Meet our amazing team.
We’re a talented group of pedagogues, teachers, technologists, researchers, and so much more! Get to know us and what we can do for you.

Lisa Blankenship
Interim Director
Associate Professor Lisa Blankenship came to the academy after a ten-year career in industry as a creative director and writer. A member of the faculty in the Department of English since fall 2014, she began serving as Interim Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in July 2023. She oversees the overall strategy of the CTL and has been involved in college and CUNY-wide conversations and initiatives to promote pedagogical excellence in all modes of instruction.(Read more)

Tamara Gubernat
Associate Director
Since joining the CTL in 2015, Tamara Gubernat has helped guide Baruch faculty through transitioning their courses between teaching formats (in-person, hybrid, online) as a process to strengthen their teaching and an opportunity to build classroom community. (Read more)

Shiraz Biggie
Educational Technologist, Blogs@Baruch
Shiraz Biggie joined the CTL in 2021 and works primarily with Blogs@Baruch. She is PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance at the Graduate Center focusing on Jewish and Irish theatre. She teaches children’s literature in performance at Brooklyn College and theatrical history at NYU. (Read more)

Christopher Campbell
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
Chris is a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center who specializes in AIDS literature, queer theory, and memoir. At Baruch, Chris served as a 2020-21 Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Fellow and has taught First-Year Writing and Great Works of Literature since 2016. (Read more)

Lukasz Chelminski
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
Lukasz is a doctoral candidate in history at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has taught at Brooklyn College, The Cooper Union and Queens College. He is currently a digital pedagogy specialist at the Baruch College Center for Teaching and Learning and was previously an instructional technology fellow at the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY. (Read more)

Seth Graves
Digital Pedagogy Manager (Interim)
Seth Graves is a doctoral candidate in English at the CUNY Graduate Center who specializes in writing studies, rhetoric, and digital pedagogy. He currently teaches composition and rhetoric at Baruch and creative writing at The New School and has taught as an adjunct instructor at several CUNY colleges since 2013. (Read more)

Catherine Kawalek
IT Academic Tech and Pedagogy Manager
Catherine wears 2 hats at Baruch College: teaching-the-teachers how to create effective and engaging online classes, and for the past 5 years, teaching BPL, the senior capstone class in strategy and planning in the Zicklin School of Business. (Read more)

Amanda Matles
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
Amanda is an urban geographer, filmmaker, artist, designer, and organizer based in NYC. BFA in Fine Art and New Media from Maryland Institute College of Art. Her dissertation research explores young people’s experiences of growing up policed in NYC.. (Read more)

Hamad Sindhi
Digital Pedagogy Manager
Hamad Sindhi is an educational sociologist working on his dissertation at the CUNY Graduate Center. At the CTL, he has assisted faculty with VOCAT, co-authored The CUNY 1969 project, helped evaluate the OER initiative, and consulted faculty on course and assignment design, specifically on how to include instructional technology in the classroom. (Read more)

Christopher Silsby
Project Manager for Blogs@Baruch
Christopher comes to the CTL from his work on Blogs@Baruch as a Communication Fellow with the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute. He also has a history in higher ed tech support and server administration at NYU, the University of Minnesota, and Carleton College. He holds a PhD in Theatre from the Graduate Center. (Read more)

Craig Stone
Project Manager for Educational Technology
Craig Stone has supported Baruch College faculty members, staff, and students in the use of technology since 2011. At the CTL, he manages Vocat, a web platform that allows students and instructors to upload and interact with multimedia in various ways. Craig also works with instructors to help incorporate video and audio in their courses, including assignments, student presentations, lectures, and other course materials. (Read more)

Pamela Thielman
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
Pamela is an historian of theatre design history whose current research focuses on European court performances during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition to a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance from The Graduate Center, CUNY, she holds an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy and Script Development from Columbia University School of the Arts and a B.A. in Drama from New York University. (Read more)

Katherine Tsan
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
Katherine has a joint background in information science and European history (she holds an M.L.S. from Queens College, CUNY and a Ph.D. from Yale University). She teaches and publishes about European history, Open Educational Resources in history and creating interactive tutorials. She was the OER Coordinator/Educational Technologist at York College from 2019 to 2021. (Read more)

Ron Whiteman
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
Ron is a Digital Pedagogy Specialist with the CTL and also a Substitute Assistant Professor in Psychology here at Baruch College. Ron has had experience with online pedagogy from both a research perspective and a teaching perspective. (Read more)

Alfred Waller
Administrative Coordinator
With a B.A. in Psychology and Elementary Education Concentration, Alfred Waller started out as an Assistant Director for the Parkchester Baptist Church Summer Day Camp and Youth Developer for Girl Scout Council of Greater New York where he helped develop and implement recreational and educational programs for children ages 5-17. (Read more)