This is an interactive and inspiring presentation, drawing from the presenter's book, The New College Classroom. Cathy N. Davidson is the Senior Advisor on Transformation to the Chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY), a role which includes work with all twenty-five campuses serving over 500,000 students. She is also the Founding Director of the Futures Initiative and Distinguished Professor of English, as well as the M.A. in Digital Humanities and the M.S. in Data Analysis and Visualization programs at the Graduate Center (CUNY). The author or editor of over twenty books, she has taught at a range of institutions, from community college to the Ivy League. She held two distinguished professor chairs at Duke University, where she taught for twenty-five years and also became the university’s (and the nation’s) first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. She is cofounder and codirector of “the world’s first and oldest academic social network,” the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC.org, known as “Haystack”). Founded in 2002, HASTAC has over 18,000 network members. (Click here for full bio)

As senior vice president, Peterson is responsible for overseeing and managing the finances and support services of The Graduate Center. As dean for academic initiatives, his priorities include leading new academic programming opportunities, such as certificates, hybrid and online courses, and non-degree offerings; advancing and strengthening global partnerships; raising the profile of the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies; and supporting The Graduate Center’s strategic planning and implementation. Before joining The Graduate Center in 2018, Peterson was associate dean of student and community affairs at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. He led the teams that established the CUNY School of Professional Studies in 2003 and launched CUNY’s first online degree program in 2006. (Click here for full bio)