Dr. Marzie Jafari, acting dean of the Division of Adult and Continuing Education and professor of Urban and Regional Geography at Lehman College, has been appointed as the new dean of that division. Her appointment was approved on June 28 by the CUNY Board of Trustees and became effective July 1.
Dr. Jafari joined Lehman in 2001 as the division’s associate dean and became acting dean last year, following the retirement of its long-serving dean, Dr. Michael Paull. Altogether, she has more than 15 years of experience in this field, having served previously as deputy director of the Continuing Education Program at Hunter College.
“Dr. Jafari is a strong advocate for lifelong learning and career development,” said Dr. Mary A. Papazian, Lehman’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “In her years at Lehman, she has developed collaborative relationships with important community partners and has been highly innovative in her approach to this critical field of education. We expect that under her leadership the division will continue to expand its service to the borough, the city and the region.”
The Division of Adult and Continuing Education currently enrolls 12,000 men and women in more than a dozen programs, including adult degree, professional development, test preparation, ESL, and programs for children and teens.
A graduate of Hunter College, Dr. Jafari holds an undergraduate degree in computer science as well as a master’s from Hunter in geography, with a specialty in Geographic Information Systems. She earned her doctorate in earth and environmental sciences from the CUNY Graduate Center. Earlier in her career, from 1991-1996, she taught algebra, pre-calculus, physics, and computer software applications in STEP programs at Barnard College and Hunter’s Brookdale campus.
At Lehman, Dr. Jafari has launched several initiatives, including CUNY on the Concourse, an off-site workforce development center. Her community and workforce development projects have been funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the New York State Department of Education, 1199 SEIU, and New York City’s Department of Small Business Services, Human Resources Administration and Department of Youth and Community Development.
