University Faculty Committee Candidate Profiles
Harry de Gorter
Harry de Gorter is a Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Harry is a Canadian who received his PhD in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. His research has been mostly in agricultural and trade policy with emphasis on the WTO trade negotiations in the Uruguay and Doha Rounds, NAFTA and bilateral trade disputes. His more recent research has been on the economics and policy implications of biofuels, food waste and agricultural trade reform post-Doha Development Agenda, especially the impact of subsidies and protection on developing countries. He recently published a book on the price impacts of biofuel policies on food commodity prices. He has also had a strong interest in impacting the policy outcome having long been actively involved in advising many governments and organizations on issues related to agriculture trade policy including the EU, FAO, G-20, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, FAO, World Bank and the WTO. He teaches courses on the economics of globalization and trade agreements, the cost-benefit analysis of trade policy, and the economics of biofuel policies.
I have participated in the meetings and decisions of the Faculty Senate at Cornell and many controversies have arisen, including the creation of the School of Business. I worked towards making this happen. I also feel there have been several important initiatives in the recent past, not all completed like carbon neutrality on campus. As a policy analyst, I believe I have the requisite experience and skills of making important insights into the tradeoffs of any initiative and provide input to the pros and cons. It is my desire to bring the unique perspectives of a policy economist to bear on important issues facing this University as it continues in its unique goals of research, teaching and outreach.
Cynthia Grant Bowman
Cynthia Grant Bowman is the Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, where she teaches courses relating to law and women, including family law, feminist jurisprudence, and a family law clinic which she created in January of 2012 and has taught ever since. She has been one of the faculty senators from the law school for two years. Prior to joining Cornell in 2007, Professor Bowman was very active in faculty governance at Northwestern University, where she taught for 18 years. She served as president of the faculty senate (called the Northwestern University General Faculty Committee) for two years, as chair of the Organization of Women Faculty for two years, and as chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee at the law school for two years. Her interest in faculty governance has been reawakened by the important issues confronting the university in the wake of the 2016 election. That fall she presented a resolution to the faculty senate seeking to make Cornell a sanctuary campus.
Kimberly O'Brien
In 2005 I joined the Cornell faculty and am a Professor of Nutritional Sciences in the College of Human Ecology. For 10 years prior to coming to Cornell I was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of International Health. My professional training included fellowships with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Laboratory of Theoretical and Physical Biology/Section for Metabolic Analysis and Mass Spectrometry and the Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine. The primary research interests of my laboratory are in human nutrient metabolism with an emphasis on mineral and vitamin partitioning between the pregnant women and her developing fetus. At Cornell I have served the university as a member of the University Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Status of the Faculty, Appeals Committee, Ad-hoc tenure committee member, Advisory Board for the Center of Teaching Excellence and have been an active faculty member in programs run by the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives.
I am interested in serving on the UFC to help represent the views and diversity of the faculty at Cornell University. It is a time of change at the national and university level and faculty increasingly must respond to new collaborative and innovative opportunities while dealing with issues of state support, campus climate and the rising cost of higher education. I believe active faculty participation on the UFC will provide opportunities to strengthen communication, find common ground and advance mutual goals.
Rosemary Avery
Professor and Chair, Department of Policy Analysis and Management in the College of Human Ecology, Dr. Avery been a member of the faculty since 1988. Her research, funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focuses on product package warnings and commercial advertisements on prime-time television and other print media focusing on public health issues (graphic warning labels on cigarette packs; smoking cessation products, antidepressants, statins, and over-the-counter dietary products). Her research examines the impact of DDA/FTC warnings and commercial product claims on the health-related behavior of consumers (smoking cessation, diet, exercise, and Rx and OTC product consumptions). She has been the recipient of many distinguished teaching awards. She is a Weiss Presidential Fellow, a Carpenter Award winner, a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Panhellenic Council Outstanding Faculty Member Award, and she has been recognized fifteen times as a recipient of the Merrill Scholarship Teacher Recognition Award. Her university leadership experience includes: Faculty Senate, FACTA Committee, Educational Policy Committee, University Appeals Panel, West Campus Research Committee, Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics and Physical Education, University Library Board, Fraternity and Sorority Advisory Council, and Faculty Fellow, (1993 - ongoing). She has been appointed Dean and House Professor, Rose House, starting in August 2018.
If elected, I will strive to be an effective liaison between the Faculty Senate and the administration with respect to the priorities, concerns and new initiatives of the faculty. I will strive to be an active voice on the committee guiding the implementation of the Social Sciences External Review recommendations. As Cornell strives to maintain and improve upon its standing in the academy as a premier research and teaching institution under new leadership, I will strive to bring before the administration issues that impact excellence of the research and educational components of our mission.
Shannon Gleeson
A PhD in Sociology and Demography, UC Berkeley. Dr. Gleeson is an Associate Professor of Labor Relations, Law & History at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She was previously on the faculty of the Latin American & Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her books include Building Citizenship From Below: Precarity, Migration, and Agency (Routledge, 2017, edited with Marcel Paret), Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace Protections in the United States (University of California Press, 2016), The Nation and Its Peoples: Citizens, Denizens, Migrants (Routledge, 2014, edited with John Park), and Conflicting Commitments: The Politics of Enforcing Immigrant Worker Rights in San Jose and Houston (Cornell University Press, 2012). Gleeson is involved in several other collaborative projects, regarding the role of the Mexican Consulate in protecting the rights of immigrant workers (with Xóchitl Bada), the local implementation of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (with Els de Graauw), and the impacts of temporary legal status on immigrant workers (with Kate Griffith).
She looks forward to working with the UFC, especially to consider issues related to fulfilling Cornell’s public mission, transparency and faculty governance, protecting academic freedom, diversifying the academy, and equity for immigrants and students of color.