Hunter Welcomes New Faculty to Roosevelt House

Richard Jackson, Joan H. Tisch Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Public Health

Richard J. Jackson, the Tisch Fellow in Public Health currently in residence at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Center at Hunter College, is Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health at the University of California. A pediatrician and public health leader, he held prior academic appointments at the University of Michigan and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was recognized as the Distinguished Teacher and Mentor of the Year. He served in many leadership positions in both environmental health and infectious diseases with the California Health Department, including the highest, State Health Officer. For nine years he was Director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta and for this work received the Presidential Distinguished Service award at the White House.

Shyama Venkateswar, Director of the Public Policy Program

Dr. Venkateswar has over 15 years of experience in research, policy, and advocacy focusing on social justice issues, both in the U.S. and globally. Until recently, she worked at the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW), where she served as Director of Research & Programs, and helped guide the Council's policy agenda on economic security for low-income women, diversity in higher education and the corporate arena, women's leadership, and ending global violence against women. She is co-author of two recent NCRW reports - "Caring for Our Nation's Future" and "The Challenge and the Charge: Strategies for Retaining and Advancing Women of Color" - in addition to numerous opinion pieces on poverty, job creation, peace-building, and immigrant rights published in national and international newspapers. In addition to her work with NCRW, Dr. Venkateswar served as an academic adviser at Queens College, founding executive director of Mercy Corps' Action Center to End World Hunger, director of the Asian Social Issues Program at the Asia Society, and program officer at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.  She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University and is a graduate of Smith College.

Lawrence Moss, Rita E. Hauser Director of the Human Rights Program

Mr. Moss first joined Roosevelt House in January 2013 as interim director of the Human Rights Program. Before coming to Hunter, he represented Human Rights Watch at the United Nations for seven years, administered the Hellman/Hammett grants for writers around the world facing persecution, served as a consultant for the Open Society Institute and the United Nations Association, and taught human rights advocacy at the New York University Center for Global Affairs. He has been part of the human rights movement since travelling in Latin America in 1978 and returning to write the first reports of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights regarding El Salvador and Nicaragua. Mr. Moss is a native New Yorker and a graduate of NYC public schools, Brown University and Stanford Law School. While practicing law, he served as founding chair of the NYC Bar Association's Special Committee on the UN and on the association's human rights committee, and continues to represent the bar association at the UN.  He also chaired the New York State New Democratic Coalition, served as an elected member of the NY Democratic State Committee for 16 years, and chaired the Party's Reform Caucus.