As part of their visionary and purposeful commitment to academics as a path to success, Syracuse University alumni David B. and Rhonda S. Falk established a series of endowed professorships in each of the seven academic disciplines of Falk College. Today Falk College announced the following three faculty have been named Falk Endowed Professors:
Alejandro Garcia, M.S.W., Ph.D., Jocelyn Falk Endowed Professor of Social Work
Jaipaul Roopnarine, Ph.D. ,Pearl Falk Endowed Professor of Child and Family Studies
Rick Welsh, Ph.D., Falk Family Endowed Professor in Food Studies.
“We are grateful to David and Rhonda Falk, and the Falk family, for their vision and commitment to create an endowed faculty professorship in every academic program in Falk College. Alejandro, Jaipaul and Rick are internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields and exemplary scholars and teachers. The Falk College and the Falk family are privileged to support their efforts,” notes Diane Lyden Murphy, dean, Falk College.
The Falk endowed professorships allow Falk College to support internationally recognized faculty to enhance the research, academic and experiential components of its programs to advance its mission rich in teaching, research, scholarship, practice and service.
Dr. Alejandro Garcia he has taught in the areas of gerontology, social policy, and human diversity for over 35 years in the School of Social Work where he served as director. He is the co-editor of three books, including Elderly Latinos: Issues and Solutions for the 21st Century (with Marta Sotomayor) (1993), HIV Affected and Vulnerable Youth: Prevention Issues and Approaches (1999) (with Susan Taylor-Brown), and La Familia: Traditions and Realities (1999) (with Marta Sotomayor). He is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including being named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers and being elected a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. This fall, he will receive the 2015 Association of Latino and Latina Social Work Educators’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
A professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies, Dr. Jaipaul Roopnarine’s areas of research include father-child relationships, Caribbean families and childhood outcomes, early childhood education in international perspective, children’s play across cultures, and immigrant families and schooling in the United States. An adjunct faculty member in the School of Education, he is an adjunct professor of education and senior research scientist, Family Development Centre, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He was a Distinguished Visiting Nehru Professor at M S Baroda University, Gujarat, India. Among his many books is the recent publication, Fathers across Cultures: The Importance, Roles, and Diverse Practices of Dads, with two additional titles to be released in 2015. He is also the author of over 100 articles and book chapters on childhood development across cultures. He recently finished a three-year term as editor of the journal, Fathering.
Dr. Rick Welsh is a professor of food studies who serves as chair of the Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition.Under his leadership, Falk College created undergraduate and graduate programs in food studies. Prior roles have included professor of sociology at Clarkson University, policy analyst with the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program for the Southern Region. He also serves as editor-in-chief for the journal, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. His research and teaching focus on social change and development with emphases on agri-food systems, science and technology studies and environmental sociology. Welsh is co-editor of the volume, Food and the Mil-level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle published by M.I.T. Press. He has received grant funding from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among other organizations.