http://legacy.touro.edu/media/pr/releases/PR-newftfaculty.asp

Press Release

Touro College
Department of Institutional Advancement

Contact:
      Barbara Franklin
      Director of Communications and External Relations
      212-463-0400 ext. 530
      barbara.franklin@touro.edu

For Immediate Release

TOURO COLLEGE APPOINTS OVER 20 UNDERGRADUATE FULL TIME FACULTY FOR 2006-07 ACADEMIC YEAR

New York, N.Y., December 7, 2006 – Dr. Bernard Lander, founder and president of Touro College, today announced the hiring of over 20 highly qualified full time faculty members to teach at the undergraduate level across a broad range of departments and schools at Touro College.

The additions grew out of a multi-year faculty hiring plan that called for new teaching staff in variety of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, biology, political science, management, and language and literature.

Dean Stanley Boylan
Dean Stanley Boylan
"We are extremely proud of our new additions and expect they will bring additional vigor to our already distinguished faculty," said Dr. Stanley Boylan, Touro’s vice president of undergraduate education and dean of faculties.

Below is just a sampling of the distinguished new hires:

In biology, Professor Robert S. Bressler has signed on as chairman of the Biology Department at Lander College of Arts & Sciences – Flatbush. Dr. Bressler joins Touro from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, where he was a professor of anatomy and previously served as chairman of the Anatomy Department and dean of Basic Sciences. He has also taught at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, The City University of New York (CUNY), and the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. He obtained his Ph.D. and master’s from New York University.
In sociology, Professor Mervin F. Verbit has joined Touro as deputy chair of the Sociology Department for Touro College. Well-known in the Jewish community, he is teaching at Lander College for Women. His special areas of interest are the sociology of religion, contemporary Jewry and research methodology. Dr. Verbit comes to Touro from Brooklyn College of CUNY, where he was a professor of sociology and director of the CUNY/Brooklyn College Program for Study in Israel. He has held visiting appointments at Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Yeshiva University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Also in sociology, Assistant Professor Joyce Robbins has joined the faculty at the New York School of Career and Applied Studies (NYSCAS). Dr. Robbins, who received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and her master’s from Tel Aviv University, wrote her master’s thesis on Israeli women soldiers and the politics of "non-military" roles in the 1950’s. Her research interests include political sociology, social theory, the welfare state, economic sociology and cultural sociology.
In psychology, Associate Professor Dr. Alan M. Perry has joined the faculty to teach at Lander College for Men. Prior to joining Touro he worked as deputy director of mental health services on Rikers Island, and as director of psychological services at Kings County Hospital Center. He has worked for three decades as a consultant, psychologist, rehabilitation counselor and clinical instructor in a variety of settings, including hospitals, mental health centers, and schools. Dr. Perry received a Ph.D. in psychology from Fordham University and a master’s in clinical psychology from Long Island University.
Also in psychology, Assistant Professor Rebecca Soffer is teaching at Lander College of Arts & Sciences – Flatbush, in the Women’s Division. Dr. Soffer received her master’s and doctorate from Yeshiva University in psychology. She also has a master’s in special education from Adelphi University. Dr. Soffer brings to Touro extensive teaching experience, including at the pre-school, high school and college levels. She has worked privately as a developmental interventionist and as a developmental evaluator/research associate at the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities in Staten Island, New York.

Michael Rear has been brought on as an assistant professor to teach political science at the Women’s Division of The Lander College of Arts & Sciences – Flatbush and Lander College for Women. He has previously taught American politics, comparative politics, international and Middle East politics, political science, history and other courses at Hofstra University and the New York Institute of Technology, and worked as a research assistant at The Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations. He obtained his Ph.D. and master’s degree in political science at CUNY, with his dissertation titled: "Between Empire and State-Building: Ethnic Conflict, U.N. Intervention, and the Post-Colonial State After the Cold War."
Assistant Professor Karen Sutton is teaching modern European history and humanities at the Women’s Division of the Lander College of Arts & Sciences – Flatbush and Lander College for Women. Sutton has previously taught United States history, modern world history, ancient civilization, the Holocaust, and the Jews in 19^th century Germany and Austria. She has taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Fordham University, and the State University at New York (SUNY). A former Fulbright recipient, Dr. Sutton obtained her Ph.D. in history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where the topic of her dissertation was "German/Lithuanian Collaboration in the Final Solution, 1941-1944."

Touro College has experienced phenomenal growth since its founding in 1971, and is currently educating more than 23,000 students at locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Jerusalem, Moscow and Berlin. Touro College continues to have a profound impact on the lives of its students and on the Jewish and general communities.

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