November 27, 2006 (Vol. 4, No. 6)

New Faculty and Staff Appointments

This is the third in a series of articles profiling new faculty and staff.

Dr. Heping Deng

Heping Deng (Associate Director, Institutional Research): B.A., Anhui Normal University; M.A., Jinan University; Ed.D., East Tennessee State University. Dr. Deng joins Lehman after serving as Coordinator of Academic Information at Borough of Manhattan Community College. He previously worked in the Office of Records and Institutional Research at Alfred State College within the SUNY system.

The author of several journal articles on topics in higher education, Dr. Deng is currently the e-Parameter Chief Editor for the National Community College Council for Research and Planning and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Research for Educational Leaders. Even though he spends hours on the train each day, traveling to Lehman from Bay Ridge and back, he says that the campus, the people, and the facilities make his trip worthwhile.

Dr. Daniel Fernández

Daniel Fernández (Assistant Professor, Languages and Literatures): B.A., Univ. of California at Los Angeles; M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Columbia University. Dr. Fernández brings to Lehman the perspective of a young Mexican-American scholar. Born in Los Angeles, he grew up in Mexico, observing the many differences that the national border represented. Impressed by this experience, he went on to UCLA to study Spanish language and literature and years later wrote his doctoral dissertation on "Voyeurism and Liminality in Mexican Border Narrative," earning his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2006.

Dr. Fernández specializes in Latin American literature, art and film, with a focus on the Mexican and Mexican-American experience. He is currently teaching courses in the Spanish language and Latin American literature in translation. Speaking of his students, he says that he has "really come to admire them. Many have faced real obstacles, and have kids and jobs. They're inspiring."

Dr. Valérie Louisy-Louis-Larifla

Valérie Louisy-Louis-Larifla (Assistant Professor, Economics, Accounting and Business Administration): M.A., City College; Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center. "My name is always a big deal," says Dr. Valérie Louisy-Louis-Larifla, who would like to be known at Lehman simply as Prof. Larifla. Born in Toulouse, France, she moved later in life to the Caribbean island of Martinique. The daughter of a mathematics professor and a physics professor, she has taught a remarkably diverse range of courses, including ones in management, marketing, statistics, finance, and economics.

Destined for a career in business or law, Prof. Larifla found out that teaching was her vocation the first day she set foot in front of the classroom as a Ph.D. student. After earning her doctorate, she became an Assistant Professor at City College, where she won two of the Economics Department's Best Teaching Awards. Prior to her appointment at Lehman, she was an Associate Professor of Management at Kean University and also taught economics at Hunter College.

Most recently, Prof. Larifla has presented papers on the scholarship of teaching and learning and has been exploring the possibilities of integrating technology and problem-based learning in the curriculum. She believes advances in these fields offer new avenues for stronger teaching and learning in the disciplines of economics and finance.

Dr. Jeanne Peloso

Jeanne Peloso (Assistant Professor, Early Childhood and Childhood Education): B.A., Georgetown University; M.Ed., M.A., and Ph.D., Boston College. While not new to Lehman College, Dr. Peloso is taking on a much larger role this year. Along with being a full-time faculty member, she will coordinate the Department's Graduate Childhood Education Program—all this is in addition to being a new mother.

Before her appointment at Lehman, Dr. Peloso was an Assistant Professor of Education at Sacred Heart University, where she was Chair of Educational Psychology. She came to Lehman in 2005 because of her interest in preparing teachers to work in urban schools, and she is currently conducting a study of the progress of New York Teaching Fellows over a number of years. Dr. Peloso teaches writing methods, psychology, and methods of teaching science.

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