Florentina Bunea

Florentina Bunea is a professor of statistics and data science and a member of the graduate fields of statistics, applied mathematics, and computer science. Her research is broadly centered on statistical machine learning theory and high-dimensional statistical inference. She is interested in developing new methodology accompanied by sharp theory for solving a variety of problems in data science and in the growing area of AI output evaluation. Bunea is a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) and an IMS Medallion Award recipient. She has served or is currently serving as an associate editor for a number of journals, including the Annals of Statistics, Bernoulli, JASA, JRSS-B, EJS, and the Annals of Applied Statistics. She is a co-editor for the Chapman and Hall Statistics and Applied Probability Monograph Series. She is also a member of Cornell Bowers’ Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) council, working to promote the diversity of the workforce in data science disciplines.

Suzanne Charles

   Suzanne Lanyi Charles is an associate professor and Dean’s Fellow in the Department of City and Regional Planning (CRP) and the Rubacha Department of Real Estate. Dr. Charles’s teaching and research examine physical, social, and economic changes in neighborhoods. In particular, her research addresses the financialization of housing and services, with a focus on infill redevelopment, mansionization, and single-family rental housing. Charles is a recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award to Belgium to collaborate with the Real Estate Financial Complex research group at KU Leuven on her comparative study of institutional real estate investment in housing and its effects on tenants, neighborhoods, and housing markets. Charles’s research has received grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell, and the President’s Council of Cornell Women. Dr. Charles represents CRP in the Cornell Faculty Senate. She co-chairs the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Ithaca chapter and serves on the Executive Board of the Cornell Real Estate Council.
   
   Dr. Charles held previous faculty appointments at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Northeastern University. She worked as an architect at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris and as a vice president at Booth Hansen Architects in Chicago, and also as a real estate consultant at the Weitzman Group in New York City. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture. She received her doctorate in urban planning from Harvard University (2011).

Candidate Statement:

As a committee that connects the Faculty Senate with university leadership, helps shape the Senate’s agenda, and offers counsel to the Dean of Faculty on issues affecting the faculty, the UFC is central to fostering thoughtful communication and effective shared governance across the university. I am interested in serving on the University Faculty Committee for the opportunity to support the ongoing work of the Cornell Faculty Senate in this important capacity.
   
   I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to that work in a collegial and constructive manner. I value careful deliberation, broad faculty representation, and the importance of maintaining strong lines of communication among faculty, Senate leadership, and university administration. The committee’s work calls for members who are attentive, collaborative, and mindful of the broader interests of both the faculty and the institution.
   
   I would be honored to serve in this role and to support the Faculty Senate’s ongoing work in strengthening faculty governance at Cornell.

Beth Milles

Beth Milles is a Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. Recent directing work includes HEADING INTO NIGHT a clown play about …forgetting (Edinburgh Festival, Durham Festival, Madrid (Plot Point), Los Angeles (Odyssey Theater), New Orleans and the initial presentation in Ithaca NY (Cherry Arts), AND IF I DON’T BEHAVE THEN WHAT (open fist) TIMEBOMB by Carson Kreitzer (Kitchen Theater) FELT SAD, POSTED A FROG (international pandemic collaboration) FAREWELL CHRIS YEE (NYC). AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY (Hangar Theatre) the world premiere of Iva Brdar’s RULE OF THUMB at the Cherry Arts (Ithaca, NYC) collaborations with award winning poet/playwright/performer Ruth Margraff TEMPTATIONS OF THE FRESH VOLUPTUOUS (a virtual/aural performance evocation (Iowa and Chicago/digital) and LOCKET ARIAS in Chicago (Red Tape/Art Institute of Chicago) Judy Tate’s FAST BLOOD (Civic Ensemble/broadcast nationally/hosted by American Slavery Project.) 

   She directed the West Coast premiere of Carson Kreitzer’s SELF DEFENSE at The Actor’s Gang Theatre in Los Angeles (3 LA Weekly Awards), Julia Sweeney's "GOD SAID HA” on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre, SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, A CERTAIN LABOR DAY, written by and starring Carroll O' Connor at The Union Square Theatre in San Francisco. Beth adapted and directed THE IMAGINARY INVALID at the Actors’ Gang Theater in LA which toured at The Rushmore Festival (4 LA Ovation Awards including Best Adaptation.) 

   She was the recipient of the prestigious Walt Disney Television Fellowship in Directing. Additionally, she has received a Bean Fellowship, NYSCA individual Artist grants, as well as Society for the Humanities, Einhorn Engagement, Cornell Council for the Arts grants to create, forage and imagine work. 

   She has developed new work at many theatres including Playwrights Horizons, The Juilliard School, The Sundance Theatre Institute, American Repertory Theatre, Young Playwrights, Inc., New York Stage and Film, The Mark Taper Forum, The Magic Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival, ASK Theater Projects and South Coast Repertory Theater. Other work includes The Guthrie Theater, Trinity Repertory Theater, The Classical Theatre Lab, The Two River Theater, The Kitchen Theater, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. 

   Beth specializes in interactivity, the instigation of physical impulse, experiential experimentation at the outer edges of farce (that which is unexpected, and improbable) as well as the development of new and devised work. Beth is currently developing a new work (STAGE)fright. Excavations of Despair and Extravagance, a multidisciplinary work in collaboration with writer/performer Chris Wells (Secret City) they have been awarded a Bean Fellowship and TRASH: A circumnavigation with playwright Carson Kreitzer (Lempicka) for which they have been awarded a Society for the Humanities Grant) She was awarded a 2023 NYSCA grant for her work on HEADING INTO NIGHT: A clown play on … forgetting which she directed and co-devised, developed- in collaboration with performer/clown conceptor Daniel Passer (Cirque du Soleil) - which began to tour in the fall of 2024. 

   A graduate of Cornell University and the ART Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, Beth joined the faculty in 2001.

Candidate Statement:

   I would be deeply honored to serve once again on the University Faculty Committee. I see this position as a privilege and a responsibility to represent and advocate for the success and well-being of others. 
   
   Shifts in leadership have re-engaged the obligation to articulate current thinking and future planning. I am grateful and committed to work as a strong, open liaison between Faculty Senate and the Administration to secure ways and opportunities to share information, disclose concerns, and to amplify and dignify goals around safety, research, resources and trust. 
   
   I value the opportunity, while on the Faculty Senate, to engage in the complex issues we face as colleagues and educators. These times have shaped reckonings with our values and our responsibilities- eliciting robust conversations which confront institutional priorities.
   
   I have served on the University Assembly Executive Board as Vice Chair of Operations. This was deeply rewarding work bridging the roles we balance- remaining open to curiosity regarding the things we do not know. 

   I am grateful to engage in shared governance, more so as a Cornell Alumna and now, as a Cornell parent.
   
   I find the mission of service at the University level to be an imperative, rewarding aspect of our work. I have served on the Educational Policy Committee, Faculty Senate, University Assembly. I would welcome the opportunity to work as faculty liaison to the University Administration, articulating and challenges we face as we strive to work successfully as a community, continually balancing our work goals with our humanity.

Learn More:

https://pma.cornell.edu/beth-frances-milles

Bryan Sykes

Dr. Bryan L. Sykes is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at Cornell University and is the Science Core Director for the Cornell Population Center. His research focuses on demography, mass incarceration, population health, law & society, social inequality, and research methodology. Professor Sykes’ work on the collateral consequences of mass incarceration has been published in leading social science, medical, and law journals. His estimates of racial disparities in incarceration were featured in the National Research Council’s (2014) landmark report on The Growth of Incarceration in the United States. Dr. Sykes received a joint Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of California-Berkeley in 2007 and completed post-doctoral research at the University of Washington. Dr. Sykes is also Treasurer of the Law & Society Association; Chair-Elect of the Crime, Law, & Deviance section of the American Sociological Association; and Chair of the Scientific Integrity Committee of the American Society of Criminology. 
   
   He is a Senior Associate Editor for Science Advances (the Open Access version of Science magazine) and is a former Academic Editor for the Public Library of Science (PLOS) One and former Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Perspectives. He also serves as an Ad Hoc Editor for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and has served as a guest editor of Special Issues in Social Sciences (on mass incarceration), PLOS ONE (on health disparities), The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (on monetary sanctions), and Population Research and Policy Review (on mortality in the criminal legal system). 
   
   Dr. Sykes currently serves as a Faculty Senator for the Brooks School of Public Policy and has served in the Faculty Senates of DePaul University and the University of California-Irvine, where he was the Faculty Senate Chair (2021-2022) and Vice Chair (2020-2021) for the School of Social Ecology.

Candidate Statement:

 I am delighted to be considered for a position on the University Faculty Committee (UFC). I have served in the faculty senates of three universities, and during my time in these deliberative bodies, I have come to recognize and value the time and effort past leaders have expended in building more inclusive and welcoming environments. As a Cornell Faculty Senate Member, I have been fortunate to work alongside many of our talented colleagues, making decisions that strengthen our university cohesiveness and identity, while also asking the tough questions necessary to guide the institution through changing and challenging times. As a UFC member, I will continue to bring my curious mind, respectful attitude, and unyielding persistence to a range of questions and issues that are of utmost importance and concern to faculty, students, and staff at Cornell.

Learn More:

https://www.bryanlsykes.com/