External Education
Strategy Council

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.

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.

Yong Lak Joo is BP Amoco/H. Laurance Fuller Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. He received his B.S. degree at Seoul National University in Korea in 1989, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in 1993. From 1993 and 1999, he was a senior research engineer at Hanwha Chemical Corporation in Korea. Prior to joining Cornell in 2001, Yong Lak Joo did two years of a postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT.

His research focuses on the integration of molecular details into a macroscopic level in nanomaterials processing. He received a 3M Faculty Award in 2004. He is also a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and a DuPont Young Professor Award. He also received an Excellence in Teaching Award in College of Engineering, Cornell University. He is a fellow of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Prior to Cornell Jan was a faculty member at the University of Tennessee (1982–2002) and assistant dean of the Graduate School (1997–2001); associate dean in the Graduate School at Northwestern University (2002–2005); and associate dean for PhD programs at Columbia University (2005–2012). She received her PhD in child development from Purdue University. Her current research, writing, and most recently funded grant projects focus on children’s political socialization and graduate student mentoring and research ethics. She is the author of The Productive Graduate Student Writer (Stylus, 2019).

Himani Mewar is the Associate Dean for Administration for Cornell University’s School of Continuing Education.

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.

As part of AAP’s leadership team, Melanie promotes innovation and quality across AAP’s existing undergraduate, professional, and research degree programs, as well as the development of interdisciplinary connections and opportunities across the college and university. Melanie contributes to strategic discussions about future academic directions of the college and supports the development and implementation of new educational initiatives and academic programs. Melanie oversees AAP admissions and engages with college faculty, staff, and students in an ongoing analysis of the student experience. Prior to serving in this role, Melanie directed AAP’s Office of Admissions and Academic Services. Melanie holds a B.S. degree in policy analysis from Cornell’s College of Human Ecology and a M.A. in education from New York University. Before returning to Cornell, Melanie taught at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon and at SUNY Stony Brook and held a Fulbright teaching position in Austria.

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.

Josh leads efforts to establish the culture and programs of Cornell Tech, including studio-based education, product development and startup activities, student engagement with organizations and practitioners, and more. Josh 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. Josh received an S.B. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.

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.

Sahara Byrne is a Professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University and an inaugural Director of the Cornell Center for the Social Sciences. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of messaging for focused purposes and audiences. She is particularly interested in testing when and why youth resist campaigns, interventions, and policies designed to protect them from engaging in risky behaviors. Her recent work explores unintended responses to persuasive and strategic messages, especially those designed to be prosocial, such as health campaigns.

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.