Faculty & Staff

Edisa Weeks
Acting Chair, Drama, Theatre & Dance
Queens College
Director of DELIRIOUS DANCES

Edisa Weeks is a choreographer, educator, videographer, and director of DELIRIOUS DANCES, which merges theater with dance to explore the beauty and complexity of life. In her work she seeks to create intimate environments in which to experience and interact with contemporary dance. The New York Times described Weeks’ work as having “A lot of imagination and a gift for simple but striking visual effects.” Her work has been performed in a variety of venues including swimming pools, storefront windows, senior centers, sidewalks and living rooms, as well as at Chashama Theater, The Clarice Smith Center, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Emory University, The Guggenheim Museum, Harlem Stage, Inside Out at Jacob’s Pillow, Joe’s Pub, Joyce SoHo, The Kennedy Center, The Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, The Mermaid Parade, The National Black Arts Festival, The Puffin Room, Summer Stages Dance Festival and The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard. Internationally her work has been produced in Canada, England, Italy, Japan, Spain. Most recently DELIRIOUS performed in living rooms in Berlin, Germany for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s 50th anniversary celebration.

François Pierre-Louis
Professor, Political Science
CUNY Graduate Center

FRANÇOIS PIERRE-LOUIS PhD is professor of political science at Queens College, CUNY. His research interests include immigration, transnationalism, and Haitian and Caribbean politics. He served in the private cabinet of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991 and on the senior staff of Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis in 2007-2008. He is the author of Haitians in New York City: Transnationalism and Hometown Association (2006), co-editor of Migrant Crossroads: Globalization, Incorporation and Placemaking in Queens New York (Temple University 2021). His articles have appeared in US Catholics, Wadabagei, the Journal of Haitian Studies, Education and Urban Society, The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, Latin America Perspectives, and the Journal of Black Studies. He served as a senior advisor for the Haiti-CUNY Program to the Chancellor of the City University of New York from 2011 to 2015.

Sandy Placido
Assistant Professor, History
Queens College
Researcher, CUNY Dominican Studies Institute

Sandy Placido is an assistant professor in the History Department at Queens College, and a researcher at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute. She received her Ph.D. from the American Studies Program at Harvard University. Her research and teaching examine social movements in the Americas, with a special focus on the contributions of women and people of African and Caribbean descent. Her book manuscript, A Global Vision: Dr. Ana Livia Cordero and the Puerto Rican Liberation Struggle, emphasizes the influential role of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in Cold War-era freedom struggles by centering the life of Ana Livia Cordero, a physician who forged connections between anti-imperialist movements across the Third World. Placido worked to preserve Cordero’s archival collection at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library, and she has received support for her research from the Ford and Mellon Foundations.

Simone Yearwood
Associate Dean & Chief Librarian
Administration

Simone L. Yearwood is an Associate Professor of Library. She began working at Queens College in 1997 as support staff in the Circulation Department. In her current role as Deputy Chief Librarian, Simone represents the Library at all levels (campus, university and national), on issues and policies relating to research and scholarly service delivery and communication. She has leadership, management, policy, budget, planning and implementation responsibilities.

Maureen Pierce-Anyan
Director of The Queens College Office of Minority Affairs and Pre-Professional Advisement

Serves as Director of the Queens College Office of Minority Affairs and (Pre-Professional Advisement. The Office connects African/Black American, Latino Hispanic students, and others who identify as under-represented with OC’s wide range of resources. Its mission is to enable the college to attract, nurture, retain and graduate an ethnically diverse student body and to encourage and assist students of colour in preparing for careers and graduate/professional school.