"Living in New York was such an amazing experience, especially since the staff at Bard NYC were so helpful with their tips on how to get the most from this experience, my internship, and building a network that will benefit me later."
— Angela, Spring 2024
Our devoted faculty and staff are here to support students throughout their academic, professional, and personal development, and to ensure a positive New York City experience for all Bard NYC participants.
— Angela, Spring 2024
Our devoted faculty and staff are here to support students throughout their academic, professional, and personal development, and to ensure a positive New York City experience for all Bard NYC participants.
Program Staff

Dr. Lucilla Pan
Associate Director
Dr. Lucilla Pan

Lucilla Pan’s focus as associate director is on experiential learning and program implementation. She works closely with students on internship applications and career development. She also works in the day to day management of the program and student success.
Lucilla has a BA in philosophy from Boston College and a PhD in philosophy from Emory University. A former philosophy faculty member of Manhattanville College, Lucilla has taught in ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of race, and aesthetics. Her research interests include Soren Kierkegaard, ethics, and moral freedom.

Steven Couras
Director Of Residence Life & Facility Manager
Steven Couras

Steven Couras is a student affairs professional with over 10 years of experience in higher education, specializing in student life, residence life, and campus operations. He oversees all facets of student life, social programming and operations, residential community engagement, housing processes, and facilities management to foster a vibrant, engaging, and safe living-learning environment at Bard NYC.
Steven holds a Master of Arts in Public and Organizational Relations with a concentration in Educational Leadership from Montclair State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from Stockton University. His work is grounded in principles of equity, care, and community accountability… plus a firm belief that no student program is complete without food/snacks, a great playlist, and the occasional pun to keep things lively.
Before joining Bard NYC, Steven led residence life and student conduct efforts across several institutions, including Stevens Institute of Technology, Curtis Institute of Music, and Saint Peter’s University, overseeing housing operations, supervising professional and student staff, and shaping campus crisis response protocols while advancing retention and wellness initiatives. He has held senior leadership roles, most notably as Associate Dean of Residence Life and Off-Campus Housing at a renowned music conservatory, where he also served as campus Ombuds and helped foster a dynamic, inclusive residential experience for a diverse student community from around the world.
Earlier in his career, Steven played a key role in shaping student conduct practices, professional and student staff development, and designing social, engaging, and inclusive community programming that consistently attracted strong attendance and gave students meaningful connections. He has also served as a Title IX Investigator, a District Advisor for Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and is a frequent presenter at regional and national student affairs conferences. With a student-centered and collaborative approach, Steven is dedicated to supporting student growth and well-being in and out of the classroom.
Before joining Bard NYC, Steven led residence life and student conduct efforts across several institutions, including Stevens Institute of Technology, Curtis Institute of Music, and Saint Peter’s University, overseeing housing operations, supervising professional and student staff, and shaping campus crisis response protocols while advancing retention and wellness initiatives. He has held senior leadership roles, most notably as Associate Dean of Residence Life and Off-Campus Housing at a renowned music conservatory, where he also served as campus Ombuds and helped foster a dynamic, inclusive residential experience for a diverse student community from around the world.
Earlier in his career, Steven played a key role in shaping student conduct practices, professional and student staff development, and designing social, engaging, and inclusive community programming that consistently attracted strong attendance and gave students meaningful connections. He has also served as a Title IX Investigator, a District Advisor for Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and is a frequent presenter at regional and national student affairs conferences. With a student-centered and collaborative approach, Steven is dedicated to supporting student growth and well-being in and out of the classroom.

Elmira Bayrasli
Director, BGIA Certificate Program
Elmira Bayrasli

Elmira Bayrasli joined BGIA in 2016 as an adjunct lecturer. She is the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted and the host of Project Syndicate's podcast Opinion Has It. She is the author of From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places, a book that looks at the rise of entrepreneurship globally.
Elmira has lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she was the chief spokesperson for the OSCE Mission from 2003–2005. From 1994–2000 she was a presidential appointee at the US State Department, working for Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke. Elmira provides analysis on foreign policy, particularly on Turkey, global entrepreneurship, and gender issues. Her work has appeared in Reuters, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and more. She earned her BA in political science and middle eastern studies at New York University and her MA in middle eastern languages and literatures at Columbia University.

Erica Kane
Associate Director of Experiential Learning
Erica Kane

Erica Kane obtained her BA in international studies, globalization, development, and human rights from Arcadia University (’09) . She worked with under-served public middle school students in southwest Philadelphia as an AmeriCorps volunteer from 2010–2011 and with high school students in 2012 through City Year Orlando. Erica completed her MS in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy in 2014, having studied at Carnegie Mellon's campus in Adelaide, Australia. After working for elected officials in the New York State Senate and Assembly, and at Cornell University's Hudson Valley Research Laboratory, Erica joined BGIA as deputy director in 2019.

DW Fitzpatrick
Arts Liaison
DW Fitzpatrick

DW attended the School of Visual Arts, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. They have solo and group exhibitions at Bellwether Gallery, MoMA PS1, the Baltimore Contemporary Art Museum, and more. Honors include residencies at BOFFO, FIAR, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and grants from the Jerome Foundation and Art Matters. Previously, DW taught at the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies and Yale University's School of Art.

Dr. Gabriel Perron
Academic Director, Bard-Rockefeller Semester in Science
Dr. Gabriel Perron


Grace Lubell
Recruitment and Admissions Manager
Grace Lubell

Grace Lubell earned a BA in Asian studies from Skidmore College, where she studied abroad twice in Nagoya and Osaka, Japan. She became interested in Japanese Buddhist art and went on to earn an MA in Japanese Humanities from Kyushu University, Japan. Upon returning to New York, she worked at a Japanese art gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side from 2015–2017, and then became an associate program officer of Japanese studies at the Japan Foundation from 2017 to 2021. Grace joined Bard NYC as the program manager of BGIA in 2021.

Zarlasht (Zar) Sarmast
Business Manager
Zarlasht (Zar) Sarmast

Zarlasht Sarmast completed her undergraduate degree at the American University of Central Asia in the department of International and Comparative Politics in 2020. While studying at AUCA, Zar was working for the “The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH” (GIZ) in Bishkek as a communications specialist. Before starting her academic and professional journeys in Bishkek, Zar served as the spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan. She has previously worked with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and was part of many different peace building and humanitarian projects.
Zar finished her first Master’s degree at the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE Academy), and her second at AUCA in the department of Applied Psychology. Zar played an important role in the evacuation of over 370 Afghan students of AUCA and AUAF from Kabul to Bishkek, which inspired her to author her photo storybooks A Journey From Kabul to Bishkek and Our Journey to Bard. Currently Zar works as the business manager for Bard NYC and she also serves as the civic engagement program coordinator at the Open Society University Network and the Bard Center for Civic Engagement.

Josie Snider
Assistant Director, MA in Global Studies
Josie Snider

Josie Snider is the Assistant Director of the MA in Global Studies program. She holds an Erasmus Mundus MA in Global Studies from the University of Vienna and Leipzig University and a BA in Marketing Communications from Emerson College. With a background in international education, program development, and nonprofit marketing, she has worked with students and organizations across Europe and the U.S. Her experience spans teaching, mentorship, and strategic communications in sectors focused on global education, arts, and social impact.

Duncan MacDonald ’23
Program Manager, MA in Global Studies
Duncan MacDonald ’23

Faculty

Aarati Akkapeddi
Aarati Akkapeddi


Cynthia Conti-Cook
Cynthia Conti-Cook


Noah Fischer
Noah Fischer


Elizabeth Frank
Elizabeth Frank


Ed Halter
Ed Halter


Suzy Hansen
Suzy Hansen


Richard Harrill
Richard Harrill


Fahmidul Haq
Fahmidul Haq


Cecile Kuznitz
Cecile Kuznitz


Jonas H. Khemiri
Jonas H. Khemiri

Khemiri was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and moved to New York for a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. He is currently teaching in the creative writing program at NYU.

Michael Martell
Michael Martell

Martell’s research interests center around the economics of equity and inclusion and he has written about the causes, consequences, and potential remedies for inequalities experienced by sexual and gender minorities. His research contributes to an understanding of unequal labor market outcomes, the impacts of equal rights laws (such as anti-discrimination and same-sex marriage laws), and the intrahousehold dynamics of LGBTQ+ individuals. His work has been supported by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the AU Innovative Research in Gender Economics program. His teaching interests mirror the fields in which he publishes: labor and industrial relations, health and demographic economics, public policy, household and feminist economics as well as the economics of inequality and discrimination. He is also a fellow at the Global Labor Organization and a member of the inaugural American Economic Association Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession (CSQIEP).

Elisa Slattery
Elisa Slattery

Elisa has worked as a consultant on workers’ rights issues in Kenya, conducted comparative legal and human rights research on the rights of incarcerated parents at the Brennan Center for Justice, and researched the impact of welfare reform on families with disabilities at the University of North Carolina’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center. She holds a JD from Columbia Law School and a MA in history from Duke University.

Drew Thompson
Drew Thompson


Tom Wolf
Tom Wolf


Elisabeth Zerofsky
Elisabeth Zerofsky
