Faculty

k Abram is a writer, editor, and teacher. In addition to teaching at NYU and Kean University, they have served as an editor for various literary and academic journals and published as a poet and critic. Her writing, which engages archive and cross-genre/media forms to approach themes of body, gender, illness, and religion, has been recognized as a finalist for the BOMB Magazine Poetry Contest and Wabash Prize for Poetry and supported by the Blue Mountain Center. They hold an M.F.A. from New York University and B.A. from Carleton College.

Marvin Astrada has completed a Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, a JD at Rutgers University Law School, and an MA and CAS at Wesleyan University. His teaching and research programs focus on law and society, constitutional law and theory, and international relations.
Presently, he is a Research Associate at the Federal Judicial Center, Washington, DC. He is responsible for the design and conduct of social scientific and legal qualitative/quantitative research projects pertaining to all facets of the administration of justice in the federal judiciary. Samples of recent projects
include social scientific and legal research pertaining to mass incarceration, the efficacy of federal reentry/diversionary programs, habeas corpus in the federal arena, and the role of media in complex criminal litigation.

Dr. Astrada has taught introductory and advanced courses in law, international relations, and political science, has presented his research at professional conferences, and published his research in the fields of law and society and international relations.

Chynere Best holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Howard University where she also received her BS and MS degrees in psychology. Her research focuses on family dynamics and parent-adolescent communication about risk behaviors particularly among members of the Caribbean diaspora. She has been teaching undergraduate psychology courses at the NYU, Washington, DC campus since Fall 2020 and also holds an adjunct faculty position at Trinity Washington University.

Seth Borenstein teaches journalism and society at New York University's Washington DC campus. He also is a national science writer for The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization, covering issues ranging from climate change to astronomy. He is the winner of numerous journalism awards, including the National Journalism Award for environment reporting in 2007 from the Scripps Foundation and the Outstanding Beat Reporting award from the Society of Environmental Journalists in 2008 and 2004. He was part of an AP Gulf of Mexico oil spill reporting team that won the 2010 George Polk Award for Environment Reporting and a special merit award as part of the 2011 Grantham environment reporting prizes. He was part of a team of finalists for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Columbia space shuttle disaster. A science and environmental journalist for more than 25 years, covering everything from hurricanes to space shuttle launches, Borenstein has also worked for Knight Ridder Newspapers' Washington Bureau, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. He is the co-author of three out-of-print books, two on hurricanes and one on popular science. He has flown in zero gravity and once tried out for Florida Marlins (unsuccessfully).

He can be found at @borenbears on Twitter.

Sydney Boyd is a writer, teacher, scholar, and critic in Washington, D.C. She works as an editor and podcast host at the Federation of State Humanities Councils and a lecturer at the NYU Washington, DC Program of New York University, where she teaches classes on writing. As a scholar, she studies how music shapes narrative temporalities in twentieth-century literature. One of her essays, “The Color of Sound: Hearing Timbre in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man,” is published in Arizona Quarterly and another, “The Overtone over Robert Ashley’s Opera-Novel Quicksand,” is forthcoming in Contemporary Literature. She has served on the Executive Committee for the MLA Forum on Opera and Musical Performance since 2019.

As an arts critic, she has published articles on opera, Classical music, dance, visual art, and film for Houstonia Magazine, Houston Chronicle, Bachtrack, ArtsJournal, Arts + Culture Texas Magazine, and the Washington Classical Review. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in English from Rice University and degrees in music and English from the University of Idaho.

Ross Brater is an economist in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  He joined the Division shortly after he earned his Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in industrial organization and microeconomic theory.  He enjoys teaching courses on microeconomic theory, industrial organization, sports economics, and current issues.  While at Ohio State, he received the Economics Department's L. Edwin Smart Graduate Associate Teaching Award and its Departmental Citation for Excellence in Teaching.

His current research interests include topics in theoretical industrial organization, with current focus on two-sided markets and consumer rewards programs.  He also holds an M.A. in Economics from The Ohio State University and a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Ron Christie is founder and President of Christie Strategies LLC—an independent media and political strategy firm providing government relations, communications, and diversity consulting for a wide range of companies and organizations. A former special assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney, he is the author of three books—Acting White: The Curious History of a Racial Slur (St. Martin's Press), Black in the White House: Life Inside George W. Bush's West Wing (Nelson Current), and his most recent book Blackwards: How Black Leadership is Returning America to the Days of Separate But Equal (Thomas Dunne Books). 

Christie has served as an Instructor at the NYU Washington, D.C. Campus since 2017 where he teaches courses on the American Presidency and Private Influence in Public Policy.  Christie also serves on the Advisory Board to the Brademas Center at NYU.  He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy as well as a Senior Practitioner Fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.  He previously served as a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University as well as the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California..

He has been the North American Political Analyst for the BBC since 2014.  In 2020, Christie was awarded the bronze medal for best documentary/editorial viewpoint in the world for his BBC Radio Documentary "The Trumped Republicans."  Christie is a Life Member to the Council on Foreign Relations and received his B.A. from Haverford College and his J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center.

Justin Evans holds a PhD from the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, and an MFA in fiction from Otis College. He has previously taught humanities at Villlanova University and George Mason University. His primary research interest is the relationship between philosophy and literature in the twentieth century. He writes essays about social matters, literary criticism and fiction. He is working on a volume of fictions and essays, 'The Philosophers Bench.' The missing apostrophe in 'philosophers' is, he regrets, not a typo.

Kiran Nasir Gore is an attorney focusing her practice on international business transactions and related disputes.  She's worked at law firms big and small in New York and Washington, DC and her current and past clients include foreign governments, Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and private individuals.  She has advised them on how to  manage business deals, mitigate risk, and resolve their inevitable disputes. In addition to her work with NYU students, Kiran is a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School, where she teaches substantive law courses and practical skills to both JD students and foreign LLM students. She has degrees from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study and Brooklyn Law School.

Dave Gottesman is the CountyStat Manager for Montgomery County, Maryland (pop. 1,004,709), in the Office of the County Executive. CountyStat is Montgomery County's performance management and data analytics team designed to drive accountability, transparency, and the strategic use of data to monitor and improve the performance, effectiveness, and efficiency of County services. Prior to joining Montgomery County, Dave served from 2008 to 2012 as the Director of Budget and Performance Management for the Town of North Hempstead, New York (pop. 230,000). He is a member of the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada and served on their Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Fiscal Policy from 2011 to 2017.

Dave holds an MPA in Public and Nonprofit Management from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Certified Public Manager designation from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Institute for Regional Excellence. He is currently a Local Government Fellow with Results for America.

Dr. Herrick is retired Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Stratus Consulting. He has consulted extensively with a wide range of U.S. government and international agencies, providing analytical input and strategic direction on issues including climate change adaptation, acid rain, sustainable fisheries management, environmental indicators, science and public policy, public right-to-know, and control of invasive species.  A leading expert in program evaluation, he designed program theories of change and other evaluation frameworks to characterize a variety of program delivery mechanisms, outcomes, and impacts for major foundations, government agencies, and nonprofit service-delivery organizations. As a consultant to municipal and water sector research foundations, he partnered with municipal and utility executives and managers to address topics including watershed management, organizational cultural change to support sustainable operations, emergency response planning, balancing public RTK with protection of critical infrastructure information, and implementation and evaluation of environmental regulatory tools and programs.

Throughout his consulting career, Dr. Herrick maintained active association with academia, teaching regularly and publishing frequently in the peer reviewed and refereed literature.  He is active in non-profit board service and was recently appointed by Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to serve on the Citizen’s Advisory Commission to the Chesapeake Bay Program. He is recipient of the Friendship Place 2018 Benjamin Cooper Award for “outstanding contributions to the cause of ending homelessness” in the greater Washington, DC area. 

Victoria Kiechel has 20 years of professional experience in architecture, education, and sustainable design. A practicing architect, she works for the Cadmus Group, Inc., an environmental consultancy, and is a faculty member of the Global Environmental Politics Program, the School of International Service, American University (AU), in Washington, DC. In 2010, she was the inaugural recipient of AU’s Most Innovative Green Teacher of the Year award. At Cadmus, Vicky has worked for the US Green Building Council to develop and support the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating Systems; advises the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR commercial and industrial branch; leads consulting and review teams for buildings seeking LEED certification; and manages sustainability initiatives for clients as diverse as the Smithsonian Institution and state and local governments. Her architectural design work focuses on small-to-medium scale residential and institutional projects. For the Washington, DC Capitol Hill School Libraries Project, she designed the library for Maury Elementary School.

Kari Miller is an international educator with a teaching focus on courses that explore African and African-American history through the study of literature and the arts. Currently, as the Program Director of the NYU Academic Center in Washington, DC, her teaching focuses on transgenerational narratives and discourse in African-American literature, with special attention to linkages between the Black Lives Matter movement and prior movements for social justice in the U.S. from the 1600s to the present. Using the city of Washington, DC as a case study and textbook for national conversations on race, place and time, she developed and currently teaches the interdisciplinary NYUDC course, Black Lives Writing Washington, DC.  Previously, as the Director of Honors and Scholar Development and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of African Studies at Howard University, she taught an annual Honors Seminar on South African History in Literature and Film, a course that explored similar themes on racial inequality and contemporary issues in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Kari holds a Ph.D. in African Studies from Howard University and a B.A. in English from Spelman College.

Amy Mortimer teaches the Meaning of Leadership for the Global Leadership Program. She currently works at Opportunity@Work, a start-up nonprofit organization that aims to build an inclusive hiring marketplace. Previously, Amy worked for over twenty years as a public policy consultant at ICF. She managed operations for the Housing and Community Development Group and supported projects at Federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Department of Education. Among her proudest moments were support of disaster recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy as well as her contributions to training professionals nationwide to combat childhood lead-poisoning. Amy began her professional journey as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching high school in the Southern African nation of Lesotho. She currently volunteers for Amigos de las Americas, a youth leadership organization. Amy has a B.A. in Government from Wesleyan University and a Masters in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management.

John Volpe received his Ph.D. degree in economics from New York University, where he was a teaching fellow.  He has held executive-level positions in the corporate, trade association, foundation, think-tank, consultancy, and academic arenas.  Dr. Volpe has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in finance and economics at New York University, Georgetown University, George Mason University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, and Catholic University, among other institutions.  He has published extensively, mainly in the area of public policy, made numerous presentations to academic institutions, businesses, associations, and corporate groups, and consulted for a number of government agencies (including the Departments of State and Labor, and the U.S. Agency for International Development), associations (including the Employment Policies Institute, and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy), think tanks (including Stanford Research Institute, the National Planning Association, the International Trade and Investment Center, and the Center for International Private Enterprise), and domestic and international corporations (including TRW and Diageo).