Faculty

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 an MS in Developmental Psychology from Howard University where she is currently a doctoral candidate soon to earn her PhD in Developmental Psychology. Her research focuses on family dynamics and parent/ adolescent communication about risk behaviors particularly among members of the Caribbean diaspora. She has taught introductory and advanced undergraduate psychology courses at Howard University. Chynere also works at the National Register of Health Service Psychologists where she designs marketing materials and continuing education exams for licensed psychologists.

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).

Recent stories can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/sethap

On Twitter: @borenbears

Skype: borenbears

Phone: 202-641-9454

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Ron Christie, founder and President of Christie Strategies LLC, is a veteran senior advisor of both the White House and the Congress, brings years of government relations and media experience.

Previously, Christie served as Vice President of Navigators Global LLC - a strategic consulting and communications firm. He previously served as Executive Vice President and Director of Global Government Affairs at Ruder Finn and Of Counsel at the Washington D.C. law firm Patton Boggs, LLP. From 2002 to 2004, he was Acting Director of USA Freedom Corps and special assistant to President George W. Bush. He began service at the White House in 2001 as deputy assistant to Vice President Cheney for domestic policy, advising the Vice President on policy initiatives in healthcare, budget, tax and other policy areas.

Prior to joining the Vice President's staff, he briefly served as counsel to U.S. Senator George Allen (R-VA). He previously served as a senior advisor to former House Budget Committee Chairman and current Ohio Governor John Kasich from 1992-1999.

Christie served as a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for the Fall 2011 term. He was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University in 2014. He also teaches The Business of Lobbying at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business He was appointed last year to the advisory board of the Georgetown University Institute of Politics.

Additionally he has also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Haverford College as well as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management and was a visiting assistant professor of Political Science at Haverford College in 2009 and 2011. He has also served as a guest lecturer at University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

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.

Alicia L. Gleason earned her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from George Mason University, where she was a teaching fellow. She writes short stories, flash fiction, and is at work on her first novel. Her fiction was awarded an Honorable Mention for the Shelley A. Marshall Fiction Contest, and has appeared in Cleaver Magazine and Oblong.
 
Alicia has taught writing and literature classes at George Washington University, and George Mason University. She finds that her work as a professional writer (or perhaps more accurately, as a professional reviser of her drafts) serves as a helpful model for students as they develop writing habits and techniques that acknowledge the power of revision. Alicia earned her BA from Colgate University and is TEFL certified.  

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.

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.

Bio coming soon...

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.

Michael Ulrich became Director of NYU Washington, DC
after over eleven years at the University of Maryland.  For most of that time, he directed study abroad and taught several short term courses for premedical students in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and Cape Town.  In the most recent national rankings, Maryland was #17 for study abroad participation among doctoral institutions, up from #43 when he began his oversight of the program.  NYU is #1 in this ranking.  Prior to his tenure at Maryland, Michael was on the biology faculty at Elon University where his duties included co-chairing the department, teaching biology and interdisciplinary courses and developing new study abroad programs.  He received a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Washington University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa with a BA in biology.  While in graduate school, Michael's first international experience was in El Salvador during their civil war volunteering at an orphanage and later in Jamaica performing similar service. 

In Washington DC, he mentors a student through Jan's Tutoring House and lives in Columbia Heights with his husband Paul, their AussieDoodle Boomer, and their elderly cat Bunny.