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Cornell University

Carl Becker House

People

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Gemma Rodrigues

Ames Director of Education and Curator of the Global Arts of Africa at the Johnson Museum of Art

Gemma Rodrigues is the Ames Director of Education and Curator of the Global Arts of Africa at the Johnson Museum of Art, where she oversees campus, pre-K-12, and public programs as well as curatorial research into African art. She was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe and has since lived and worked on three continents as a curator, educator, and arts administrator.
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Sonja Skelly

Director of Education and Academic Initiatives for Cornell Botanic Gardens and Adjunct Associate Professor of Horticulture in the School of Integrated Plant Sciences

Sonja is the director of education and academic initiatives for Cornell Botanic Gardens and an adjunct associate professor of Horticulture in the School of Integrated Plant Sciences.  She is an educator who works with plants, nature, and gardens to help people foster a deeper connection to plants.
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Chelsea Specht

Barbara McClintock Professor in Plant Biology & Associate Dean of Faculty and Associate Director for Faculty Development, Equity and Inclusion for the School of Integrative Plant Science

I grew up in Wilmington Delaware along the Brandywine River, and enjoyed summers with family on farmland in both eastern and western Nebraska.  I received my undergraduate degrees in Biology, Psychology and Spanish from the University of Delaware, and my PhD from New York University as part of a joint program with the New York Botanical Garden and the American Museum of Natural History.
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Cathy Klimaszewski

Honorary House Fellow

Cathy Rosa Klimaszewski is Associate Director and Ames Curator of Education at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Ms. Klimaszewski grew up in a small town in Northern Pennsylvania in a family of six children, five girls and one boy.
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Charlie Walcott

Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University

Charles Walcott is Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University.  Dr. Walcott received his AB from Harvard and his PhD from Cornell. He served on the faculties of Harvard, Tufts and The State University of New York at Stony Brook before coming to Cornell as Director of the Laboratory of Ornithology in 1981.
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Jane Walcott

Jane Walcott earned a BA in Biology from Beloit College in Wisconsin, an MA in Neurobiology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and teaching certification from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay.
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Suzanne Wapner

E&S Advising Coordinator

Actively engaged in the Cornell and Ithaca communities for more than 30 years, and an alumna of Cornell, Suzanne embraces Cornell’s Core Values. As the E&S Advising Coordinator, she will encourage you to follow your curiosity, be proactive, find your balance and will help you shape your story.
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Cindy Hazan

Honorary House Fellow

Cindy Hazan joined the faculty of the Department of Human Development at Cornell in 1988 after receiving her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of Denver.
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Neema Kudva

Honorary House Fellow

Former Becker House Professor Neema grew up in India, moving ten times before she left an architectural practice in Bangalore for graduate school in Berkeley, California. All that moving around has made Neema intensely aware and deeply appreciative of difference, of the challenge and pleasure of learning to live life in-between, on the margins and in-side.
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Richard Canfield

Honorary House Fellow

Dr. Richard (Rick) Canfield joined the Cornell faculty in 1990 and from that time has enjoyed mentoring many excellent Cornell undergraduates in research. As a student at the University of Puget Sound, a small liberal arts college, Rick studied psychology, mathematics, and literature.