Mikaela Chang (Apex for Youth)

(she/her) is the Queens Elementary Program Manager at Apex for Youth, a nonprofit organization that provides enrichment and mentoring opportunities to Asian or immigrant youth from low-income backgrounds. Through her work at Apex she strives to equip both youth and their mentors with the tools to build positive self identity, community mindedness, and empathy. Prior to Apex she was a high school history teacher and completed her undergraduate work in International Studies and Education at Middlebury College. In her free time she enjoys biking around her neighborhood, listening to music, and frequenting coffee shops.

 

Andrea Efthymiou (English / Writing Center)

Andrea Efthymiou is Writing Center Director and Associate Professor of English. In both her writing courses and in writing center administration, Andrea fosters students’ engagement in collaborative writing and revision practices, with an awareness of the needs of students’ local communities. Andrea’s research explores writing tutor labor and staff education, as well as best practices for supporting undergraduate research. Her current research scholarship includes a collaboratively edited collection on interfaith dialogue in writing centers and a study of the rhetoric of child adoption in the U.S. 

 

Lizandra Friedland (Office of Institutional Effectiveness)

Lizandra Friedland is the Associate Director for Survey Research, where she leads the design, implementation, and analysis of campus surveys and the collection of key student and alumni data. In this role, she aims to promote a deeper understanding of our community’s experiences and development through cohort studies, impact evaluation studies, needs assessment, and other projects.  

A first-generation graduate and QC alum, collaborating with fellow faculty and staff on student-centered initiatives is the highlight of her work. Lizandra has been with Queens College since 2011 and holds master’s degrees in Data Analytics and Applied Social Research, and in Philosophy. Outside the OIE, Lizandra teaches in the Philosophy department where she guides her students through the fascinating world of formal logic. 

 

Eric Goldfischer (Urban Studies)

Eric Goldfischer is a Lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies at Queens College. He is a geographer by training, and his research and teaching interests focus on the intersection of housing justice, participatory-action research, urban space, and policing. Dr. Goldfischer is the Service-Learning coordinator in the Urban Studies Department, with a particular focus on teaching and facilitating the service-learning seminar (URBST 370/372) and guiding students through fulfilling service-learning placements with nonprofits, activist organizations, and government agencies. His writing has been published in journals such as Housing Studies, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, and Metropolitics. In his research, he has collaborated closely with groups led by those with lived experience of housing deprivation. Outside of academic work, Dr. Goldfischer began his career as a community organizer and is trained as a popular educator, and he believes that in the classroom setting, we are all teachers and learners alongside each other.

 

Soniya Munshi (Urban Studies / CETLL)

Soniya Munshi (she/they) is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership (CETLL) and an Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College where she serves as the Faculty Advisor for the Asian American Community Studies minor and co-Director of QCAP. Their research and teaching interests include gender, health, and disability justice movements in immigrant communities of color, with a focus on liberatory and transformative approaches to violence and harm; autoethnography and memoir; creative and participatory research methodologies; and critical, feminist, and ethnic studies pedagogies. She is based in Queens, the borough that raised her.

 

Vladimir Zhivulko (Former QC Student)

After a decade working in the livery industry, primarily assisting immigrant populations in securing gainful employment, I returned to school to pursue my passion for helping others. Since then, I have completed a double major in Urban Studies and Psychology at Queens College, completed internships focused on eviction diversion at the Center For Justice Innovation, and worked as a behavioral health counselor with Goodwill Industries. I am currently pursuing graduate studies at the Silberman School of Social Work, with a particular focus on the intersection between mental health and broader societal systems.