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As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world, the intersection between public health, safety, technological data, and the law became rather complicated.

“I took Professor Magaldi’s Digital Media Law Class. It got into interesting territory—we really focused on how new media and the law meshes together—how new technologies are introduced, and how the law catches up or doesn’t catch up, and how you might interpret that,” said Lubin student Joseph Peterson ’22.

Peterson was thinking about these ideas at a time in which they were arguably more prevalent than ever. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world, the intersection between public health, safety, technological data, and the law became rather complicated. These questions prompted Peterson to formulate a research topic titled “Who Has Your Health Data, What Are They Doing With It, and What Can You Do About It?: Legal and Technological Issues Related to Contact Tracing of COVID-19 Infections.”

Thus, with the assistance of Lubin's Ivan Fox Professor and Scholar of Business Law Jessica Magaldi, JD, Peterson dove into the contract tracing process, and spent his summer working with Magaldi and conducting empirical research focusing on the intersection between the law and different contract tracing policies; interpreting laws; and doing a ton of reading to better understand the vital and contingent relationship between health information and personal privacy.

Through the Provost’s Undergraduate Student-Faculty Research award, Peterson, an arts and entertainment management student, was able to fully immerse himself in a subject previously unfamiliar to him. The experience has really enabled him to reimagine what is possible for both his education, and his career going forward.

“I’ve never thought law was something I could understand. It’s really cool that I can. It shows that if you really focus and learn something, you do learn it,” he said.

Magaldi, who has worked with students in a research capacity for quite a long time, finds the current model of student-centered research espoused by the Office of the Provost and Center for Undergraduate  Research Experiences to be effective, rewarding, and a great way to empower student researchers.

“Joe did the work. I was a sounding board, but he was the driving force behind it,” said Magaldi. “My role is to support, assist, lift up—I was incredibly impressed with Joe’s work. He defined his research goals and determined where he was going with his project.”

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When her summer internship plans fell through as a result of COVID-19, Isabelle Labianco '22 was able to rebound quickly. She spent the next several months researching the intersection between behavioral economics and media messaging; particularly, how they combined in rather unique fashion during the early months of the pandemic.

When her summer internship plans fell through as a result of COVID-19, Isabelle Labianco '22 was able to rebound quickly. Instead of a summer in an office cubicle, Isabelle was accepted to the Provost’s Summer 2020 Student-Faculty Undergraduate Research award program, and spent the next several months researching the intersection between behavioral economics and media messaging; particularly, how they combined in a rather unique fashion during the early months of the pandemic.

“I was talking with my dad; we had the news on while we were chatting. I remember listening to what was going on in the news and seeing and remembering how people might use that information to make decisions,” said Isabelle. “I decided I wanted to look at how the news affected consumer behavior in the early months of the pandemic.”

Specifically, Isabelle looked at how the news media affected consumer behaviors at grocery stores. The results she found were quite interesting.

“What we found was that consumers who relied on the media as the main educational point throughout the pandemic were influenced in their consumer patterns at grocery stores,” said Isabelle. “For consumers who watched news outlets that were more left leaning, they demonstrated behaviors including stockpiling; mass purchasing of items at one time to sustain their need. On the other hand, we found more right leaning news consumers demonstrated the virus as less of a risk—we called that the 'status quo' bias.”

In addition to presenting at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research, Isabelle presented at the Eastern Economics Association Conference—an experience that both Isabelle and her faculty advisor, Dyson Economics Professor Joseph Morreale, PhD, highly valued.

“We have found over the years that it’s really important to have students do this kind of innovative research,” said Morreale. “In Isabelle’s case, she’s crossing two disciplines. Secondly, the experience going to a conference to deliver the paper gave her tremendous feedback—which she would not have necessarily gotten if she was just here. We’re hopeful that once it’s revised, we’ll try to get it published. We think it’s valuable enough to put forward.”

View the full issue of Pace Magazine.

One distinguishing feature of a Pace education is that research isn’t just for faculty and advanced graduate students—it’s also for undergraduates. In fact, Pace has spent the past several years taking undergraduate research to the next level.

Through the newly centralized Center for Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) Pace is ensuring that our students are empowered to participate in faculty-mentored research and creative inquiry to enhance both their individual undergraduate experience and the overall University research culture. Originally housed in Dyson College and now based in the Office of Research and Graduate Education, CURE leads, supports, and facilitates student-faculty research collaborations throughout the schools and colleges of Pace.

The Center’s work is building upon forty years of undergraduate research in Dyson College as a high-impact educational practice that advances student success.

“CURE is working to broaden participation in undergraduate research because students benefit in significant ways,” said Assistant Provost for Research and the Director of CURE Maria Iacullo-Bird, PhD. “For example, student learning is enhanced by mentoring relationships with faculty who serve an essential role as expert advisers in undergraduate research."

While the benefits of CURE have manifested itself in myriad ways, the most tangible outcome for students is the opportunity to present their work, and get their research in front of accomplished scholars and academic leaders—something a number of students have been able to do over the past year. In addition to field-specific conferences, CURE sponsors an annual Student Research Day, where students are able to showcase their work to the Pace Community and academic professionals.

"Student engagement in undergraduate research also contributes to higher retention and graduation rates, clarifies career goals and increases enrollment in graduate and professional schools,” said Iacullo-Bird.

One such student who has taken advantage of Pace’s research opportunities is Samantha L. Smith ’21. She curated the art gallery exhibition Substance, which brought together 5 artists whose abstract artworks create meaning through the materials they use rather than through objective forms. For two semesters, Smith and her faculty mentor—Pace Art Gallery Director Sarah Cunningham—researched the history of abstract art, virtually met with potential artists, wrote text for the show, installed artworks, and completed a myriad of other tasks needed for an exhibition. Smith’s hard work resulted in an artist residency, Zoom artist talks, a window installation, and two virtual exhibitions—with one coming up in the fall. Smith, who also presented at Student Research Day, found the experience quite rewarding.

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“Having the opportunity to research as an undergraduate student was amazing,” said Smith. “I was able to expand my understanding of my future field as a curator while having funding, something that I was especially grateful for because of the effects of the pandemic on employment. Being able to research a topic that I genuinely was interested in was also a great opportunity because it allowed me to really delve into art academia without the pressures of a professional work environment.”

Iacullo-Bird believes championing undergraduate research is a win-win for the University, and is excited to continue to build upon Pace’s considerable commitment to this arena.

"Student engagement in undergraduate research also contributes to higher retention and graduation rates, clarifies career goals and increases enrollment in graduate and professional schools,” said Iacullo-Bird. “Additionally, by cultivating critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and oral and written communication skills research experiences help prepare students for the twenty-first century workplace.”

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With the inaugural class of Teaching Fellows, Pace University’s Faculty Center is building upon its strong foundation to become a major hub for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation at Pace.

As the old adage goes, there’s no I in team. Similarly, as Pace’s faculty members are demonstrating through the newly restructured Faculty Center—there is no I in Pace faculty.

For two decades, Pace’s Faculty Center been an important component of the University’s DNA. Its mission has been to provide a place—physically and virtually—for professors to discuss teaching practices and general concerns across disciplines. Whereas a biology professor and a marketing professor may be focused on teaching completely different subject matter, their ultimate objective is quite similar: to share knowledge, innovate in their field, and provide an enriching classroom experience that can prepare each student for future success—whether it’s in the lab or the boardroom.

“As a faculty member, you have a role to play that’s beyond teaching academic content,” said Interim Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Center Director Joan Walker, PhD. “Each of us has a subject matter expertise. And we teach that, but there’s a difference between—the way I like to frame it—is, do you teach biology to undergraduates, or do you teach undergraduates about biology? Which comes first, the subject matter, or the people?”

Walker, an expert in the learning sciences and the development of professional expertise, is leading the restructured Faculty Center alongside Faculty Center Assistant Director Ally Kimmel. And while they have maintained much of the Faculty Center’s traditional grounding, the pair have presided over the Center’s most significant change: the implementation of the inaugural class of Teaching Fellows.

What does this mean? Traditionally, each school at Pace has had a faculty representative, appointed to serve in an advisory capacity as a member of the Faculty Center Advisory Board. Now, under the new and improved structure, each school is appointed a Teaching Fellow. Each Teaching Fellow has decision-making control over a school-specific budget for faculty development priorities within their school, and is tasked with collaborating with their faculty colleagues to identify common goals and initiatives. Ultimately, Walker, Kimmel, and the Teaching Fellows are envisioning that this structural change will foster exciting University-wide initiatives such as boundary-pushing thematic programming. In turn, increased collaboration across schools will build a stronger, more united, and increasingly innovative faculty body.

"What if we think of ourselves as a University that's training the leaders that we need for the future—whether that's leaders in business, whether that's leaders in the environment, whether that's leaders in questions of racial justice or social justice,” said Kreitz. “I think we could be that institution."

“I’m really happy to be part of this group because it’s interdisciplinary,” said Seidenberg Teaching Fellow Christelle Scharff, PhD. “I’m learning a lot about what my colleagues are teaching in other areas, and what can be in fact integrated in more technical aspects of teaching. What I’m interested in, is to bring to Seidenberg more ideas for teaching at scale.”

Scharff, as part of her role as a Teaching Fellow, organized a virtual event featuring the Associate Computer Science Chair at Stanford University Mehran Sahami, which focused on the very issues she wants to foster at Seidenberg. Scharff’s event, “Scaling Introductory Programming Courses: Harnessing Both the Human and the Humane,” was beneficial not just for Seidenberg faculty members, but for all Pace faculty members interested in effective ways to teach complex topics to introductory, large-sized classes. The ethos of the Faculty Center has made these sorts of conversations—and cross discipline research and teaching possibilities—much more readily possible.

“The Faculty Center enables me to do what I tell my students to do, which is build a network of people who share your values, who you can trust their opinion,” said Lubin Teaching Fellow and Ivan Fox Professor and Scholar of Business Law Jessica Magaldi, JD. Magaldi is continuing her ongoing research focused on “revenge pornography” and the law, looking at the legal remedies women have when confronted with this particular type of malicious online harassment. By working with the Teaching Fellows, Magaldi has been able to get feedback on her own work from academics outside her particular area of study, enabling possibilities for further interdisciplinary perspective and opportunity to build upon her work; while simultaneously offering her own expertise to others.

“It’s a really nice cross-pollination opportunity,” said Magaldi.

Additional Teaching Fellows include Dyson STEM Teaching Fellow Marcy Kelly, PhD; Dyson Humanities Teaching Fellow, Kelley Kreitz, PhD; College of Health Professions Teaching Fellow Sophie Kaufman, DPS; School of Education Teaching Fellow Jennifer Pankowski, EdD; and Elisabeth Haub School of Law Teaching Fellow Emily Waldman, JD. Each Fellow has a specific focus for their individual school—ranging from improving outcomes in STEM Education for underrepresented students, to exploring ways to improve and enhance experiential learning at Pace. Yet all have also been able to draw upon their collective experience as Fellows to improve interdisciplinary communication, and expand the possibilities of teaching and scholarship at Pace.

“Realizing the amount of overlap, and just how we’re far more similar than we are different in a lot of our goals, has been fantastic,” said Pankowski.

All in all, Walker, Kimmel, and the Teaching Fellows are re-envisioning what it means to be a faculty member at the Pace—that it is not just a commitment to your individual research and teaching, but a commitment to a larger quest for shared innovation; a philosophy steeped in the ethos that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats.

"The Faculty Center enables me to do what I tell my students to do, which is build a network of people who share your values, who you can trust their opinion."

“What if we think of ourselves as a University that's training the leaders that we need for the future—whether that's leaders in business, whether that's leaders in the environment, whether that's leaders in questions of racial justice or social justice,” said Kreitz. “I think we could be that institution. But we won't be that institution, unless we find ways of coming together and talking to each other, celebrating the successes that we have in our individual courses and fields—but also the things and the values that we share and the soft skills that we're providing to students that come out of our curriculum as a whole.”

To learn more about the Faculty Center, the Teaching Fellows, and this year's virtual Institute on Teaching and Learning, visit the Faculty Center website.

View the full issue of Pace Magazine.

1. Unity

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In a time defined by social distancing, mask wearing, and industrial-grade sanitizers to manage the global spread of COVID-19, as well as a time of national reckoning on race and equality in America with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, first-year Pace art majors responded in a big way. Students enrolled in the Fall 2020 ART 169 3D Design class came together to create what they called Unity, a 3D relief mural to be seen and discussed right on the NYC Campus. It stands as a message of hope and solidarity, combining text, structure, and image to celebrate the energy and tenacious spirit of New York City in a time of renewal.

2. Baller Alert

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As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs faced-off for Super Bowl LV, Pace’s Maral Javadifar '12 was right there with them. Not only is she the Buc's assistant strength and conditioning coach, but she's also one of only three women to coach in a Super Bowl. Read more about Maral.

3. Going for It—No Matter What

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Alphur "Slim" Willock ‘19, ’22 knows that dedication in the face of obstacles is what it takes to get ahead. After the death of his wife, he took on the responsibility of caring for his six children while working full-time. Slim was able to fit not one, but two, online degree programs into his life—a BS in Computer Science and now an MS in Computer Science. See Slim’s story.

4. Seeking Justice

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Haub Law alumnus Eric Paulk ‘16 has been awarded a 2020 Soros Justice Fellowship to help build a national network of Black HIV movement lawyers to protect, defend, and support people living with HIV. “This fellowship lets me fulfill the promise for which I decided to attend law school—to use my legal training to empower, protect, and defend marginalized Black communities,” says Eric. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve others, and excited to stand with my fellowship cohort and previous cohorts to advance change.”

5. Driving Change

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This April, film and screen studies student Myles Rowe ’22 hit the track as Force Indy’s inaugural driver in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. The new IndyCar team was created to help bring diversity to all areas of motorsports—driving, engineering, mechanics, marketing, and more. The car he’s driving? No. 99 to honor Dewey Gatson, who drove a roadster with that number. Gatson, considered one of the first Black racers in America, won events all over the US but never had a chance to compete in the Indianapolis 500. “It’s fate that everyone including me is where we are in the present and it’s our duty to execute to keep the wheels of positive change and influence turning in our world,” says Myles. "I hope this strength and energy we as a team, and not only myself, bring influences consciousness and transparency and love for the world to learn from, thrive from, and share with each other."

6. Funding Equity in the Food and Beverage Industry

The Sands Family Foundation and Constellation Brands have agreed to give an additional $600,000 in funding to Haub Law’s Food and Beverage Law Clinic, bringing their total commitment to the Clinic to $1 million. The Food and Beverage Law Clinic is the first law school clinic in the country entirely dedicated to providing direct, transactional legal services to food, farming, and beverage clients. "I am thrilled to be able to continue supporting this first-of-its-kind endeavor," said Rob Sands, executive chair and former CEO of Constellation Brands and an alumnus of Haub Law. “In these difficult times, farmers and new food and beverage businesses need more help than ever. I am gratified to support this important work while also supporting my alma mater.”

7. Internships for Resilience

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Launched in Summer 2020, the Resilience Internships program has funded more than 100 Pace students to work for nonprofit organizations that are supporting communities in need in and around New York City and Westchester. From data analysis to policy and advocacy, Pace students aren’t letting the COVID-19 pandemic slow down their ability to earn hands-on experience.

8. We did it, Joe!

Or, more, precisely Opal Vadhan ’15 did it. The it in this case was being selected by Vice President Kamala Harris to be her new personal aide. Prior to this new role with VP Harris, Opal served as the executive assistant for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—her first real job right out of college. Opal’s words of wisdom: “My one piece of advice is to always dream big, work really hard, be grateful, pay it forward, never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something…and remember the world is yours.”

9. Building a Healthcare Hub

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Pace University is poised to transform Lienhard Hall, home to its College of Health Professions on the Pleasantville Campus, into a modernized Healthcare Hub with the help of $1 million in state funding. The grant, awarded as part of the New York State’s Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program (HECap), is intended to increase preparation, laboratories, and facilities in health sciences throughout the state. “We are profoundly grateful to have the opportunity to expand our state of the art Center for Excellence in Healthcare Simulation to accommodate more students to address the growing shortage of registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing faculty,” said College of Health Professions Dean Harriet R. Feldman.

10. Telling Their Stories

School of Education Assistant Professor Tasha Darbes, PhD, along with Pratt Institute Instructor, Chloe Smolarski, collaborated on a critical media lab that enables Latinx youth to document, analyze, and share their community’s experiences throughout the COVID-19 crisis, with a creative touch. Funded by a grant by the Taconic Foundation, Community Response/La Comunidad Responde comprises a series of media and digital storytelling workshops at Gregorio Luperón, a bilingual STEM high school for immigrant students in NYC. The project will create a scalable curriculum to foster the development of other participatory media labs as well as an interactive digital archive of oral histories that will include interviews with community members and multimedia creations created by the students themselves.

View the full issue of Pace Magazine.

When does a career become passion? When you’re able to use your skills, talent, and education for the greater good. It’s something Harriet Feldman has been doing for more than five decades, starting from her graduation from a diploma nursing school.

For 28 years, College of Health Professions (CHP) and Lienhard School of Nursing Dean Harriet R. Feldman, PhD, RN, FAAN, has served the Pace Community in innumerable ways. She was instrumental in reshaping the Lienhard School’s undergraduate and graduate programs, expanding the Family Nurse Practitioner and Accelerated BS programs to the New York City Campus, establishing two doctoral programs in nursing; developing the BS in Health Science program, adding five additional academic programs new programs in the College of Health Professions, and establishing a 5-year academic plan that includes the MS in Health Informatics program (in 2021–22) and Master of Public Health (in 2022–23).

During her time at Pace, she also raised nearly $25 million in external funding; securing two federal “earmark” grants to address the nursing faculty shortage as well as sparking interest in healthcare careers in middle school students (one of whom recently completed a DNP in Nurse Anesthesia!), and so much more. Through her dedication and leadership, she’s touched the lives of countless students, and in 2005, Dean Feldman and her husband, Ron, endowed a writing award for students in the Nursing program. Not to mention the fact that she has also served as interim provost and interim dean of the School of Education, proving herself ever ready and willing to step up when Pace students, faculty, and staff needed her guidance and expertise.

“Students who go through our programs develop meaningful mentor-mentee relationships with our faculty…and I am proud to be a part of their journeys and even more so proud of our faculty and school for their ongoing respect for so many important professions and community.”

That’s quite the resume for one person—and it’s still only a partial one! Her dedication to Pace is clearly undeniable, but few know that Dean Feldman started out where most of us do, as a high school student uncertain about the future. “In those days, women were typically encouraged to pursue just a few options,” she says. At the time, Dean Feldman was in advanced placement mathematics classes and worked in the department, even as a student. “I thought that I might want to be a math teacher,” she explains, “However, I was painfully shy, so the thought of standing up in front of a class to teach was very scary. Pretty funny when you consider that it is not unusual for me to present to groups sometimes in the hundreds and even thousands!”

It was her brother who would inadvertently open the door to what would become Dean Feldman’s storied career. He was dating a nurse at the time, and she spoke highly of a rewarding profession with potential to grow. “Little did I know I would fall in love with nursing in all of the paths I pursued,” says Dean Feldman. From bedside nurse to public health nurse to faculty member to administrator, her upward trajectory has benefited all those who she has served and worked alongside.

Before coming to Pace, Dean Feldman held faculty and administrative positions at Fairleigh Dickinson University, State University of New York at Farmingdale, and Adelphi University. She boasts a proven track record of leadership as well, as board member and board Chair of the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and board member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She testified before the US Congress to convey issues surrounding the nursing faculty shortage and worked with Rep. Nita Lowey’s staff to craft legislation to address the shortage. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and the New York Academy of Medicine, and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society in Nursing. She is also a member of the Edward J. Mortola Heritage Society at Pace.

“Little did I know I would fall in love with nursing in all of the paths I pursued,” says Dean Feldman.

Dean Feldman further played a critical role in navigating the Pace Community through the COVID-19 global health crisis, serving as a member of the various COVID committees, and dedicated her time to mentoring CHP faculty through tenure and promotion and students eager to lend their skills in service to the school. “It is one of the highlights of our roles as educators that we can see the impact our programs and instruction has provided toward students entering the healthcare professions,” she said. “Students who go through our programs develop meaningful mentor-mentee relationships with our faculty…and I am proud to be a part of their journeys and even more so proud of our faculty and school for their ongoing respect for so many important professions and community.”

Recently, Dean Feldman received a “Changemakers in Healthcare Award,” an honor recognizing accomplished Pace alumni and friends in the healthcare and health services sector who exemplify the Pace ethos of success in their daily and professional lives by being at the forefront of creating opportunity for all. In addition, her exemplary career at Pace will be marked by a scholarship—the Dean Harriet R. Feldman Nursing Scholarship—which will aid doctoral students in the PhD in Nursing program who may need financial assistance in the pursuit of their education to be scientists, educators, and healthcare leaders.

And yet, her role in uplifting the Pace Community doesn’t stop there. As she looks to a new future of possibilities, Dean Feldman continues to express a desire to support Pace students, faculty, and staff. To the CHP community, she wrote a touching email that spoke to her pride in their work, and signed off not with a goodbye, but with a message of aspiration: “I look forward to the next phase of my career, hoping to continue to make additional contributions to Pace and professionally in the years to come.”

Dean Harriet R. Feldman will be stepping down from her position on June 30, 2021, but she will continue her legacy as a healthcare changemaker, and for that, we are ever indebted to her endlessly giving nature.

View the full issue of Pace Magazine.

What is a hackathon? It’s a timed, team-based problem-solving day of strategy and execution where tech is used to save the day. Teams, of all different skills and abilities, come together to design software or mobile apps to solve real world issues and problems.

In March, Pace Women in Tech, POP TV, and the Cybersecurity Club hosted the second annual Sunflower Hack, so named for the event's ability to attract people who stand out from the crowd, who are unique and different. This all-day hackathon (and first-student run hackathon) at Pace encourages participants to join no matter their level of coding experience. Teams, which consisted of 3-4 members, were tasked with creating an innovative solution centered around the theme of Interaction and Communication. Prizes were awarded to teams who excelled in categories including Best Entrepreneurial Hack, Crowd Favorite, Most “Out-of-the-Box” Hack, and more.

“The Sunflower Hack is testament to the inclusive attitude of Pace students,” said Katie Todd, assistant director of Communications and Strategic Operations and the staff mentor for Pace Women in Tech. “By inviting participants from all backgrounds and not just Seidenberg students, the organizers got to demonstrate how exciting hackathons can be—and how it’s all about teamwork and ideas, not necessarily coding. I’m so proud of Pace Women in Tech and all they have achieved.”

“The Sunflower Hack is testament to the inclusive attitude of Pace students,” said Katie Todd, assistant director of Communications and Strategic Operations and the staff mentor for Pace Women in Tech.

Recent graduate Angela Bonsol ’21, one of the organizers of Sunflower Hack, viewed the experience as one of the highlights of her undergraduate career—and will reflect positively on her role in actively building this grassroots event.

“Sunflower Hack will always be in my heart,” she said. “Being part of the organizing team for two years has been an honor.”

Although the event was conducted virtually this go-around on a designated Discord server, it was able to effectively build upon the momentum from the inaugural Sunflower Hack held in February 2020—thus positioning the event for even greater success over the next few years.

In May 2021, Pace University’s College of Health Professions PhD in Nursing Program marked its first commencement ceremony with three graduating students. The graduates, triple Pace alumna Chava Pollak, Michele Flynch, and Delores McGregor were recognized at an in-person hooding ceremony on the Pleasantville Campus attended by PhD faculty, who hooded the graduates. Two to three additional students are anticipated to graduate in August 2021.

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The PhD in Nursing is an innovative, research-intensive experience that is the only program of its kind in the mid-Hudson region. This program welcomed its first cohort in fall 2017. The program, which emphasizes research focusing on primary health care, educates students to be nurse scientists. Sharon Wexler, PhD, RN Professor and Chairperson of the PhD Department, explained, “Our students’ research focuses on the full range of healthcare factors from prevention to treatment of illness. The purpose of our program is to prepare nurses who will be scientists, leaders, and educators.”

"Each graduate is ready to conduct research, discover new knowledge that will impact patient care, and become a steward of the profession.” - Sharon Wexler, PhD, RN, Chair, PhD Department

For Chava Pollak, that research involved the care of older adults and utilizing different technologies to improve their lives. Her dissertation project investigated the impact of robotic pets on social and physical frailty in older adults living at home.

She attributes her success in the program to having an incredible mentor. “I was introduced to Dr. Wexler during my undergraduate years at Pace. Since 2013, she guided me toward a career in nursing research and has been a constant source of support and wisdom ever since. Through Dr. Wexler’s work, I discovered my passion for caring for older adults, a path I’ve continued on ever since.”

According to Pollak, completing the program changed the way she thinks about nursing and the way she thinks as a professional. “I learned tangible skills such as research design, for example, but more importantly, I learned to think like a nurse scholar.

Pace is committed to strong community involvement within all of their programs, a fact that graduate Michelle Flynch recognized. “Having a leader who truly cares about diversity made the experience gratifying,” she said. “I was able to interact and share ideas with women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.This enriched my knowledge base and broadened my perspectives.” Flynch felt encouraged and empowered through the experience because, she said, her mentor was “honest, knowledgeable, and supportive.” She credits this with contributing to her success in the program and in her research.

Flynch’s study was a qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study that explored the lived experience of family members with loved ones who had a physical restraint intervention in the ICU. “The faculty community in this program has challenged, inspired and adapted to the needs of the students to create a successful program. I’m very proud of that,” she said. Flynch explained how the program educated her as a nurse scientist, advancing her practice as an educator, researcher, and a provider of care. This program equipped her to work on advocating for policy changes in nursing and health care.

Graduate Delores McGregor conducted a qualitative descriptive study to explore the experiences of family caregivers of children with intellectual disability, living in low socioeconomic communities.

McGregor considers herself fortunate to have had world-renowned qualitative research scientist, Keville Frederickson, EdD, RN, FAAN, founding director of the PhD Program, as her mentor at Pace. Delores explained that Dr. Frederickson’s expertise gave her guidance throughout the program and in her research. “All the faculty members I encountered at Pace University were supportive,” said McGregor.

“Each graduate is ready to conduct research, discover new knowledge that will impact patient care, and become a steward of the profession,” said Wexler. Our graduates are prepared to respond to complex needs related to population health.”

Dyson Clinical Assistant Professor Ric Kolenda, PhD, has focused much of his academic research on the gig economy—an ever-growing, and as the pandemic has underscored, an essential component of our economy. This year, he was awarded a fellowship from the Wilson Center of Social Entrepreneurship, and his research topic, "Empowering Entrepreneurship: Platform Cooperatives as Pathways from Gig Work to Sustainable Careers," will focus on how platform cooperativism can reduce inequality and create improved social conditions and opportunities for wealth creation for workers.

This month, Kolenda talked with Opportunitas about his work, the state of the gig economy today, and much more.

How did you first become interested in researching the gig economy?

I have a background in doing freelance and consulting work—the idea of the freelance economy that has blossomed into the gig economy was something I have been always interested in, and as an academic who studies employment and job development, it’s always made sense as an area of interest.

There have been some recent surveys—the census just did an update on a survey I had written on in the mid-2010s that’s looking at the broader alternative work arrangements situation. I was interested in updating that work, and this year, it came into focus even more so because of the impact of COVID-19 on gig workers—especially the platform workers that we often associate with what we call the gig economy; platforms being the digital platforms like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.

When the Wilson Center fellowship came up, I wanted to find an angle that was within this work but specific to the idea of social enterprise, and what I stumbled upon was this idea of platform cooperatives. What I like about it, is that it combines an earlier interest of mine in worker ownership and worker cooperatives as an alternative to corporate capitalism or state socialism.

I wanted to look at how this platform cooperativism approach would address some things I’ve been generally looking at within the gig economy, which is how to reduce the precariousness of the gig worker—maintaining the flexibility while providing more security.

In what ways can platform cooperativism better empower gig economy workers?

Platform cooperativism is a subset that specializes in worker-ownership for work done using digital platforms. One of the main things the platform cooperativism group talks about is the fact they offer alternatives to platform capitalism, in that they’re focusing on benefitting not just the shareholders, but the stakeholders—in other words, the workers themselves.

So, it’s a more democratic way to organize the entity, that also focuses on fairness for those workers—it’s more focused on how to create equity amongst its members and stakeholders. It’s democratic economically and socially.

How has the pandemic altered or confirmed your research hypotheses, and general outlook on the gig economy?

Gig workers have been hit particularly hard in many ways during this crisis. Many lost their work completely when the pandemic hit—and as you know, in the gig economy, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

One positive public policy change that happened early on was that the CARES Act—the initial stimulus for the COVID crisis—did include gig workers in its unemployment benefits. For the first time ever [and again in the recent extension of these benefits], these contingent workers, alternative work arrangements, whatever you’d like to call it—they were able to get unemployment insurance benefits. So that was helpful.

We already have the Affordable Care Act, which provides the ability to get health insurance when you don’t have employer insurance, that's another piece of the puzzle. The fact that public policy took that into consideration I think was helpful.

It also helped that gig workers who didn’t lose their work during COVID-19 had a lot more work. Many were considered essential workers—food delivery, for example, was put under stress. There were folks who were working too much and were more exposed to the virus in their work. That became known in the public policy sphere, and so, we need to address those things. The dependence that we’ve realized we’ve had on gig workers has made people generally more aware and more empathetic toward the gig economy in ways that might influence public policy.

But the reality is, most advances only happen—as any labor organization knows throughout the last century or so—through struggle, through conflict. What we’ve seen increasingly is organizations and workers who have been trying to use their power by organizing to put pressure on public policy and corporate entities to change their policies. One recent example of this is in Austin, TX, where in 2016, taxi drivers revolted over policies imposed by traditional taxi franchises, and formed a co-op to compete with them. Since then, at least one of the remaining three competitors has closed, while ATX Co-op Taxi is still going strong, even after the state overrode local regulations on ride-hailing companies. We are now seeing a similar effort with the Drivers Cooperative in NYC.

As the gig economy continues to grow, do you think there will be growing pressure for changes in policy?

I think we will see more policies protecting gig workers. The passage of Prop 22 in California, which would have forced companies to treat workers as employees instead of independent contractors, means that states may be more hesitant to pass laws tying workers more closely to employers, but this could also put pressure on the federal and state governments to offer more direct protections for these workers.

This could also mean that private employers could offer benefits to fend off laws that could force them to do so, in the same way the threat of unionization pressures companies to improve labor relations. But the alternative is, if they don’t do those things, there is this threat of not only direct action, but also taking their labor, and working together to create alternatives to companies that currently don’t exist.

Finally, we could see more workers organizing to take on employers, using a combination of traditional labor organizing methods and the threat of moving to worker-owned cooperatives, such as the kind I am studying for the Wilson Center Fellowship.

Anything else you'd like to add?

I want to make sure that we deal with these equity and fairness issues and reduce precarity. But I also want to take a step back and ask, “what is society missing out on by not taking care of these workers?”

Freelance and gig work can be a great boon to both our economy and to workers themselves, but we must make it easier for workers to earn a decent wage while getting the benefits afforded workers in traditional work arrangements.

One of the things I’d like to see is to use the freelance economy as a bridge to creative entrepreneurship. By freeing workers from their employers, while getting many of the benefits we’ve generally associate with full-time employment, we can reduce the risk slightly, thereby creating a new generation of entrepreneurs who can bring their creativity to the marketplace.