John Jay MagazineFALL 2008EDUCATING FOR JUSTICE

John Jay CollegeT H E C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K

of Criminal Justice

John Jay CollegeT H E C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K

of Criminal Justice

PRESIDENT

Jeremy travis

8 9 9 T E N T H A V E N U E N E W Y O R K , N Y 1 0 0 1 9 T . 2 1 2 . 2 3 7 . 8 6 0 0 F. 2 1 2 . 2 3 7 . 8 6 0 7 J T R A V I S @ J J A Y. C U N Y. E D U

President’s Letter

Reflections on a prize

MCNair Scholars:Tenacity and dedication

Turning lives aroundImproving the Odds forPrisoner Reentry

On the road toMorocco

the brookly bridge125 Years of Visual and Literary Magic

The boys of summerThe 1978 Championship seasonat John Jay

Planned Giving

Alumni Worth Noting

Alumni Notes

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2

4

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14

17

23

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27

CONTENTS

John Jay MagazineEDUCATING FOR JUSTICE

Dear friends of John Jay College,

These are exciting times at John Jay. Two years ago, we launched a transformation of the College, which today is on track and on schedule. We are changing our student profile, by phasing out our associate degree programs, establishing educational partnerships with the community colleges, and raising the College’s admission standards. This fall, we admitted 1,414 freshmanbaccalaureate students, a 43.9% increase over two years ago. This is an impressive accomplishment that speaks to the powerfulappeal of a John Jay education.

We have also launched an ambitious faculty hiring initiative, with welcome support from CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. In fall 2004, John Jay had 338 full-time faculty; in fall 2008, we have 424 full-time faculty, a 25% increase in four years. This fall,we welcomed 38 new full-time faculty to our community. They are impressive. They earned their doctorates at some of the best universities in the world, value John Jay’s distinctive interdisciplinary environment, and embrace the opportunity to teachJohn Jay’s highly-motivated, justice-oriented students.

At the core of the transformation is the enrichment of our academic programs. We have already added majors in Economics and English. Many more majors are under development, including majors in Gender Studies, Global History, Philosophy, and Latin American Studies. These liberal arts majors will be distinctive because they are offered at John Jay. Each will speak toour mission of “educating for justice.”

This year, we will approve a new Honors Program, reform our General Education requirements, launch an academic advisementinitiative, design a First Year Experience, expand our freshman learning communities, and engage our faculty in helping our students decide upon their majors.

As a result of these complementary initiatives, John Jay will take its place in the top tier of the nation’s educational and researchinstitutions, while retaining our distinctive focus on criminal and social justice, and graduating students who are prepared for challenging careers in a complex world.

This issue of the John Jay Magazine highlights the strengths of our College. This year, for the second time, a John Jay professorwon the Pulitzer Prize. Professor John Matteson, who won the prize for biography, shares his thoughts on receiving this remarkable honor. Our McNair Scholars, young people motivated to pursue undergraduateresearch and graduate degrees, give us a glimpse of how their lives have changed becauseof this program. Experts in the field of prisoner reentry offer their thoughts on the significance of John Jay’s Prisoner Reentry Institute.

This past summer, the College launched its first faculty-led study-abroad programs. Students who participated in the program in Morocco share their insights and reactions. We also celebrate the Brooklyn Bridge through the eyes of Professor Richard Haw, who published a book on the topic, and reminisce with the baseball team of 1978 aboutJohn Jay’s first championship season. Finally, we catch up with alumni who are making theirmark across our nation.

In these uncertain economic times, it is particularly important that I express appreciation for your continuing support of the College. We remain committed to our core mission of“educating for justice.” With your help, we will continue to tackle some of society’s difficultchallenges, and prepare a new generation of leaders.

Jeremy Travis

PresidentJeremy Travis

Vice President Institutional AdvancementTova Friedler

Executive Director of Communications & EditorChristine Godek

Senior WriterJennifer Nislow

Contributing WritersPeter DodenhoffSharon JohnsonJohn MattesonMarie Rosen

Photography CoordinatorDoreen Viñas

Alumni ContributorSharice Conway

Production CoordinatorKathy Willis

DesignerJRenacia

John Jay Magazine is a publication of the Department of InstitutionalAdvancement, published twice a yearand distributed free to alumni andfriends of John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

John Jay CollegeT H E C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K

of Criminal Justice

PRESIDENT

Jeremy travis

8 9 9 T E N T H A V E N U E N E W Y O R K , N Y 1 0 0 1 9 T . 2 1 2 . 2 3 7 . 8 6 0 0 F. 2 1 2 . 2 3 7 . 8 6 0 7 J T R A V I S @ J J A Y. C U N Y. E D U

Cover: Peter de Séve, Liberty, 1998.©Peter de Sève

This page:Top: Tavik Frantisek Simon,New York-Brooklyn Bridge, 1927.From the author’s collection

Right: Anonymous, Construction ofthe Anchorage, n.d. (Detail)Courtesy of the Institute Archives andSpecial Collections, Folsom Library,Rensselaer Polytechnic University

One of

the truly

remarkable

things about

life in

America is

our capacity

to re-invent

ourselves.

One way

or another,

just about

everyone

who wants

one

gets

a second

chance.

When I was a kid, I used to enjoy readingnewspaper stories about newly anointedNobel Prize winners. My favorite parts tendedto be the photographs. Because of the timedifference with Stockholm, the prizes alwaysseemed to be announced around breakfasttime in America, meaning that the press hereusually descended on unsuspecting winnerswhen they were still in their pajamas. I got akick out of seeing the pictures of greateconomists and chemists blinking into acamera lens, obviously elated but also a bitbothered that they had just arrived atimmortality in a bathrobe and slippers.

Now, a Pulitzer Prize is not a Nobel, thoughI’m flattered when people mix them up. Forthe record, they don’t hand out Nobels forbiographies, so I have no hope of evergetting one, even if I were that good, so aPulitzer is about as high as I can go. In anycase, I was very glad on April 7 that thePulitzer Prizes were announced at three in theafternoon and that, when the photographercame, I happened to be wearing a tie.

It all happened, marvelously enough, whenChancellor Goldstein was addressing a

college-wide faculty meeting in the lobby ofthe John Jay College theater. He hadconcluded his remarks and was fieldingquestions when I felt a tap on my shoulder.“You have to leave this room right now,”came the urgent whisper. “It’s an emergency!”Just the words that the son of twooctogenarian parents and a 14-year-olddaughter loves to hear. I moved hastily outthe door, wondering which of them was inintensive care. I was thus doubly unpreparedwhen I was met by our department secretary.She told me that I had to go to North Hall tosee an Associated Press photographerbecause I had just won the Pulitzer Prize forbiography. If you are old enough (and I am,just barely) to remember the Mexico CityOlympics, you likely recall one of the iconicimages from those games, and I don’t meanthe John Carlos/Tommie Smith black powersalute. I’m thinking of long-jumper BobBeamon after his jump shattered the existingworld record: On his knees. Hands over hisface. A picture of pure astonishment and joy.That, to a tee, was my reaction, though thephotographer came too late to catch it. Toobad, I think, since it makes a much betterimage than blinking in a bathrobe.

During my career as a professor and critic,I’ve been blessed with the opportunity topublish work on some outstanding writers,including Ralph Waldo Emerson, HermanMelville, William James, and, of course,Bronson and Louisa May Alcott. One favoritewriter about whom I haven’t written a word isF. Scott Fitzgerald. Late in his life, Fitzgeraldsaid, “There are no second acts in Americanlives.” It’s an interesting line — succinct,tinged with pathos — and entirely wrong.One of the truly remarkable things about lifein America is our capacity to re-inventourselves. One way or another, just abouteveryone who wants one gets a secondchance.

Winning the Pulitzer Prize has made me thinka great deal about second acts — and notonly because the book that won the Prize,Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa MayAlcott and Her Father, is about a father and adaughter who redeemed themselves in eachother’s eyes and achieved new, abundantlives after passing through tremendoushardship. In a sense, winning this prize hasbeen the culmination of my own second act. Ibegan my professional life as an attorney,practicing in the courts of California andNorth Carolina. Although I took pride in thequality of the work I did, I found that I wantedto add something more to the world insteadof just dividing up the pie. So began my

second act, which, in its own quiet way, wasfilled with narrow escapes worthy of IndianaJones. When I applied to graduate school, myapplications were rejected by every schoolbut one — Columbia. When I completed myPhD and hunted for a teaching position, I wasagain turned down by every place but one —John Jay. When I offered the idea for Eden’sOutcasts for sale, again, only one publishinghouse was receptive — W.W. Norton andCompany. Until April of this year, the noes inmy life in academe far outnumbered theyeses. Since April 7, the yeses have finallystarted to predominate. But had it not beenfor the yes I received several years ago fromJohn Jay College, there would have been noacademic job for me, no Eden’s Outcasts, noPulitzer Prize. My feelings when I reflect onthis require some greater word thangratitude.

The man I work for, President Jeremy Travisalso knows a bit about second acts, havinghad a noteworthy career as a maker ofjustice policy and having now emerged as anoutstanding leader in higher public education.The signal work of his career to date has alsodealt with second acts — in studying thechallenges that face ex-convicts returning tolife outside prison. President Travis believesin the power of people to re-imagine andremake themselves. During his tenure aspresident of John Jay, which is nowwitnessing the return of humanities majors toour curriculum, President Travis has shownhis confidence in a college to transform itselfinto a more dynamic, enlightened institutionthan it has ever been before. To have such amodel for inspiration has made a hugedifference.

While I’m talking about inspiration, I shouldalso mention the man I wrote about, BronsonAlcott, who was himself a teacher. In studyinghow Bronson Alcott taught, I have learned alot about how to conduct myself in theprofession that he saw as the greatest of allhuman occupations. Alcott wrote a series ofmaxims about how to be an effective teacher.Here are four of them:

“To teach nothing merelyfrom subservience tocustom. To teach byencouragement.

3

Reflections on a Prize

By Professor John Matteson

2

The two faces ofJohn Matteson:Professor of English andPulitzer Prize-winning author.

a

Pulitzer Prize

is not

a Nobel,

though

I’m flattered

when people

mix them up.

continued on page 22

54

70 percent of

MCNair

Scholars

go on to

master’s

programs

within two

years of

graduating

from John Jay,

and many

more after

that period.

Prison seemed more likelythan college at one point ingraduate student DuquannHinton’s life. Having informallydropped out of school in theseventh grade, no one ismore surprised by hisacademic success thanHinton himself. At 23, he isworking towards a master’sdegree at the CUNYGraduate Center in social-personality psychology. Butthere is no overstating thedifficult road that led Hintonfrom youthful offender tomaster’s degree candidate.Hinton, who graduated in 2007, earned hisGED in a detention center where he was sentafter a few arrests. He entered John Jay as aSEEK student, meaning that regardless ofhow well he did in class, he had to have atutor. It was this tutor who took him by thehand to the Ronald E. McNair Program office,

recalled Hinton. Still, it took two more visitsthere before Hinton applied to the program.

“A PhD sounded like something good tohave, but it wasn’t something I thought Iwanted or needed,” said Hinton. “Even goingin, I didn’t really know what a PhD entailed,and what you had to do to get one. Or whatgraduate school was. It all sounded reallynice to me, but I didn’t know what theymeant, for real.”

He is one of the 196 John Jay students whohave participated in the Ronald E. McNairPost Baccalaureate Achievement Programover the past 15 years. Named afterastronaut Ronald E. McNair, the program’sgoal is to prepare selected students withstrong academic potential for doctoralstudies. Not all McNair Scholars shareHinton’s troubled background, but manycome from similarly disadvantagedcircumstances. And like him, they are allfirst-generation college students.

John Jay is part of the network of more than180 campuses across the country that offersMcNair scholarships to eligible under-graduates. Dr. Jannette Domingo, Dean ofGraduate Studies, wrote the initial grantproposal that brought the program here in1992. She served as chairperson anddirector of John Jay’s McNair Program until2007.

“Over the years, the McNair Scholars havebeen more social-justice oriented and moreinternational than the College,” said Domingo.“The McNair Program and the McNairScholars, I think, have been models, and

have pointed the way in terms of theCollege’s direction on undergraduateresearch and the global perspective onsocial justice.”

Students apply for the McNair Programduring their sophomore year and enter theprogram as juniors. The scholarship providesspecialized support services for two years,including mentorship by faculty members;tutoring and exam preparation; careercounseling; assistance in applying tograduate school; a $2,800 stipend — usuallyafter their junior year; and help in obtainingfinancial aid for graduate school.

According to the program’s associatedirector, Ernest Lee, 70 percent of McNairScholars go on to master’s programs withintwo years of graduating from John Jay, andmany more after that period.

The McNair Program reflects the mission ofthe college in which it resides. Thus, thereare many different models operatingnationwide. John Jay’s is distinctive in anumber of ways. One is that students do notenter the program with a mentor of their ownchoosing, with whom to work individually.Another is that all of its McNair Scholarsmajor in one of the social sciences taught atthe College. John Jay is funded for 21 McNairScholars (although that number will increaseto 27 at the start of the next five-year grantcycle). Seven faculty members from anumber of disciplines including African-American Studies, where the McNairProgram is housed, Forensic Psychology,Puerto Rican/Latin-American Studies andCounseling, mentor three students each.

A critical component of the program hasalways been to involve students in researchmethodology in order to help prepare themfor graduate school. For many years, notedDomingo, McNair was the only program thatrequired this of participants. McNair Scholarsact as research assistants to their mentorsduring their first year, then in their secondyear conduct their own research project.

“The mentors are very, very important,” saidDomingo. “We have tried to match people onthe basis of their interest, but also — to theextent possible — those people who we thinkcan work well with each other.”

Dr. Kwando Kinshasa of the African-AmericanStudies Department was Hinton’s mentor.

“Just to meet somebody like thatwho kind of shared some of theexperiences I had growing up, it wasgrounding to me,” said Hinton. “If hehad a PhD, I could have one, too.”

Kinshasa though, saw through all of his“games,” he said. While Hinton grumbled athis first assignment — reading eight booksand assorted journal articles over the winterbreak, he felt liberated and accomplishedwhen he completed the work.

“All these great feelings together,” saidHinton.

A problem for many students who haveparticipated in the program has been thestruggle to make their own friends andfamilies understand why they are willing to

MCNair ScholarsA Lesson in

Tenacity ANDDedication

By Jennifer Nislow

John Jay is

part of the

network of

more than

180 campuses

across the

country

that offers

McNair

scholarships

to eligible

under-

graduates.

Duquann Hinton Alexandra Tellez Jessica Armstrong Shirley Sut Yee Chan

7

a key element

of the

program is the

encouragement

students get

from peers,

faculty and

staff

who share

their goals —

not just at

John Jay,

but at

MCNair programs

across the

country.

6

students get a

chance to

present their

work and

learn to

withstand

the sometimes

“withering

critiques” of

their mentors.

remain in school such an indefinite length oftime in pursuit of a doctorate, notedDomingo.

McNair Scholars “come from not always theeasiest backgrounds, and don’t have theeasiest lives,” said Psychology ProfessorWilliam Gottdiener, who is a McNair mentor.“They are typical of many students at JohnJay in terms of having family responsibilitiesand working, at least part-time, outside oftheir regular studies, plus they’re taking theMcNair Program,” he said. “It’s a challengeon many fronts to the students. They havetremendous fortitude; they’re bright; they’reambitious; and they’re trying to figure out if adoctoral program in some field is what theywant to do.”

Given all that, a key element of the programis the encouragement students get frompeers, faculty and staff who share their goals— not just at John Jay, but at McNairprograms across the country, Domingoexplained. This network forms a fellowshipthat supports them as they move on to otherinstitutions for graduate work. In addition tothe tangible skills it gives these students,McNair helps them develop confidence intheir ability to do doctoral studies. As first-generation college students, they may nothave someone within their immediate circlewho serves as an academic role model.

“I don’t think I could emphasize enough theimportance of being able to identify withother students who have the same sorts ofaspirations,” said Domingo.

That has certainly been true for JessicaArmstrong, 23, a forensic psychology majorwho is also in the College’s BA/MA Program.Armstrong’s family lives in Texas. She is atransfer student from New Orleans who hasbeen on her own since she was 17.

“You have a lot of staff support,but then you have a wholenetwork of students who aregoing through what you’re goingthrough,” she said. “My dadalways says, ‘Oh, I’m very proudof you,’ but at the same time,it’s like, ‘What are you doing?I don’t get it.’ They don’tquite understand why I’m stillin school.”

Armstrong plans on earning a PhD in clinicalpsychology and specializing in addictionstudies like Gottdiener, who is her mentor.She would like to have her own practice oneday and continue to do research onsubstance abuse. Her McNair project looksat the types of defense mechanisms addictsuse and how these mechanisms are modifiedby trauma and trauma symptoms.

Shirley Sut Yee Chan has also benefited fromthe support of the McNair network. Chan, 22,hopes to attend medical school at New YorkUniversity after graduating with a bachelor’sdegree in forensic psychology. She gave up afull scholarship at Barnard College where shewas an economics major to come to JohnJay. A senior, Chan is taking all of her sciencerequirements now. She has not yet decidedwhether she will go into emergency medicineor psychiatry.

“I believe there are two types of systemshere,” she said. “There’s your peer network,and there’s your mentor-level/director-levelsupport. On the peer side, we all know we’regoing through the same thing. We cancommiserate together. On the top level, Ihave my mentor and I have Mr. Lee. I canapproach them with anything, academicconcerns, personal problems that arestressing me out…they will try to counsel methrough it,” said Chan.

Kimmesha Edwards, another first-yearMcNair Scholar majoring in forensicpsychology, described Lee as bothunderstanding and empathetic, as well assomeone who “helps bring out of you whatyou didn’t know you had,” she said. “Hepushes you when you think you have nothingleft to push for, he finds something to makeyou push for. And the beauty is he’s stillthere. When you leave and go to grad school,he still accepts those phone calls.”

Alexandra Tellez is still calling Lee andGottdiener two years after finishing herMcNair Program. The 23-year-old Tellezgraduated from John Jay with a master’s inforensic psychology.

“It’s a relationship that was definitely moreintense at the time I was in McNair, but westill keep in touch just because therelationship was so strong,” she said. “I feel Iowe a lot of what I’ve become to them…so Ialways want to let them know how I’m doing.”

The summer months are not a break forMcNair Scholars. They spend that timetraveling to McNair conferences nationally topresent their work. At these events, studentsget a chance to present their work and learnto withstand the sometimes “witheringcritiques” of their mentors, said Domingo.

Moreover, having students give papers atthese events is an important means ofexposing them to an array of concepts andideas new to them, noted Kinshasa. Many ofthese students consider themselves worldlybecause they are from New York, but inreality, he noted, they are actually quiteparochial.

“They have to go someplace else,” Kinshasasaid. “[They] give papers in everything frompsychology to public administration in a verycrisp, well-developed, critiqued manner.”

All McNair participants are required to takethe Spring Semester Research Seminar thatmeets on Fridays. It not only aids them withtheir research here, but also puts them aheadof their fellow students when they entergraduate school.

Kinshasa added, “The McNairprogram is structured so that assoon as the students enter theprogram they have a PhD on theirmind, they’re thinking of thatorientation. That puts a positive,intellectual strain on them, meaningthat they are beginning to thinkabout ‘what do I want to do when Ihave my PhD?’”

Edwards found that class invaluable.

“I felt it was a big, big help,” she said.“Narrowing down a topic, getting your topicto a point where it’s doable in the two-yeartime frame that you have, because it’s greatto have these great, big ideas, but it seemssmall until you start the process and yourealize how big this really is. The Friday classwas amazing on focusing and taking a smallpiece so that you can finish,” said Edwards.

Tellez began her first job in August as acognitive therapist at the Center for Cognitionand Communication. In addition, she willspend the next year in preparation for adoctoral program she hopes to start in fall of2009.

Tellez’s McNair project looked at the differentperspectives that lawyers and psychologistshave with regard to competency to stand trialwhen the defendant is mentally deficient. Butduring her graduate work, her area ofresearch interest shifted to working withsexual predators, after an externship throughJohn Jay working at the Kirby ForensicPsychiatric Center.

As for Hinton, his area of research interest atthe CUNY Graduate Center is the historicaland contemporary experiences of the African-American community and the unique andthoughtful ways it expresses itself in the faceof obstacles to that expression.

“The literature on that topic…a lot of it is justpathology-oriented and it’s just not true,” hesaid. “I want to spend my career trying toeven out the balance.”

Jennifer Nislow is Assistant Publications Director atJohn Jay College.

The purpose of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program is to encourage low-income individuals who are first-generation college studentsand/or traditionally underrepresented in graduate education to pursue doctoralstudy. Named for Dr. McNair, the program serves as a living memorial to a manwho overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to be awarded his PhD inphysics and later, to realize his dream of becoming an astronaut for NASA.

Ernest Lee, Associate Director,McNair Program

Professor Kwando Kinshasa,Department ofAfrican-American Studies

98

The Second Chance Act of 2007, passed byboth houses of Congress with hugebipartisan majorities and signed into law byPresident Bush this past April, signals a seachange in a mindset that has prevailed for thepast 25 years, one that demonized thosewho have been incarcerated. The law, firsteloquently proposed in Bush’s 2004 State ofthe Union address, authorizes grants togovernment agencies and nonprofit groups toprovide a wide variety of services that canhelp reintegrate ex-offenders into thecommunity.

Thus, with a stroke of the pen, a conservativeRepublican President officially endorsed thenotion that fighting crime and protecting thepublic requires more than just buildingprisons and warehousing inmates. It alsorequires providing a path for ex-offenders thatcan lead to a better life once the prison gateshave opened.

“Today, with the nation’s crime rates at thelowest level in a generation, the politicalenvironment is more conducive to focusingon finding ways to reintegrate formerprisoners,” said Jeremy Travis, President ofJohn Jay College of Criminal Justice and arecognized scholar on prisoner reentryissues.

PRISONER REENTRY INSTITUTE

In 2005, Travis published But They All ComeBack: Facing the Challenges of PrisonerReentry, which proposed new approacheslike reentry courts to help prisoners make asuccessful transition. That same year, he

founded the Prisoner Reentry Institute at JohnJay as well. This Institute is contributing to anew national discourse on prisoner reentry byfocusing on keeping recently released peopleaway from crime and helping them tobecome productive, contributing members ofsociety.

“As the only public university-based center that focuses on reentry, we are in a unique position to provide evidence-based research to enhance the implementation and management

of programs,” said Debbie A. Mukamal,Director of the Institute. “Traditionally, themeasure of successful reentry was therecidivism rate. Although this statistic isimportant, we are also looking at othermeasures, such as whether a person has ajob with a career ladder, is paying childsupport, living in one’s own home rather thana homeless shelter, and is enrolled in school.”

“The Institute has focused attention on thethree things every returning prisoner needs:staying healthy and sober, landing a job andfinding a place to live,” said Martin F. Horn,Commissioner for New York City’sDepartment of Correction and theDepartment of Probation. “Its research onwhat recently released prisoners need tobecome productive, contributing members ofsociety has provided important informationfor our department‘s reentry plan, the mostambitious such program in the nation.”

“Thirty percent of all rearrests occur duringthe first six months,” said Mukamal. “If wecan help formerly incarcerated individuals

meet challenges during this period, weincrease the likelihood that they will turn theirlives around and become productivemembers of society.”

Addressing Healthcare Needs

In April, the Institute and healthcareprofessionals at Bellevue Hospital inManhattan released a report that showed aserious geographic mismatch between wherereturning inmates live and where medical andmental health services are located. The teamfound that inmates return in disproportionatenumbers to impoverished communities, with26 percent returning to just six districts, andthat these areas needed more providers.

“Returning prisoners often have serioushealth conditions like diabetes and heartdisease that require ongoing treatments,”said Jeff Mellow, associate professor in theDepartment of Law, Police Science andCriminal Justice Administration who directedthe project. “If they don’t get the medicationsthey need, they may suffer a life-threateningheart attack. Those who need substanceabuse treatment often have a difficult timetravelling to distant facilities and drop out ofprograms, which may lead them to resumeusing harmful substances.”

Facing the Employment Dilemma

The Institute has tackled unemployment bycollaborating with the New York CityDepartment of Correction on a job readinessinitiative. Called the New York City JusticeCorps, the initiative provides six months of

paid community service projects andinternships for 275 18-to-24-year-old formerprisoners who have returned to their homesin the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklynand the South Bronx.

Many of the jobs that formerprisoners used to fill aredisappearing, thanks to automationand globalization. Other hard-to-employ individuals like immigrantsand welfare recipients have becomeentrepreneurs. To determine whetherentrepreneurship was a realisticcareer path for formerly incarceratedindividuals, the Institute convened aseries of conversations amongexperts in criminal justice, workplacedevelopment and entrepreneurs in2006.

Several formerly incarcerated individuals whohad started successful cleaning services,landscaping businesses and a bakery sharedtheir experiences. In addition to commonobstacles like the lack of formal training inbusiness development and access to credit,they faced barriers like parole and probationregulations that prohibited interstate traveland working without direct supervision by anemployer.

The experts came up with solutions such ashaving education departments of localcorrectional facilities add an introductory,

Thirty

percent of

all rearrests

occur

during the

first six

months.

The Institute

has focused

attention on

the three

things every

returning

prisoner needs:

staying

healthy and

sober,

landing a job

and finding

a place

to live.

Turning Lives

AroundImproving the Odds for Prisoner Reentry

By Sharon Johnson

Thus, with a stroke of the pen, a conservative Republican President

officially endorsed the notion that fighting crime and

protecting the public requires more than just building prisons

and warehousing inmates. It also requires providing

a path for ex-offenders that can lead to

a better life once the prison gates have

opened.

Debbie A. Mukamal, Director,Prisoner Reentry Institute

self-employment unit to the curriculum ofexisting vocational programs. These andother strategies became part of “VenturingBeyond the Gates,” a 92-page monograph onfacilitating successful reentry withentrepreneurship.

Tackling the Hard Questions

“One reason why the Institute’s research is sovaluable is that the Institute goes out of itsway to include input from formerlyincarcerated individuals,” said JoAnne Page,President and CEO of the Fortune Society, anonprofit organization that provides life skillstraining for returning prisoners. “The Institutehas also tackled issues that have long beenignored, such as the needs of the more than12 million people who pass through U.S. jailseach year.”

Because more than 80 percent of inmatesare incarcerated for less than a month, jailshave little time or capacity to address theserious health, substance abuse and otherproblems of this population. The Institute’s“Life After Lockup,” an analysis of 42 localreentry programs across the country,highlights steps that jail administrators, localcorrectional staff and probation officers cantake in working with this population.

Tapping educational opportunities is oftendifficult for returning prisoners because theyare unaware of programs. To overcome thisproblem, the Institute produced a “Back toSchool Guide for Continuing Your EducationAfter Prison” and worked with the careerdevelopment offices of the City University ofNew York to improve services for studentswith prison records. “One of the reasons Icame to John Jay to earn a PhD in criminaljustice was the opportunity to work onprojects like the educational guide,” saidAnna Crayton, deputy director of research.“By bridging the gap between research andpractice, these projects come up withcreative solutions like entrepreneurship to theproblem of unemployment.”

The Institute is also tackling another loomingcrisis: the national prison population isgraying at an unprecedented rate and manyprisons are ill-equipped to provide acute carefor strokes and heart attacks and managechronic conditions like diabetes and kidneyfailure. The Institute, the New York Academy

of Medicine and the Urban Institute havelaunched an initiative to come up withpossible solutions.

Advancing the Profession

“Professional development is a major focusof everything we do at the Institute,” saidMukamal. “Although social workers oftenwork with incarcerated individuals and theirfamily members, their academic training andfield placement rarely focus on the needs ofthis population, so we have partnered withthe National Association of Social Workersand the Center for Law and Social Policy on aproject that will develop a set of learningtools for academic courses, fieldworkplacement, and other measures to fill thisgap.”

Another project targets future leaders. TheInstitute and the Robert F. Wagner GraduateSchool of Public Service at NYU aredeveloping an 18-month program for peoplewith 5 to 10 years of experience in thecriminal justice system who have beenrecognized by their organizations ascandidates for promotion.

Since June 2005, the Institute has sponsoredthe “Occasional Series on Reentry Research,”where academicians, policymakers andpractitioners discuss the latest research ontopics such as felon disenfranchisement,families and reentry and communitysupervision.

“These sessions have had a long-lastingimpact on the recovery movement,” saidJohn Jay Sociology Professor DouglasThompkins, who is also a member of theFortune Society’s Board of Directors. “Twoyears ago, we presented cutting-edgeresearch on how educational programs canbe adapted in prison as well asimprovements made in communityprograms for those who have returned. Nowstate officials are considering ademonstration project, which shows thetremendous influence the Institute has hadon reentry.”

Sharon Johnson is an editor and freelance writer withover 2,000 articles published in the New York Times,the Chicago Tribune and women’s magazines.

Why They WentThe five undergraduate and five graduatestudents who participated agreed to keepblogs during their trip, and to share thejournals with John Jay Magazine upon theirreturn. Some also agreed to be interviewedabout the experience.

“Because of my research interests, I felt itwas important to understand Arab culturesand Islam, and get a firsthand impressionfrom legal, social and cultural perspectives,”said Alvarez, who is now enrolled in the JohnJay/CUNY doctoral program in forensicpsychology.

One of her travel companions, Jillian

Sarandrea, a graduate student in forensicmental health counseling, learned of theprogram after having a class with Raghavan.Sarandrea, who said she has a workinginterest in gender and family violence issues,always wanted to but never had traveledabroad, “…and this was a goldenopportunity.”

Christian Aulbach, a junior majoring ininternational criminal justice who was one ofjust three males in the group, was alsomaking his first trip overseas, and signed upin order to “learn about another culture andmaybe debunk a few myths. Living there for amonth changed my views about a lot ofthings.”

“You must remember this…”And they will. Ten John Jay students whotraveled to Casablanca and other Moroccancities this past June for a groundbreakingstudy-abroad program came away with morethan just three undergraduate or graduatecredits in psychology or other cross-listeddisciplines. They enjoyed a four-weekimmersion in another culture that none ofthem will soon forget.

“Who wouldn’t want to take the opportunity togo to Morocco?” said Shea Alvarez, whoearned her master’s degree in forensicpsychology on May 29 and promptly packedher bags for the trip to Morocco. “This wasan opportunity to become immersed in aculture that’s largely misunderstood in theWestern world.”

Led by Professor Chitra Raghavan of theDepartment of Psychology, the course on“Gender, Culture, Community and Violence”was designed to be academically rigorous,with classroom lectures and discussions,field trips and presentations by local personsof interest. In addition, participants engagedin a community service project at aMoroccan school.

“The experience was beyond myexpectations; I’m still exhausted,” Raghavansaid a few weeks after the group returned.

1110

Sampling of OccasionalSeries on Reentry Research

April 18, 2008:An Examination of the Impact ofFormerly Incarcerated Persons

Helping Others

March 21, 2008:Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners:

Early Impacts from a RandomAssignment Evaluation of the

Center for EmploymentOpportunities

April 13, 2007:Governing through Crime: Howthe War on Crime Transformed

American Democracy andCreated a Culture of Fear

February 9, 2007:Sentencing for Dollars: The

Financial Consequences of aCriminal Conviction

December 15, 2006:Punitiveness in the Imprisonment

of Women, 1977-2004

On the Road toMorocco…John Jay Students Expand Their Horizons

By Peter Dodenhoff

this was a

golden

opportunity.

Christian Aulbach and Professor Chitra Raghavan find an elusive patch of shade beneath anancient stone arch.

Martin F. Horn, Commissioner,New York CityDepartment of Correction andNew York CityDepartment of Probation

12 13

Academic RigorThe academic component of the month-longadventure was no less rigorous than the livingconditions or the climate. For starters,students were immediately immersed inArabic language study. “You have to knowsome Arabic just to get around,” saidAulbach. “It was difficult at first. We’d wakeup at 9 o’clock and do three hours oflanguage instruction. Then we’d have lots oflectures on gender issues, family violenceand the Moudawana, Morocco’s family law.”This law, unanimously adopted in 2004,significantly upgraded the status of women inthe country.

The pace was virtually non-stop,aimed at providing a near-saturationlevel experience, but not one of thestudents came home with regretsabout having participated. “I lovedthe program, and I’d love to goback,” Sarandrea said. “I’m sure that after I got back my family got sick of hearing me rave about Morocco.”

Shocks to the SystemAs might be expected in making one’s firsttrip to a non-Western country, there was noshortage of culture shocks for the John Jaystudents. For starters, the students realizedthat they were the foreigners, not the natives.“For once, the staring eyes were on me,judging and observing my every move,” oneanonymous blogger wrote. “I do not mind theintriguing eyes on me, but it is interesting toexperience this because it opens my mind tohow it must feel to someone foreign in NewYork City.”

Each city has its medina, the ancient, walledsection of town that is crisscrossed withstreets scarcely wider than the averagealleyway, yet lined with vendors’ stalls. If theMoroccan cities themselves offered cultureshocks, the medinas took things to yetanother level. “It was quite an experience,”Aulbach wrote. “There were dozens of peoplefrom the stalls who would walk up to you withtheir menus, while the chef would yell downto you in 14 different languages. They allfought for your business.”

“I’ve traveled a fair amount but never have Ifelt as culturally shell-shocked as that firstnight in the medina,” one student wrote.Another commented, “The medina feltstrikingly similar to New York City because itwas a small, crowded, smelly area with lotsof diversity crammed into a tiny space.”

That’s not to say there weren’t similarities towhat the students were used to. “Despite themany culture shocks, the general hustle andbustle of Rabat is familiar,” Alvarez wroteregarding the Moroccan capital city. And likeNew York — “the city that never sleeps” —Rabat and other Moroccan cities had a late-night culture of their own. Other discoveriesby the students? “The coffee was horrible,”said Sarandrea, “sort of like instant. Tea istheir big thing. And the pastries were as goodas anything I’ve ever had. I went over thereexpecting to lose like 15 pounds. I ended upgaining.”

In general, students could hardly have spokenwith greater fondness about the Moroccanpeople — the ones they stayed with or theones they encountered in their travels. “Thepeople I met and interacted with were veryopen and friendly, and always excited to helpin any way. Most of all, they are patient,”Alvarez wrote in a blog entry soon afterarriving in the country. “A very warm andwelcoming culture.” Aulbach noted in a post-trip interview: “They were just the nicestpeople.”

Yes, But It’s a Dry Heat…One thing the students noticed the instantthey stepped off the plane in Casablanca wasthe incredibly intense heat of a Moroccansummer. “I had seen desert before, anddryness of course is one of its majorattributes, but everything looked thirsty,”Sarandrea blogged. The impression onlybecame more dramatic on field trips thestudents took through the Moroccancountryside. “The sun seems to burn hottereach place we go,” wrote one student. “Thelandscape en route from Casablanca toMarrakesh changed from dusty, dry and flatto dusty, dry and mountainous, whileshepherds, field workers and brick makersblended into to the terrain. With fickle airconditioning on the bus, we were sweatingand shedding our clothes, but I can’t imaginehow it must feel to work in those shadelessfields in such relentless heat every day ofyour life.”

The oppressive Moroccan heat didn’t let upwhen it came time for the John Jay studentsto engage in an outdoor community serviceproject, painting murals on the bathroomwalls at an elementary school. Nor did theheat stop them. They took to the task withaplomb, earning the gratitude of the teachersand staff and miles of smiles from theMoroccan schoolchildren, who couldn’t seemto get enough of their contact with thevisitors.

“The children enjoyed seeing us visiting theschool,” Sarandrea wrote in her journal.“They tried to interact with us by waving and

smiling to everyone. The staff had to hide usin a classroom when it was time for thechildren’s recess. The children were soinvolved in us that we were distracting themfrom their playtime.”

The heat exacerbated the smells waftingfrom the primitive school bathroom, andseemed to encourage swarms of insects.Alvarez recalled “a never-endingbombardment of flies, testing my reflexes,laughing at me… and the ants — little ones,big ones. My toes were swollen and red fromthe bites and the sun. But it was all goodbecause we were doing community servicefor a school in an underprivilegedneighborhood. No matter how hot, dirty orsmelly that place was, I was glad to bethere.”

“John Jay improved the environment thatthese young children play and learn inthroughout the year, and I felt honored to bea part of it,” Aulbach recalled.

Alvarez seemed to be speaking for the groupwhen she observed, “It made me a richerperson — intellectually, spiritually and more.”

[This John Jay study-abroad program isparticularly significant because it is the firstled by John Jay faculty. The Morocco coursewas one of two such programs offered thissummer. The other was a course on“Caribbean Criminology” that was team-taught in Santo Domingo, DominicanRepublic, by Professors David Brotherton andLuis Barrios.]

Peter Dodenhoff is editor of @ John Jay.

there was no

shortage of

culture

shocks for

the John Jay

students.

It made me a

richer

person —

intellectually,

spiritually

and more.

This was an opportunity to become immersed in a culture that’s largely misunderstood in the Western world.

John Jay study-abroadparticipants get a feel forMoroccan-style couture.

Graduate student Shea Alvarez takes time for somemonkeying around.

Scenes from a communityservice project: Paul Ibarraand Ysaeric Taveras (top),along with Christian Aulbachand Kelsey Kowalski (above),help brighten up a Moroccanschool.

In a familiar street scene, Moroccans relax beneath a blazing midday sun.

1514

the structure

has served

as a subject

for

emerging

schools of

artists

since its

completion

125 years ago

this year.

Spider Man

is always

on the

Brooklyn

Bridge.“The span between Manhattan andBrooklyn is essentially a pre-modernstructure created with woodencranes and horse-drawn wagons.And yet it stands as an icon ofmodernism, having inspired some ofthe most significant painters andphotographers of the 20th Century,”points out Richard Haw in his bookArt of the Brooklyn Bridge: A VisualHistory.A member of John Jay’s English departmentfaculty, British-born Haw first visited New YorkCity in 1992. So taken with the city, and inparticular the Brooklyn Bridge, he completeda doctoral degree in American literature andculture at Leeds University in the U.K. Histhesis on the span became the basis for hisfirst book, The Brooklyn Bridge: A CulturalHistory. Haw moved here permanently in2001 and lives, not surprisingly, in Brooklyn.

“After I had done the first book,” he said, “Igot really interested in the art of the BrooklynBridge and I started looking for images of the

bridge. I came to the conclusion that thevisual record of the bridge extended overabsolutely everything. The most obvious thingis paintings, photographs, etchings,lithographs, all those types of things, but alsobook covers, LP covers, magazine covers,films and comic books,” said Haw. “SpiderMan is always on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

In Art of the Brooklyn Bridge, Hawinterweaves a narrative on the creation of thebridge with its social and artistic history. Heprovides biographical sketches of thelaborers and engineers, exhibitionists andthrill-seekers, and politicians and financierswho contributed to the legend and lore of thestructure. Some of these people include thebridge superintendent William Kingsley;“Boss” William M. Tweed, who bilkedhundreds of thousands of dollars from thebridge’s construction costs; John andWashington Roebling, the father and son whodesigned and engineered the span; andSteve Brodie, who if not the first daredevil tojump off the bridge, is certainly the mostcelebrated.

But Haw’s main focus is how the structurehas served as a subject for emerging schoolsof artists since its completion 125 years agothis year.

“Another way of looking at the visual historyof the Brooklyn Bridge is that it really is, inmany respects, the history of American art,”said Haw. “There are a lot of people from theHudson River Valley School, theImpressionists, the Ash Can School,modernists, photographers like [Edward]Steichen and Karl Struss. When you movepast that, you get into the social realism ofthe New Deal and the WPA art. The bridgewas on a lot of murals painted at that time,”he said.

Haw’s interest in writing the book stems fromhis belief that the Brooklyn Bridge appeals totwo important parts of one’s psyche — theheart and the head. The heart, he explains,because the bridge is a beautiful structure toboth be on, and to observe from a distance.The head, as a scholar Haw says, because itis fascinating to explore the variety ofcontexts within which the bridge belongs. It isa part of New York’s financial, political,engineering and artistic histories. The bridgeis “an incredibly unique part of urban planninghistory,” he said.

There are few architectural structures thatencompass as many domains as theBrooklyn Bridge, according to Haw. St. Paul’sCathedral in London is one, but “there aren’ta lot,” he said. While the Verrazano-NarrowsBridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and theGeorge Washington Bridge are of equalsignificance in the chronicles of engineering,none have inspired the bounty of art andliterature, as has the Brooklyn Bridge.

Haw said that he stopped counting images ofthe bridge when he hit 1,000. The book,which has 267 illustrations and photographs,took approximately two years to write.Archival images were gathered by Haw fromthe Brooklyn Historical Society, the New YorkHistorical Society, the Museum of ModernArt, and the Brooklyn Museum, among otherscholarly and fine art institutions around thecountry. Some of the images come from theRensselaer Polytechnic Institute that has adigital collection of images of both the bridgeand of Washington Roebling.

Another way of looking at the visual history of the Brooklyn Bridge isthat it really is, in many respects, the history of American art.

The Brooklyn Bridge 125 Years of Literary and Visual Magic By Jennifer Nislow

Great East River SuspensionBridge, 1874. (Detail)Published by Currier and Ives.Courtesy of theLibrary of Congress

Left to Right:

First Passenger Across theEast River Bridge,

Frank Leslie’s IllustratedNewspaper,

September 9, 1876.Courtesy of Yale University

Library

A Never Ending Job, Puck,September 21, 1881

Courtesy of the CornellUniversity Library

1716

The

bridge

is an

incredibly

unique part

of urban

planning

history.

Professor Richard Haw infront of his favorite subject.

The members of

the team

remain the

best of friends

30 years later.

“My conclusion is that the bridge has therichest visual history of any manmadeobject,” said Haw.

After World War II, Haw notes,the bridge became a subject forabstract painters such asRobert Indiana, Georgia O’Keefeand Ellsworth Kelly. Unlike theirpredecessors, they were notinterested in the masses thatcrossed it each day. “They depictedthe span as a pure shape or anaesthetic ideal. Lifted above themessy business of urban life, theirbridge became a perfect, self-contained art object, an Americanversion of Keats’s ‘well-wrought urn,’”writes Haw.

During this period, Arthur Fellig, better knownas Weegee, and Andreas Feininger,documentary photographers who, Hawwrites, “extended the documentary aestheticof New Deal art and helped set the stage forthe post-war boom in documentaryphotography,” photographed the bridge.

While many of the renowned photojournalistswho shot the bridge during the 1930s and1940s, such as Walker Evans and EstherBubley, focused on its structure — thetowers and cables — others explored thefoot traffic and community around the span.In 1946, Harper’s Bazaar brought togetherphotographer Henri Cartier-Bresson andwriter Alfred Kazin for an article about the

bridge, according to Haw. “Cartier-Bressonwas not the first photographer to click a fewrolls of film while strolling along the bridge,”Haw writes, “but he was the first to focus sointently on the people he found there. If thewalkway gave the bridge its breath, Cartier-Bresson’s photographs gave it life.”

From the post-war period to the present, thebridge has continued to inspire contemporaryartists who depict it in its gritty reality or withromantic whimsy. Over the past 20 years, anumber of well-known artists have capturedits image. Andy Warhol, who designed theposter for the bridge’s centennial in 1983,did a silkscreen of the bridge. Artist TrishMayo built a replica of it in 2005 from twigsfor the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. In artistPeter de Sève’s 1998 work, he uses thebridge as a hammock for the Statue ofLiberty.

As for whether Haw believes that his affectionfor the bridge is at least partly due to hisstatus as an Englishman and not a nativeNew Yorker, he takes a cue from essayistE.B. White. In “This is New York,” Haw notes,White writes that there are three kinds ofpeople in New York: Natives, who take it allfor granted; people who live in New Jerseyand Connecticut to whom the city is a placeof timetables and train stations; and peoplelike himself, who come here because they arefascinated by New York.

“It’s often those people who have comedesperately looking for New York who havewritten some of the best novels about NewYork, painted the best paintings of New York,”said Haw. “I think there is a real fascinationwith what you don’t know — I’ve always beenfascinated by New York.”

Jennifer Nislow is Assistant Publications Director atJohn Jay College.

In the realm of instant messaging, “BFF,” orBest Friends Forever, is one of the mostcommonly used shorthand terms. Arguably,it’s also one of the most overstated ormisapplied, since it is a genuine rarity forcollege-age chums, even very close ones, toremain friends for very long — and certainlynot “forever.”

That cannot be said of the members of JohnJay’s 1978 baseball team — the team thatwon the College’s very first conferencechampionship — who remain the best offriends 30 years later. The sleek athleticismof youth has yielded in some cases to theweathered looks and softer midsections that

come with middle age. Their once-dailyfraternizing on ballfields, in locker rooms andon long road trips has gradually diminishedas the demands of work and family haveincreased.

Still, these former “Boys of Summer”continue to stay in close touch witheach other and, as importantly, withthe school whose uniform they wore,bonded by sharply etched memoriesof that championship season.

RECALLING 1978THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON FOR JOHN JAY’S

Boys of Summer

By Peter Dodenhoff

We are the champions — then (during a spring training trip to Florida) and now (at John Brant’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2007).

1918

DeMartino

called upon

his wide-

ranging

reservoir of

contacts in

sandlot

baseball to

assemble what

was to become

the 1978

championship

team.

It all came

together.

We came out

every day

knowing we

were gonna

win.

We were

so brash.

The success of the 1978

team was a function of

talent, work ethic and

team chemistry —

with the latter element

providing

the glue that

ultimately

made the

championship

possible.

Back in the DayIn 1978, John Jay was only a year removedfrom “The Crisis,” the brief but frantic periodin which the City University very nearly shutthe College down. The College was savedfrom this near-death experience, but at a costof its liberal arts majors and deep cuts in itsbudget, its faculty ranks and its studentpopulation. New York City’s fiscal crisis of1975-1976 had decimated the PoliceDepartment, and as officers lost their jobs tolayoffs, many went looking for work in otherparts of the country. Their departure createda phalanx of empty seats in John Jay’sclassrooms. In other cases, students leftJohn Jay early to take advantage of whateverlaw enforcement openings might be found inthe area.

In the midst of this topsy-turvy state of affairswas a baseball program that was justentering its seventh season of varsity play, itsfifth under head coach Lou DeMartino. Up tothat point, the baseball team had largely beenconsistent in its mediocrity. “We had neverhad a winning season,” recalled AnthonyLamberti, a leftfielder and team co-captainwho was entering his fourth and final seasonin the spring of 1978. “Our best record in anyseason had been 11-11.”

1978 turned out to be the year it all cametogether, as John Jay fielded a team whosewhole was greater than the sum of itstalented parts. “Louie was hungry forsuccess — ravenous, even — and hungry forexcellence. And he recruited his brains out toput together a team of champions,” said Dr.Susan Larkin, the College’s former athleticdirector and chair of the Department ofPhysical Education and Athletics, who in1978 was one of DeMartino’s juniorcolleagues.

DeMartinocalled upon his wide-ranging reservoir of contacts insandlot baseball to assemble what was tobecome the 1978 championship team. Fromyouth leagues in Brooklyn came Lamberti,first baseman/pitcher Pete McMahon, thirdbaseman Rich Hubert, right fielder BernieSalaman and second baseman Mike Sheptuk.Staten Island programs produced pitchersBob Mulligan and Jim Ernst, centerfielder JoeMaffeo and designated hitters Bryan Duniganand Joe Sciandra, while Queens LittleLeagues provided catcher and three-yearteam captain John Brant, shortstop JimQuigley and pitcher Ron Genovese.

Talent, Work Ethic and Chemistry“Lou used to really work us hard,” saidLamberti, “and usually when we had a day offfrom practice, it wasn’t just that he wasthrowing us a bone. He might’ve told us wehad a day off because we had played well,but in fact he’d be off somewhere recruiting.”

The players responded to and reaped thebenefits from a coach who was more thanjust a savvy recruiter. “Lou was a greatorganizer and a fine coach,” said Mulligan,who, like Lamberti, Brant and DeMartino, is amember of the John Jay Athletics Hall ofFame. “He always made you feel like youwanted to put forth a special effort,considering how hard he worked.” Lambertiadded that few worked harder than Mulligan,who would go on to a six-season professionalbaseball career in the Minnesota Twins minorleague system. “When Bobby pitched, youhad a sense that you didn’t want to screw up,because you knew how hard he worked,” saidLamberti. “He always went the extra mile.”

The success of the 1978 team was afunction of talent, work ethic and teamchemistry — with the latter element providingthe glue that ultimately made thechampionship possible. Chemistry was theconstant behind on-the-field achievements,off-the-field hijinks, locker-room camaraderieand more.

In a sense, the players were a reflection oftheir times, certainly in terms of deportment.“We were hard-partying animals and Loureally had to control us,” Brant admitted.“Once Lou got so ticked at us, he kicked anequipment bag and he almost broke his footbecause we had stashed a keg in there.”

The bond among players was key, Brantobserved. “We came from all kinds ofdifferent backgrounds, but we just jelled. Wemight not have been all that talentedindividually, except for Mulligan, of course,but we played so well as a team.” (In fact,John Jay ended the season third in the nationin team scoring.) Whenever one player had asub-par game, another would step up toprovide a crucial hit or game-saving play.Parts of this well-oiled machine seemedvirtually interchangeable. As good a pitcheras Mulligan was (and he was one of the bestin the nation), on days when he wasn’tpitching, DeMartino had him play first baseso as not to lose his potent .372 battingaverage in the lineup. Lamberti was amongthe top 20 in the nation in batting that year,hitting for a .439 average. Hubert was 10thin the nation in stolen bases, with 18 in 19attempts, and Sheptuk was fifth nationally inruns batted in per game. When the score

began to pile up, DeMartino would often takeout his dominant starting lineup and insertequally fearsome reserve players.

You Gotta BelieveEn route to an unblemished 8-0 recordagainst CUNY competition that year, the JohnJay team came up with numerous ways towin: overpowering blowout victories;dramatic late-inning come-from-behindvictories; even the occasional nailbiter of apitcher’s duel. In the opening game of theseason against Brooklyn College, theBloodhounds were losing 6-2 in the bottom ofthe eighth when the offense finally sprang tolife, capped by a Sheptuk grand slam that leftClinton Field and landed in the middle of 11thAvenue. They also came up with interestingways to lose in compiling an 18-7 overallrecord. Against Concordia College, a wildpitch allowed a ninth-inning strikeout victim toreach first base, and eventually score whenthe next batter hit a game-winning home run.

At mid-season, after losingback-to-back doubleheaders,the team had a 6-6 record“and there was this sensethat this was going to beanother struggle year,” saidLamberti. “Instead, we got ona streak and won the next10 games.”

Coach Lou DeMartino (inwhite polo shirt, bottom)

and his “Boys of Summer.”

At far right andopposite page bottom,

Lex Review,the John Jay

student newspaper,devoted thorough coverage

to the baseball team’schampionship-winning

exploits.

2120

There was a lot of

good will and

encouragement, but

it wasn’t any kind of

groundswell.

We’d see professors

and other people

come over to

Clinton Field

to watch a game

before they had to

go teach a class, but

there were

no pep rallies,

none of

that stuff.

The

admiration

is clearly

mutual.

They are without

a doubt

the most sincere

group of people

I’ve ever seen.

Going back to

get my degree

at age 32

was probably

my biggest

achievement.

Baseball has been

my life, yet

through it all,

the big

picture is the

relationships

I’ve gotten

out of it.

“We held a team meeting and decided wehad to win this thing for Lou,” Brantremembered. “Lou was really down, becausehe wanted to win so badly. And once westarted winning, we felt invincible. It all cametogether. We came out every day knowing wewere gonna win. We were so brash.”

“We felt — and I still believe — we were asgood as many of the Division I schools in thearea,” Mulligan opined.

The championship was clinched with little ofthe fanfare that today accompanies suchachievements. It was the first year of theCUNY baseball conference, when no playoffor tournament system and no championshipgame at Shea Stadium existed. As forcollege-wide fan support, Lamberti said,“There was a lot of good will andencouragement, but it wasn’t any kind ofgroundswell. We’d see professors and otherpeople come over to Clinton Field to watch agame before they had to go teach a class,but there were no pep rallies, none of thatstuff.”

Coming Apart and Staying TogetherOnce the magical season was over, theinevitable dispersal of the team began. First,the seniors moved on. Brant graduatedsumma cum laude and went on to a long anddistinguished law enforcement career.Lamberti graduated magna cum laude enroute to law school and what has become asuccessful estate-law practice in Brooklyn,Mulligan played one more year before leavingJohn Jay early to pursue his professionalbaseball dream. Others went on to variouspolice, fire or security careers, or non-criminal justice jobs in the private sector.While the strong bonds among thechampions would be stretched, they wouldprove unbreakable.

The groundwork for the lifelong friendshipswas put in place during their playing days,when an annual end-of-season barbecue washeld at Brant’s parents’ house in Queens.Players and their parents attended, and thetradition continued even after Brant had

graduated. “These kinds of things kept usgoing,” said Lamberti. “Some of us would gettogether on our own as things would happen.A lot of guys were with the PD. Shep [MikeSheptuk] was crime scene, McMahon washomicide, and they used to run into eachother almost every day.”

“We call each other every couple months,”Brant added, and we still call each other byour team nicknames from back then. Iwouldn’t think of calling Mulligan “Bob”; tome, he’s still “Muggsy.”

The 1978 champions remain closelyconnected to their alma mater, turning out insurprising numbers for John Jay alumnifunctions, fundraisers, Hall of Fame inductionceremonies and other events. “I tell everyonethat I played ball at John Jay and I’m still intouch with my teammates,” said Genovese.“That’s so special. When they have the annualLou DeMartino dinner, we always have a tableof 12-14 guys show up.”

The players credit current head coach DanPalumbo with helping them stay connected.“There are a lot of similarities between theway Dan is running things and the way Louran things,” Lamberti observed. “He’s madean effort to keep us involved and in contact,which is nice. I think there’s the same level ofcommitment on Dan’s part, and he’s instilledthat in his kids — and the results speak forthemselves.”

The admiration is clearly mutual. “They arewithout a doubt the most sincere group ofpeople I’ve ever seen,” Palumbo said of thebaseball alumni. “With them, everythingcomes from the heart. They have bonded sowell, both on and off the field.” Palumbo’splayers have taken notice as well. “The fact

that they’re still together is really amazing,”said all-star pitcher John Massoni, a senior.Added shortstop Xavier Perez, a junior andanother conference all-star: “We spend a lotof time together — it’s a big part of ourprogram. We know that it leads to success,so that must have been part of the secret ofwhat made that team special, too.”

A sizable contingent of his oldteammates, who took time beforethe ceremony to mingle with thecurrent John Jay varsity team,attended Brant’s 2007 induction intothe John Jay Hall of Fame. Mulligantipped his cap to the youngerplayers: “These kids are sorespectful, so well mannered. Theytreat us like royalty. We try toimpress on them how we stay intouch, and how they should too.”Mulligan, who went from professionalbaseball to the NYPD to his current calling asa social studies teacher and head baseballcoach at Monsignor Farrell High School onStaten Island, becomes almost wistful whenspeaking of his alma mater. In 1994, hefinally received the bachelor’s degree he hadstopped pursuing 15 years earlier. “John Jayalways holds a special place in my heart,” hesaid. “Going back to get my degree at age32 was probably my biggest achievement.Baseball has been my life, yet through it all,the big picture is the relationships I’ve gottenout of it.”

Peter Dodenhoff is editor of @ John Jay.

The championship was clinched with little of thefanfare that today accompanies such achievements.It was the first year of the CUNY baseball conference,when no playoff or tournament system andno championship game at Shea Stadium existed.

The team’s sparkplug, third baseman Rich Hubert (center, with beard and sunglasses) and his teammates in thedugout during spring training.

Hall of Famer Bob Mulligan talks pitching with John Massoni (right) and other members of the 2007 John Jaybaseball team.

2322

PLANNED GIVINGEveryone can play a part in the future of the College, especially in ensuring the success of future programsand activities.

A bequest to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Foundation, Inc. will contribute significantly and forever,either toward the John Jay Endowment Fund or in support of a particular program, lectureship or scholarship fund.

When formulating your bequest, the following wording is suggested:

I give and bequeath to John Jay College of Criminal Justice foundation,inc., New York, NY, $________ to be added to the principal of the John Jay Endowment Fund, the income to be credited each year in my name.

It is as simple as that, and just imagine what your gift will provide for future generations of students who followin your footsteps.

our students

can write

their own

second acts,

often turning

unpromising

beginnings

into dramas

of discovery,

enlightenment

and success.

So began my second act, which,

in its own quiet way,

was filled with narrow escapes

worthy of Indiana Jones.

To teach by keeping curiosityawake.

To teach, endeavoring tomake pupils feel theirimportance, by the prophetichope placed in theirconduct.”I keep a poster of Alcott’s maxims on the wallof my office. They remind me that teaching isand ought to be a sacred task: one that notonly enriches minds but also restores andcultivates spirits. In a world that too oftenrewards the pursuit of self-interest, teachinggives us a glorious opportunity to begenerous. In a society in which we struggletoo often to be one another’s masters, itgives us a dignified and honorableopportunity to serve.

But my most important reason for thinkingabout second acts is that I work at a collegethat is largely dedicated to providing themeans by which our students can write theirown second acts, often turning unpromisingbeginnings into dramas of discovery,enlightenment and success. John Jay is aplace where everyone — students, facultyand administrators — all have to work veryhard, but it is also a place where thoseburdens are generally lightened by a sharedspirit of endeavor and a confidence in thevalue of our common goals.

I am forever impressed by thesecond acts that are being writtenand performed every day by thestudents at John Jay.

When one has taught at a college for morethan 10 years, one has heard a tremendousarray of stories. The ones told by John Jaystudents are affecting and inspiring. EverySeptember, John Jay welcomes studentswho are pulling themselves up from poverty,students who are single parents seeking toprovide a better life for their children,students who have fled oppression and war infar-flung corners of the world. One of mymost happily memorable days as a professorat John Jay came when a student who hadbattled successfully to overcome heroinaddiction proudly handed me the manuscriptof her first book. I take pleasure and pride inthe remarkable synthesis by which John Jayreceives resources far less than thoseenjoyed by some other colleges andconverts them into groundbreaking research,into the renewed and strengthened lives of itsstudents and, yes, the occasional PulitzerPrize.

Having lived a first act as a lawyer and asecond act as an obscure but hard-workinggraduate student and professor, I am nowbeginning a third act as a prize-winningauthor.

John Matteson, PhD is a full professor in John Jay’sEnglish Department. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize forbiography for his acclaimed book Eden’s Outcasts:The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father.

continued from page 3

Reflections on a Prize

2524

John Jay’s

program was

very solid.

It gave me

the preparation

I needed

to get started

in the field.

I was looking

at different

colleges and

what they did

and John Jay

stood out.

It had the

number one

forensic science

program in the

country.

It combined

everything

I liked.

Alumni Worth NotingAlumni Worth Noting

Marcel RobertsAlthough he was born in New York City,Marcel Roberts (BS ’02) grew up in Divonne-les-Bains, a French town near Geneva,Switzerland. He liked school and had aparticular interest in science and the law.When it came time to choose a university, hewent to an American library to look forcolleges in New York City. “I was looking atdifferent colleges and what they did and JohnJay stood out. It had the number oneforensic science program in the country. Itcombined everything I liked.” Little did heknow at the time that this decision wouldeventually lead to a PhD in chemistry andnow to a postdoctoral fellowship at McGillUniversity in Montreal, Canada where hisresearch involves inventing a micro fluidicchip to detect proteins.

At John Jay, he majored in forensic science,graduating in 2002. “I knew I wouldeventually try for a master’s. But at the time,the idea of getting a PhD hadn’t crossed mymind. It was so beyond my expectations.”What put the doctorate in his sights was thescientific research he was able to do throughCSTEP (Collegiate Science and TechnologyEntry Program) and the academicprofessional polish he received from theRonald McNair Post-BaccalaureateAchievement Program. Professors AnthonyCarpi, Ronald Pilette and [retired] Dr. MorrisZedeck helped steer his course. As anundergraduate, he studied the uptake ofheavy metals by a plant, specifically barley,to find a greener way of cleaning areas thathad been polluted with heavy metal. “JohnJay is a very encouraging environment. Youcould do any science coming out of theforensic science program at John Jay. I couldhave done physics or biology, just as easilyas I did chemistry. They give you thefundamentals in every discipline.” Even afterhe graduated and went on to Boston Collegefor a PhD, it was Professor Thomas Kubic ofJohn Jay’s Department of Sciences whowould give him a “pep” talk.

His doctoral work at Boston College was inelectrochemical and spectroscopic studies

of biomolecular complexes. “My first projectwas on how electrons flow through DNA.There are many repair proteins in the bodyso one way of seeing if DNA is damaged isto see how electrons flow. And if we canunderstand how that works, maybe we canreproduce it in a protein and see if we canmore easily detect DNA damage.” Anotherproject involved developing a nano-electrodewith the idea of inventing a chip or smalldevice that could detect something in asample. “It could be a cheap and fast way ofdetecting something in the body and myoriginal idea was that this would be great forforensics as well as for clinicians. John Jay’sforensic science program allowed me tothink in an applied and practical way. When Igot to McGill for the post-doctoral fellowship,I wanted to expand my discipline. A lot ofcool stuff is being done in biomedicalengineering because it involves makingthings that are actually usable.”

Last May, when Roberts attended theUndergraduate Poster Session sponsored bythe Department of Sciences, he said, “I wasamazed at what they were able to do withthe science program.” When he had attendedJohn Jay, only four students were able to doposters. “The students and their work at theposter sessions were as good as I’ve seen inPhD candidates at Boston College. Theposters were extremely professional. Andthere were so many. What a transformation!”

Meredith RobsonWhen Mayor Steve Gold of Beacon, NYappointed Meredith Robson (MPA ‘88) as cityadministrator last March, he noted “Meredithjoins Beacon with a great deal of experiencein all areas needed.” It’s not surprising. In her20-year career in state and local government,she has done almost everything when itcomes to running the day-to-day operationsof a city.

Prior to her appointment in Beacon, shemanaged Watertown, CT as well as Vernon,NJ, where she was given the OutstandingService Award in 2000 by the Chamber ofCommerce. Also in New Jersey, she servedas the director for local government budgetreview for the Office of the State Treasurer,as assistant township administrator inMontgomery, special assistant to theadministrator in West Windsor, and as acommunity development specialist in EastBrunswick.

She has dealt with budgets of all types, labornegotiations, recycling, grant applications,zoning, developing wastewater systems,traffic management, interactions with othergovernment officials and community leaders,and much more. And it all started withattending John Jay’s Master of PublicAdministration Program at West Point wheremembers of the military, their families, andcivilians are eligible to attend courses.

“I was working at West Point at the time. Withmy undergraduate degree in commercialrecreation from Southern Illinois University, Iwas working as a sports specialist for youthprograms on the post. I happened to see aflyer about John Jay’s MPA program at WestPoint. I wasn’t well versed in what publicadministration really was, but it sounded likesomething in which I would be interested. Istarted taking a couple of courses and reallyenjoyed it. Even now, I still use theinformation from the classes in humanresources and budget. The program gave mea broad enough picture of what’s involved inpublic administration and frankly, these days,it would be hard to get the position I havewithout an MPA.”

“I think John Jay’s program was very solid. It

gave me the preparation I needed to getstarted in the field. I took everything at WestPoint with the exception of the review coursefor the comprehensive exam. For someoneworking, as I was at the time, they offeredenough courses quickly enough that I wasable to go through the program in twoyears.”

The beneficiaries of her education andexperience are now the residents of Beacon.“It’s really a community that is movingforward and that was one of the things I waslooking for,” she says. Beacon incorporatesfive square miles with a population of14,000, about 135 employees and a budgetof $13 million. On the Hudson River nearPoughkeepsie, the city has a lot ofwaterfront, parks and trails, a growing artistcommunity, and is home to Dia, one of theworld’s largest contemporary art museums.“Beacon has so many incredible and positivethings that are going on like river frontdevelopment, Main Street redevelopment,lots of operational change and many positivepeople working on things. So it’s a really neatplace to be and a good time to be here.”

She says one of the most challengingaspects of her work “is just having enoughtime to get it all done. There are a lot of ballsin the air.” But the rewards make itworthwhile. “The ability to eventually see theresult of your work, whether it is a new parkor roads that were redone, is the mostrewarding aspect of my work.”

2726

Errol A. Adams, BA ’97, obtained a JD after graduating from John Jay andworked for the New York City Department of Homeless Services and theNew York City Department of Correction. He is currently working as asenior law librarian in the New York State Unified Court System.

Kay-Daphne Airola, MA ’93, a divorce and custody attorney for more than10 years, is the owner of Mother Lode Mediation in San Andreas, CA. Herfirm handles real estate mediations as well.

Arthur Arsenault, BA ’08, says that graduating in 2008 was the biggestachievement in his life. He returned to school after many years in retail.

Manford G. Ayers, MPA ’02, is a captain with the Montclair, NJ PoliceDepartment. He also works as an adjunct at John Jay in the Department ofLaw, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration.

Joe Billy Jr., BA ’82, recently retired from the FBI as assistant director forcounterterrorism, after 30 years of service. He is now vice president ofglobal security for Prudential Financial.

Pete Borges, BA ’77, joined the U.S. Army after graduation and retiredhonorably after 23 years. He received an MPA in 2001 from Troy Universityand started a second career with the U.S. Department of Justice in thegrants division of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services(COPS).

Warren T. Channell, BS ’82, spent 30 years as a corporate securitymanager. He graduated from Florida A&M University College of Law and hasentered into private law practice in Winter Garden, FL.

Leanne T. (Curcio) Cook, BA ’99, is currently serving as a programdevelopment specialist for the New Jersey Department of Corrections andis working towards a master’s in social work at Rutgers University.

Richard J. Cruz, BS ’96, has been working in the forensic social work fieldfor more than nine years. Currently, he is a forensic case manager for theEducation & Assistance Corporation in the Brooklyn Adolescent ForensicLink, which provides pre- and post-release discharge planning and casemanagement for youth on Rikers Island or in juvenile justice detention. Healso graduated from the French Culinary Institute in 2005.

Edwin Cuebas, BS ’77, was recently named president of the National LawEnforcement Associates. He is a 24-year veteran of the U.S. PostalInspection Service, retiring as a supervisory postal inspector. He is currentlythe vice president of global securities and investigations for JP MorganChase. He received a master’s from Utica College in economic crimemanagement and holds certifications as a fraud examiner, financial crimesinvestigator and professional investigator.

Larry Cunningham, BS ’97, left the Bronx District Attorney’s Office in Julyfor the position of assistant professor of legal writing at St. John’sUniversity School of Law.

Nakeisha M. Daniel-Martins, BA ’05, is currently employed with Servicesfor the UnderServed, a non-profit organization that provides supportiveservices to New Yorkers with special needs. She is a qualified mental healthspecialist who works with people with an Axis I diagnosis and a history ofhomelessness.

Justo Diaz, BS ’80, began his law enforcement career as policeadministrative aide with the New York City Police Department in 1968. In1976, he became a U.S. Deputy Marshal. After receiving his degree, hebecame a special agent and retired in 1999 with the rank of supervisoryspecial agent with the U.S. Customs Service. His career includedassignments in New York City, San Juan, and Washington, DC. He wasasked to return to federal service in 2002 with the Transportation SecurityAdministration as a special agent in internal affairs. Currently, he is asupervisory investigator with the government of the District of Columbia.Following in his footsteps, his son is a special agent with the U.S.Department of State.

Debra Forman-Targhi, BA ’04, recently obtained a master’s degree.

Stephanie I. Fowler, BA ’97, is employed as a house officer in security atCrowne Plaza Times Square.

Joseph “Rick” Fuentes, MA ’91, the superintendent of the New JerseyState Police, was among a select group of law enforcement professionalschosen for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Sessionon Policing and Public Safety, a three-year working group. He holds a PhD incriminal justice from CUNY.

Dina M. Gaballa, BA ’03, is vice president and bank secrecy act/anti-money laundering administrator at New York Community Bancorp, Inc.Since graduating magna cum laude from John Jay, she has been working inthe field of anti-money laundering and financial crimes investigations forapproximately five years. Recently, she passed the ACAMS examination(Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists) and hasofficially earned the "CAMS" title.

Leslie Gee, BS ’82, recently retired as a senior special agent with the U.S.Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the New York field division. Hislast assignment was working with the Joint Firearms Task Force. He is nowworking as a background field investigator.

Shirvahna Gobin, BA ’02, is the development director for the Ecologies ofLearning Project (EOL) at the New York Theological Seminary where shemanages operational and fund raising activities. Prior to joining the EOLproject, she was the service coordinator for Safe Horizon’s September 11thFund. She is finishing a master’s at Baruch College.

Dr. Alfredo E. Granados, MA ’97, was recently promoted to associatedirector of operations for the Central New York Psychiatric Center, whichprovides mental health services for the New York State Department ofCorrectional Services.

Alumni Worth Noting

When I came

to the College,

I immediately got

involved with

student

government.

It allowed me to

interact with the

entire John Jay

community.

I was president of

the Student

Council in ‘83-‘84.

It was a

tremendous

experience.

It remains

one of the best

experiences of

my life.

Clarence Smith, Jr. An expert in immigration law, Clarence Smith,Jr, (BA ’84) was hired in December 2005 asa partner in Connell Foley, a prestigious 72-year-old New Jersey firm. He brought to thefirm an immigration practice that includesemployers, businesses and companies inemployment-based immigration matters.“The firm was interested in the fact that I wasfamiliar with the government’s rules,regulations and laws pertaining toimmigration as well as the workings of theDepartment of Labor and other agencies thatare involved.” His immigration expertise wasdeveloped when he served as assistant chiefcounsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel forthe Department of Homeland Security (DHS)where he represented the department inexclusion, deportation, removal andrescission proceedings.

His experience at Connell Foley and theseven years he spent with DHS haveprovided him with a deep understanding ofthis highly complex issue. “The governmenthas to look at illegal immigrants with an eyeon national security. We also have to beconcerned about the cases that call forequitable relief. For example, there arechildren who were brought here illegally askids, say 4 or 5 years old. They are nowadults and have been here all their lives, andfor all practical purposes, they areAmericans. They have no status. On the onehand we want to secure our borders, but atthe same time there are a lot of people whohave these unique situations we shouldsomehow address.”

“One of the reasons I wanted to take thisposition at Connell Foley was because I spentmy entire legal career in governmentadvocating its perspective and Connell Foleygave me the opportunity to advocate fromthe private litigant perspective. I have beenfortunate to have had the best of bothworlds.”

After graduating from Fordham UniversitySchool of Law in 1988, he began a career inpublic service that included serving as anassistant district attorney in New YorkCounty. His experience in public service, hesays, “enabled me to take on a lot ofresponsibility early in my legal career and asa result, it helps in the private sector. Havinga real working knowledge of the courtsystem and justice system, helps me nowwith private litigants.”

Smith grew up in the South Bronx, one of tensiblings. “I was thinking about publicinterest/public service law and I thought JohnJay would have more programs geared tothat.” He entered John Jay through the SEEKprogram (Search for Education, Elevationand Knowledge) and majored in governmentand public administration. “I was 19 yearsold when I came to John Jay. The Collegehas been wonderful for me. Professors RubieMalone and James Malone were instrumentalin my success. They are my mentors to thisday. When I came to the College, Iimmediately got involved with studentgovernment. It allowed me to interact withthe entire John Jay community. I waspresident of the Student Council in ‘83-‘84. Itwas a tremendous experience. It remainsone of the best experiences of my life.”

Alumni Class Notes

28 29

Michael L. Grassi, BA ’07, a police officer in New Jersey, is pursuing amaster’s degree at Seton Hall University.

Martin A. Greenberg, MA ’70, was awarded a PhD in criminal justice fromCUNY in 2001. He is currently an assistant professor of criminal justice atthe College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY and would love to hear from hisformer classmates. In 2005, the University of Pittsburgh Press publishedhis third book, Citizens Defending America: From 1620 to the Age ofTerrorism. He is now completing a biography of Eliot H. Lumbard, a formeradjunct professor at John Jay, who was instrumental in the development ofa number of trend-setting criminal justice initiatives including: New YorkState Identification and Intelligence System, upgrading police training, theestablishment of the New York City Police Foundation, and bringing togetherthe leading experts on organized crime who would eventually craft the firstRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO).

Gregory G. Haines, MA ’05, serves as an investigator conductinghealthcare fraud investigations for WellPoint, Inc., a health benefitscompany. He obtained a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) designation fromthe Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in 2008.

John R. Hayes, BS ’96, retired from the Yonkers Police Department withthe rank of detective and shifted to the private sector in 2004, assistinghis wife with her security company, Tactical Operational Support Services,LLC in Tequesta, FL. The company won a $4.2 million contract with theCanadian Government providing the Canadian Military, who are part of theinternational coalition forces in the Middle East, with mobile scanning unitsto detect contraband at critical boarder crossing locations.

Carl V. Hendrick, MPA ’88, was appointed case manager last April for theOrange County, NY Office for the Aging.

John A. Hlavaty, BA/MA ’96, graduated from Rutgers School of Law andrepresented clients at the Legal Aid Society and the Office of the PublicDefender. Capitalizing on those invaluable experiences, he opened aprivate practice on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 2005. “I credit mysuccess to John Jay College and its remarkable faculty,” he says.

Thomas P. Huller, MPA ’77, was in the first class to graduate from JohnJay in 1967 with an associate’s degree. He served in the New York CityPolice Department for 37 years and retired as a lieutenant detective.

Michael G. James, BS ’88, served as an assistant district attorney inBronx County from 1992 to 1997. He now is an assistant United Statesattorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Stephen M. Jefferson, BA ’83, retired from the New York City PoliceDepartment in 1989 and subsequently worked as a insurance investigator.He moved to Orlando, FL in 1995 where he founded a private investigationagency, Coastline Investigative Services, which provides a variety ofinvestigative services.

Gary P. Jenkins, BA ’99, was promoted to executive director of the ClientServices Division of the New York City Human Resources Administration/Medical Insurance and Community Services Administration with close to500 staff members under his jurisdiction.

Erin Marie Johnston, MA ’06, is currently working as a behaviorspecialist in forensic services at Georgia Regional Psychiatric Hospital inSavannah, GA.

Antigona Kukaj, BA ’05, spent the summer as a peace fellow for TheAdvocacy Project working with the Landmine Survivors Network in Tuzia,Bosnia where she helped to advance the rights of disabled war survivorswho need long-term care, rehabilitation, and social and economic support.She received a master’s in human rights studies from Columbia University.

George F. Kurtyka, MA ’90, was elected to the City of Derby, ConnecticutTax and Sewer Board.

Raymond Lebowitz, BA ’79, retired from New York City Fire Departmentand is residing in South Florida. He is a member of the local CommunityEmergency Response Team that is activated during hurricanes and othernatural disasters. He is chaplain and adjutant of the local American Legionpost, secretary of the Broward County FDNY Retirees Association, andassistant deputy director of the Florida chapter of the 9-11 Foundation. Heis currently training for the 2009 Senior Olympics and will compete in thepentathalon and several other track and field events such as the 100 and200 meters, long jump and triple jump. He holds the Florida State TripleJump record in his age class.

Charles M. Lorello, BS ’95, began his federal law enforcement careerwith the United States Customs Service in 1986 as a K-9 officer.Currently, he is a course developer/firearms instructor for the Customs andBorder Protection Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centerin Georgia.

Matthew K. Mahoney, BS ’92, participated in internships with the U.S.Customs Service, the New York City Police Department and the Departmentof Investigation while a student at John Jay. In 1995, he became a NewYork City police officer assigned to Brooklyn.

Hazel Maldonado, BA ’07, was recently appointed as human resourcescoordinator at KPMG, one of the top four accounting firms. On a personalnote, she has traveled througout Japan and China.

Robert Martinez, BA ’87, received a master’s degree in social work in1994 and is currently working on his doctoral dissertation in social welfareat Adelphi University. In 2003 and 2004, he was an adjunct at FordhamUniversity Graduate School of Social Services teaching generalist socialwork practice and clinical practice. He currently is the borough director atthe New York City Administration for Children’s Services.

George H. Mendez, Jr. , BA ’08, attended John Jay College part-time whileworking for the New York City Police Department full-time. He was recentlyhired by the Clarkstown Police Department in Rockland County, NY.

Paul J. Montana, BS ’99, has been a New York City police officer for thepast nine years. On April 3, 2008, he received the Police Officer of the YearAward from the 68th Precinct in Brooklyn, NY.

Marc J. Monte, BA ’98, recently opened The Law Office of Marc J. Montein Rockaway, New York.

Amar R. Moody, BA ’02, has been working for New York CityAdministration for Children’s Services since April 2006.

Richard Nedlin, BA ‘99, was hired as Pitkin County’s deputy districtattorney in Colorado.

Maritza Olivares, BS ’01, has been working as a social security insurancespecialist at the Social Security Administration. She says, “my education atJohn Jay College has been a tremendous help in my success. It hasbroadened my opportunities for the future. I recently attended the 2008reunion at John Jay and marveled at how I was treated. Electing to go toJohn Jay College has been one the greatest things I ever did.”

Stephanie M. Pinder, MA ’04, currently holds the position of manager ofEmergency Psychiatric Screening Services for Cape May County/CapeCounseling Services in New Jersey.

Peter Pizzola, BS, MS ’84, was recently promoted to assistantcommissioner of the New York City Police Department’s crime laboratory.He also holds a PhD in criminal justice with a concentration in forensicscience from CUNY.

Mahendra M. Ramgopal, MA ’05, recently opened a law office at 54Franklin Street in Manhattan that concentrates on criminal law and generalpractice. He is a member of the New York County Lawyers’ Association.

Sandy P. Rao, BA ’03, MS ’08, recently completed a master’s in protectionmanagement at John Jay. He is working for the U.S. Marshals Service as adeputy marshal in the New York City area.

Michael A. Reddington, AS ’04, completed 20 years of service with theNew York City Police Department in July. He is a detective-investigatorcurrently assigned to the Organized Crime Control Bureau’s NarcoticsDivision.

Kristoffer E. Rivera, BS ’00, is an assistant vice president at WachoviaBank in Great Neck, NY.

José M. Rodriguez, BA ’05, a graduate student in counseling psychologyat Fairleigh Dickenson University, is working with the New Jersey Division ofYouth and Family Services.

Scarlet Sarker, BA ’05, is a computer trainer for the St. Louis CountyLibrary in Missouri.

Lezlie A. Scott, BS ’95, is a library associate.

Ryan N. Shapiro, BA ’04, has held a number of positions in securitymanagement since graduation. At present, he is the security and safetydirector for the Union League of Philadelphia, a private club. The securitydepartment ensures safety and security for the club’s high profile membersand is responsible for the club’s valuable artifacts.

Ronald Spadafora, BS ’86, the deputy assistant chief for the New YorkCity Fire Department, celebrated the publication of his new book,McGraw-Hill’s Firefighter Exams.

Regina M. Stevens, BS ’01, has been a corporal with the Delaware StatePolice since July 2001.

La'retta A. (Bunkley) Stroman, BA ’05, is a grants managementassistant with the Syracuse Housing Authority.

Melody Y. Summers-Diouf, BS ’99, is working with the New York StateDepartment of Education as a paraprofessional one-on-one teacher at theSecondary School for Law. She is particulary proud of her student of threeyears who is graduating with a Chancellor’s Award for RemarkableAchievement.

Cindy E. (Vasquez) Torres, BS ’04, after receiving her degree in publicadministration, began working for NADAP, the National Association on DrugAbuse Problems in New York City. Now an office manager, she supervises10 clerical staff and acts as operations liaison for internal and externalresources. “I owe my success to all I learned at John Jay,” she says.

Daisy Torres, BA ’98, is a vice president of ING Private WealthManagement. She heads the middle and back-office operations, which arepart of the ING umbrella. Her division works in investment finance for LatinAmerica.

Dr. Richard H. Ward, BS ’68, has been selected as the dean of the HenryC. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the Universityof New Haven. (The college is named after alumnus Henry C. Lee, BS ’72,the internationally renowned forensic scientist.) Prior to his appointment,Ward was associate vice president for research and special programs atSam Houston State University where he had also served as dean of criminaljustice. Previously, he was vice chancellor for administration at theUniversity of Illinois, Chicago after serving as vice president and dean ofgraduate studies at John Jay.

Jason H. Weishar, BS ’02, has been a police officer with the U.S. CapitolPolice since January 2003.

David Melvin Whigham, BS ’99, relocated to the Washington, DC areaand is currently working for the International Community CorrectionsAssociation.

Alumni Class Notes Alumni Class Notes

John Jay CollegeT H E C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K

of Criminal Justice899 TENTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10019 www.jjay.cuny.edu

Anonymous, Photographers on the Brooklyn Bridge, n.d.Courtesy of the Institute Archives and Special Collections, Folsom Library, Rensselaer Polytechnic University