Searle Freedom Trust postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University. After receiving an undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, where she was both an Institute for Education Sciences and Spencer Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow.

Fouad Saleet has a broad range of experience amassed by working close to 20 years in higher education, including at top tier institutions such as Dartmouth College, Colgate University, and most recently at the School for Continuing Education here at Cornell. At Dartmouth, he worked in student services within residential life as well as assist faculty house advisors working with Academic Affinity Living Learning Communities. At Colgate, Fouad was the Assistant Dean for Campus Life. A position that had him managing several departments responsible for the co-curricular experiences of all students on campus. He also spent time at Colgate as an Administrative Dean, working with 500 students from all class years on maximizing their Colgate experience.

Prior to coming to Cornell, Fouad worked at Pearson Education in a variety of functions. One such role was in developing online curriculum and course work for several schools across the Northeast. He also helped several institutions launch their online degrees. In this capacity he is well-versed in new business development, customer acquisition, creating credibility with faculty and assessing curriculum.

He favors the use of interdisciplinary approaches to develop new programs and find creative solutions to existing issues. Known for being innovative and entrepreneurial with a passion for higher education, he brings creativity and energy to his work.

Claire Cardie is a Professor in the Computer Science and Information Science departments at Cornell University, where she was the first Charles and Barbara Weiss Chair of a new Information Science Department. She obtained a B.S. in Computer Science from Yale University and an M.S. and PhD in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Her research is in the area of Natural Language Processing. Cardie is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and has served elected terms as an executive committee member of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL), an executive council member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and twice as secretary of the North American chapter of the ACL (NAACL). She was Program Chair for the joint ACL/COLING conference in 2006 and has served as associate editor for JAIR (Journal of AI Research), as action editor for JMLR (Journal of Machine Learning Research), and as an editorial board member for the Machine Learning journal and Computational Linguistics. Cardie is also co-founder and chief scientist of Appinions.com, a company that specializes in sentiment and opinion analysis of text.

Milton S. F. Curry is a Professor of Architecture and Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Engagement at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP); founding editor of CriticalProductive (a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on culture, arts, and spatial practice) distributed by MIT Press; and principal of Milton Curry ProjectStudio design consultancy.

Curry produces creative work and scholarship on the role of architecture in shaping social consciousness and the intersectional role of race, class, and urban geography embedded in modern and contemporary aesthetic practices in the Americas. At Cornell, he will launch and direct the Black Cities Americas Lab, which will examine the possibilities of environmental justice and reparations movements on the urban design and redevelopment of America’s inner cities. Current work also includes three book manuscripts on architecture race theory, diversity in the practice and profession of architecture, and the cultural significance and critical histories of the boutique hotel. In addition, Curry leads the curatorial team at work on three exhibitions (USC Architecture, Getty, LACMA) on the life and work of Paul R. Williams, slated to open in late 2026.

Curry was Dean at the University of Southern California School of Architecture from 2017–22 and Associate Dean / Associate Professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning from 2010–17. He was a professor at Cornell Architecture from 1995–2010 and Director of the Cornell University Council for the Arts from 2002–08. Curry serves on the Museum of Modern Art Board of Trustees Architecture and Design Acquisitions Committee and the Abode Communities Board of Directors and Finance Committee.

Curry received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University in 1988 and a Master of Architecture II post-professional degree with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1992.

Sarah Giroux is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Strategic Programs in CALS and Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Dr. Giroux currently teaches GDEV 1105: Global Development Cornerstone and GDEV 2130/5130: Introduction to Social Science Research Methods. In the past, she has taught courses on population dynamics, social inequality, and environmental sociology. She was awarded the Weiss Provost’s Teaching Fellow in 2022, the NACTA Teaching Award of Merit in 2019, and the Merrill Scholar Award in 2018 for her excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring. She is also a member of the graduate field of Global Development at Cornell and has supervised numerous MPS and Ph.D. students.

Dr. Giroux’s research focuses on the implications of demographic change for development and inequality in the modern world, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. Substantively, her current work documents how fertility declines underway in many African countries impact a variety of development outcomes, including economic growth, education, and inequality. Methodologically, her work seeks to leverage the strengths of micro-level data to answer broader macro-level questions, using decomposition-based approaches to study social change.

Beyond analyzing existing secondary data, Dr. Giroux has co-led several large-scale data collection efforts, including a nationally representative survey on fertility and schooling in Cameroon. In addition to understanding this transition, she collaborates with national policymakers and a local NGO to develop and pilot innovative human capital-building programs to foster greater resilience and success among these young adults. She also worked on extensive capacity-building program to train mid-career researchers in social science methods at Universities and Ministries throughout West Africa. Her research has been supported by the Minerva Program, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.