FFU Officers
Officer Elections (F2025): Thanks to all of you who stepped up to vote in-person and online Oct. 16-17, 2025, for the three FFU Chief Stewards positions. Our Co-chairs ran uncontested. Starting in Spring 2026, Kathleen LaPenta has joined our FFU Executive Committee as Chief Steward; Cornelius Collins and Josh Jordan continue as Chief Stewards. We extend our gratitude to Justin Pool and Alessandro King for running for FFU leadership. You can find out more about FFU officer positions here, and about our current officers below. Officer terms will run through Fall 2028.
Although our elected officers are important, we need many diverse and representative FFU leaders in every department at Fordham to continue growing the strength of our union. We ask that you join our Organizing Committee or team of Local Stewards to ensure we’re as strong as we can be at a time when higher ed is under threat: click here to step up to get involved in FFU.
Kari Evanson
FFU Co-Chair
Kari Evanson is our Co-chair from FFU full-time faculty. She teaches in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. She previously served as an FFU local steward.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
Diane George
FFU Co-Chair
Diane George is our Co-chair from FFU part-time faculty. She has been an adjunct in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Fordham’s Rose Hill Campus since 2016. She previously served as an FFU local steward.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
Cornelius Collins
FFU Chief Steward
Cornelius Collins is our Chief Steward focusing on the Rose Hill and Westchester campuses. He teaches in the English Department at Lincoln Center and Rose Hill.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
Josh Jordan
FFU Chief Steward
Josh Jordan is a Senior Lecturer of French in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. He served as FFU Chair 2018-2022 and has taught at Fordham since 2010, first as an adjunct, now as a lecturer.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
Kathleen LaPenta
FFU Chief Steward
Kathleen came to Fordham in 2010 and is now Senior Lecturer in Italian in the Department of Languages and Cultures. She has been an active member of our union since its formation in 2018 and is proud to serve as Chief Steward.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
FFU Local Stewards
Ellen Lauter
FFU Steward, Lincoln Center
I have taught at Fordham since 2006. I hold a Master’s in Art Therapy and Social Work and have both an LCSW license and Art Therapy license from NYS. I am a graduate of Fordham Graduate School of Social Service. My entire social work career starting in 1996 as an intern placed there by Fordham, was with The Legal Aid Society Juvenile Rights Practice, first as a staff social worker in the Bronx and then as a supervisor in the Manhattan office. In 2000, I founded a not for profit organization called Artshare, a weekend visual arts intervention program which collaborated with the Kings County District Attorney YCP/GRASP program. Up through 2018, we worked with adolescents involved in the court system to create both indoor and outdoor murals in Brooklyn.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
Dawn Fariello
FFU Steward, Rose Hill
Dawn Fariello is a lecturer in the Biology Department at Rose Hill.
Contact: fordhamfacultyunited@gmail.com
Fordham Faculty United 