EdTech Leadership Council

An innate leader and visionary, born in Ecuador, Carlos holds a BS and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from CUNY & NYU and is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in Instructional Technology at Columbia University. Carlos is currently the Director of Educational Technology and Center for Teaching and Learning at Hostos Community College – CUNY. His research interests are in organizational change and innovative approaches to professional development and technology adoption. Carlos is a usual speaker at national and international conferences in the academic technology and higher education fields.

Carlos is the co-founder and President of Organizacion Juventud Ecuatoriana and is proud to be the pioneer in establishing the First Scholarship Fund for Ecuadorians in the US, and has created several initiatives and activities to empower the Ecuadorian and Hispanic community.

Coming from a humble background, and facing many challenges to accomplish his goals, Carlos is convinced that the secrets to success are persistence, humbleness, creativity, and always setting the next goal in life and career.

His favorite phrase:
“I am convinced that the secrets for success are persistence, humbleness, creativity, and always setting the next goal in your life and career.” – CG.

Professor Jacqueline M. DiSanto is currently an Assistant Professor and the Unit Coordinator (for Teacher Education) in the Education Department at Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. Prior to working at the college, Professor DiSanto served as an elementary-school principal and as a high-school vice-principal. During her over thirty years in education, she has also taught business and English at both the college and secondary levels and has served as an educational consultant for numerous corporations. Professor DiSanto earned her doctorate at St. John’s University in the Instructional Leadership program and conducted her research on the effects of learning-style strategies on the academic achievement and attitudes of secondary students studying twelfth-grade literature.

Her strands of expertise include administration, curriculum, and learning styles. Two of her doctoral resources were published in Teaching Every Child to Read: Innovative and Practical Strategies for K-8 Educators and Caretakers (Dunn & Blake, 2008). She mentors many teachers and parents on the interpretation of inventories based on the Dunn and Dunn Learning-Style Model and the development of innovative resources to help children learn to their best ability.

At Hostos, Professor DiSanto has served as a writer for a Middle States Self-Study Working Group and is an active member of the Center for Teaching and Learning Advisory Board, the ESL Forum Planning Committee, the Honors and Scholarships Committee, and POINT as chair. She is also, with Dean Mangino, a co-director of the Hostos Learning-Styles Academy. Within her home community, Professor DiSanto was a founding member of the Wagner College Parents’ Association. With her husband, she is actively involved in charitable endeavors benefiting their local New York Foundling Home and the Stephen Siller/Tunnel to Towers Memorial 5K Race.

Eric Ritholz has been the Online Learning Coordinator for the Office of Educational Technology since May of 2018. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Central Oklahoma and an Undergraduate from StonyBrook University as well as several certifications in instructional design, curriculum development, and online pedagogy. For 22 years he had the roles of visiting professor, program director, and course advisor at many universities around the world.

Asrat Amnie is an Assistant Professor at Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. He graduated with a Doctor of Education in Health Education (EdD) from Teachers College, Columbia University in the City of New York. He also graduated with a Master’s in Global Health (MPH) from Emory University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from West Texas A&M University. Asrat Amnie is an International Medical Graduate with over 20 years of experience in clinical and public health leadership and practice. He earned a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Jimma University and graduated with a specialty in General Surgery after completing a surgical residency training from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia—his country of origin.

Porfessor Amnie is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES®), a nationally recognized designation for advanced-level professional competence and experience in the field of health education and health promotion. He has taught Introduction to Community Health, Medical Terminology, Human Nutrition, Prevention of Substance Use and Abuse, Interpersonal Relations and Teamwork, Health and the Young Child, and Contemporary Health Issues in the Education Department. He also taught Anatomy and Physiology I and Anatomy and Physiology II ( both Lab and Lecture) in the Natural Sciences Department. He also developed two OER Textbooks, one for the course Health and the Young Child and another for the course Substance Use and Abuse, in addition to developing a Writing Intensive Curriculum for the course Medical Terminology and a Service-Learning Curriculum for the course Substance Use and Abuse.

Professor Amnie has received several fellowships and awards from different institutions, including the CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, Global Scholars Achieving Career Success through the Aspen Institute/ Stevens Initiative grants, Poverty and Humanities Fellowship through the Poverty and Humanities Institute/ the National Endowment for Humanities, and IDEAS (Innovating, Developing and Executing Actions with Success) Project Development Award through the Committee on Sponsored Programs and Grants.

Professor Amnie’s recent published work and research interests focus on the prevention of high-risk health behavior and the science of change in behavior, focusing on exploring novel approaches to effectively and positively influence health behavior at the individual, family, and community levels. Asrat Amnie has published several peer-reviewed articles on which he serves as the sole or the first author in the fields of public health and health education. Asrat Amnie also serves as a peer reviewer for several medical and public health journals including BMC Public Health, Clinical Ophthalmology, Healthcare, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

He is a member of the American Public Health Association, Society for Public Health Education, Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education, and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society.

Peer-Reviewed Publications: orcid.org/0000-0002-9745-3377

Conference Presentations

Mitchell, S., Amnie, A., DiSanto, J.M., Franzese, A., Guevara, C., Morrow,J., Reyes, S. & Subert, M. (2020). Valuing Student Voice: An Analysis of Value and Perceptions of Student Evaluations at a Community College. The 7th Annual Conference on Teaching & Learning Assessment. September 10, 2020. Drexel University.

Amnie A. (2019). An Impact Evaluation of Two Rounds of Mass Drug Administration on the Prevalence of Active Trachoma: A Clustered Cross-Sectional Survey. 16th Annual Unite for Sight Global Health and Innovation Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT, APRIL 13-14, 2019.

Amnie, A. (2018). An Investigation of Predictors of Self-efficacy to Cope with Stress and Implications for Health Education Practice. Teachers College of Columbia University Educational Leadership and Data Analytics. Summit. June 8, 2018. Teachers College, Columbia University