Jing Chen
Tenure Track, Assistant Professor, Nicolais School of Business
Jing Chen has been an assistant professor of marketing for the last three years at Texas A&M University Kingsville, where she has taught courses in marketing and analytics. She earned her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Texas at El Paso, a master’s in management from Kedge Business School in Marseilles, and a master’s in economics from Tongji University in Shanghai.
Danielle D’Angelo
Visiting Assistant Professor, Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
Danielle D’Angelo has been a registered nurse for 20 years. She earned her master’s degree in nursing education and has been teaching nursing clinicals here at Wagner for the last six years. She specializes in emergency, intraoperative, post-operative and cardiac nursing.
Sajad Ebrahimi
Tenure Track, Assistant Professor, Nicolais School of Business
Sajad Ebrahimi recently earned his doctorate in supply chain management from North Dakota State University, where he has taught courses in supply chain and operations management, business software applications, and transportation and logistics modeling. He earned his master’s degree in industrial and socioeconomic systems engineering from Kharazmi University in Tehran, Iran, and his bachelor’s degree from Qazvin Azad University in Qazvin, Iran.
Matthew Holben
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Arts
Matthew Holben is a printer, designer and artist from Lansing, Michigan. After earning a plant biology degree from Michigan State University, it was a keen interest in letterpress printing that pushed him toward a design degree at Wayne State University and an M.F.A. in graphic design from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His process-driven practice encompasses a variety of media, such as printmaking, book and publication design, and fibers.
Alika Hope
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Performing Arts
Alika Hope earned a B.A. in sociology from the University of Notre Dame with a minor in dance from St. Mary’s College. She earned her M.A. in early childhood special education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a certified trauma professional and holds a certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University. Hope was awarded a gold medal in the Global Music Awards competition for her most recent album, and she is the co-host of “CT Perspective TV” on Fox in Connecticut and CBS in Massachusetts. Her research interests include community engagement and inclusion in the arts, particularly ways to use 21st century technology to increase in-person arts engagement in underserved communities.
Nicole LaMassa
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Nicole LaMassa earned her B.S. in biology and psychology from the City College of New York, her M.S. in neuroscience and developmental disabilities from the College of Staten Island, and her Ph.D. in biology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research uses techniques in molecular cell biology and electron microscopy to investigate the role of cell adhesion molecules in neurodevelopment and synapse formation. Her teaching interests include cell biology, genetics, immunology and neuroscience. She has been teaching and participating in research for over eight years.
Emma Heyun Li-Ore
Tenure Track, Assistant Professor, Nicolais School of Business
Heyun Li-Ore recently earned her doctorate in accounting from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, where she has taught courses in managerial and financial accounting. She earned her master’s degree in accounting (internal audit and taxation track) from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, and her bachelor’s degree from Southeast University in Nanjing, China.
Karim Malak
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History
Karim Malak is a historian of the non-western world with a focus on the modern Middle East. In 2022 he earned his doctoral degree from Columbia University’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies program. His teaching encompasses the colonial and postcolonial histories of Africa, the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, while his research focuses on governmental technologies of rule and their intersection with colonialism. His first book project looks at the history of governmental calculative technologies, such as the census, and is titled “Counting Colonialism: Calculation and the Anglo-Egyptian Colonial Encounter 1805-1954.” His second book project looks at the history of colonial encounters at sea in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea area. Malak’s research has appeared in the Review of African Political Economy and Comparative Studies of South Asian, African and Middle Eastern Studies.
Christopher Marra
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Christopher Marra is a New York native with roots in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Marra’s family arrived from Naples, Italy, in the 1960s, making him a second-generation immigrant. After attending Susan E. Wagner High School, he received his B.S. in biology from the College of Staten Island in 2012 and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Hunter College in 2020. An electrophysiologist by training, Marra’s research has been focused on studying altered voltage-gated sodium channel modulation and the implications therein, including cardiac arrhythmia and epilepsy.
Susan Briffa-Mirabella
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Susan Briffa-Mirabella is a native of Brooklyn, New York. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fordham University, her master’s in neuroscience and developmental disabilities from the College of Staten Island, and her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the CUNY Graduate Center. Briffa-Mirabella’s research investigates hypothyroxinemia’s effect on cortical cellular structure. Her teaching focuses in the areas of anatomy and physiology, animal behavior and neuroscience.
David Pallister
Director, Occupational Therapy
David Pallister, a Wagner College graduate, was appointed director and clinical professor for the new Occupational Therapy Program in 2022. He has been an occupational therapist since 1995 and an occupational therapy educator for over 17 years. Pallister’s clinical work focused mainly on adult and older adult rehabilitation, ergonomics and work wellness, and environmental modification. His scholarship interests lie in the areas of: best practices for online occupational therapy education; practice-related legal, ethical and policy issues; and the role of exercise as an occupation-based intervention. Teaching areas include neurological and orthopedic conditions, physical and cognitive disabilities intervention, kinesiology, ergonomics, leadership, administration and supervision, and clinical education.
Michelle Romano
Visiting Assistant Professor, Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
Michelle Romano earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Wagner College. The research for her doctorate from Columbia University’s Teachers College focused on interprofessional education. Romano earned a post-master’s certificate in adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioner from Saint Peter’s University. She has been a nurse educator with a specialty in maternal child care since 2009, and an aesthetics nurse since 2016. Her passions are to educate future nursing talent, explore interprofessional education opportunities between healthcare professional students, and help clients achieve confidence through the practice of aesthetics.
Brian Sgambati
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Performing Arts
Brian Sgambati is a teaching artist, director and actor. A proud alumnus of Wagner College, he has served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre and Speech (now part of the Department of Performing Arts) since 2013. He is also an instructor at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, where he teaches voice and speech. Sgambati earned his M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. His Wagner College directing credits include “On the Twentieth Century,” “A Doll’s House, Part Two” and “Or.” His acting credits include the Broadway productions of “The Merchant of Venice” starring Al Pacino, “King Lear” with Christopher Plummer, and “The Coast of Utopia,” a trilogy that won a record-breaking seven Tony Awards. Other credits include: the national tour of “Frost/Nixon” starring Stacey Keach; Off-Broadway work at BAM, Soho Rep, Irish Rep and Signature Theatre; selected regional work including Long Wharf, Huntington, Goodman and the Old Globe; and film and television credits including the Emmy-winning “Bad Education” starring Hugh Jackman, “New Amsterdam,” “Bull,” “Unforgettable,” “Blue Bloods” and “Law and Order.”
Margaret Wilkins
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Government & Politics
Margaret Wilkins earned her Ph.D. in sports administration from the University of New Mexico with a double minor in business and communication, and her M.S. in sports administration and her B.S. in sports management from Hampton University. Her primary research interests focus on the intersectional experiences of minorities and women within athletic administrations at HBCUs and Division I institutions, the economic-impact analysis of Division I HBCUs for the neighboring communities, and the key multipliers within those sport environments.
