Online Bachelor of Arts Degree Completion Program

Faculty

Nurul Aman, Ph.D. candidate, Strategic Management in Information Technology, Capella University, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Nurul Aman is a Financial Economist. His professional interests include Voice and Data Network Infrastructure and Management for Information Technology. He has eighteen years of teaching experience in Economics, Economic Development and Income Distribution, Money and Finance. Professor Aman is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Strategic Management of Information Technology, at Capella University in Minneapolis, MN. He earned his MA in Economics and MBA in Finance from Northeastern University, in Boston.
Currently, he is teaching in the Economics department at the University of Massachusetts Boston and at Harvard University. He has extensive experience in teaching on-line courses at UMB and UML. Professor Aman’s professional experiences include holding positions as Business Control Manager in high technology companies, financial and economic analysis, budgeting and forecasting, auditing revenue and expenses.
Luis Aponte-Pares, Ph.D., Urban Planning, Columbia University, Associate Professor, Community Planning
Professor Aponte-Pares has been teaching undergraduate courses in community planning and community service management at CPCS since 1994. His work includes development of collaborative projects with neighborhood groups in the Boston Metropolitan area for the Center for Community Planning. Professor Aponte-Parés is also the Director of Latino Studies, a multi-disciplinary and inter-collegiate Program of Studies. Research agenda focuses on (a) documenting attempts made by Latino community development organizations in Boston and New York City in envisioning and/or imagining their community in space in the increasingly complex and discontinuous post-industrial urban environments, and (b) research on issues of identity of Latino gays.
Joan Arches, Ph.D., Sociology and Social Work, Boston University, Associate Professor, Community Planning and Human Services
Dr. Joan Arches is Coordinator of the Youth Work Concentration and an Associate Professor in Community Planning and Human Services at the College of Public and Community Services where she has engaged in numerous community university partnerships and collaborative projects since 1994. Currently Dr. Arches is Co- Pi on two federal grants. The Boston EITC Project funded by the Dept. of Commerce, expands outreach and accessibility for recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit through work with Community Technology Centers. The New Directions for Columbia Point is a HUD grant aimed at addressing urban issues through a community university partnership center. She is also directing a project with students working on their general education capstone, which is a collaboration with youth at Harbor Point Housing development and HOPE (the Hispanic Organization for Planning and Evaluation). Building on efforts to institutionalize collaborative service learning projects in a systematic and coordinated effort across the university, Dr. Arches is leading the team, which is involved in establishing the Community Resource Center at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Caroline Coscia, Ph.D. candidate, Public Policy, McCormack School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Adjunct Faculty
Professor Coscia teaches in both the College of Public and Community Service’s BA Online Degree Completion Program and in the Political Science Department. She has been teaching Community Portraits since 2001 and online since Fall 2006.  In addition to Community Portraits she teaches Debating Policy Issues for the Degree Completion Program.   Her Political Science courses include Introduction to Politics, American Government, Metropolitan Politics and Boston: Conflict and Cooperation.
In Spring 2008, Professor Coscia will be teach Boston: Conflict and Cooperation in an Urban Environment as an on line course.
Professor Coscia is completing her dissertation "The Role of Civic Associations in the Expansion of Urban Universities into Urban Neighborhoods" in the McCormack School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She also holds an MPA from Suffolk University and a BA from Regis College.
Her research interests include state and local government, urban politics, community development, public policy and leadership development.
Prior to joining UMass, Professor Coscia's public service work included serving on the Town of Wakefield Planning Board and the Fair Housing Partnership Committee. She has also worked as a legislative aide to Massachusetts State Representative Theodore Speliotis and served as a community planner for non profit organizations. Her private sector employment includes fifteen years as a training and development professional in the financial services industry.
Reebee Garofalo, Ed.D., Clinical Psychology and Public Practice, Harvard University, Professor, Community Media and Technology
Reebee Garofalo has been a professor at the College of Public and Community Service at U Mass Boston since 1978; he is also affiliated with the American Studies Program. Professor Garofalo is an internationally known scholar of popular music studies, who has written numerous articles on music and politics, racism, censorship, and the globalization of the music industry and has lectured widely on a broad range of subjects relating to the operations of the music industry. At CPCS he has been spearheading the Community Media and Technology Major - a cutting-edge media and technology program designed to encourage a combination of technical proficiency and social vision.
Phillip Granberry, Ph.D., Public Policy University of Massachusetts Boston, Adjunct Faculty
Phillip Granberry is a social demographer who specializes in unauthorized immigration. He worked with various community-based organizations assisting recently arrived U.S. immigrants before earning a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2007. His dissertation, "The Formation and Effects of Social Capital among Mexican Immigrants" examined how unauthorized Mexican immigrants accumulate social capital in the United States, and how it helps explain both their economic and health outcomes.
Professor Granberry currently is working on research with newly collected data from Brazilian and Dominican immigrants in the Metropolitan Boston area. He has published several articles on demographic and economic trends among Latinos in New England and the impact of welfare and immigration policy reform on Latinos in Massachusetts. He currently teaches economics, demography, and community development courses at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Bridgewater State College.
Professor Granberry’s interest in community development springs from his previous academic experience studying theology. He holds a M.A. in Theology and a M.T.S. in Pastoral Studies from St. Meinrad School of Theology.
William Holmes, Ph.D., Sociology, Ohio State University, Adjunct Instructor, Criminal Justice & Human Services and the Masters in Human Services
Professor Holmes has been teaching undergraduate courses in criminal justice and human services at CPCS since 1992. His work includes research and publishing in family violence, capital punishment, and social services to children and families. He has served as an officer in professional associations and his research has been recognized by the American Sociological Association and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Fred Johnson, M.A., Communication Arts, University of Cincinnati, Assistant Professor, Community Media and Media Arts Policy
Professor Johnson is a relative new-comer to CPCS. He was hired in 2002 to help lead our new undergraduate major, community media and technology. He is nationally and internationally known as a program developer, administrator, and evaluator, as a media educator, researcher, and consultant, and as a documentary producer and director. His 25-plus years of experience in the field include expertise in all CMT curriculum areas including: communication theory, media analysis, telecommunication policy, and cutting-edge media technologies.
Robert Kelley, Ed. M., Technology in Education, Harvard University, Adjunct instructor
Professor Kelly is an adjunct faculty at UMB with prior experience in teaching and designing courses for the Instructional Design Department. He is also a trainer/analyst for MassONE, an educational portal sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education. He was a project coordinator for the Superintendents’ Academy; an online professional development program created at UMB and intended for K-12 school administrators. Prior to working at UMB, he was an educational television producer for TEAMS Distance Learning, a nationally recognized organization that pioneered the use of satellite television in public education. His early career as a television producer was highlighted by working as a freelance videographer for ESPN, and as a director for the Orange County News Channel. His lifetime passion about examining the effects of technology on communication and education led him to graduate school to attain a master’s degree.
Asgedet Stefanos, Ed.D., Educational Planning and Social Policy; Harvard University, Associate Professor
Dr. Stefanos is an Associate Professor in Critical Education and African Studies. She is also a Director of Community Studies Program (Online BA Degree Completion) and Human Services Program. She has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in both Human Services and General Education at CPCS since 1989; she has also been affiliated with the Women Studies Department, in the College of Liberal Arts. She has played a leading role in developing and teaching to Training and Development Concentration courses within CPCS. Dr. Stefanos was one of the faculty members during the early formation of on-line teaching at UMB, who began to teach on-line: she currently teaches Educating Women: Cross Cultural Perspective in the Women Studies Department. Dr. Stefanos is an internationally known scholar in women and international development and is the author of articles, journals, and book chapters focused on gender equity and nationalism, and women and economic development, and multi-cultural education.
Karen Straight, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst
Dr. Karen Straight has worked as an applied sociologist, in research, and as an instructor for the last thirteen years. Her work focuses on issues related to gender, ethnicity, culture, and social justice. She has a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Recent research focused on gender and assimilation among South Indian high-tech and college educated homemaker immigrants in Portland, Oregon. With extensive online teaching experience, Dr. Straight has been teaching sociology and anthropology courses online for UMASS Dartmouth and the University of Maine. She worked as an applied sociologist at the International Refugee Center of Oregon/Asian Family Center, a non-profit organization for immigrants and refugees. In this position, Dr. Straight worked to bring together 15 different Asian ethnic groups to advocate for political, educational, and social needs (particularly in the area of domestic violence).
Michael E. Stone, Ph.D., Astrophysics, Princeton University, Professor, Community Planning
At the College of Public and Community Service, Professor Stone’s primary responsibility has been in Community Planning, but his teaching has spanned most components of the curriculum. For example, he has played a leading role in teaching to Understanding Arguments and Community Portraits in the Core portion of the curriculum. He has also been active in providing support to students in basic communication skills, quantitative reasoning and computers. In addition, he helped to initiate the use of collaborative community projects as a learning experience for students.