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I am pleased to announce recent appointments that will strengthen key academic programs and services at Queens College. Julia del Palacio has been appointed interim associate dean of Queens College’s School of Arts, Bobbie Kabuto has been appointed interim dean of the School of Education, Soniya Munshi has been appointed interim director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI), and Schiro Withanachchi has been appointed interim associate dean of Queens College’s Business School, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.
Julia del Palacio’s background in academics, experiential art, and administration will serve her well in her position at the Queens College School of Arts. Julia was previously the director of Strategic Partnerships and Development for Kupferberg Center for the Arts (KCA) at Queens College. Since joining the organization in 2014, Julia has provided key support to borough and city-wide projects such as Queens Rising and the CUNY Dance Initiative, which are spearheaded by Kupferberg Center, and has helped solidify the organization’s role as one of the most important arts centers in Queens. Working with department chairs and arts entities directors—including the Louis Armstrong House Museum; the Godwin-Ternbach Museum; the Aaron Copland School of Music; the Drama, Theatre, and Dance Department; and the Art Department—Julia has helped produce and present exhibitions, performances, and special events on and off the Queens College campus. Adding development to her portfolio in 2020, Julia has helped expand KCA’s funder portfolio and raise over $1.2 million in contributed income.
Julia represents Queens College on the board of directors for Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and Literature to Life. She is also board chair of Jalopy Theatre and School of Music and is member of the Dance/NYC Advisory Committee.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Julia moved to New York in 2005 to pursue her graduate degree. She obtained a doctorate in Latin American History from Columbia University in 2015, with a concentration on the performing arts and cultural policy. She has published her research in academic journals and has written pieces for specialized publications in the United States and Mexico. She has given lectures on Mexican traditional music and dance at Harvard University, Columbia University, Lehman College, Mary Baldwin University, Salisbury University, Swarthmore College, and Cornell University. Julia is also a professional performer of Mexican folk dance and manages her own music and dance company, Radio Jarocho, with which she has recorded three albums and toured in over 50 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Bobbie Kabuto’s experience in the field of education and at Queens College makes her a natural fit for the position of interim dean of the School of Education. Bobbie will fill the position left vacant by Dana Fusco. Bobbie has been chair of the Elementary and Early Childhood Education (EECE) Department since 2019. She served as a Provost Faculty Fellow from 2019-2020 and completed the HERS Institute Higher Education Leadership Development Program in July 2020.
Bobbie began her career in education as a second and third-grade classroom teacher in Virginia, where she was the school district representative for the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher Award, a national teaching honor. Shortly after, Bobbie taught in international schools in Tokyo, Japan, before returning to New York to earn her PhD at Hofstra University in Literacy Studies.
Bobbie has dedicated her career to studying the intersection of linguistically diverse families and schooling. She is the author and editor of seven books and has over 35 publications, including reviews, chapters, and articles in journals such as Literacy, Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Global Education Review, The Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and Early Childhood Research and Practice. She was nominated for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 2007 Bernard O’Donnell Promising Researcher Award and was the 2019 Recipient of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA)/Wiley Research in Literacy Education Award for her study on how families construct narratives of biliteracy.
Bobbie holds leadership roles in national organizations. Since 2019, she has chaired the Standing Committee on Literacy Assessment at NCTE. She also is an executive board member for the Center for the Expansion of Language and Teaching (CELT). Through both organizations, she engages in a national dialogue on creating more diverse, equitable, and inclusive literacy environments within homes, schools, and communities. Bobbie also is on the editorial boards for Literacy and The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
Soniya Munshi was previously an associate professor of Ethnic + Race Studies at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Soniya will fill the position left vacant when Joyce Moy retired earlier this year. Soniya brings to AAARI her research and project experience specifically related to immigrant communities and Asian American Studies. AAARI is a university-wide scholarly research and resource institute that focuses on policies and issues that affect Asians and Asian Americans. The institute reports to Queens College.
Sonia received her PhD in Sociology with a Women’s Studies Certificate from the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is an affiliate faculty member in the Psychology program. Her research on the relationships between the carceral state, public health, gendered violence in immigrant communities, and women of color feminisms has been supported by the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship, the NY Council for the Humanities, PSC-CUNY, and others. Her work has appeared in Scholar and Feminist Online, Feminist Formations, CUNY Forum, among others. Soniya was co-director of the NEH-funded project, “Building Asian American Studies across the Community College Classroom” and co-coordinator of the AANAPISI Bridge Initiative, a collaboration between BMCC and Hunter College to support the needs of Asian American and Pacific Islander students. She is currently a member of the CUNY Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Initiative Council.
Schiro Withanachchi has been the director of the Business and Liberal Arts (BALA) honors program since 2021 and a tenured lecturer in the Economics Department for over 10 years. Schiro’s background in business, economics, higher education, and related fields renders her uniquely suited for her position at the Queens College Business School.
After an early career with Lockheed Martin (Aircraft) Corporation, Schiro transitioned to higher education. As a Sri Lankan-American, she draws on her experience of living in Asia and her encounter with the Gulf War in Kuwait to develop innovative pedagogy. She uses globalized curriculums to bridge the application-knowledge gap. The author of articles on the impact of internationalization on 21st century skills, Schiro has been invited to present at conferences such as the Academy of International Business (AIB), NAFSA, and IVEC. She is the recipient of the Diversity Enhancement Research Grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for her research in measuring the economic impact of international exposure on underrepresented students (2016), the Stevens Initiative Grant for the Global Scholars Achieving Career Success project that incorporates Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) across nine international institutions simultaneously (2021-2023), the QC Center for Career Engagement and Internships Award as Faculty Campus Champion of the Year for being a compassionate educator who prepares students for meaningful employment (2020, 2021), and the President’s Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Award for Excellence in Teaching (2021) on account of her initiatives.
Schiro holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University, an MBA in Decision Sciences from St. John’s University, and a doctorate in Business Administration (focused on management and international business) from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
We wish Julia, Bobbie, Soniya, and Schiro much success in their new positions.
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