Feniosky Peña-Mora

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 and Construction. 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.

Personal life and education

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. When he failed to join the United States military after high school, Peña-Mora enrolled in the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo.

In 1988, Feniosky Peña-Mora arrived in Washington Heights from the Dominican Republic. He was 21 with a degree in engineering from Ureña in Santo Domingo. Peña-Mora took English classes at Teachers College, Columbia University and at a YMCA program in Greenwich Village. He studied nights at Bronx Community College.

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 earned Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in civil engineering from MIT. Peña-Mora 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 the Central Artery in Boston, commonly known as the Big Dig.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2003-2009)

In 2003, the Peña-Mora, then an associate professor at MIT, and his wife left Massachusetts for the University 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. 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. 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.

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.

Columbia University (2009-2012)

In June, 2009, Peña-Mora accepted his new position as Columbia's Dean of Engineering and Applied Science in June, 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 School of Engineering and Applied Science at the university.^[2]

As a professor, his tenure has shown his interest in interdisciplinary research and teaching in the applied sciences. As dean, he focused on implementing a three-pronged strategic plan encompassing faculty excellence, student support, and space growth. During his deanship, the School of Engineering and Applied Science doubled its endowed chairs and raised $75 million for Columbia Engineering.^[3][4]

Peña-Mora's tenure was controversial. A number of faculty members and department chairmen passed a "no-confidence" vote in his leadership.^[5] They criticized his self-serving style of management, his hasty expansion of the engineering school, which overloaded professors with too many students, and asserted that he prioritized fund-raising over research and did not honor his promises. One of Peña-Mora's most vocal critics, Prof. Van C. Mow, called him a "control freak" and stepped down from his position as Chair of the Department of Biomedial Engineering in 2011.^[6] Mow's harsh critique was challenged by some as being driven by his general "resistance to change," especially when implemented by a Dean 26 years his junior.^[5] After various attempts to bridge the differences, Peña-Mora eventually resigned in July 2012.^[7]

Students, alumni, administrators, and community leaders speculated at the time that two reasons may have been at play: youth and race. Some reports allude to “the conflicts as primarily the growing pains of a rising star new to the campus”.^[6] Other reports were more vocal about racial tensions. Great emphasis was placed in the fact that “when Peña-Mora was hired [in 2009], it was the third time in quick succession that the university had filled a high-ranking post with the first minority member to hold that job”^[6] and all three leaders left their posts in the span of one (1) year. Provost Claude Steele resigned in June [2011] and returned to a less prestigious post at Stanford; shortly afterward, Michele Moody-Adams, Dean of Columbia College, quit in protest over new policies that reduced her powers as dean.;^[8] and Peña-Mora resigned from his position as Dean in July 2012.^[9] As a results, some questioned their “confidence — as well as the confidence of many others at Columbia — in the ability of Columbia to maintain diverse leadership at the top.”^[10] Faculty, students and community leaders complained about “racial bias in its ranks“.^[8] Public officials joined the discussion, “20 city and state elected officials [...] condemned a campaign of ‘attacks fueled by prejudice’ [and] questions the ‘negative attitudes of some parts of the university towards people of color in leadership positions.’ … Meanwhile, a highly regarded Hispanic biology professor has complained to Columbia President Lee Bollinger about the ‘ethnic bullying’ and ‘unbridled racism’ he has had to face from colleagues over the past ten years … [adding that] the shameful bullying of our engineering Dean Peña-Mora shows similar characteristics" to the ‘gauntlet’ other minority faculty have faced at Columbia.”^[8] Another professor communicated how senior faculty in engineering even “complain about his [Peña-Mora] Spanish accent";^[8] which was especially surprising, given that Israel-born Zvi Galil, Dean of the Engineering School from 1995-2007, had a strong accent that was "loved" by many.^[11]

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

On April 8, 2014, Dr. Peña-Mora was appointed the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and 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.

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

Research

Peña-Mora’s research encompasses information technology support for collaboration in preparedness, response, and recovery during disasters such as the 9-11 terrorist attack and Hurricane Katrina.

Patents

• Hussein, K. and Peña-Mora, F., “Collaborative Agent Interaction Control and Synchronization System,” MIT Case No. 8376S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-057AUS, US Patent Application No. 09/540,947, Issued February 28, 2006.
• Peña-Mora, F. and Kuang, C., “Mechanisms and Artifacts to Manage Heterogeneous Platform Interfaces in a Collaboration,” MIT Case No. 9249S Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-057BUS, US Patent Application No. 10/069,885, Issued January 9, 2007.
• Peña-Mora, F., Vadhavkar, S., Dwivedi, G., Kuang, C., and Wang, W., “Software Service Handoff Mechanism with A Performance Reliability Improvement Mechanism (PRIM) for a Collaborative Client-Server System,” MIT Case No. 9250S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-092AUS, US Patent Application No. 10/069,797, Issued May 15, 2007.
• Peña-Mora, F., Park, M., Lee, S., Fulenwider, M., and Li, M. “Dynamic Planning Method and System,” MIT Case No. 9185S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-086AUS, US Patent Application No. 10/068,119, US Patent No. 7,349,863, Issued March 25, 2008.
• Peña-Mora, F., Park, M., Lee, S., Fulenwider, M., and Li, M. “Reliability Buffering Technique Applied to a Project Planning Model,” MIT Case No. 9186S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-087PUSP, US Patent No. 7,415,393, Issued August 19, 2008.
• Golparvar-Fard M., Peña-Mora, F., and Savarese, S. (2010). “D4AR- 4 Dimensional Augmented Reality Models for Automation and Visualization of Construction Progress Monitoring.” United States Provisional Patent Application No. 61/570,491, filed December 14, 2011.
• Thomas J., Peña-Mora, F., and Golparvar-Fard, M. (2009). “Mobile Workstation Chariot.” Provisional Patent, U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (Docket Number: TF08208-PRO).

References

External links

• New Dean is Feniosky Pena-Mora
• Curriculum Vitae
• New York Times: An Immigrant’s Journey to a Top Post at Columbia
• Columbia Spectator: Who runs Columbia: Find out who is large and in charge
• Research Group