Senior Cabinet
Vice Chancellor: Alfred Bloom
Bloom oversees all academic, administrative, and operational affairs.
Bloom joined NYU Abu Dhabi from Swarthmore College, after an 18-year tenure as president. Prior to assuming the presidency at Swarthmore, he served as executive vice president of Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. Previously, he was vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty at Pitzer. He was appointed as assistant professor of psychology and linguistics at Swarthmore in 1974, and named associate provost there in 1985.
Bloom graduated summa cum laude, from Princeton University in 1967. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1974, and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond and Swarthmore College.
Provost: Fabio Piano
Piano serves as NYU Abu Dhabi’s chief academic officer, setting the university's academic strategy and priorities, and overseeing academic appointments and faculty affairs.
Long before his appointment as provost, Piano was instrumental in developing and advancing NYU Abu Dhabi, helping to craft its innovative undergraduate science curriculum, as well as its distinctive research program. Piano is the Director of NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, in New York.
Piano leads an active research program in genomics and systems biology and has been teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels at NYU New York. Prior to serving as a faculty member in Biology at NYU, Piano was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow at Cornell University, where he studied early embryo development and evolutionary biology.
Piano holds a Laurea from the University of Florence and Ph.D. in Biology from NYU, where he also received his BA, MS, and M.Phil.
Assistant Vice Chancellor, Campus Life & Dean of Students: Julie Avina
Avina oversees all aspects of student life, including academic advisement and residential life, and shares responsibility for student health, public safety, food services, athletics, and recreation.
Also the executive director of Opportunity Programs for NYU New York's Office of the Provost, Avina has held several positions at NYU New York's College of Arts and Science since 2005, including associate director of the College Advising Center, director of the Academic Achievement Program, and program associate for the Martin Luther King Scholars.
She received a B.S. in Human Development from Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, and her doctorate of education/health education from Teachers College of Columbia University.
Deputy Vice Chancellor: Hilary Ballon
Ballon serves as the principal representative of NYU Abu Dhabi in New York, working to ensure a strong connection between the two campuses. In addition, Ballon also focuses on curriculum development, and planning the new NYU Abu Dhabi campus on Saadiyat Island and other facilities. Ballon is a University Professor, and a professor of architecture and urban studies at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
She received her B.A. from Princeton University and Ph.D. from M.I.T.
Assistant Vice Chancellor, Global Education and Outreach: Carol Brandt
Brandt plays a central role in shaping and implementing NYU Abu Dhabi's commitment to global education and the institution's connections to Abu Dhabi and the UAE.
Brandt joined NYU Abu Dhabi from Pitzer College, where she most recently held the position of vice president for international programs and fellowships. Previously, Brandt served as Pitzer's associate vice president of international programs, director of the program in American college English, and director of special programs. She was also a senior lecturer in modern languages, literature, and culture.
Brandt received a B.A. and an M.A. in Linguistics from California State University Fresno.
Assistant Vice Chancellor: Planning and Organizational Effectiveness: Peter Christensen
Christensen is responsible for working with areas across the institution in guiding the development of NYUAD's short- and long-term strategic and operational plans. In this role, Christensen helps NYUAD achieve operational excellence through the alignment of its practices and plans with its strategic objectives, and works to communicate those strategies to the NYUAD community.
Christensen received a B.S. in economics and accounting from Gonzaga University, and an M.S. in computer information technology from Regis University.
Associate Vice Chancellor, Finance, Budget, and IT & Campus Finance Officer: Catherine De Long
De Long is responsible for NYUAD's overall resource management, providing the leadership, vision, strategy and facilitation for resource allocation and for the financial and information technology infrastructure that supports the teaching, learning and research mission of the faculty, staff, and students.
De Long first joined NYU in 2001 as associate dean for finance and strategic planning at the Law School. She has since served in a variety of positions, including most recently, associate provost for academic financial planning and fiscal affairs.
De Long holds a BS in Accounting from Marquette University.
Associate Vice Chancellor, Admissions and Financial Aid:
Linda Mills
Mills is responsible for student recruitment and financial aid for NYU Abu Dhabi. Mills will continue as NYU’s Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduates in the Global Network University and as professor of social work, public policy, and law, with teaching appointments at the School of Law, Silver School of Social Work, and Tisch School of the Arts. Mills is also executive director of the NYU Center on Violence and Recovery.
Mills received a B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, a J.D. from the University of California, Hasting College of Law, an M.S.W. from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in Health Policy from Brandeis University.
Senior Vice Provost: Ron Robin
Robin plays a leading role in the recruitment of NYU Abu Dhabi faculty worldwide, and has responsibility for additional critical elements of the academic enterprise. He also serves as NYU’s Senior Vice Provost for Planning.
Robin is a professor of media, culture, and communication at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where he was previously associate dean for academic affairs. Prior to joining NYU, Robin taught U.S. history and communication theory at the University of Haifa, Israel, where he also served for five years as dean of students.
Robin received a B.A. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and an M.A. and Ph.D., in history, from the University of California at Berkeley.
Assistant Vice Chancellor, Public Affairs and Community Relations:
Josh Taylor
Taylor is responsible for ensuring that NYU Abu Dhabi's mission, goals, and image, are effectively communicated to both external and internal audiences. He serves as the school's primary spokesperson, manages its communications, marketing, and special events functions, and helps lead NYUAD's community engagement efforts. Taylor also works with the vice chancellor on issues of strategic importance to the NYUAD community.
Taylor served in a number of capacities at NYU New York, including deputy director of public affairs and directors of web communications. He also held the position of vice president of communications at Teach For America, and worked in new media for companies including CBS Interactive and Microsoft. He received a B.A. in political science from Columbia College.
He received his B.A. in political science from Columbia College.
Academic Deans
Dean of Art and Humanities:
Reindert Falkenburg
As Dean of Humanities & Arts at NYU Abu Dhabi, Falkenburg seeks to engage the entire faculty and student body in innovative and interesting research, exploring cross-discipline collaborations across the faculty and encouraging undergraduate students to participate in research.
Before joining NYUAD, Falkenburg served as chair of the Art History Department at Leiden University in The Netherlands. Before that he was Professor of Western Art and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California; Deputy Director of the Netherlands Institute for Art History; and Research Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
Falkenburg holds his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam, and masters and undergraduate degrees from Gronigen University in the Netherlands. (full bio)
Dean of Engineering: Sunil Kumar
Kumar is a mechanical engineer and Dean of Engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi. He has been instrumental in developing the undergraduate and graduate engineering curricula, and in recruiting engineering faculty for NYUAD.
Kumar joined NYUAD from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, where he was graduate dean and former head of the department of mechanical, aerospace, and manufacturing engineering. He has also taught at the University of California Berkeley, was a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, and a visiting scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.
Kumar holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from University of California, Berkeley; he received a M.S. in mechanical engineering and a M.A. in applied mathematics from the State University of New York Buffalo, and a B.Tech. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. (full bio)
Dean of Science: David Scicchitano
As Dean of Science for NYU Abu Dhabi, Scicchitano is responsible for faculty recruitment, leading the science departments, and developing research.
Since 2004, he has served as director of undergraduate science initiatives for NYU's College of Arts and Sciences. Previously, Scicchitano was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in California. For more than 10 years, he has served as a peer reviewer for the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and as an advisor to McGraw-Hill on biology education.
Scicchitano holds a Ph.D. in physiology from the Pennsylvania State University Milton S. Hershey College of Medicine and a B.A. summa cum laude in chemistry from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. (full bio)
Dean of Social Sciences: Ivan Szelenyi
Szelenyi is dean of Social Sciences at NYU Abu Dhabi and a sociologist specializing in the comparative study of social stratification across cultures over time.
Before joining NYU Abu Dhabi, Szelenyi served as the William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology and professor of political science at Yale University. He also served as the University's sociology department chair and director of the Center for Comparative Research.
Szelenyi holds a Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) and Ph.D. in philosophy and sociology from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He also holds honorary doctorates from The University of Economics, Budapest, The Flinders University of Australia, and the University of Nurnberg. (full bio)
Additional Members of the NYU Abu Dhabi Core
John Sexton, President, NYU
Martin Dorph, Senior Vice President for Finance and Budget, NYU
David McLaughlin, Provost, NYU
Ellen Schall, Dean, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, NYU
