Feniosky Peña-Mora

Feniosky Peña-Mora
Commissioner of the
New York City Department of Design and Construction
Incumbent
Assumed office
April 8, 2014
Personal details
Born March 6, 1966
Dominican Republic
Residence New York City
Alma mater Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (B.S.)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S., Sc.D.)

Profession Educator, Engineer, Management, Civil Servant
Website DDC

Feniosky Peña-Mora, Sc.D., (March 6, 1966 - ) is a Dominican-born engineer, educator, and the current commissioner of the New York City Department of Design & Construction.[1] He served as the 14th Dean of Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and also as the Associate Provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He has an international reputation for his teaching, research, and leadership in managing engineering programs at world-renowned universities. Peña-Mora's appointment to one of the top posts in the Ivy League school garnered much sensationalism in his home country Dominican Republic, and he has been headlined as the country's prodigal son.

Life and career

In 1988, Feniosky Peña-Mora arrived in Washington Heights from the Dominican Republic. He was 21 with a degree in engineering from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo. Yet without a background in English, Peña-Mora took English classes at Columbia University's Teachers College and at a YMCA program in Greenwich Village. He studied nights at Bronx Community College. Peña-Mora's childhood in the Dominican Republic was relatively unstable. His mother, Mirtha Lopez divorced when Feniosky turned 8, and then moved to New York in search of employment without him. Peña-Mora moved around between aunts and their fathers. Even at an age of 12, Feniosky displayed an interest in engineering, building small bridges from popsicle sticks. Later, when he failed to join the United States military after high school, Peña-Mora enrolled in the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez in Santo Domingo. Before arriving in MIT, Peña-Mora met Minosca Alcantara, a fellow engineering student at the university. They started to date, and when Peña-Mora was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s graduate school, she followed him to the United States. Peña-Mora, meanwhile, focused on earning both Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in civil engineering from MIT. During this time, Peña-Mora became fascinated by the complexities of large-scale construction projects and the role of engineers in responding to major disasters, topics of which he later researched and taught. Peña-Mora impressed the faculty at MIT and was offered a teaching position upon finishing his doctorate. Subsequently, Peña-Mora took a year to develop real-world experience, working on the construction of theCentral Artery in Boston, commonly known as the Big Dig. In 2003, the Peña-Mora, then an associate professor at MIT, and his wife left Massachusetts for theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he accepted an endowed faculty position in its civil and environmental engineering department. In 2008, he became an Associate Provost at the university. As Associate Provost at the University of Illinois, Peña-Mora was actively involved with interdisciplinary, diversity and entrepreneurial initiatives, interests that he has carried over into his post as Dean of Columbia Engineering. While still Associate Provost, he served as the campus lead for the Consortium on Fostering Interdisciplinary Inquiry that consisted of US research institutions which have exhibited leadership and innovation in supporting interdisciplinary activities in higher education. Consequently, Pena Mora tackled the campus’ contributions to the consortium self-study and chaired the Campus Executive Committee. A year later in June, 2009, Peña-Mora accepted his new position as Columbia's Dean of Engineering and Applied Science in June, 2009.

During his Deanship, Peña-Mora raised a total of over $75 million for the school and led Columbia Engineering to advance from 21 in 2009 to 15 in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Graduate Ranking and from 26 in 2009 to 20 in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Undergraduate Ranking. His initiatives and policies continue to guide the school to new heights.

On April 8, 2014, Dr. Peña-Mora was appointed the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design & Construction by mayor Bill de Blasio. As Commissioner, he has visited many of the DDC's projects, including the rehabilitation of the High Bridge, which will restore a vital link between upper Manhattan and the Bronx; the new New York City Police Academy in College Point, Queens, which will train more than 1,600 new police officers each year to protect the City; the Ocean Breeze Athletic Center, which symbolizes continued investment in neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Sandy; and, the transformation of Times Square into a permanent pedestrian plaza.

New York City Department of Design and Construction (2014- )

As commissioner, Peña-Mora is responsible for all DDC projects, including the rehabilitation of the High Bridge, which will restore a vital community link between Manhattan and the Bronx; the Police Academy in College Point, Queens, which will train more than 1,600 new police officers each year; the Ocean Breeze Athletic Center, a symbol of continued investment in neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Sandy; and the transformation of Times Square into a pedestrian plaza.

Peña-Mora has prioritized sustainability and resiliency in DDC's public buildings and infrastructure projects and has brought a new sense of urgency to providing contract opportunities for New York City's minority- and women-owned businesses.

Columbia University (2009- )

Peña-Mora is the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University.[1] Previously, he was also the dean of the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science at the university.[2]

As a professor, his tenure has been notable for his interest in interdisciplinary research and teaching in the applied sciences. He is the creator of CyberBioPhysicalTM Systems, fusing the biological, physical, and digital worlds to pursue current challenges in health, sustainability, energy, and water.

As dean, he focused on implementing a three-pronged strategic plan encompassing faculty excellence, student support, and space growth. Other priorities as dean included promoting student and faculty diversity, creating more opportunities for student internships abroad, and providing an array of social, educational, and financial services for graduate students and doctoral candidates.

During his deanship, the School of Engineering and Applied Science doubled its endowed chairs and raised $75 million for Columbia Engineering. The school also advanced from 21 in 2009 to 15 in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Graduate Ranking[3] and from 26 in 2009 to 20 in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Undergraduate Ranking.

Peña-Mora came under harsh criticism from Columbia tenured faculty who noted a "tendency to micromanage" and an overall lack of trust.[4] A letter of "no-confidence" by most of the Engineering School's deans, as well as a subsequent letter from most of the tenured faculty criticized Peña-Mora for intolerance of the opinions of others and handling academic hiring and acceptance of graduate students based primarily on the prospect of profit-potential funding for the school-rather than true intellectual promise. Peña-Mora was accused of repeatedly disavowing both written as well as oral agreements made with individual departments.[5] The controversy took place mostly between Peña-Mora and the faculty, with the students of the Engineering School remaining on the sideline.[6] Peña-Mora resigned from the position on July 3, 2012.[7]

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2003-2009)

Peña-Mora was involved with interdisciplinary, diversity and entrepreneurial initiatives as associate provost of the university. He served as lead for the Consortium on Fostering Interdisciplinary Inquiry, a group of U.S. research institutions that has supported interdisciplinary activities in higher education. He also chaired the Campus Executive Committee, focused on research, education and training, space and capital planning, budget and finance, development and fundraising, academic administration and faculty governance, and diversity.

As co-chair of the Illinois Chancellor’s Diversity Initiatives Committee, Peña-Mora coordinated faculty, administrators, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds to create Project 2012: Re-envisioning Diversity and Inclusion at Illinois. This was a five-year strategic plan to make Illinois a more inclusive institution; to enable transformative experiences in undergraduate education within an inclusive community; and to identify benchmarks by which Illinois could hold itself accountable in the area of diversity. Specifically, Dr. Peña-Mora coordinated more than 25 faculty, administrators, staff, and students from diverse groups and backgrounds in creating Project 2012: Re-envisioning Diversity and Inclusion at Illinois Report, a five-year strategic plan to make Illinois a more inclusive academy; to enable the campus to become a staging ground for transformative experiences in undergraduate education within an inclusive community; and to identify benchmarks by which Illinois could hold itself accountable in the area of diversity.

As senior associate dean of the Graduate College at Illinois, Peña-Mora represented the school on the Academic Council of Deans and led the development of the unit of strategic goals and metrics as well as the graduate college annual budget request. He also developed the graduate college fundraising goals. As Associate Provost at the University of Illinois, Dr. Peña-Mora was actively involved in Illinois Campus efforts on interdisciplinary, diversity and entrepreneurial initiatives. While Associate Provost at Illinois, he served as the campus lead for the Consortium on Fostering Interdisciplinary Inquiry, a select group of U.S. research institutions that has exhibited leadership and innovation in supporting interdisciplinary activities in higher education. He spearheaded the campus’s contributions to the consortium self-study as well as chaired the Campus Executive Committee, composed of senior administrators in the areas of research, education and training, space and capital planning, budget and finance, development and fundraising, academic administration and faculty governance, and diversity.

In addition, Dr. Peña-Mora also co-chaired the Provost Ad Hoc Committee in Institutional Entrepreneurship @ Illinois. He led the charge to identify and recommend structural and policy changes that would facilitate a culture of entrepreneurship at Illinois that would empower individuals at all levels to capitalize on their creative energies in support of academic excellence, innovation, and creativity by encouraging calculated risk-taking, offering programmatic support, and providing appropriate incentives and rewards.

At Illinois, he instituted the Global Leaders in Construction Management program. The GLCM is a 5-year combined bachelor’s and master’s degree program. Students in the program experienced three practical components over the academic year: an international experience with foreign construction companies, a summer internship, and a practice-oriented independent study during the academic year. In Illinois, he served on the Promotion and Tenure Reform Ad Hoc Committee, and was charged with providing recommendations for the Illinois Promotion and Tenure process with respect to its consideration for interdisciplinary scholarship, translational research, as well as engagement and outreach activities. Dr. Peña-Mora led the effort to draft revisions to the campus policy on “Appointment and Review of Faculty Members”, Communication 23, expanding its focus from “Appointment and Review of Faculty Members who Have Budgeted Joint Appointments” to one that also includes “Faculty Who Are Engaged in Interdisciplinary Scholarship”. He represented interdisciplinary faculty and the Provost Office on the Academic Council of Deans Indirect Cost-Recovery Sub-Committee, a committee charged with identifying a more transparent model for indirect cost distribution which balances the costs associated with conducting research, as well as recruiting and retaining faculty while minimizing the tensions between academic units and interdisciplinary institutes, and providing faculty incentives for research productivity.

Research

Peña-Mora’s research encompasses information technology support for collaboration in preparedness, response, and recovery during disasters such as the 9-11terrorist attack and Hurricane Katrina. He is also involved in change management, conflict resolution, and processes integration for large-scale engineering systems. Peña-Mora made ground-breaking impact in the field of construction engineering and management, contributing to advances in our understanding of change and conflicts and collaboration in large infrastructure processes.[12] Peña-Mora’s development of the Interaction Space Theory for collaboration has sharpened performance among global construction management teams. In change management, he has identified the key components that influence the effectiveness of fast-tracking strategies construction projects and their governing dynamics. His research efforts in conflict resolution have identified the main drivers that define the context of conflict resolution during the development of large-scale civil infrastructure projects. In sustainable construction, his team has defined a new construction procurement method (A+B+C) that takes into consideration not only cost and schedule but also CO2 emissions as part of the bidding process. His efforts in visualization have resulted in new methods for presenting construction progress information using an n dimensional augmented reality modeling framework. His research findings have been adopted and implemented in several important large-scale infrastructure projects, such as for Boston's Central Artery, Route 3 North project in Massachusetts, Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) Project, and the Puerto Rico's Tren Urbano project. Since 1995, Peña-Mora has been PI or co-PI on grants totaling more than $9 million, more than $6 million of which was allocated to his research group from both private and public sources. In addition, he raised more than $1.5 million in angel investments for a high tech start-up developing advanced collaborative environments for globally dispersed large-scale engineering projects.

Awards

Peña-Mora is the author or co-author of more than 180 scholarly publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and books on computer-supported engineering design and construction, conflict resolution, as well as project control and management of large-scale engineering systems. His research has been groundbreaking in the field of construction engineering and management. He is also the author of Introduction to Construction Dispute Resolution (2002), a textbook in the field of construction conflict resolution. The results of his research work have also yielded five patents and two provisional patents. Peña-Mora is a professional engineer registered in the Dominican Republic and a key figure in a variety of international projects. He has consulted for both the construction industry and governments in various countries in addition to the U.S. – Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Japan. He has held the position of Chief Information Technology Consultant on the Boston Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project, where he focused on information technology support for change management and process integration during the design and construction phases of the massive $14.8 billion, two-decade long engineering endeavor. He has also founded high-tech startups and consulting companies. He is the holder of the 1999 National Science Foundation CAREER Award[13] and the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. In 2007, Peña-Mora received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize[14] of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). In 2008, he was recognized with the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award[15] for outstanding achievement in the use of computers for purposes of civil engineering. In 2011, he was honored by FIATECH,[16] an industry-wide consortium, with its Engineering & Technology Innovation Award. In 2012, he received the 2011 award for best paper published in the ASCE[17] Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, the 2012 Best Conference Paper Award from the ASCE Visualization, Information Modeling, and Simulation (VIMS) Committee, and the First-Place Best Poster Award from the 2012 ASCE Construction Research Congress.

Listed:

Peña-Mora received honors from community leaders and elected officials such as the New York State Association of Black, Puerto Rican, Latino and Asian Legislative Caucus, New York State Senator Adriano Espaillat, the City of New York Office of the Comptroller, the City of New York Office of the Public Advocate, and from New York City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez.. In addition, the Borough of Manhattan President proclaimed Monday February 27, 2012 Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora Appreciation Day.

Patents

Publications

Peña-Mora has authored or co-authored over 180 publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and textbooks. He is also the author of Introduction to Construction Dispute Resolution (2002).[9] A sampling of published work appears here.

References

  1. ↑ University, Columbia. "CV". Columbia Engineering. Columbia University. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  2. ↑ Sandoval, Edgar. "...dean of the American Dream...". nydailynews.com. New York Daily News. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  3. ↑ World Reports, US News. "Graduate School Rankings". http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings''. US News and World Reports. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ http://columbiaspectator.com/2012/04/27/seas-faculty-and-dean-remain-odds-coatsworth-says-relationship-improving
  5. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/nyregion/feniosky-pena-mora-columbia-engineering-school-dean-is-criticized.html?pagewanted=1&ref=nyregion
  6. ↑ http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/05/18/seas-tenured-faculty-vote-no-confidence-peña-mora-prof-says
  7. ↑ http://bwog.com/2012/07/03/breaking-dean-pena-mora-resigns/
  8. ↑ http://scitation.aip.org/cpo/
  9. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0130470899 Hardcover: 264 pages Publisher: Prentice Hall (September 25, 2002) Language: English ISBN 0-13-047089-9 ISBN 978-0130470898
  10. ↑ http://www.mit.edu/~feniosky/research/ResearchGroup.html
  11. ↑ http://www.allbookstores.com/book/9780130470898/Introduction_to_Construction_Dispute_Resolution.html
  12. ↑ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0131402900 Hardcover: 900 pages Publisher: Prentice Hall; United States ed edition (28 Jan 2009) Language English ISBN 0-13-140290-0 ISBN 978-0131402904
  13. ↑ http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Computing-in-Civil-and-Building-Engineering/Renate-Fruchter/e/9780784405130/?itm=1 Pub. Date: June 2000 Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers Format: Paperback, 1632pp ISBN 978-0-7844-0513-0 ISBN 0784405131
  14. ↑ http://www.allbookstores.com/book/9780784407943/Computing_in_Civil_Engineering_Proceedings_of_the_2005_Asce_International_Conference_on_Computing_in_Civil_Engineering_Held_in_Cancun_Mexico_July_12-15_2005.html June 2005 ISBN 0-7844-0794-0 ISBN 9780784407943

External links