FIU experts are available to discuss 2022 elections and a wide range of topics including foreign relations, the economy, voting, immigration and reproductive rights.
If you have any questions or need assitance, contact the Office of Media Relations.
National Politics
Kathryn DePalo-Gould
University instructor, Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
DePalo has extensive experience in state and local government processes and elections both in Connecticut and Florida. She has managed several campaigns, including a successful countywide judicial campaign in Broward County, Florida. Her teaching focus is American politics, including judicial process, gender and politics, and state and local government. DePalo’s primary research interest is in Florida politics. She has published on topics such as state judicial selection, the effects of gender in state legislative politics, and career paths of term-limited legislators.
Cell: 954-608-8368
Email: depalok@fiu.edu
Brian Fonseca
Director, Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Fonseca serves as the institute’s technical expert for national security and foreign policy. He has been featured in local and national media analyzing the 2016, 2018, 2020 U.S. general elections. He currently serves as the political analyst for WSVN Channel 7 (Fox network affiliate). Fonseca is also an international Security Fellow at the DC-based think tank New America. Fonseca joined FIU after serving as the senior research manager for socio-cultural analysis at United States Southern Command. From 1997 to 2004, he served in the United States Marine Corps and facilitated the training of foreign military forces in both hostile theaters and during peacetime operations.
Office: 305-348-7420
Cell: 305-218-6323
Email: fonsecab@fiu.edu
Eduardo Gamarra
Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Eduardo Gamarra has conducted two polls on Hispanic voters in the U.S. and Florida. He also has done research on the regional dynamics of Latin America, including Cuba’s role. As an expert in Bolivia and the Andean region, he has followed closely the alliances formed by Fidel Castro, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Gamarra has also studied drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the effects of American policies in regional dynamics. He has testified in front of U.S. Congress several times and is the author of more than half a dozen books and more than forty academic articles on Latin America. Gamarra is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Cell: 786-253-4898
Email: Eduardo.Gamarra@fiu.edu
Guillermo Grenier
Chair, Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Grenier is a professor of sociology and lead researcher in charge of the FIU Cuba Poll, which measures the attitudes and opinions of Cuban Americans in South Florida on issues ranging from their support for the U.S. embargo to their party preference. In addition to the poll, he is the author of books such as “Miami Now: Immigration, Ethnicity and Social Change;” “Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the United States;” and “This Land is Our Land: Newcomers and Established Residents in Miami,” in which he is a co-author. He has also written numerous articles on labor and ethnic issues in the United States. Grenier is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-3217
Cell: 305-388-6469
Email: Guillermo.Grenier@fiu.edu
Sara Moats
Associate professor, Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Moats has an interest in group politics and studies group interactions from several perspectives. Her research analyzes how and why organized interests become involved with foreign governments and intergovernmental organizations, and why a group would expand beyond the domestic political arena to lobby additional venues. Moats is currently examining group involvement in several different policy areas, including environmental policy and human rights.
Office: 305-348-4279
Cell: 304-282-5159
Email: sara.moats@fiu.edu
Dario Moreno
Associate professor, Department of Politics & International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Moreno holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and conducts research on Miami politics, Florida politics, and Cuban American politics. He has published over 20 scholarly articles, book chapters, and two books. Moreno is a nationally recognized expert on Florida and Miami politics and is often quoted in both national and local media. He has been a Pew Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Fulbright scholar in Costa Rica. He teaches courses on Miami politics, Cuban politics, Florida politics and urban politics
Office: 305-349-3854
Email: dario.moreno@fiu.edu or darmrn@aol.com
Carlos Díaz-Rosillo
Director
The Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom
Díaz-Rosillo is former director of policy and interagency coordination at the White House. He also served as senior deputy chairman and chief operating officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., and acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense. Díaz-Rosillo is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-2494
Email: carlos.diazrosillo@fiu.edu
Mario Loyola
Research Assistant Professor
Director, Environmental Finance & Risk Management
FIU Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Loyola is a former White House energy & environment advisor and a former defense policy adviser at the Pentagon and in the U.S. Senate. He teaches environmental law courses at the College of Law and advises law students on environment-related matters. He has written extensively about sustainability and resilience, clean energy, climate change, and biodiversity. He has also written about foreign affairs, including Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine conflict and can speak to the historical, strategic, diplomatic and military dimensions of the situation. Loyola is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 202-539-4499
Email:mloyola@fiu.edu
Cybersecurity
Alex Crowther
Visiting professor, Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Prior to coming to FIU, Crowther worked on cyber and European issues at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C. and continues to lecture on cybersecurity at the Organization of American States (OAS) as well cyber law/crime/terror at NDU’s College of Information and Cyberspace (CIC).
Email: gcrowthe@fiu.edu
Nagarajan Prabakar
Associate professor, School of Computing and Information Sciences
Undergraduate director, cybersecurity program
College of Engineering & Computing
Prabakar has more than 30 years in the field of computing and extensive expertise in the field of cybersecurity. Prabakar can discuss what security vulnerabilities within the U.S. network allow cybersecurity attacks to happen and what can be done to prevent future attacks.
Office: 305-348-2033
Office: prabakar@cis.fiu.edu
Selcuk Uluagac
Associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering & Computing
Uluagac is a cybersecurity professor who currently leads the Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab (CSL). His research focuses on cybersecurity and privacy with an emphasis on its practical and applied aspects.
Phone: 305-348-3710
Email:suluagac@fiu.edu
Body Language
Davina Clarke
Instructor, Department of Communication
College of Communication, Architecture & the Arts
Clarke has more than 15 years of teaching experience in communication and is the director for business communication at FIU. Her interests include persuasion, nonverbal communication, conflict management, and business communication.
Office: 305-348-9056
Email: daclarke@fiu.edu
Hispanic Vote
Phillip M. Carter
Assistant professor, Cuban Research Institute
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Director, Center for the Humanities in an Urban Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Carter is a sociolinguist and a scholar of language and culture in U.S. Latino communities specializing in issues related to language in U.S. Latino communities, including Spanish in the United States, Spanish/English bilingualism, Spanish in U.S. politics, and popular discourses about language. Carter teaches courses at FIU on sociolinguistics, language in U.S. Latino communities, languages and cultures and the world, gender and language, and others. Carter is affiliate faculty in FIU’s Cuban Research Institute, Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, African and African Diaspora Studies Program and Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Office: 305-348-1149
Cell: 213-359-6215
Email: pmcarter@fiu.edu
Jorge Duany
Director, Cuban Research Institute
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Jorge Duany is director of the Cuban Research Institute and a professor of anthropology. He earned his Ph.D. in Latin American Studies, specializing in anthropology, at the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds an M.A. in social sciences from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in psychology from Columbia University. Duany has published extensively on migration, ethnicity, race, nationalism, and transnationalism in the Caribbean and the United States. He is available for Spanish language interviews.
Office: 305-348-1991
Email: joduany@fiu.edu
Eduardo Gamarra
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Mario Loyola
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Economy
Deanne Butchey
Teaching professor, Department of Finance
College of Business
Butchey performs research in Environmental, Social, and Governance Investing and Analysis including CEO compensation and sustainability issues. She can discuss short- and long-term changes in markets and stages in investment process. Before joining FIU, Butchey worked as an Investment Banker and Financial Services Stock Research Analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in their Toronto offices. Prior to this, she was a stockbroker at Scotia McLeod and Merrill Lynch in Toronto.
Office: 305-348-7238
Cell: 954-257-4911
Email: butcheyd@fiu.edu
José M. Gabilondo
Professor of law
College of Law
Prior to joining FIU Law, Gabilondo worked in financial market regulation at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the World Bank. Gabilondo teaches tax and corporate finance. His scholarship focuses on debt markets and heterosexual subject formation in law. He is a nationally recognized commentator in Spanish-language media on financial and economic matters. Gabilondo is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Cell: 305-710-5656
Email: jose.gabilondo@fiu.edu
Jerry Haar
Professor, Department of International Business
College of Business
Haar was director of Washington Programs for the Council of the Americas, a New York-based business association of over 200 corporations comprising a majority of U.S. private investment in Latin America and served as special assistant to two cabinet secretaries. He can address issues of international business and economics including the economies of Latin America, financial markets, and competitiveness. Haar is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-919-4222
Cell: 786-338-5100
Email: haarj@fiu.edu
Tobias Pfutze
Assistant professor and graduate director, Department of Economics
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Pfutze is a professor of economics whose research focuses on health, labor and institutional economics, primarily in middle income countries in Latin America. His research has been published in leading academic journals in these fields. His current work is focused on Mexico’s tax financed health insurance program. Pfutze is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-231
Email: tpfutze@fiu.edu
Manuel Lasaga
Clinical professor, Department of Finance
College of Business
As a business economist, Lasaga has more than 25 years’ experience advising entrepreneurs, multinational corporations, financial institutions, government agencies and professional services firms. He has a nationally recognized capability for independent analysis of the Florida, U.S., and Latin American economies and financial markets and is an advisor to banks in the areas of strategic planning and asset/liability management. He is also an investment advisor. He has held high-level positions with Citicorp in New York, Wharton Econometrics in Philadelphia and Southeast Bank in Miami. In addition, he has consulted for 18 years with the World Bank, specializing in the evaluation of capital markets and development projects in emerging markets. Lasaga is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-8307
Email:mlasaga@fiu.edu
Jorge Salazar-Carrillo
Professor of economics and director, Center of Economic Research
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Salazar is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a consultant for both the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). His areas of interest include economic integration, international trade and finance and labor economics. He has conducted research on Venezuela’s oil sector and Latin America’s capital markets in the 1990s. He has also published two books on Cuba and has a third coming out this fall from Transaction Press. Salazar-Carillo is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-3283
Cell: 305-915-0063
Email: Jorge.Salazar-Carrillo@fiu.edu
Mihaela Pintea
Associate professor, Department of Economics
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Pintea is an associate professor of economics whose research interests span macroeconomics, economic growth and development, as well as demographic economics. She has worked on public policy and the way governments can affect growth through taxation and the provision of public goods; how R&D, learning, structural change and international trade affect labor productivity; and how family structure affects female labor participation and household welfare.
Office: 305-348-3733
Cell: 786-546-3802
Email:pinteam@fiu.edu
Mark del Pezzo
Associate teaching professor, Department of Finance
College of Business
del Pezzo is a CFA and former investment banker and portfolio manager for numerous depository institutions and trust departments. The courses he teaches include advanced investments and financial management. He has worked as a portfolio manager at both Raymond James and Deutsch Bank.
Office: 305-348-8459
Cell: 904-707-8992
Email: mdelpezz@fiu.edu
Mario Loyola
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Foreign Policy
Latin America
Eduardo Gamarra
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Jerry Haar
Please see bio above under Economy.
Jose Miguel Cruz
Director of research, Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Cruz is an expert in criminal violence, gangs, police, democratization, and public opinion in Latin America. He was the director of the University Institute of Public Opinion at the University of Central America in San Salvador from 1994 to 2006 and has worked as a consultant for organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. In addition to his work at the Green Center, Cruz is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations.
Office: 305-348-2556
Email: jose.cruz6@fiu.edu
Europe and Russia
Tatiana Kostadinova
Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Kostadinova’s research and teaching interests include Central and Eastern European political institutions with a special emphasis on elections, electoral systems and electoral behavior; institutional reform; democratic transition; political corruption; comparative public policy; and public support for foreign policies. Kostadinova teaches undergraduate courses in Russian and Eastern European politics, electoral behavior, and research methods, and graduate courses in institutional choice, democratic transitions, political parties, and advanced research. She has also conducted field work in Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia. Kostadinova has authored and co-authored articles, book chapters and book reviews. Kostadinova can talk about U.S. diplomatic relations with Russia. She is fluent in English, Bulgarian and Russian.
Office: 305-348-4493
David Kramer
Senior fellow, Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
An internationally known expert on Russia and U.S.-Russia relations, the Ukraine and human rights, Kramer is the former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under President George W. Bush. Kramer is available to speak on all aspects of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia, including Russian cyberattacks, the spread of “fake news,” and Russian military intervention in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria. He has written extensively for The Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Policy and The American Interest.
Office: 214-200-4366
Email: DKramer@bushcenter.org
Markus Thiel
Director, EU/Jean Monnet Center of Excellence
Associate professor, Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Thiel’s areas of expertise include the politics of the European Union and Western Europe, as well as its political sociology and identity. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on international relations, comparative Western European politics, European Union Politics, international relations of Europe, and international organizations. He has published several articles and book chapters at the European Union Center of Excellence and others. Thiel is a research associate at the Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence and is an affiliated faculty member of the FIU European Studies Program. Thiel is available for interviews for European-Union related questions on the immigration crisis in Europe and other topics.
Office: 305-348-4493
Email:thielm@fiu.edu
Mario Loyola
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Middle East
Eric Lob
Associate professor, Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Lob’s research focuses on the intersection of development and politics in the Middle East. His research specifically examines how state and non-state actors in the region use development to further their political interests domestically and internationally. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. Lob teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics and international relations, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and political violence and revolution. Lob can speak about the Middle East’s historical and contemporary issues, events, policies, developments, and trends, such as America’s allies and local governments, popular uprisings and regional instability (Iraq, Syria, and Yemen), the U.S. invasion of Iraq and rise of ISIS/ISIL, the Saudi-Iranian rivalry and Iranian nuclear program, and Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace.
Cell: 914-261-3225
Email:elob@fiu.edu
Immigration
Cyra Akila Choudhury
Professor
College of Law
Choudhury teaches Family Law, Information and Data Privacy Law, Law and Science and Technology, Law and Artificial Intelligence: Robots, Algorithms and Justice, Women in the Law, African American and Minority Jurisprudence, Sales, and Islamic Law. She is co-editor of “Islamophobia and the Law,” a field-defining book conceptualized by her and that brings together scholarship on Islamophobia in the U.S. As an acknowledged expert in comparative and international human rights and gender law, transnational surrogacy, law in Muslim majority countries, and Muslims as minorities, and legal theories of gender and race, she has appeared on television and interviewed by local and national media. Her current work focuses on the role of technology in family, surveillance technology and race and gender, law, and privacy, and technology and democracy.
Office: 305-348-1153
Cell: 240-462-1603
Email:choudhuc@fiu.edu
Eduardo Gamarra
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Guillermo Grenier
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Ediberto Román
Professor
College of Law
Román is a nationally acclaimed scholar and an award-winning educator. Before entering academia, he specialized in securities and antitrust litigation at several Wall Street law firms. His teaching experience includes contracts, torts, corporations, comparative corporate law, products liability, agency and partnership, antitrust, citizenship studies, law and accounting, race and the law, remedies and street law. He has been asked to testify before governmental bodies on immigration reform and has visited the White House on several occasions to address matters related to immigration policy, and the judicial vacancy debate. His principal research interest involves analyzing the construction and interpretation of constitutional law and immigration policy. His research deals with the intersection of, on one hand, citizenship law, immigration law, public international law, and constitutional law and, on the other hand, theoretical perspectives based on classic philosophy, neo-liberal theory, critical race theory, post-colonial studies, diaspora literature, and social theory generally. Areas of interest and expertise include constitutional law, civil rights and diversity issues.
Office: 305-348-7254
Cell: 954-326-6645
Email: romane@fiu.edu
Sebastian Arcos
Assistant director, Cuban Research Institute
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Arco’s father and uncle were active participants in Castro’s revolutionary movement and briefly held important governmental positions but were soon disillusioned by the new regime’s totalitarian nature. His entire family was arrested and sent to prison for attempting to leave Cuba illegally in 1981. In 1987 he joined the Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH), the first independent Cuban human rights organization, and was part of the CCPDH team who met with the Special Group from the UN Commission on Human Rights who visited the island in 1988. He was finally allowed to leave Cuba in 1992. For three consecutive years (1995, 1996, 1997) Arcos was part of the Freedom House delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. He later advised the U.S. Department of State on issues concerning human rights in Cuba between 1998 and 2000. Arcos is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-7250
Cell: 305-431-4576
Email: Sebastian.Arcos@fiu.edu
Mario Loyola
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Health Care Policy
Dr. Eneida O. Roldan
CEO, FIU HealthCare Network
Associate dean for Internal Affairs
Associate dean, Master in Physician Assistant Studies
Professor, Department of Pathology
Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Dr. Roldan is the immediate past CEO and President for the Jackson Health System in Miami, one of the largest safety net health systems in the country. Prior to this role, she was court-appointed as President and CEO of Pan American Hospital, a Miami-Dade community hospital under Chapter 11 that successfully emerged from bankruptcy under her leadership. Roldan has over 30 years’ experience in the health care industry having served in multiple roles both in the private and public sector including administrative roles in the non-for-profit and for-profit sectors; private practice; consulting, and in academia (nationally and internationally). Roldan is a known national and international speaker in the areas of obesity, health policy, health care reform, health care management and systems and leadership. In addition to her medical, public health and business degrees; she has attained Wharton alumni status at the prestigious Wharton (Business) School of the University of Pennsylvania. Roldan is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
To speak with Dr. Roldan, please contact Ileana Varela at 305-348-4926, ilvarela@fiu.edu
Reproductive Rights
Cyra Choudhury
Please see bio above under Immigration.
José M. Gabilondo
Please see bio above under Economy.
Melba Pearson
Policy director, Center for the Administration of Justice
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Pearson is a civil rights and criminal law attorney who oversees technical assistance, training, and community engagement efforts at the Center for the Administration of Justice. Her primary assignment is the MacArthur Foundation-funded Prosecutorial Performance Indicators' project, which aims to improve prosecutorial offices' efficiency, effectiveness and fairness through research, technical assistance, and communications support. Before joining FIU, Pearson served as the Deputy Director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida for three years. She was part of the leadership team who helped pass Amendment 4 in 2018 - the historic voting rights amendment which re-enfranchised people with felony convictions in Florida. Before joining the ACLU, Pearson was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County for 16 years. She is a frequent guest lecturer on a wide array of law enforcement concerns.
Cell: 305-491-2404
Email:mpearson@fiu.edu
Environment
Stephen Leatherman
Professor, Department of Earth and Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Known as “Dr. Beach” for his annual rankings of U.S. beaches, Leatherman’s research focuses on storm impacts, including beach erosion and rip currents. He has given expert testimony to U.S. Congressional committees more than a dozen times on issues such as coastal storm impacts and federal disaster response. He was the review coordinator for the National Academy of Sciences & Engineering for the federal study of the breaching of the New Orleans levees and flooding by Hurricane Katrina.
Office: 305-348-6304 or 305-348-1339
Email: leatherm@fiu.edu
Jayantha Obeysekera
Research Professor, FIU’s Sea Level Solutions Center
Institute of Environment
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Obeysekera previously served as chief modeler at the South Florida Water Management District, where he had a leading role in modeling of the Everglades and Kissimmee River and Everglades restoration projects. He was co-author of the sea level rise projections report published by NOAA for the National Climate Assessment. He also co-authored a report on regional sea level projections for Department of Defense facilities across the globe. Obeysekera can talk about hurricanes as they relate to sea level rise, climate change, flooding and water management. He has extensive media experience, including print and broadcast.
Office: 305-348-4493
Email: jobeysek@fiu.edu
Mario Loyola
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Energy
Edward Glab
Director, FIU Global Energy Security and Sustainability Forum
Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Glab has over four decades of experience in the energy field, including 25 years as an international business executive in the oil and gas, coal and minerals sectors. Glab is an expert on various aspects of the global energy industry, including political risk analysis and government relations, and he has conducted business and academic work in every country of Latin America and dozens of other around the world from Asia and Africa to Europe and Australia. Glab speaks Spanish and has published in the areas of energy, Latin American politics and communications. Glab is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Cell: 305-299-7155
Email:ewgjr66@gmail.com
Mario Loyola
Please see bio above under National Politics.
Criminal Justice System
H. Scott Fingerhut
Assistant Director, Trial Advocacy Program, College of Law
Fellow, Honors College
Now in his 34th year as a trial lawyer and 23rd year of full-time law teaching, Fingerhut teaches Trial Advocacy, Criminal and Civil Pretrial Practice, and Criminal Procedure. He devotes himself in court to criminal defense, trial and appeal, and representing applicants seeking admission before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners and lawyers facing Florida Bar discipline. Consistently ranked among the region’s top criminal defense lawyers, Fingerhut has twice served as chair of The Florida Bar Criminal Procedure Rules Committee and has also served as chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Bar. Currently he is a member of The Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee, the Code & Rules of Evidence Committee, and the Criminal Law Section Executive Council, also serving as section CLE co-chair. Fingerhut also serves on a State of Florida Professionalism Panel for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Most recently, he was selected to serve as a subject matter expert for the Florida Board of Bar Examiners’ Practice Analysis Panel. Fingerhut can speak to criminal and civil justice systems, legal ethics and lawyer regulation.
Office: 305-348-8095
Cell: 305-975-3837
Email:fingerhut@fiu.edu
Tim Goddard
Associate professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Goddard studies criminal justice and crime policy trends in the U.S, Canada, the U.K., and Australia. He can speak to the subject of releasing non-violent offenders. Although his current research focuses on youth offender interventions and community-based crime prevention, much of his research overlaps with the subject of releasing non-violent offenders. Goddard teaches courses in criminal justice and public policy, and punishment and society.
Cell: 305-348-4873
Email: tgoddard@fiu.edu
Besiki Luka Kutateladze
Associate professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Kutateladze’s research focuses on prosecution, inequality, racial justice, and LGBTQ hate crimes. He is an internationally recognized expert in the development of performance indicators and played a crucial role in the development of the United Nations Rule of Law Indicators, a tool developed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, for assessing the rule of law in post-conflict situations. He is currently researching the nature and scope of hate crimes against LGBTQ individuals in Miami.
Cell: 917-637-0844
Email: bkutatel@fiu.edu
Melba Pearson
Please see bio above under Reproductive Rights.
Race, Gender and Gay and Lesbian Politics
José M. Gabilondo
Please see bio above under Economy.
Suzanna Rose
Associate provost, Office to Advance Women, Equity & Diversity
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Rose is a professor of psychology and women’s and gender studies. She is the lead investigator for FIU’s NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant that is aimed at improving the recruitment, promotion and retention of women and underrepresented minority faculty at FIU. A key research project associated with the grant includes the development of an evidence-based Bystander Leadership Program to reduce gender and race bias in faculty hiring, promotion, and retention. Rose has published extensively on issues related to gender, race, and sexual orientation, including professional networks, career development, leadership, friendship, and personal relationships. She has consulted with many universities both nationally and internationally concerning strategies for recruiting and retaining women faculty in science and engineering.
Email:srose@fiu.edu
Melba Pearson
Please see bio above under Reproductive Rights.
Baby Boomers and Aging
Elena Bastida
Professor and chair, Department of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention
Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work
Bastida’s research focus is gerontology; specifically behavior, expectation, aging norms and aging stereotypes. She led the 12-year Border Epidemiologic Study on Aging (NIH-BESA). Bastida also conducts NIH supported community based participatory research on Latino health. Her teaching has received statewide and national recognition with two national role model awards for research mentoring of minority students. She works closely with Pan American Health and Latin American universities in advancing research and training throughout the region. In 2009 she received the Public Health Hero Award from Research America.
Office: 305-348-7789
Email:elena.bastida@fiu.edu
Housing Market
Eli Beracha
Director, Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate
College of Business
Beracha conducts empirical research in the areas of real estate and finance. He has years of practical experience in real estate investments and has served as a consultant for real estate development projects. He is the co-creator of the Beracha and Johnson Housing Market Ranking report which ranks the most overvalued housing markets of America’s 100 largest metros as well as the Beracha, Hardin & Johnson Buy vs. Rent Index, which looks at market conditions as bellwethers for whether renting or buying in a specific market is most financially favorable.
Office: 785-841-4470
Email:eberacha@fiu.edu
Forensics and Justice
Kenneth G. Furton
Director, FIU Global Forensic and Justice Center
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Furton is the executive director of the Global Forensic and Justice Center and the chief scientific officer of FIU. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors as well as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He has received significant attention in recent years for ground-breaking work using dogs and sensors to detect humans, drugs, currency, accelerants, explosives, mass storage devices, invasive species and medical conditions. His expertise includes forensic policy and standards, and global forensic justice issues.
Office: 727-395-2511
Email:Furtonk@fiu.edu
Max Houck
Research assistant professor and graduate program director, FIU Global Forensic and Justice Center
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
An international expert in the forensic sciences, Houck has nearly 30 years of expertise in casework, research, speaking, and writing. His committee work includes the White House, the National Academies of Science, the Royal Society, and Interpol. Houck is one of the most published professionals in his field. He is Editor-in-Chief of Forensic Science International: Synergy, a Gold Open Access journal. His expertise covers forensic policy including ghost guns and cold cases, science education, and forensic intelligence.
Office: 727-395-2511
Email:mhouck@fiu.edu
Gerald LaPorte
Director of Research Innovation, FIU Global Forensic and Justice Center
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
LaPorte is a forensic scientist and researcher with 27 years of experience in the forensic and law enforcement communities. LaPorte oversees forensic initiatives related to education, training, research, and cyber. He further liaises with faculty from computer science and engineering, nursing, law, and criminal justice to collaborate on forensic science related research and technology innovation. One of his primary responsibilities is to bridge the gap between academic research and operationalization of technology-based tools to enhance criminal justice applications that are usable in the field. His expertise covers forensic policy, forensic practice, and global forensic justice issues.
Office: 727-395-2511
Email:glaporte@fiu.edu
Kevin Lothridge
Deputy executive director, FIU Global Forensic and Justice Center
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Lothridge is a well-respected forensic scientist and business leader with more than with 28 years of experience in the international forensic community. His science and technical background, coupled with his business acumen and natural leadership abilities has enabled his rise from drug chemist to laboratory director to executive roles in both the National Forensic Science Technology Center and FIU’s Global Forensic and Justice Center. His expertise covers multiple areas of forensic science, including global forensic justice issues, forensic policy, and forensic intelligence and practice.
Office: 727-395-2511
Email: klothrid@fiu.edu
Political and Crisis Communications
Aileen Izquierdo
Chair, Communication Department
Associate teaching professor and faculty director, M.S. in Global Strategic Communications
College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
Izquierdo is a communications professional with more than 20 years of strategic communications, branding and crisis communications experience, having held executive, management positions as vice president for communications at Broward College and Florida Atlantic University. Izquierdo was the first vice president for communications and marketing at both of these institutions. She also was the first Hispanic vice president in FAU’s history. Izquierdo is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-919-4429
Hugo Ottolenghi
Assistant teaching professor
College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
Ottolenghi has taught public relations, mass communications and journalism classes at the undergraduate and graduate level at FIU as an adjunct for 12 years. He is certified in online and hybrid instruction. He has worked in public relations for nearly a decade, serving businesses and professionals, and consulting with public relations firms.
Office: 305-919-4411
Education
Laura Dinehart
Associate Professor; Dean for the School of Education and Human Development
School of Education and Human Development; Office of the Dean
Laura Dinehart is the Dean of the School of Education and Human Development. She is an associate professor of Early Childhood Education whose research focuses on contexts that affect the school readiness and developmental outcomes of young children. As dean, Dr. Dinehart oversees the work of three departments, led by three chairs and home to 85 faculty members. She is responsible for supporting instruction, ensuring efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion, research productivity, student recruitment, and academic progress. Dr. Dinehart has strong relationships with community stakeholders and our local LEA.
Office: 305-348-3790
Cell: 305-710-3410