Supporting Excellence

Dr. Vanessa K. Vald├®s

Dean, Macaulay Honors College

Interim Dean Dr. Vanessa K. Valdés is an accomplished scholar, historian, author, and mentor of students. She joins Macaulay after serving two and a half years as Director of City College’s Black Studies Program, overseeing 1,100 students per year, more than 20 faculty and staff members, and over 60 majors and minors. A graduate of Yale and Vanderbilt Universities, Dr. Valdés’s research interests focus on the cultural production of Black peoples throughout the Americas: the United States and Latin America, including Brazil, and the Caribbean.

Her book on the influential and foundational historian, writer, collector and activist Arturo Alfonso Schomburg—Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (2017)—is regarded as the definitive account of his experiences as a Black Puerto Rican-born scholar and the intersection of his multi-ethnic backgrounds. Her latest book, Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean (2020) is an edited collection that re-centers Haiti in the disciplines of Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

Dr. Ianna Hawkins Owen (Hunter '08)

Panelist

Ianna Hawkins Owen (she/her/he/him) is an assistant professor of English and African American Studies at Boston University and is working on a first book manuscript titled Ordinary Failure. Previously a Ford Foundation fellow, a Woodrow Wilson fellow, and a UC President's Postdoc, Owen's work has appeared in Feminist Review, Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, Post45, Radical Teacher, and is forthcoming in Social Text. Owen is currently collaborating with Kianna Middleton and Tala Khanmalek to stage a free, three-day virtual symposium about the work of African American novelist, poet, and critic Gayl Jones during May 2022. More information is available at www.gayljonessymposium.org 

Dr. Norrell Edwards (Hunter ÔÇÿ13)

Panelist

Norrell Edwards is a scholar, activist, and communications consultant for non-profit organizations. Her employment experience and research interests place her work at the nexus of global Black identity, cultural memory, and social justice. Dr. Norrell Edwards graduated from Macaulay Honors at Hunter College in Spring 2013. While at Hunter, Norrell participated in the Thomas Hunter Honors program, the New York-Paris Exchange program, Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, JFEW Summer in Public Policy and the Leadership Alliance while also playing volleyball for the Hunter Hawkes for 2 years and spending 1 year on cross country. Norrell also won the English department’s Blanche Colton Williams Scholarship prize for English majors headed to graduate school. Norrell began her doctorate in the Fall of 2013 at the University of Maryland, College Park with a Graduate Mcnair fellowship--a special fellowship for alums of the Undergraduate Mcnair program.

During her tenure at the UMD, Norrell served as graduate writing fellow and writing tutor at the university--honing her skills as an editor and tutor.  Norrell worked several jobs while completing her doctorate ranging from grant writing, business communications instructor, and administration for several DC based nonprofits. While working part-time at the DC office for The Drug Policy Alliance, the leading non-profit fighting the war on drugs, Norrell gained invaluable experience related to public policy and criminal justice reform. That knowledge helped Dr. Edwards secure her first position post-doctorate (after graduating in December 2019 with her doctorate in English literature) as the Assistant Director of Education at Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative--working with formerly incarcerated and incarcerated students. Norrell has also used her advocacy skills to support police reform efforts in her hometown of New Rochelle.

Norrell left her position at Georgetown to pursue an one-year postdoc as the Chancellor’s Postdoctoral fellow at Texas Christian University to focus more time on her research.  Since the close of her postdoc, Dr. Edwards has returned to teach at her alma mater as a Distinguished Lecturer. Currently, Dr. Edwards also serves as a policy fellow for the West Moore campaign for Governor of Maryland and as board member for the Feminist Press. With extensive scholarship on the Haitian diaspora, Norrell has published in several peer-review journals and edited collections as well as public work in LA Review of Books, The Grio and the Black Westchester.

Ana Billingsley (Hunter ÔÇÿ13)

Panelist

Ana is an Assistant Director at the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab where she oversees the organization's criminal justice portfolio, providing technical assistance to local governments pursuing reform projects on violence prevention, pretrial release and cash bail policy, diversion, and alternative 911 emergency response. Ana previously served as the Director of Workforce Development at the New York City Department of Correction (NYCDOC), where she worked with non-profit and education stakeholders to create employment and reentry programming for young adults incarcerated on Rikers Island. Prior to working at NYCDOC, Ana worked as a research assistant at the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) where she conducted qualitative interviews with men involved in the justice system as part of a national evaluation of adult reentry courts and a community needs and impact assessment. Ana holds a BA in Africana Studies from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University. ÔÇï

Devjani Paul (City ÔÇÿ21)

Panelist

Devjani Paul (she/hers) is an alum from City College of New York Class of 2021 who has recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology. Through the Macaulay Honors College 4+1 pipeline program with the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health, she is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Community Health and Social Sciences. During her time at Macaulay Honors College, Devjani was selected as a William R. Kenan Scholar for her work in community service and civic engagement and as one of the refounders and co-presidents of the Macaulay Diversity Initiative, she also has been deeply involved in the efforts to increase racial equity and diversity in her school’s community. 



Devjani is passionate about advocating with vulnerable communities and helping community members access necessary resources for their health. Growing up as a first-generation student in a low-income community of color, Devjani has personally experienced the many barriers and challenges many of us face when accessing health resources, especially mental health resources, and she hopes to dedicate her career to reducing these barriers to increase utilization of health services in low-income communities of color in the United States in efforts to improve our health.

Sierra Santiago (Hunter '24)

Host

Sierra Santiago (she/her) is a second-year undergraduate student at Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and is Co-President of Macaulay Diversity Initiative. She is pursuing a Political Science major, a Public Policy Certificate through the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, and an Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies minor. At Macaulay, she also serves as Outreach Coordinator for Macaulay Peace Action and on the Macaulay Career Advisory Council in the Law & Government Sub-Committee. She is also a member of the first cohort of the Justice and Equity Honors Network, Macaulay's Partnership program with Arizona State University's Barrett Honors College, through which she conducts research surrounding social justice issues. She is interested in working in public service, and is currently interning at the Office of Congresswoman Grace Meng (D06-NY), as well as volunteering at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the Met Collective program. 

Brianna Krummenacker (Hunter '24)

Host

Brianna Krummenacker (she/her) is a a second-year undergraduate student at Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and is Co-President of Macaulay Diversity Initiative. She is double majoring in Sociology and English-Spanish Translation and Interpretation and pursuing a minor in Public Policy, while following the Pre-Law track. Her dedication to diversity and inclusion stems directly from the obstacles she's constantly overcoming as a young Black woman within the professional world. Her experiences have motivated her to want to prevent this for future generations by acknowledging and eliminating racial biases within society so that young children of color can grow up feeling proud of who they are. Aside from the work she does with MDI, Brianna dedicates much of her time as an intern at the Urban Outreach Center where she and her team address the issues of food insecurity, homelessness, and poverty. She aspires to become an attorney to promote policies and services that assist the next generation of students to emerge into strong adults with promising futures.