Chancellor Kent Syverud has appointed Dean Michael Speaks and Kathleen (Kati) Foley as representatives to the Board of Trustees. Speaks, dean of the School of Architecture, has been named the academic dean representative to the board, and Foley, project director and administrative assistant to the dean in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, has been named staff representative to the board.
Christine Ashby, professor of inclusive special education and disability studies and director of the Center on Disability and Inclusion, has been named faculty representative to the board by the provost, in consultation with the University Senate Academic Affairs Committee. Speaks, Foley and Ashby will all serve two-year terms.
In addition, four new student representatives to the board have also been named: Dylan France ’24 and William Treloar ’24, undergraduate student representatives; Qingyang Liu, graduate student representative; and Nathanael Linton, law student representative.
These representatives of the campus community bring diverse backgrounds and insights to the Board and its various committees and will be vital voices in helping the University implement strategic objectives in support of its mission and vision.
Michael Speaks, Academic Dean Representative to the Board
Michael Speaks
Before joining Syracuse University, Speaks was dean of the College of Design and professor of architecture at the University of Kentucky from 2008-13. As former director of the graduate program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, Speaks has taught in the graphic design department at the Yale School of Art, and in the architecture schools at Harvard University, Columbia University, The University of Michigan, UCLA, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and the Berlage Institute and TU Delft, in the Netherlands.
Speaks has published and lectured internationally on contemporary art, architecture, urban design and scenario planning. His essays and exhibitions in the 1990s were among the first to introduce a new generation of Dutch architects and planners to a broader audience in North America. He has also played an important role in recent debates about city branding and alternative models of city planning, authoring a series of essays and advisory studies, as well as overseeing scenario studies commissioned by city and regional governments in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Speaks is serving the first year of a two-year term as academic dean representative during the 2023-24 academic year. He participates, ex officio, on the Board Academic Affairs Committee and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
Christine Ashby, Faculty Representative to the Board
Christine Ashby
Ashby is a professor of inclusive special education and disability studies and the director of the Center on Disability and Inclusion, a research center that promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of school and society—both locally and globally. She has also served as coordinator of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to certification in childhood and special education. Since joining the School of Education faculty in 2007, her teaching and research has focused on inclusive education, communicative diversity, disability studies and inclusive teacher preparation, with specific emphasis on the experiences of autistic and neurodivergent students. Her work seeks to disrupt dominant notions of disability as deficiency and underscores the importance of centering the voices of disabled people in research and practice.
Ashby earned an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York College at Geneseo and a master’s in special education, certificate of advanced study in disability studies and Ph.D. in special education from Syracuse University. She was an inclusive special education teacher before beginning her university career.
Ashby recently served as co-chair of the Public Impact Working Group for the Academic Strategic Plan and was a member of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Senate from 2018 to 2023. She was also selected as a member of the inaugural Women in Leadership cohort.
Ashby is serving the first year of a two-year term as faculty representative during the 2023-24 academic year. She participates, ex officio, on the Board Academic Affairs Committee and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
Kati Foley, Staff Representative to the Board
Kati Foley
As project director and administrative assistant to the dean, Foley is responsible for administering strategic projects for the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and directing the daily operations of the Office of the Dean and the college. She provides high-level analyses and recommendations on facility utilization, strategic budget and long-range planning, policies, programs and new and ongoing initiatives for the college.
Prior to joining VPA in 2007, Foley worked at the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs for 10 years, managing the U.S. office of the Luxembourg Income Study, headquartered at the University of Luxembourg. This cross-national data center acquires datasets with income, wealth, employment and demographic data from many high- and middle-income countries, harmonizes them to enable cross-national comparisons, and makes them publicly available to researchers.
Foley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Ithaca College.
Foley will serve the first year of her two-year term as the staff representative during the 2023-24 academic year. She participates, ex officio, on the Board of Advancement and External Affairs Committee and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
Dylan France, Undergraduate Representative to the Board
Dylan France
France is a senior studying finance and real estate in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, where she is a Whitman Leadership Scholar and a member of the Renée Crown Honors Program. She is minoring in global political economy in the Maxwell School. France is passionate about finance and was recently promoted to senior analyst in the Orange Value Fund.
Beyond her schoolwork, France is an active member of the Syracuse community. She previously served as the president, internal secretary and a founding Syracuse University Black Student Union member. She is involved in the Syracuse Student Association as comptroller and a University Senate member. In these capacities, France acts as a voice for her fellow students and advocates for change. She believes in financial reporting and transparency and is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives and creating equitable University policies.
France serves as one of two undergraduate student representatives for the 2023-24 academic year, her second year in the role. She participates, ex officio, on the Board Enrollment and the Student Experience Committee and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
William Treloar, Undergraduate Representative to the Board
William Treloar
Treloar is a senior studying economics and policy studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School and is currently the president of the Student Association. Treloar previously served as speaker of the assembly for the Student Association. He is also a class tutor and a Phanstiel Scholar. In his time at Syracuse, he has focused on organizing campus events, as well as community service opportunities.
Treloar serves as one of two undergraduate student representatives for the 2023-24 academic year. He participates, ex officio, on the Board Enrollment and the Student Experience Committee and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
Qingyang Liu, Graduate Representative to the Board
Qingyang Liu
Liu is a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science (HDFS) in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. She was elected as the graduate student representative to the HDFS Graduate Committee and Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics Promotion and Tenure Committee in 2022-23. Liu is an international student from Guangzhou, China, who pursued an undergraduate degree in psychology at San Francisco State University from 2016-18 and a master’s degree in educational psychology and methodology at the State University of New York at Albany from 2018-20. She is conducting research in Professor Rachel Razza’s SELF Regulation lab with a focus on examining the longitudinal association between early poverty and the developmental trajectory of self-regulation within cognitive, social and emotional domains from early childhood to adolescence.
Liu serves as the graduate student representative for the 2023-24 academic year. She participates, ex officio, on the Board Academic Affairs and Enrollment and the Student Experience committees and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
Nathanael Linton, Law Student Representative to the Board
Nathanael Linton
Linton is a third-year law student in the College of Law. There he is a member of the Travis H.D. Lewin Advocacy Honor Society, both the national trial competition team as well as the appellate competition team. He is also a research assistant to Professor William C. Banks. He is the managing editor of the Journal of Global Rights and Organizations. Before coming to the College of Law, Linton served on the Board of Trustees at his undergraduate college, Pace University. There, he served on the Academic Affairs subcommittee. His board obligations were accompanied by several other leadership responsibilities, including serving as the honors college president and student representative of the Northeast Regional Honors Council.
Linton serves as the law student representative for the 2023-24 academic year. He participates, ex officio, on the Board Academic Affairs and Enrollment and the Student Experience Committees and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.
