Culminating three highly competitive national searches that attracted the interest of pools of exceptionally qualified candidates, the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York voted on December 15 to appoint three top professionals to senior leadership positions at Hunter College.
“The applicant pools we had for these searches were strong and we are incredibly fortunate that in each case we have been able to appoint superlative candidates,” said Hunter College President Nancy Cantor. “I’m deeply grateful to the committees and to all the Hunter community members who asked thoughtful questions and provided insightful input to these searches. As we engage in both strategic planning and the Middle States’ self-study processes, we have great aspirations for advancing Hunter’s legacy as an engine of innovation, creativity, and social mobility that is an anchor institution in New York City. These three exceptionally talented leaders will play key roles in helping us do just that.”
Jessica Alvarez has been appointed General Counsel and Labor Designee at Hunter College. In this role, she provides advice and counsel to the president and senior administrators on matters including litigation, employment and labor law, compliance and contractual agreements, governance, fundraising, and immigration. She also is the College's liaison to the University's Office of Legal Affairs as well as the campus Ethics Officer and Records Access Officer and serves as hearing officer of disciplinary and grievance proceedings and represents the College at higher levels of the disciplinary and grievance processes.
Alvarez joined Hunter College as Assistant Legal Counsel in 2015 and served in a progression of roles in the Office of Legal Affairs, most recently as Interim General Counsel and Labor Designee, where she has improved collaboration with senior leadership within the college, with CUNY’s Office of General Counsel, and with external partners. Before joining Hunter, Alvarez worked as a litigation associate for Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and served as a law clerk for The Honorable Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York. She holds a BA in Government and Italian from Dartmouth College and JD from New York University School of Law.
Alexis Eggleton has been appointed Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the Hunter College Foundation Board, roles in which she has served as interim since November 2023. She develops, implements, and oversees the college’s comprehensive fundraising efforts. The broad scope of her work includes building a fundraising team, coordinating with academic leaders of Hunter’s schools and departments, strategizing with senior leadership, and overseeing alumni relations.
Previously, Eggleton was Vice President of Advancement of Girl Scouts of Greater New York, where she supervised the advancement team, led all major fundraising initiatives, and worked with the board development committee to diversify the board’s composition to better reflect the diversity of the Girl Scouts served by the organization. Prior to that, Eggleton had been at Hunter as a development officer in the Office of the President, where she managed Hunter’s 14 advisory boards, and served as Secretary to the Hunter College Foundation Board. This followed senior advancement positions at Montefiore Hospital System and Young Adult Institute. Earlier in her career, she was Executive Director of a regional branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs and served as a legislative aide in the Catskills area, where she has earned numerous recognitions for her community engagement and impact. She earned her BA in English from The Ohio State University and completed the Executive Advanced Leadership Program of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Gustavo Ordóñez has been appointed Vice President for Administration, a role in which he has served as interim since July 2022. He oversees a wide-ranging portfolio of key operating units of the college including Public Safety, Facilities Management, Planning and Capital Projects, Instructional Computing and Information Technology (ICIT), and Environmental Health and Safety, while managing over 350 staff and ensuring the continuity, safety, and effectiveness of Hunter College’s core services.
Having an unusually expansive background in both real estate law and management of multi-billion dollar capital budgets, Ordóñez brought two dozen years of experience in commercial real estate and capital project leadership to Hunter, including 12 years with CUNY in the General Counsel’s Office and the Office of Facilities Planning, Construction and Management during which he was an advocate for all CUNY institutions while spearheading some of the university’s most consequential real estate and capital transactions. Prior to that, he held a series of positions of increasing responsibility within law firms overseeing complex transactions for clients ranging from small property owners and tenants to companies with large commercial and residential properties. Holding a BA in Spanish Literature and Political Science from Stony Brook University of SUNY and a JD with honors from Boston College Law School, Ordóñez is pursuing an MBA from Baruch College.
