TO:   THE NYU SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES COMMUNITY

FROM:   President Andrew Hamilton, Provost Katherine Fleming

RE:   The Appointment of Angie Kamath as the New Dean of SPS

With much pride and pleasure, we would like to share with the members of the SPS community the news of the appointment of a new dean for the school: we have named Angie Kamath, University Dean at the City University of New York (CUNY), as Dean of NYU’s School of Professional Studies, effective July 1, 2021.

This is an important appointment for the university. SPS has consistently innovated new ways to bring students together with key global industries, professions, and communities.  And that is why we see Angie Kamath as such a good fit and we are so pleased with her selection. The Search Committee — co-chaired by Billie Gastic Rosado, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts, Languages, and Post-Traditional Undergraduate Studies, and Clay Shirky, Vice Provost for Educational Technologies — was greatly impressed by her entrepreneurial energy; the spirit and vision she had brought to her role at CUNY; her experience and record of achievement across sectors; her focus on students and their success; her understanding of the connection between education, workforce development, social mobility, and economic development; the importance she attaches to data and metrics in her policy-making, program evaluation, and objective-setting; and the clarity and force with which she articulates her ambitions for the school, its faculty, its students, and its staff.

Since her appointment as University Dean at CUNY in 2017, Angie has had a leadership role in continuing education, career readiness, and developing student supports; built partnerships with the private, public, and non-profit sectors to create pipelines for a diverse, local workforce; and fundraised more than $20 million for strategic, industry-informed initiatives in workforce development.

Prior to her appointment at CUNY, Angie was executive director of Per Scholas, a Bronx-based not-for-profit whose mission is to provide tuition-free skills training and access to employer networks to individuals often excluded from work in tech. From 2008 to 2013, she served as Assistant Commissioner and then Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, where she oversaw 16 federally-funded Workforce1 Career Centers and a staff that helped place over 25,000 New Yorkers in jobs annually.  Before her New York City government appointments, she was executive director of StreetWise Partners, Inc, which provides job training and mentoring services to unemployed and underemployed individuals. Earlier posts included serving as an adjunct professor at SUNY Purchase, and positions at the Center for Applied Research, the Asian Development Bank, and Salomon Smith Barney / Citigroup.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in business management and applied economics from Cornell, and a Masters in Public Policy degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School.  She is a member of the Cornell President’s Council on Women and a Dyson Alumni Board member, a Board member of Coro Leadership New York, and a mayoral-appointed member of the New York City Workforce Development Board.

While our focus today is rightly on the news of Angie Kamath’s appointment, we cannot let the opportunity pass to offer our sincere gratitude and praise to Susan Greenbaum, who has served as Dean of SPS. Susan began her leadership of SPS in June 2018 and we were very fortunate that a person of Susan’s experience, intelligence, and capabilities was willing to step forward at a time of transition and take on the leadership of the school. She has done an outstanding job in her time there, has been a valued contributor to the University’s leadership team, and is a wonderful University citizen. We are certain we speak for the entire SPS community when we express our gratitude to Susan.

We would also like to thank the members of the search committee. Few duties at a university are as weighty as the selection of a dean, who is so vital to setting a direction for a school. The members of this search committee have brought us an excellent candidate, and we appreciate their hard work, which came on top of their regular duties, and their discernment.

Please join us in congratulating Angie Kamath and welcoming her to NYU and to SPS. We are confident that SPS will be in good hands, and that the school will thrive under her leadership.