Debates about democracy are everywhere. Extremists, whether on the streets of Washington or Brasilia, perpetrate violence under the banner of democracy. But what do we mean when we talk about democracy?

Pace | Haub Environmental Law Professor Joshua Galperin's article Restatement of Democracy, published in the Villanova Law Review, provides an analytically useful model of democracy that legal scholars can rely on when thinking about democratic institutions while at the same time championing an optimistic vision of democracy that can sustain constructive self-governance into the future.

Building this year’s story for the documentary has been a months-long process. From research in MCA 601: Industry Theory and Practice to witnessing the coopers’ (cask and barrel-makers for the uninitiated) work first-hand, the crew has been writing the story in a captivating and accurate way.

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The post-production process has required the brainpower of the entire crew. As most of the interviews conducted in Spain were in the native language, it was up to our Spanish-speaking students, Fiona Torres Moino, Dennis Bogdanowizc, and Lorenzo Osorio, to translate and verify what each person said accurately.

“I spent hours working with the editors translating the interviews from Spanish to English,” said Assistant Director Fiona. “It was arduous for me because of the Andalusian accent of the interviewees. But in the end, when we got to see the rough cut, it all made so much sense and the story is looking amazing.”

Watching the story come together, reworking it, and then seeing how much better the final product was through the collaboration of the story team was really gratifying.

The story team worked alongside the translating students to identify the key points in the story—tradition, family, and the future. The script became a puzzle that took countless hours and reviews to fall into place. The transcripts were scoured, and the best soundbites were extracted to accompany our plot. Under the direction of Professor Maria Luskay, EdD, we all pitched and wrote voiceover segments to accompany our story, which are to be voiced by Professor Andres Villagra.

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Rachel Hutchings, head of social media and active on the story team, stated “Watching the story come together, reworking it, and then seeing how much better the final product was through the collaboration of the story team was really gratifying. I’m really proud of the way we crafted the narrative and I think it will affect our audience the same way getting an up-close look at the cooper tradition in Spain affected us.”

The editing team has been working hard, working in tandem with the scriptwriters to make sure everything looks and flows as intended. Their job to balance the audio and visual aspects of the documentary is crucial in conveying the feel and direction of the story. The editors have been working on all things visual since January; lower thirds, graphics, openings, and more, and are finally able to place them in the project.

All in all, every student has been wearing multiple hats and working hard to make sure the documentary is produced perfectly, from start to finish. Our pace is stellar, moving into the final weeks before our premiere on May 2.

Stay tuned on all of our socials to get more behind-the-scenes scoop on post-production insanity!

Read more blog posts from this year's PaceDoc's crew.

Hosseini has served in high-level leadership marketing and communications roles in the public and private sectors

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Zachariah “Zach” Hosseini, a communications and marketing expert with a unique combination of business, higher education, and public sector experience, has joined Pace University as the chief marketing officer and vice president for University Relations.

Hosseini joins Pace from Johnson & Johnson, where he led communications for the company’s global life sciences incubator JLABS, and its venture capital arm JJDC. Prior to his time at the healthcare giant, he served as associate vice chancellor at Rutgers University where he shaped the global brand and reputation of Rutgers’ Big Ten campus in New Brunswick, N.J., as well as its academic health center, Rutgers Health. Before that he held communications roles at the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.

In making the announcement, Pace President Marvin Krislov cited Hosseini’s broad background in the private and public sectors and his experience elevating global brands.

“Zach’s accomplished career in communications and marketing will be a significant asset to Pace,” said President Krislov. “His experience, background, and leadership will play an important role in helping to further communicate the University’s message of Opportunitas, or creating opportunities for students, to a global audience. We are pleased that Pace will be able to benefit from his insight and expertise.”

In his role, Hosseini will be a key member of the president’s leadership team and will oversee the marketing, communications, and government affairs teams for the University and its campuses in New York City, Pleasantville, and White Plains. He began April 15, 2024.

Hosseini is joining Pace at an exciting time. The University is undergoing a more than $200 million transformation at 1 Pace Plaza, its central building in lower Manhattan, to include new academic spaces, a modernized residence hall, and a new state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center. It also comes as the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University was ranked the No.1 school in the country for environmental law by U.S. News & World Report for the fourth consecutive year, and as the school in May will be graduating its first class from its newest school, the Sands College of Performing Arts, among many other successes.

“It’s an honor to work with President Krislov to champion such a great institution,” said Hosseini. “Pace means so much to so many because it accelerates the lives and careers of its students, creates transformative experiences for them, and enhances the wellbeing of the communities it serves.

Hosseini graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a minor in international affairs. He has won numerous awards, including awards from The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, the Council on the Advancement and Support of Education, The Collegiate Advertising Awards and The Educational Digital Marketing Awards.

About Pace University

Since 1906, Pace University has been transforming the lives of its diverse students—academically, professionally, and socioeconomically. With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, Pace offers bachelor, master, and doctoral degree programs to 13,600 students in its College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Lubin School of Business, Sands College of Performing Arts, School of Education, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

The initiative aims to cultivate a genuine interest and deep appreciation for public service among Pace undergraduate students.

Pace University was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation to establish an undergraduate fellowship to create the next generation of leaders working on the governance of New York City waterways.

The funds are from The Teagle Foundation’s Education for American Civic Life initiative and will provide support for faculty in the development of an undergraduate fellowship program, “The City and the Sea: A New York City Fellowship in Civics and Public Service.” The fellowship will be a combination of two courses and an internship experience.

In partnership with the Helene T. and Grant M. Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship, the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences departments of Public Administration and Political Science, and the Center for Community Action and Research, the program will connect students with New York City public offices and community organizations and develop their understanding of the city around them, while engaging them through texts, history, and ideas.

“We are proud of Pace's rich history of social responsibility, civic engagement, and community,” said Pace University President Marvin Krislov. "The incredible program created from the Teagle Foundation Grant will further support our students and their work on civic leadership and engagement, government and governance, the politics and policies of New York City, and leadership skills and career tools."

The fellowship program aims to provide students with hands-on experience in civic leadership and engagement. In fact, students will gain valuable knowledge of municipal government, governance, and the politics and policy of the city. Additionally, the program will equip students with essential leadership skills and practical career tools. As a result, it will allow students to develop a deep sense of place in the Lower Manhattan context of Pace University’s campus, as it relates to the water and the waterfront environment.

“We are grateful for this opportunity to learn from The Teagle Foundation’s mission and work to elevate the civic objectives of liberal arts education,” said Rebecca Tekula, PhD, executive director of Pace’s Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Professor and chair of Public Administration. “This new fellowship will equip our students to think deeply about difficult issues in our community while empowering them to explore a civically engaged life and a public service path.”

Pace University will draw upon its strong connections with neighborhood organizations and agencies, as well as its partnerships with key stakeholders along New York Harbor, to offer a comprehensive program. Furthermore, the fellowship program will conclude with a full-time summer funded fellowship placement working in a government agency or partner organization that is working on issues related to the water and the waterfront.

The supported planning year will allow Pace faculty to develop the framework of the program and engage students in discussions surrounding the concept of civic engagement within their local community. The initiative is led by Professor Tekula Ph.D., executive director of the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and chair of Public Administration; director of the International Disarmament Institute and professor of Political Science, Matthew Bolton Ph.D., professor of Public Administration; Gina Scutelnicu-Todoran, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of Public Administration, Ric Kolenda Ph.D., director of the Center for Community Action and Research, Heather Novak, MPA, and communications and events manager of the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Adrian Rivero.

“Pace University’s downtown campus is located on an island in an archipelago at the nexus between a great river and the Atlantic Ocean,” said Professor Bolton. “At this time of rising seas, civic education must take seriously the fact that our politics are shaped by and shape the waters that surround us.”

“Receiving this grant from the Teagle Foundation is a great honor but also an attestation of Pace University's commitment to educating the next generation of public service leaders,” said Professor Scutelnicu-Todoran. “The grant will allow our students to be part of a fellowship program in civic engagement and leadership through a rather unique educational experience that integrates competencies in liberal arts and professional degrees with experiential learning opportunities. I am extremely fortunate to be part of this transformative learning opportunity for our students and faculty members.”

This program seeks to foster an interest in and appreciation for public service, at the local level where the decisions made can significantly impact their individual lives. These efforts will be integrated with various initiatives at Pace University to enhance strategies for student success and experiential learning. These initiatives are implemented by various Pace departments implement within broader systems of support and a commitment to the liberal arts.

About Pace University

Since 1906, Pace University has been transforming the lives of its diverse students—academically, professionally, and socioeconomically. With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, Pace offers bachelor, master, and doctoral degree programs to 13,600 students in its College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Lubin School of Business, Sands College of Performing Arts, School of Education, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

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Watching Major League Baseball celebrate Jackie Robinson day on April 15 reminded me of when I once met him along with Roy Echols, a community organizer in Yonkers, NY.

When I returned from serving in the Peace Corps in Guatemala in 1969, I had been accepted as a Reginald Heber Smith Community Law Fellow to work in an Office of Economic Opportunity funded legal services program. I was randomly assigned to work in Yonkers providing legal assistance to the Community Action Program and its staff. During my first week there, Roy Echols, a very large and determined CAP staffer came into my office, slapped his large fist on my small desk, cursed the lack of affordable shelter, and told me we were going to build affordable housing and that I needed to figure out how to do it.

We formed a not for profit called the Yonkers Community Improvement Corporation (YCIC) and rented a storefront on Warburton Avenue. I boned up on housing development and finance, we found a deteriorated park in the Hollows neighborhood, got it released by the state legislature from the state’s public trust requirements, and found a developer cosponsor to build two 12 story buildings with 195 low income housing units on that parcel.

We spoke to Whitney Young’s widow and got her permission to use the name of her late husband, an American civil rights leader, for the project. She asked that we interview Jackie Robinson who, by then, was long retired from baseball and had a construction company. Our storefront was small, the Warburton Avenue neighborhood was littered and poorly lighted (frankly scary) at night, but it was there early one evening in 1971 that we met with Jackie, his wife, and construction manager and agreed to a term sheet for a contract to construct Whitney Young Manor. It provided shelter to lower income families for over 30 years, was purchased by a new developer, Omni New York, in 2006, underwent an 11 million dollar restoration, and continues to be rented to low income households. Today a 1,320 sq. ft. apartment rents to a family of four with income under $77,000 for rents of around $2,000/month. I’d estimate that over 600 individuals have obtained shelter in the Manor for nearly 50 years. Roy, (if you are reading this), that’s 10,950,000 individual nights of shelter.

Having learned about affordable housing development, I was hired by the City of Yonkers as Deputy Corporation Counsel and the Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Development and helped develop more housing. In 1974, I was recruited to set up and run the Housing Action Council, which is still working today building and rehabilitating lower income housing. I’d estimate that the Housing Council’s work has resulted in 15,000 units of low and moderate housing in the nearly 50 years it has existed, providing shelter for another 45,000 individuals.

Jackie Robinson’s contributions are well known and widely respected. Roy’s hand slap on my desk and the contagious energy of his determination, not so much. It was a small chance event that resulted in significant change, providing shelter for so many and teaching that our individual actions can count.

About John R. Nolon

John R. Nolon is Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University where he supervises student research and publications regarding land use, sustainable development, climate change, housing insecurity, racial inequity, and the coronavirus pandemic. He is Co-counsel to the Law School's Land Use Law Center, which he founded in 1993. He served as Adjunct Professor of land use law and policy at the Yale School of the Environment from 2001-2016. Before he joined the law school faculty, he founded and directed the Housing Action Counsel to foster the development of affordable housing.

On Friday, April 5, 2024, Pace Law Review (PLR) presented its triennial Symposium and Haub Law’s annual Dyson Lecture, attracting over 100 attendees. The theme of the symposium was Bioethics After Dobbs. The Dyson Lecture, entitled The Alabama Embryo Decision in Ethics, Law and Politics, was delivered by Professor I. Glenn Cohen, the James A. Atwood & Leslie Williams Professor of Law and Deputy Dean of Harvard Law School.

The PLR Symposium was a full-day event organized by the PLR board with the support of Assistant Professor of Law James Toomey and PLR faculty advisor Professor Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer. Opening remarks were delivered by PLR Editor-in-Chief, Madison Powers, and Managing Editor, Rianna Iorillo. Fundamental questions about the balance between individual autonomy, personhood, the relationship between practitioners and their patients, ethical considerations in research, and more were discussed through four panels. The panels brought together legal scholars, bioethicists, healthcare experts, and practitioners and each of the panels were moderated by expert professors at Haub Law.

In between the lively panel discussions, the highlight of the conference was the presentation of the Dyson Lecture by Professor I. Glenn Cohen. Haub Law Dean Horace Anderson introduced Professor Cohen, noting his numerous achievements, which includes being one of the leading experts at the intersection of bioethics and law, discussing medical AI policy with members of the Korean legislature, and contributing to legal and medical conferences around the world. Professor Cohen’s work has also been widely cited in the media, from the New York Times and the Washington Post, to PBS, NPR, and CNN. Professor Cohen has authored, co-authored, and edited over 20 books and 200 articles.

During his lecture, Professor Cohen spoke about several themes emerging from the February 16, 2024 decision of the Alabama Supreme Court in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, which held that embryos produced for IVF and held in storage qualify as “children” for purposes of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. For example, he covered issues including the implications of the decision in the context of the fetal personhood movement in America, the relationship between discourse on abortion and discourse on IVF and embryo destruction, and the gap between bioethical and legal discourse on this topic, connecting these themes to bioethical questions surrounding the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (PDF).

Articles based on the panelists’ presentations will be published by PLR in a symposium edition. Edited and published by students, the Pace Law Review is devoted to the study and publication of scholarly materials of professional legal interest. Each issue contains articles by professors, practitioners, and judges, as well as student notes and comments, on specific issues in law, recent decisions, and current legislation. PLR publishes at least two issues per year: the Fall Issue, and the Spring Issue.

The Dyson Distinguished Lecture was endowed in 1982 by a gift from the Dyson Foundation made possible through the generosity of the late Charles H. Dyson, a 1930 graduate, trustee, and long-time benefactor of Pace University. The principal aim and object of the Dyson Distinguished Lecture is to encourage and make possible scholarly legal contributions of very high quality in furtherance of Haub Law’s educational mission.

This year’s symposium panelists and their presentations included (PDF):

• Lynette Martins, Former Senior Research Fellow, Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy, Yale Law School, & Scott Schweikart, American Medical Association, The Practitioner-Patient Relationship in the Post-Dobbs Era
• Rebecca Feinberg, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Touro University, Crisis Pregnancy Centers After Dobbs
• Sabrina Singh, Rutgers School of Communication and Information, Ethical Considerations in Qualitative Research After Dobbs
• Rachel Rebouché, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Mailed Abortion Medication
• Dov Fox, University of San Diego School of Law, & Gerard S. Letterie, Seattle Reproductive Medicine, Forum Shopping and Personhood Law: Implications for the Disposition of Frozen Embryos
• Myrisha S. Lewis, William & Mary Law School, Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Legislation and Regulation
• Teneille Ruth Brown, University of Utah S.J. Quinney School of Law, We Have Lost Our Minds
• Megan S. Wright, Penn State Law School, Medical Decision-Making Law and Practice Post-Dobbs
• Doron Dorfman, Seton Hall Law School, Disability Law and Selective Abortion Bans After Dobbs
• Greer Donley, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Brain Death and Abortion
• S. Matthew Liao, NYU School of Global Health, When to Save the Baby: A Fundamental Conditions Approach
• Thomas Williams, American University School of Law, Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Personhood in Legislation and Regulation