5th Annual Banquet (2006) – Biographies

Nehru E. Cherukupalli (a.k.a. C.E. Nehru) is Professor of Geology at Brooklyn College, CUNY. He hails from South India, had his schooling in Madras, India, and earned a Ph.D. in geology from Madras University. He also has a Master’s degree from Columbia University, New York. He has been teaching at Brooklyn College, City University of New York for over four decades and has been the past Chairman of the Geology Department. He has field experience in many places in India and in the United States and Canada. He has worked in mining operations in copper and iron ore mines in India. He has also worked on Moon rocks and he works on Meteorites and is a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He has considerable experience in teaching all levels of students at Brooklyn College and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Prof. Nehru has authored more than a hundred research papers in geology. He is also interested in environmental geology and teacher education. He has taught geology to ESL (English as Second Language) students and published on this subject. More recently he has taken part in the CUNY Chancellor’s relief efforts of the victims of the December 2004 Tsunami of South Asia. In November 2005 he Chaired the Tsunami session held by Association of Exploration Geophysicists in Poona, India.  Since June 2006, he has taken on the responsibility as the Interim Executive Director of Asian American/ Asian Research Institute (AAARI) in New York.

Loretta Chin is currently a Research Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Education Ready to Learn Partnership grant, in the Brooklyn College Children’s Studies Program and Center. Initially, she was invited by the Director of the center, Prof. Gertrud Lenzer, to join Children’s Studies as the Conference Manager for the Carnegie Corporation grant funded policy symposium entitled, “Children and the Law in New York,” held on March 11, 2004.  The symposium led to legislation in the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate to establish an Office of the Child Advocate for New York.  It is currently in the New York State Senate under Bill S6877A.

She started her career at Brooklyn College in 1990, in the Division of Student Life, where she worked closely with administration and with students on numerous Community Building Initiative projects:  The Making a Difference Dinner/Dance; the Campus Beautification Project; the BC Circles Facilitator Dialogue Series, Human Rights Week, the Student Campus Information and Participation Program; and the Asian Outreach Project, which helped lead to the establishment of an Asian Studies Minor at Brooklyn College in the Spring 2006 semester.

Matthew Goldstein was appointed Chancellor of the City University of New York, effective September 1, 1999. He is the first CUNY graduate to lead the nation’s most prominent urban public university (City College, Class of 1963).

Dr. Goldstein has served in senior academic and administrative positions for more than twenty years, including as President of Baruch College, President of the Research Foundation, and Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of CUNY. Prior to being named Chancellor, he was President of Adelphi University.

Jay Hershenson is Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Vice Chancellor for University Relations of The City University of New York — the leading public urban university system in the nation. His portfolio includes the development and implementation of CUNY’s external relations program, including governmental, media and community relations, and the administration of the Board of Trustees’ agenda. He has worked in senior level administrative positions for six CUNY Chancellors since the mid-1970’s and with over 100 CUNY trustees. He has made a lifelong commitment to education and, in particular, to the use of higher education to positively transform lives. He received an M.A. in Urban Studies and a B.A. in Communications, Arts and Sciences and University Administration from Queens College, CUNY, after transferring from Queensborough Community College, CUNY. He is a former Vice Chairperson of the Anti-Defamation League Regional New York Board and current Board member. He served as a member of the United Negro College Fund Scholarship Committee and the Board of Directors of the Council of Churches. He was Padrino Duartiano Internacional of the Bronx Dominican Parade the past two years and is the 2005 Grand Marshall for Education.

Hiroko Karan received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Brown University. After postdoctoral positions at Fels Research Institute at Temple University Medical School and the Biophysics Laboratory at New York University, she joined the faculty of chemistry at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York in 1980. Professor of Chemistry, she has served as Chairperson of the Department of Physical and Computer Sciences, Assistant Dean and Dean of the School of Science, Health and Technology for the past twelve years and since September, 2004, she is serving as Executive Director of Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP). Her Office serves as the central research office for the College, assisting the faculty and staff in obtaining external funds by providing pre- and post- award services and the College community to increase external funds and resources for research.

For the past fifteen years, Dr. Karan has engaged in research on enzyme biosensors containing polymeric electron transfer systems and has published, presented and lectured extensively in the area. A recipient of research grants, she has been serving as a consultant for National Institutes of Health. as a proposal reviewer. An educator, she has been an advocate for women and minorities in science and has mentored many students during her tenure at Medgar Evers College, many of whom have pursued careers in Science, Medicine and other Health Related Professions and actively serve the community. She established the Health Science Research Assistance Center (HSRAC) in the School of Science, Health and Technology in 1997 supported by the Extramural Associates Research Development Award funded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to encourage, assist and enhance faculty research in the areas of biomedical, natural, environmental and behavioral sciences and obtaining external funds.

Dr. Karan is an active participating member of many professional organizations. She serves as a board member, officer and elected councilor of New York Section of the American Chemical Society and the Association for Women in Science. In 2002, She was appointed as a Committee Associate of the Joint Board Council Committee on Minority Affairs of the American Chemical Society. She was recognized for her outstanding services by the New York Section of American Chemical Society, as an outstanding women scientist by the Association for Women in Science, New York Metropolitan Chapter, as a Brooklyn Women of Essence for her contribution in Science Education by the Consolidated Edison Women History Month Program. She is also a co-founder of Medgar Evers College Annual Environmental Issues Conference which had celebrated its 11^th annual conference in March 2006.

Vivian Lee joined the WNBC NewsChannel 4 team in August 2002. As a general assignment reporter, Lee’s work has taken her from examining the financial district’s economic prospects post-9-11, to investigating affordable housing contracts to landlords in the city’s notorious Single Resident Occupancy buildings on the West Side; from explorations of the impact of the terrorist attacks on ethnic Arab and Muslim communities through domestic anti-terrorism measures, to examining the Korean American community’s wide-ranging opinions on continuing tension between North and South Korea and relations between both countries with the U.S.

Ms. Lee graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and a minor in the Russian Language.  A devoted youth mentor and volunteer, Lee currently tutors fourth graders in English and Math at PS 1 in Chinatown. When she’s not running on the ground, she tries to spend as much of her time as possible in the air — flying with the Trapeze School of New York.

David Ng was appointed Executive Editor of the New York Daily News in June 9, 2006.  In his new position, Ng becomes one of the highest ranking Asian Americans at a major metropolitan newspaper.

In 2000, Ng joined The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, as the paper’s assistant managing editor/production, where he oversaw Page One and was responsible for the paper meeting its press deadlines. He worked for the Daily News from 1993-2000 as a deputy news editor, metropolitan editor, and deputy managing editor in charge of news. Before that he spent 13 years at the New York Post as a general assignment reporter, rewrite editor, education writer, day city editor and associate managing editor.

Ng is a graduate of the 2004-2005 AAJA/New York Times Mentor Program, a year-long program for mid-career journalists considering a transition to the business side of the industry. A 1996 graduate of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program (ELP), he has returned to serve as speaker, co-chair the program’s 10th anniversary retreat, and offer his support to other Asian Americans pursuing news management. He was awarded the ELP Outstanding Leadership Award in 2000.

Betty Lee Sung is Professor Emerita and Chairperson of Asian American/ Asian Research Institute. She is the former Chairperson of Asian American Studies Department at City College, CUNY. Professor Sung has published innumerable articles and seven books on Chinese Americans including Mountain of Gold (1967), and Chinese American Manpower and Employment , which won an outstanding book of the year award for 1976.