Spotlights

Patricia Baia, ITP

Mark Gura, ITP

Professor Mark Gura of Touro University's Graduate School of Technology - Instructional Technology Program wrote an all-encompassing review of the recently held ISTE20 Live Conference. The article is entitled "Unpacking EdTech" and provides a detailed account of the conference, its aims ,its highlights, and its accomplishments. You can read Prof. Gura's beautifully written account of ISTE20 Live at: At ISTE20 LIVE—Virtually | EdTech Digest

Bill Muskopf, MSIS

Project Management expert Professor Bill Muskopf shares his excitement in teaching his brand new GST summer course based on The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGRAF). What can his students expect this semester?

"This is a great opportunity for GST students to get access to standards that are used across the IT industry every day, in every industry, in almost every company. All my certifications are manufacturer agnostic, meaning they are not limited to a single manufacturer’s equipment. This means that my full-time ‘day job’ is not limited to knowing just one manufacturer’s equipment, and instead is based on the management of the IT industry’s most valuable asset, the people. My courses follow suit and teach how to manage IT by managing the processes and procedures that drive greater and more effective performance. Every day I learn something in my day job that I can apply to my course to make the students’ experiences more well-rounded and anchored in real life scenarios.

If my students echo a single theme in their review of me as a professor, it is that I am passionate about IT management and teaching how to have a successful and rewarding career in the IT industry. I hope that my years teaching have inspired my students to be ethical in their careers, and to try to make the IT industry better in all their behaviors. There is a general sentiment that IT is static, cold, and unemotional. However, I hope through the way that I teach, my students see there is an aspirational side to IT management, and you can have a very rewarding career in IT if you make the right investments in yourself and in the relationships with people around you."

Braj Agarwal, MSIS

Adjunct Faculty Braj Agarwal talks about the future of data analytics and his passion for transforming GST students into becoming the next generation of technology leaders.

"Data Analytics is now able to provide fairly reliable insight and predictions since a very large set of data have been gathered over the last few decades in most areas of science, technology and organizations. Technology is maturing with time and becoming more and more user-friendly in providing summaries and visualizations and is available to people at all levels. People are finding its utility to gain insight into their data and in decision making, and with significant growth in computing power available to more and more users, it will also become within reach for most to analyze much larger volumes and diverse sets of data at a much faster rate."

Passing down his programming knowledge to the Touro classroom, however, is also something that Agarwal highly enjoys.

"Teaching has always been my passion even when I held full-time jobs. It is very gratifying to share my knowledge with others. I feel I have the ability to simplify complex topics so students can understand them at all levels of learning."

Behrooz Khorsandi, MSIS

Professor Behrooz Khorsandi states “one of the most important things in teaching a course is to teach the practical stuff.” As a networking subject matter expert, Professor Khorsandi includes material that is related to everyday life that will be beneficial on a practical basis after students graduate. As an adjunct professor, Khorsandi teaches Advanced Data Communications and Cyber Security Technologies at Touro University’s Graduate School of Technology.

Professionally, Khorsandi is a Consultant/Architect with IBM Global Technical Services (GTS), where he currently focuses on the Microsoft technologies, the cloud, and hybrid cloud practices. Khorsandi has earned Level three (3) Certified Technical Specialist and Senior Consulting Infrastructure Services Solution Manager certifications at IBM during his 37-year IBM career. He has served as in integral part of various IBM offering teams, developing Consulting and Services solutions for Active Directory and Azure AD, Exchange Server, Office 365, Windows Server, and Windows 10 migrations that have been utilized by team members across IBM GTS. His work at IBM is directly related to everything that he teaches at Touro. Professor Khorsandi has updated his advanced Data Communications and Cybersecurity course at GST to include all the latest advancements and developments in Cloud Technology, Firewall, and Storage Area Networks.

Professor Khorsandi has taught as an adjunct instructor in the Computer Science departments for 29 years. As a networking professional, Professor Khorsandi incorporates career opportunities into his syllabi. "I'm passionate about teaching as it enables me to impart the practical work experience and the industry’s best practices that I've learned throughout my almost 40 years in the tech space. I feel great satisfaction knowing that I can help my students launch successful careers through leveraging key skills related to networking essentials and the fundamentals of network security, rather than just providing them with plain theory. As the cybersecurity and networking fields continue to evolve, motivated alumni who receive a graduate degree from GST in these rapidly growing areas will be able to jumpstart their careers with ease. Our program prepares the students with the latest technologies in mind," said Khorsandi.

In response as to why a student should earn a master’s degree in this field, Professor Khorsandi stated, “Our field never stands still. And in fact, if you are going to be a networking professional, it is a big mistake to think that your job is done by obtaining a bachelor's degree. Technology continues to change and to evolve. Who would have thought twenty years ago that cloud technology would be taking over? Who would have thought that there are so many changes in firewalls and security with so many new concepts introduced? A bachelor’s degree is just not enough. You need to make yourself useful and valuable to your employer by learning technologies, above and beyond what you've already learned in an undergraduate program.”

Professor Khorsandi believes that one of the nicest things about Touro’s GST program is essentially the smaller class sizes, which result in the faculty paying greater attention to the students. Professor Knorsandi gets great pleasure and personal satisfaction from teaching at Touro GST. Having Professor Khorsandi as one of its premier adjunct professors is a bonus for the school and a great benefit to GST’s students.

Joseph LoCicero, WMM

As the former Art Director at Anthem, Joseph LoCicero brings nearly 24 years of experience in the corporate design world with him to his GST interactive design class.

"Collaboration is an important aspect of each project and I expect Touro students to challenge each other about their design decisions to make their end products the highest level of quality possible. I want them to take chances, even if that sometimes means making mistakes. Being able to talk about the positive and negative aspects of each project allows them to understand the deliberation needed for successful design. I have always loved design and also loved to teach. Without passion, I don’t think I would be successful at either."

Joshua Baron, WMM

Here’s Why This Seasoned Designer Decided to Teach Key Skills Students Need to Excel in Tech. Click HERE for more.

See Josh Baron featured in an April 2019 Inside Higher Education article about the highs and lows of online teaching.