External Education Advisory Board

Michael I. Kotlikoff, Professor of Molecular Physiology, became the 16th Provost of Cornell on August 1, 2015. As the university’s Chief Academic Officer, Chief Budgeting Officer, and First Deputy Officer to the President, Dr. Kotlikoff works to enhance the university’s excellence in teaching, scholarship, and outreach. His signature initiative, Radical Collaboration, recruits faculty and supports infrastructure in seven key multidisciplinary areas: nanoscale science and microsystems engineering; genome biology; data science; sustainability; digital agriculture; infection biology; and the critical inquiry into values, imagination, and culture (CIVIC). Dr. Kotlikoff was previously the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell, where he enhanced programs in education, animal healthcare, and research, and launched an $87 million capital project to upgrade infrastructure and teaching facilities, thus enabling an increase in the pre-clinical class size. His research laboratory, continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 30 years, is internationally recognized in the area of cardiovascular biology and heart repair.

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 K Nozick is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She is a past Director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a former Director and co-founder of Cornell’s College Program in Systems Engineering.

Professor Nozick has received numerous honors, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), presented by President Clinton for “the development of innovative solutions to problems associated with the transportation of hazardous waste.”

Her national service includes two successive appointments by President Obama to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), where she contributed to federal-level policy guidance on the packaging, storage, and transportation of commercial spent nuclear fuel.
Professor Nozick has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, with research spanning transportation systems, hazardous materials movement, and the modeling of critical infrastructure systems. She has served as an Associate Editor for Naval Research Logistics and as a member of the editorial board of Transportation Research Part A. She has also served on National Academy committees advising the U.S. Department of Energy on infrastructure renewal and resilience.

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.

She earned a B.S. in Systems Analysis and Engineering from The George Washington University and both an M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Greg Morrisett is the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech and a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Cornell University. As Dean, he has overall responsibility for the campus, including the academic quality and direction of the Cornell Tech degree programs and research. Working with both internal and external stakeholders, Dean Morrisett is developing approaches for working with companies, nonprofits, government agencies, and early-stage investors, as well as overseeing the faculty recruitment and entrepreneurial initiatives of the campus.

Prior to joining Cornell Tech, Dean Morrisett was Dean of Computing and Information Science (CIS) at Cornell University from 2015-2019. Previously, he held the Allen B. Cutting chair in Computer Science at Harvard University from 2004-2015, where he also served as Associate Dean for Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Before Harvard, Dean Morrisett spent eight years on the faculty of Cornell’s Computer Science Department.

Dean Morrisett’s research focuses on the application of programming language technology for building secure, reliable, and high-performance software systems. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and both his Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Andrew Karolyi is the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is a Professor of Finance and International Business as well as holder of the Harold Bierman Jr. Distinguished Professorship in the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Dr. Karolyi is also a Professor of Economics in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.

A scholar in the area of investment management, with a specialization in the study of international financial markets, Dr. Karolyi has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has also published several books and monographs, and his research is featured in print and electronic media such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. Dr. Karolyi recently completed a four-year term as executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He has also served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance, and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal.

Dr. Karolyi is a recipient of the Michael Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2017), the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), the Journal of Empirical Finance’s Biennial Best Paper Prize (2006), and Johnson School’s Prize for Excellence in Research (2010). Dr. Karolyi leads various executive education programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and he is actively involved in consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. He is president-elect/program chair of the Western Finance Association, has served as a director of the American Finance Association, and is past chairperson of the board of trustees and past president of the Financial Management Association International. Dr. Karolyi received his B.A. (Honors) in Economics from McGill University and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and Ph.D. degrees in Finance at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Jens David Ohlin is the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. Professor Ohlin’s work stands at the intersection of four related fields: criminal law, criminal procedure, public international law, and the laws of war. Trained as both a lawyer and a philosopher, his research has tackled questions as diverse as criminal conspiracy and the punishment of collective criminal action; the philosophical foundations of international law; and the role of new technologies in warfare, including cyberwar, remotely piloted drones, and autonomous weapons.

Professor Ohlin’s latest research project involves foreign election interference. This project resulted in a monograph published on the eve of the 2020 election by the Cambridge University Press entitled “Election Interference: International Law and the Future of Democracy” as well as a forthcoming edited volume published by the Oxford University Press and written with Duncan B. Hollis entitled “Defending Democracies: Combating Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age.”

Professor Ohlin is also a dedicated teacher and the sole author of three new casebooks in three different fields: “Criminal Procedure: Doctrine, Application, and Practice”; “Criminal Law: Doctrine, Application, and Practice”; and “International Law: Evolving Doctrine and Practice.” The “Criminal Procedure” book is also available in two splits: “Investigative Criminal Procedure” and “Adjudicative Criminal Procedure.”

In addition to dozens of law review articles and book chapters, Professor Ohlin has published several monographs and edited volumes, including “Interrogation and Torture: Integrating Efficacy with Law and Morality” with S.J. Barela, M. Fallon, and G. Gaggioli; “Oxford Handbook on International Criminal Justice” with K. Heller, F. Mégret, S. Nouwen, and D. Robinson; “Weighing Lives in War” with L. May and C. Finkelstein; “Research Handbook on Remote Warfare”; “Necessity in International Law”; “The Assault on International Law”; “Targeted Killings: Law and Morality in an Asymmetrical World” with A. Altman and C. Finkelstein; “Cyberwar: Law and Ethics for Virtual Conflicts” with C. Finkelstein and K. Govern; and “Defending Humanity: When Force is Justified and Why” with George Fletcher. He is co-editor, with Claire Finkelstein, of the Oxford Series in Ethics, National Security, and the Rule of Law, and a steering-board member of an international working group researching secondary liability for international crimes.

Alexander Colvin, Ph.D., ’99, is the Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean and the Martin F. Scheinman ’75, M.S. ’76, Professor of Conflict Resolution at Cornell University’s ILR School.

Dean Colvin’s research and teaching focuses on employment dispute resolution, with a particular emphasis on procedures in non-union workplaces and the impact of the legal environment on organizations. His current research projects include empirical investigations of employment arbitration and cross-national analysis of labor law and dispute resolution. Dean Colvin is the co-author of “An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations” (with T. Kochan and H. Katz) and of “Arbitration Law “( with K. Stone and R. Bales).

Dean Colvin received his J.D. in 1992 from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in 1999 from Cornell University. He received the 2003 Outstanding Young Scholar Award from the Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA) and the 2000 Best Dissertation Award from the IRRA for his dissertation entitled “Citizens and Citadels: Dispute Resolution and the Governance of Employment Relations.” Before joining the faculty of the ILR School, Dean Colvin taught at Penn State University from 1999 to 2008.

Kavita Bala, computer scientist, entrepreneur, and professor, became the 17th provost of Cornell University on January 1, 2025.

Bala previously served as the inaugural dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, for which she helped to secure the naming gift, after being named dean of the Faculty for Computing and Information Science in 2020. In her role as dean, Bala led the school through a time of rapid growth. She expanded the faculty by 30%, in a highly competitive market, to meet student demand and fulfill the school’s mission to benefit society. Under her leadership, Cornell Bowers CIS secured funding for a new 135,000-square-foot building, set to open in 2025, which will provide space for new labs, experiential student learning, and continued faculty growth.

As the lead dean of the Cornell AI Initiative, Bala has worked toward the creation of minors in AI and AI in Society (to launch in 2025), as well as the establishment of the NewYork Presbyterian–Cornell Cardiovascular AI Initiative and the Schmidt AI in Science postdoctoral program. Bala was also co-chair of a cross-campus task force convened to develop guidelines for generative AI usage in Cornell classes.

During her tenure as dean, Bala prioritized increased access and retention for women and underrepresented minorities. As of 2024, women made up 44% of the college’s majors – more than twice the national average – and 18% of the majors came from underrepresented groups. To expand access to summer research opportunities, Bala helped establish the Bowers CIS Undergraduate Research Experience (BURE) program. Through her leadership, Bowers CIS will become a degree-granting college in December 2025.

Prior to her dean appointment, Bala was chair of Cornell’s Department of Computer Science. As chair, Bala expanded the department’s presence in robotics and artificial intelligence, increased opportunities for undergraduate research and entrepreneurship, and expanded diversity efforts for students and faculty.

Bala’s research expertise is in computer graphics and computer vision, and she has made fundamental contributions to the fields, including in the rendering of computer-generated images, representing and modeling complex materials, and visual discovery in satellite images and large photo collections. Her current research in computer vision is in visual recognition and discovery in satellite images, and recognition of styles and attributes in images. Her early research focused on realistic, physically-based rendering and includes seminal work on scalable rendering, notably the development of approximate illumination algorithms, as well as deep contributions to modeling of textiles.

In addition to numerous teaching awards and publishing a graduate textbook, Bala has received a variety of awards and accolades including the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award (2020) and the IIT Bombay Distinguished Alumnus Award (2021). She is an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow (2019) and a Fellow of the SIGGRAPH Academy (2020).

Bala received a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Yoon Kang, M.D., graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude in 1991 with a degree in economics and a concentration in finance. She then went on to earn her M.D. in 1995 from Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Kang completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 1999. She subsequently became a faculty member at Washington University School of Medicine, where her primary focus turned to teaching using simulated clinical encounters, and Washington University appointed her its Director of Standardized Patient Programs.

In 2003, Dr. Kang joined the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College as Director of Standardized Patient Programs, launching the college’s simulation training programming. She was then charged with leading the task force for the design and development of the Margaret and Ian Smith Clinical Skills Center, Weill Cornell’s custom-built facility for simulation sessions. Upon its completion in 2006, Dr. Kang was appointed the director of the center.

Dr. Kang continues to develop and implement new curricula in simulation for medical students and residents. She has won numerous teaching awards and was named the Richard P. Cohen Associate Professor of Medical Education in 2009. She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, is active in the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Julia Thom-Levy received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and has developed instrumentation and operated detectors at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago; and at CERN, the European research organization that is operating the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. She came to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 2005 and is now the Deputy Director of the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences and Education. Dr. Thom-Levy is also a House Professor and Dean in the Hans Bethe House on West Campus, where she directs a residential student program.

David Erickson is the S.C. Thomas Sze Director and Sibley College Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. He is also a joint professor within the Division of Nutritional Sciences and was previously the Associate Dean of Engineering for Research and Graduate Programs.

Professor Erickson is the director of the NIH POCTRN+ Center “PORTENT – Center for Point of Care Technologies for Nutrition, Infection, and Cancer in Global Health” and Co-Director of the Cornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health.

Professor Erickson’s research focuses on global health technology, sustainability, and medical diagnostics. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto. Research in the Erickson lab is or has been primarily funded through grants from the NIH, NSF, ARPA-E, ONR, DoD, DOE, DARPA, USAID, USDA, Bezos Earth Fund, Nutrition International, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and others.

Professor Erickson has helped to found numerous startup companies commercializing high-throughput pharmaceutical instrumentation, biomedical diagnostics, and energy technologies, including Halo Labs (acquired by Waters Corporation in 2025) and Dimensional Energy.

Professor Erickson has received the DARPA-MTO Young Faculty Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Department of Energy Early Career Award, among others. In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) by President Obama. Professor Erickson has been named a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Steven Carvell joined the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration’s finance faculty in 1986 and is currently a Professor of Finance in the SC Johnson College of Business. Over the past 33 years, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses such as Advanced Corporate Finance, Capital Budgeting, Financial Strategy, and Investments. Dr. Carvell has also been an active teacher in executive education since 1990, working with almost every major domestic and international hotel company to create custom courses for hotel executives with companies like Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental Hotel Group, Taj Hotels, Jumeirah, Accor, Sol Melia, Le Meridien, Shangri La, and Peninsula. Dr. Carvell has also authored eight distance-learning courses through eCornell that are among the most widely demanded courses offered. He has held academic leadership positions at the School of Hotel Administration since 1999, serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2007 to 2016 and the Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for Entrepreneurship from 2013 to 2016.

Dr. Carvell has published numerous articles in academic and professional journals, including the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, the Harvard Business Review, and the Cornell Quarterly, and he is the co-author of “In the Shadows of Wall Street.” His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Institutional Investor, Financial World, and Leaders. Dr. Carvell has recently finished a major project designed to identify the determinants of hotel demand for U.S. hotels and another on economic and capital market antecedents of venture capital commitments. He is currently working on a project to disaggregate hotel room rates within urban markets and another to determine the risk-return characteristics of hotel room rates in major U.S. markets. Dr. Carvell is also involved with evaluating the effectiveness of hotel company business strategies using strategic benchmarking and economic value-added analysis.

Dr. Carvell has worked for professional money managers in the area of applied strategy in the equity market and served as a consultant to the Presidential Commission on the 1987 stock market crash. His consulting interests include valuation and risk analysis in feasibility studies, hotel debt capacity, strategic benchmarking, and corporate and financial strategy.

Following a 30-year international consulting career, John recently accepted a leadership role with Eagle Hill Consulting LLC, an award-winning woman-owned consulting firm specializing in strategy, talent and change. At the same time, John is advising I Dream Academy DC, an innovative PK3-5 charter school that has just been approved for operations in 2020. Prior to this, John served as Chief Digital Strategy & Innovation Officer at Atlas Research LLC, a veteran-owned small business providing services to Federal health agencies, and was a Senior Partner with Oliver Wyman where he ran the Strategic IT & Operations (now “Digital”) practice globally and served on the firm’s Management Committee.

John has a deep commitment to non-profit leadership and volunteer work including Higher Achievement and the Smithsonian Institution, in addition to Cornell. For Cornell, John is a current member of the Board of Trustees, and the Cornell University Council, and is the Class of 1981 Annual Fund Representative. He previously served two terms on the Cornell Alumni Advisory Board and chaired the Cornell Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee.

Meredith Rosenberg leads the firm’s Digital Education and EdTech Practice, where she advises organizations on innovation and talent across the education sector, with a particular emphasis on high-impact, transformational leaders. She is also a member of the broader Technology Sector. Meredith works closely with clients across the education industry, including both larger public and smaller private equity-backed companies, content and software/technology providers, and nonprofit education providers. She is based in Boston.

Prior to joining Russell Reynolds Associates, Meredith was a Senior Vice President at Fullbridge, Inc., a venture-backed company providing professional and business skills training via a competency-based, hybrid online/in-person platform. She was also a co-founder of Global Student Loan Corporation, a private student loan concern funding higher education for non-US citizens. Previously, Meredith was a Vice President at the Yankee Group, where she headed the Internet, Media and Consumer Communications Practices. Earlier, she was a Senior Consultant in the Telecommunications and Media Strategy Practice of Braxton Associates/Deloitte Consulting, and has worked at Grey Advertising and Research International. Meredith also worked in the emerging economies of Prague and Kiev in the early 1990s.

Meredith received her AB from Cornell University, MBA from The Wharton School and MALD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She was recently a member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University and previously a longtime member of the National Board of Directors of Rebuilding Together. Currently, Meredith is a member of the Philanthropy Trust of Boston Medical Center, an “Expert in Residence” in EdTech at The Wharton School and a member of the Board of Advisors of The Fletcher School.

Ralph brings years of experience to the table as both an operator and investor in companies across many sub-sectors that have harnessed technology and data to propel their growth. With a background in scientific research, Ralph evaluates companies, investments, and opportunities with rigor and precision—always looking to connect what he has seen in the past with a vision for the future. Ralph has been involved in a number of boards and will readily call upon his vast Rolodex to bring the best thinking to his companies.

In addition to having served as a Partner at ABS Capital, Ralph served as CIO/CTO of The Washington Post Company. During his tenure, Ralph worked with the Post’s six divisions on all major technology and development operations and investments. Ralph also served as founder and CEO of its electronic publishing subsidiary, known for its product innovation and new revenue models for electronic media, including www.washingtonpost.com.

Ralph is on the Board of Directors of 10,000 Brains Neuro AI Inc. The 10,000 Brains Project is a 501(c)(3) philanthropic initiative that seeks to accelerate the ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fight against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. We provide the leadership, expertise, and financial support needed to ensure that the medical research community can rapidly adopt this exciting new technology for maximum impact. To learn more about our priorities, programs, and partnerships, visit: https://10kbrains.org.

Ralph is also currently Co-Chair of The Robert Packard Center ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALS: Support the only academic worldwide collaborative to discover what causes ALS and translates to effective therapies: Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins https://packardcenter.org