Welcome to the Fall 2023 Semester

Dear Members of the CUNY SPS Community:

Welcome to the Fall 2023 Semester! Please allow me to introduce myself. As your new dean of the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS), I am thrilled to be joining our dynamic community.

A national innovator with over 25 years of experience in adult, online, and continuing higher education, I am excited to lead CUNY SPS to its next chapter of impact and growth. Most recently, I served as the assistant vice president of workforce credentialing and community impact at Mercy College, where I helped pioneer programs for adult and online learners. I am eager to continue—and expand—my efforts here at CUNY SPS to better serve our incredibly hardworking and ambitious adult learners who often take tremendous risks to return to college or advance to a graduate degree.

As I begin my tenure, I am pleased to join a School that has, from the beginning, thrived. Since we launched our first degree in 2006, we’ve been growing—in both programs and students. This fall we continue this tradition: CUNY SPS will welcome more than 4,200 students to our 26 academic degree programs, along with thousands of City and nonprofit workers who will benefit from our workplace training programs.

These statistics also highlight the quality of our programs, which continue to be recognized as some of the best in the nation. For the past eight years, U.S. News & World Report has consistently rated CUNY SPS among the highest on their list of Best Online Bachelor’s Programs, among other top rankings.

Our numbers also speak to the dedication, talent, and expertise of our faculty and staff, who work tremendously hard to prepare our students for 21st-century careers, and who employ innovative online learning and pedagogical tools to do just that.

Even as we celebrate our ongoing success, I am also looking toward the future. In keeping with our forward-looking mission, I’ll be asking you to brainstorm and innovate along with me ways that we can meet the changing needs of our students to ensure that, even in a rapidly changing world, they will flourish.

I extend an energetic welcome to all our students, faculty, and staff and look forward to meeting you all this semester. In the meantime, I encourage you to reach out to me at dean@sps.cuny.edu. I also invite you to view my welcome video below.

Here’s to a productive and inspiring 2023-24 academic year!

Dr. Lisa Braverman
Dean, CUNY School of Professional Studies