CUSP Structure and Staff
LAVINIA E. LORCH, Ph.D. (lel52@columbia.edu)
Senior Assistant Dean, Student Affairs
Director, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Born and raised on the Columbia campus, Lavinia Lorch earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Barnard College as a Senior Scholar and her PhD in Classics from Columbia University where she taught both Latin and Literature Humanities. Lorch’s teaching career includes Latin and Greek at Vassar College and French at New York’s New School for Social Research as well as language and literature classes in several private city high schools. She is the recipient of the Mary Isabel Sibley Fellowship for Greek Studies, the Lawrence H. Chamberlain Fellowship, the President’s Fellowship, the Murray Fellowship for the Humanities, and the Mary Allison Prize for General Excellence in Scholarship. She has published on Euripides as well as Ovid and Dante, has translated poetry from Greek, Italian and French, has lectured both in the States and abroad, and played the lead role in Euripides’ Medea performed off Broadway in ancient Greek. Lorch’s academic interests lie in relating and applying the lessons of classical literature and philosophy to real world issues.
In the Fall of 2000, Lorch was hired to design, implement, and direct the Scholars Program at Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. Until 2005 she also directed the university’s Fellowships office which prepares and advises students for prestigious national fellowships. Lorch’s previous experience in educational administration includes ten years working in New York City's private school system, specifically in bilingual bicultural settings. She served as the founding Headmistress of La Scuola New York (now La Scuola d’Italia), and later worked at the Lycée Français de New York as Director of the English Program, Director of Admissions, and Academic and Administrative Director. Believing in the philosophy of educating the complete individual, Lorch focuses on implementing interdisciplinary projects and paracurricular programs in collaboration with colleagues and professionals in diverse fields.
Lorch spends weekends at her Catskills New York farm with her husband, Michael van Biema, and their children, Fiamma and Tristan, raising a barnful of animals including llamas, alpacas, goats and chickens.
KRISTIN GAGER, Ph.D. (keg2114@columbia.edu)
Advising Dean, Center for Student Advising
Assistant Director, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Kristin was born in New Haven, Connecticut and spent her first few years living in Germany and Switzerland. She was raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Kristin received her B.A. from Barnard College and then went on to pursue a Ph.D. in European History (with a specialization in French history), at Princeton University. She spent two years in Paris working in the archive and manuscript divisions of the National Archives. Kristin joined the History Department at the University of New Hampshire as an Assistant Professor where she taught courses on the Renaissance, the Reformation, Western Civilization and the History of the Family and Sexuality in addition to advising history majors and honors students. She won a prize for her dissertation, which gave her a semester’s leave to edit the dissertation for publication as a book. She published her book, Blood Ties and Fictive Ties: Adoption in Early Modern France with Princeton University Press in 1996.
In 1996 Kristin moved to Paris and spent three years working as an independent scholar. Her next project (still underway) tells the story of the only female court jester in the French Royal Court in the 17th century. In addition to living in Paris, Kristin spent her Junior Year abroad studying at the University of Florence and a year studying German in Berlin, Germany. She returned to the U.S. and accepted a position as Trade Science acquisitions editor at Princeton University Press where she worked with scientists to publish their work in book form and for a broad, general public audience. Kristin then pursued a Master’s degree in Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute in NYC, specializing in academic librarianship. Upon completion of the degree she was hired at the Watson Library at Emory University as the “European History and Humanities Librarian.” Here, she taught courses on library research skills and advised students on term papers.
After a brief interlude in the business world working for a consulting firm based in Paris, Kristin realized how much she missed working with students and was lucky enough to join the Center for Student Advising at Columbia as an Advising Dean and Assistant Director of CUSP in January, 2011.
When not working with students at the CSA and attending CUSP events, Kristin runs with her dog in Central Park, practices yoga, reads widely and continues to explore the many facets of New York City.
LEORA BROVMAN (lb2258@columbia.edu)
Advising Dean, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program/Center for Student Advising
Leora Brovman grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, with honors. After leaving South Africa to come to the United States to continue her education, Columbia became Leora’s American home. Beginning with her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia’s School of Social Work, and then followed by her Ed.D. in Philosophy and the Social Sciences from Teachers College, Leora has spent the best part of her educational and professional life on the Columbia campus. Leora’s doctoral thesis researched the impact of social conditions on the development of social work curriculum in three schools of social work.
Upon completion of her doctoral work, Leora began working at Columbia as an assistant dean for students in Columbia College. In addition to generalist advising, Leora was responsible for the pre-law advising, development of the Urban New York and COOP programs, and the student and faculty advising program. Leora took a leave from Columbia to spend some time with her children and during this time worked closer to home as Director of Refugee Resettlement in Bergen County. During her tenure the community resettled in excess of 300 families from the former Soviet Union and Iran. She also taught on the Social Work faculty at Ramapo college for several years, teaching classes in the history of social work, the sociology of the family, and gender issues.
Leora spent five years with her family in London. During that time she continued her work in curriculum development for a co-curriculuar school, served as deputy head of the school, and enjoyed the English art museums and historical sites. Upon returning to the US, she found her way back to Columbia where she has been an advising dean in the Center for Student Advising since 2004. Leora enjoys her generalist advising responsibilities as well as working specifically with the transfer student population, and she specially enjoys working with the Scholars Program.
MICHAEL DUNN (mkd2010@columbia.edu)
Advising Dean, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program/Center for Student Advising
Originally from McLean, Virginia, Michael attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.A. with highest distinction in History and Spanish. As an undergraduate, he wrote his Distinguished Majors Program thesis on the first woman to be executed in the state of Virginia, a seventeen year-old sentenced to death in 1912. Michael earned an M.A. at Teachers College, Columbia University, in Higher Education Administration, and spent three years working with Dean Lorch in Columbia’s Scholars and Fellowships Office, the precursor to CUSP.
Michael left his position at Columbia to attend Fordham Law, where he became involved with a non-profit organization supporting tenants’ rights in Hells Kitchen. He also worked as a research assistant and as a staff member on the Environmental Law Review, and he trained for and completed the New York City marathon. Following graduation, Michael worked as an associate at an AmLaw 100 law firm, focusing on business litigation and chapter 11 bankruptcies. In March 2010, Michael happily returned to Columbia as an Advising Dean, and now focuses on pre-law advising, generalist academic advising, and his work with CUSP.
In his free time, Michael enjoys reading the New Yorker, writing, and going on evening strolls with his wife, Lillian, and baby daughter, Alice.
Candace B. Lukasik (cbl2121@columbia.edu)
Graduate Assistant, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program/Center for Student Advising
Candace received her BA in Political Science and International Relations from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Since 2007, she has been awarded yearly scholarships, such as the NSEP Boren Scholarship, the Critical Language Scholarship, and the AFS-Summer Language Institute Scholarship, to study Arabic in Egypt, Oman, and Jordan. She is currently enrolled in the Masters Program in the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) Department in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), specializing in Arab Studies.
She has experience in office management and counseling at the International Partnerships and Study Abroad Office at Canisius College and as a site coordinator for one of the language institutes in Cairo through AFS Intercultural Exchange Programs in 2008. Recently, she worked as a government and media relations intern for the Council on American Islamic Relations-NY (CAIR-NY).
Currently, she is researching the political mobilization of middle class Coptic Christian women in Egypt following the reign of former President Hosni Mubarak.