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On Saturday, July 20, 2019, Madam C.J. Walker and her daughter A’Lelia Walker were honored with the unveiling of a street sign to mark the co-naming of 136th Street at Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard). The ceremony was presented by City Councilmember Bill Perkins, Sundial Brands CEO Richelieu Dennis, Harlem Historical Society President Jacob Morris, and attended by Madam C.J. Walker’s biographer and great-great-granddaughter, Columbia University Trustee A’Lelia Bundles.
I am delighted to announce that I have appointed Melissa Begg, Professor of Biostatistics at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Vice Provost for Academic Programs at Columbia University, to serve as the next Dean of the Columbia School of Social Work and Professor of Social Work and Biostatistics, effective September 1, 2019.
2019 marks the 10th anniversary of Harlem Pride's presence in Upper Manhattan, the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. The legacies of these events and groups will be celebrated this Saturday in West Harlem, with the Harlem Pride celebration on 12th Avenue at West 135th Street, and Uptown Swing on the Columbia's Manhattanville campus outside the Lenfest Center for the Arts on 129th street..
Families and locals from the community joined Manhattanville’s Mad Science–themed events on Saturday, April 13. Children learned the science behind slime and its sensory benefits, adults were able to check their blood pressure for free, and movie lovers went back in time with a screening of the 1960s film The Absent Minded Professor. These and several other events were free and open to the public.
The Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development Center (CHSBDC) has been part of the community of Upper Manhattan since 2009. Funded partially by the United States Small Business Administration, the CHSBDC is one of 900 centers across the country that offer free business advice and training provided by qualified small business professionals to existing and future entrepreneurs. The CHSBDC was first launched by Jack McGourty, then vice dean at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and now director of Community and Global Entrepreneurship at the Columbia Business School, where…
COSMOS is the advanced wireless testbed Rutgers, Columbia, and NYU are jointly deploying in West Harlem as part of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program. As part of the COSMOS education plan, over each summer public school teachers from across NYC work with researchers to develop web-based laboratories/projects to use in their classrooms in the upcoming school year. The immersive educational toolkit is developed by NYU and Columbia Engineering researchers. The program is designed to teach fundamentals of math, physics, and computer science…
The Beyond the Bars Fellowship offers students and community members an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of mass incarceration and social change; and to collaborate with social justice organizers, activists, and academics to plan the annual Beyond the Bars Conference. The 2018–2019 Beyond the Bars Fellows come from many schools across Columbia (Social Work, Teachers College, International and Public Affairs, Public Health, Sociology, and Columbia College); other colleges (CUNY Graduate Center and John Jay College of Criminal Justice); and a variety of community and government organizations…
Named after Nancy Rupp, the wife of President Emeritus George Rupp and an exemplary CCS board member, the CCS Nancy Rupp Community Scholarship was designed to help CCS nonprofit professionals with class instruction and training provided by the Columbia Business School. The Scholarship Fund, created in 2002, provided a new avenue of support for the community. Since the first award, CCS has distributed over $60,000 in scholarships to 25 agency representatives to give them an opportunity to participate (free of charge) in the Developing Leaders Program for Nonprofit Professionals at the Columbia Business…
The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) inducted ICAP founder and global director Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, as a Fellow at its 11th General Assembly Meeting in Pretoria, South Africa. ICAP at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (formerly the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs) supports programs and research that address HIV/AIDS and related conditions and works to strengthen health systems. ICAP currently supports HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programs in 30 countries, 19 of which are African.
Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, Council Member Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senator Robert Jackson (not pictured), and Manhattan Community Board 12 (CB12) members joined to honor the life and legacy of former CB12 Chair Pamela Palanque-North with a ceremony on the corner of West 162nd Street and Edgecombe Avenue, co-naming a street to memorialize Palanque-North’s countless contributions to the Upper Manhattan community.
The creation of the new African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia marks an important development in the history of the field at the University and beyond. The department builds upon existing strengths—including a vibrant and productive faculty, field-defining research, and exciting, informative programming—while providing a unique opportunity to produce new knowledge, strengthen existing relationships with the surrounding community, and create new ones globally.
A group of NYC small businesses has banded together to create the Uptown Artisanal Pop-Up market, open for a limited time in partnership with Columbia University. The Uptown Artisanal Pop Up store opened last weekend and will re-open Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 2878 Broadway, New York, NY 10025 (Broadway at 112th Street)
Working with the Center for Community Health Navigation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Anil Lalwani and others have built a partnership to assist families of newborns and infants diagnosed with hearing loss in the Bronx and Northern Manhattan. That program, the Community Hearing Health Collaborative to Meet the Needs of Children with Hearing Impairment, was recently awarded a three-year, $875,000 grant by the Oberkotter Foundation.
With increased activity taking place on the Manhattanville campus and streetscape improvement work nearing completion, Columbia University sought a partner that would support maintenance services along 125th Street. The Harlem 125th Business Improvement District (BID) was officially awarded the contract in late spring to maintain the perimeter of the Manhattanville campus. The contract will go into effect once the corridor has officially been placed under Columbia’s jurisdiction.
Columbia University’s Wellness Center serves as a hub for members of the community to take advantage of free point-of-care services like blood pressure and cholesterol screenings. Other services include an open referral system, as well as assistance in health insurance enrollment with the New York State of Health marketplace by certified application counselors. The Columbia Wellness Center is focused on becoming a community space where individuals from West Harlem and beyond can create and engage in positive experiences surrounding the topic of health and wellness.