Justin T. Brown, Executive Director (He/Him)
Justin T. Brown Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Health Sciences at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY where his teaching primarily centers on courses in public health and human services. Dr. Brown’s background mainly resides in the areas of program development and intervention evaluation. His collaborative research focuses on addressing health inequities among persons of color, LGBT, youth, and those populations at the intersection through asset-based approaches. Prior to CLAGS, Dr. Brown was the Deputy Director of the CUNY Institute for Health Equity and worked for several years running one of the only national social service agencies dedicated exclusively to working with LGBTQ youth of color. Brown completed his doctoral training with a health concentration in the Critical Social-Personality Psychology program at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Jasmina Sinanović, Director of Finance and Development (They/Them)
Jasmina Sinanović teaches at Anthropology, Gender Studies and International Studies Department at the City College by day and is a performing/theatre artist by night. Their research interests are in queer, performance and postcolonial theory as well as the study of the idea of Balkanism. They hold an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from Stony Brook University and M.A. in Theatre from CUNY Graduate Center via Brooklyn College.
Donna Huaman, Administrative Associate (She/Her)
Donna Huaman graduated from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2015 with a BA in International Criminal Justice and a minor in Police Studies. There she grew her research interest in intersectional and international LGBTQ human rights issues, with a specific focus on the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. She continued her studies in the MA in Liberal Studies (MALS) program with a concentration in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality at the CUNY Graduate Center. She graduated from MALS in 2019.
Fellows
Spring 2023 CLAGS Research Fellow
Carla Silva is a PhD Social Welfare student at the Graduate Center of City University of New York. Carla is a multi-level social worker with extensive experience developing social service infrastructure within marginalized and materially disadvantaged communities she is a member of and an ally to. Her practice experience focuses on the praxis of change work, social justice, and equity with issues impacting sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and class. As a social welfare doctoral student, Carla aspires to research the intersections of food justice (food apartheid and food sovereignty) and identity, as it relates to mutual aid; its merger of direct practice and social action; race/ethnic identity development and preservation; and the advancement of equitable social policy and reform.
Spring 2023 CLAGS General Events Fellow
Fernando Vieira is an M.A. in Liberal Studies student at the CUNY Graduate Center. His main concentration is Film Studies with a particular focus on queer aesthetics. As a multidisciplinary artist, Fernando is a writer, director, and performer. Recent works include two stage plays that explore queerness, violence, and the quest for freedom: “Goodbye, Little George” (2020) and “Anormales” (2020). In 2021, Vieira released the documentary “Unlabeled” and the digitally released short play collection “Dos piezas teatrales de Fernando Vieira”. That same year, Vieira created the ¡Bótate! Latinx Performance Festival in East Harlem. Fernando has been a selected artist at NYFA’s IAP (2018), Creative Capital (2018-2019), and the Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2019-2020).
Spring 2023 CLAGS Communications Fellow
Olivia Wood (she/her) is a lecturer in English at the City College of New York and a PhD candidate specializing in queer rhetorics, specifically bisexuality, at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her work has appeared in the Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetorics, the Journal of Bisexuality, and LGBTQ+ Studies: An Open Textbook, among other places. Olivia is also a proud union member and a writer and editor for Left Voice.
Spring 2023 CLAGS Communications Fellow
Rachael Atherley is currently a Doctoral student in the Sociology program at the Graduate Center. Rachael is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst who earned their M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Drexel University. Currently, they work as a Lead Behavior Analyst with individuals on the autism spectrum at a prominent child welfare agency in New York City. In their work, they attempt to dismantle systems of oppression that keep many of the children that they work with from receiving the treatment
that is needed. They also work from an intersectional and anti-racist framework. They encourage others to understand that race, gender, disability, and other identities impact each person differently and need to be considered before assessment and treatment. Rachael is interested in exploring implicit bias in the diagnosis and treatment of autism, specifically from a Black feminist lens. They are also interested in exploring the impacts of systems on those who are living with disabilities in metropolitan and rural locales. Rachael is a member of the New York State Association for ABA and serves as the chairperson of their DEIA committee.
INTERNS
Pranabes Probeshika Dutta- Pro, Development and Outreach Intern 2021-2022 (They/Them)
Pranabes Probeshika Dutta- Pro is a graduate student of Economics at the Graduate Center, CUNY and is in the race to become the first trans-identifying economist from India. They have grown up in Calcutta and Delhi in India where they have worked closely with deprived transgenders and trans sex workers. They have also been an active member of queer groups of Indian universities they have studied and worked in where they have been involved with outreach and counseling activities.
Michael Grant(He/Him)- Media Intern Fall 2022
Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Rowan University. He wrote his Final Essay for his Senior Seminar in International Studies course on global problems affecting the social welfare of Syrian refugees. Michael is currently enrolled in George Washington University’s Graduate Certificate in Gateway to Computer Science program. In the future, Michael wants to write a book based on insights from personal experience, histories, and theories of critical race and queer studies.
If you have general inquiries, you can contact the office via e-mail info@clags.org. Our office is open at different times on different days so please let us know if you would like to visit.
COVID 19 UPDATE – we are still closed for in person visits. All our programing is online. Send us an email with any questions. If you are cleared to enter Graduate Center CUNY and need access to our office email us and we will try to accommodate you.