Speaker Bios

	Danah Boyd is an internationally recognized authority on the ways people use networked social media as a context for social interaction — who inhabits the world of online social network sites, what they do there, and why. She has been called the “high priestess” of online social network sites by the Financial Times. Danah researches how social media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube are integrated into people’s daily practices. Much of her work focuses on American youth practices, popular social network sites, and sociality. She was one of the researchers in a major 3-year study of digital youth funded by the MacArthur Foundation, resulting in the publication of Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Her new book is It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.
	David P. Christy is the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Baruch College. He provides direction and administrative oversight for academic programs and services to the college including the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, the Zicklin School of Business, the School of Public Affairs, the Newman Library, and the Baruch College Technology Center. The Provost and Senior Vice President oversees all academic activities including instructional research and analysis, student academic counseling, academic personnel and budget, faculty development, and cultural and enrichment programs.
	Mikhail Gershovich is an independent speaker and consultant who served as the Director of the Schwartz Communication Institute and of the Writing Across the Curriculum Program at Baruch College, CUNY for over a decade. During his tenure as Director, the Schwartz Institute received national and university-wide accolades, including the 2008 TIAA-CREF Institute Theodore Hesburgh Award in recognition of the Institute’s innovative faculty development programs and the 2009 CUNY Michael Ribaudo Award for Technological Excellence for the development and launch of Blogs@Baruch, now one of the largest and most active academic blogging communities in the nation. He launched and still oversees the continuing development of Baruch’s Video Oral Communication Assessment Tool (VOCAT), an innovative teaching and assessment tool for oral presentations. He lives in Los Angeles and holds a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center and occasionally teaches courses in composition, literature, film and new media.
	Erica Kaufman is the Associate Director of the Institute for Writing & Thinking at Bard College, where she also teaches in their First Year Seminar Program. Prior to joining Bard full time, Kaufman taught in the English Department at Baruch College and was a Communication Fellow at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute. Kaufman has also been a visiting writer and visiting professor at Naropa University, Evergreen State College, and Parsons the New School for Design. Her publications include the full-length poetry collections INSTANT CLASSIC (Roof Books 2013) and Censory Impulse (Factory School 2009). She is the co-editor of NO GENDER: On the Life and Work of kari edwards (Venn Diagram 2009). Scholarly writing has appeared or is forthcoming in: The Color of Vowels: New York School Collaborations (ed. Mark Silverberg, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013), Open Space/SFMOMA, Parkett, Rain Taxi, Jacket2.
	Tariq Khan is the founder and CEO of Global Diversity Marketing. He is a recognized business leader in marketing, branding, innovation, digital marketing, social media, and diversity. Tariq has had a distinguished twenty-year career, mostly working at global Fortune companies including ING, Nationwide, and MetLife. Tariq has held several senior management roles with the major Fortune companies. In his last corporate position, Tariq was senior vice president and head of market development for ING, where he led ING’s strategy to expand a growing target market with multi-channel distribution. Tariq is also credited with developing and supporting the largest and most diverse distribution channel in the financial services industry. He has launched several award winning branding campaigns, marketing programs, and social media campaigns for the African American, Asian, Hispanic, and women’s market. Tariq’s work, interviews and articles have been published in several trade and industry publications. He is a sought-after keynote/notable speaker on marketing, branding, diversity, distribution, and sales growth. Tariq has appeared on global mainstream media including CNN International LIVE. Tariq has equally impressive contributions in the non-profit world. He is on the board of directors at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, the largest U.S. organization devoted to scholarships for Asian and Pacific Islander American students. He conceived and managed several scholarship events for APIASF students that generated over $3 million in the first five years. Tariq is also on the board of directors at the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), a national non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Asian Pacific American participation and representation at all levels of the political process, from congress services to elected office. Tariq is also an adjunct professor of marketing and public relations at New York University SCPS. His expertise/courses include Integrated Marketing Communications, Competitive Intelligence, Multi-channel Marketing, Social Media, and Public Relations.
	Grant Potter has been researching and developing instructional technologies for 20 years through his work in the High Arctic, China, and British Columbia. As a faculty member at the University of Northern British Columbia’s Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, he leverages technologies to support effective, impactful teaching and learning and facilitates faculty development. Grant is an advocate of open source technologies and open education and narrates his work and play at networkeffects.ca.
	Bernard L. Schwartz is chairman and CEO of BLS Investments, LLC, a private investment firm. He also manages the investments of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation, which mainly supports higher education, medical research and New York City-based cultural organizations. He promotes the development of U.S. economic policy initiatives through investment in educational institutions, think tanks and advocacy organizations. Mr. Schwartz is also an active supporter of the Democratic Party. Prior to establishing BLS Investments in March 2006, Mr. Schwartz served for 34 years as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Loral Space & Communications and its predecessor company, Loral Corporation. His book, Just Say Yes: What I’ve Learned About Life, Luck, and the Pursuit of Opportunity, was published in March 2014.
	Dr. Mitchel B. Wallerstein became the President of Baruch College of the City University of New York on August 2, 2010. Prior to his appointment as president of Baruch College, Wallerstein was the Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University from 2003 to 2010, where he also held an appointment as a tenured professor of political science and public administration. Baruch College is home to the nation’s largest collegiate business school as well as prominent Schools of Arts and Sciences and Public Affairs. It is known as one of the most diverse schools in the United States with a total student population, undergraduate and graduate, of approximately 18,000.