Executive Committee Members
Featured
President
President of Adjuncts United since Fall 2011, Laurel has been indirectly active in organizing since 2008 when AU negotiated its first agreement. She is a member of the joint SU/AU Labor Management Committee and has been an active member of NYSUT’s Higher Ed Policy Council since 2013. She represents AU on the University’s Faculty Senate and its Women’s Concerns Committee. Laurel has taught in the Design School since 1997 and also assumed a staff position in the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Community Engagement in 2018.
Treasurer
Kari Shaw has served as Treasurer for AU’s Executive Committee since 2008,
Kari is an original member of the union’s 2006 negotiating team. She has diligently represented members’ interests at each subsequent collective bargaining agreement negotiation. She was instrumental in shaping AU’s labor agreement with Syracuse University, and she has defended it with continued rigor. Among other things, Kari has enforced pay rates, pushed for consistent probation implementation and fought for retro-payments for members. She is a member of the joint SU/AU Labor Management Committee and has taught Mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences since 1994.
Gail Hoffman has been an AU Executive Committee Representative since the negotiation of our first collective bargaining agreement. She is a part-time Assistant Professor in the department of Transmedia, teaching video, animation and folklore. As a sculptor and mixed media artist, she has shown work nationally and at SOHO20 and other galleries in NYC. She also has a permanent installation in the iSchool as part of its Windows Project.
Executive Committee Representative from Transmedia/VPA, Nancy teaches in film studies, where her courses have included film theory, the international Western, film noir, and the horror film. She is also a writer, editor, and curator whose work covers film, photo, and visual arts. She has conducted workshops for Light Work on the artist statement and is on the faculty at the Downtown Writers Center, teaching non-fiction prose and a new workshop on photo + text.
nancykeeferhodes@gmail.com or 315.427.6547
Maureen Fitzsimmons was active in establishing Adjuncts United at Syracuse University. She has served on the Executive Committee since 2012 and is co-chair of the Scholarship Committee. As an instructor in the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition, she teaches courses in science writing, creative nonfiction, composition, and workplace writing. She also teaches environmental writing and technical writing at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Sam Gruber has served on the Executive Committee since the founding of AU, and is co-chair of the Scholarship Committee. He has taught regularly in the Jewish Studies Program and Departments of Religion and History of Art since 1994. He’s had a distinguished international career as an architectural historian and historic preservationist.
Joe Eppolito is an AU Executive Committee Member and Representative from Whitman, where, since 2008, he teaches Insurance & Personal Financial Planning courses in the Finance Department and Strategic HR in the Management Department. A Financial Advisor with 30 years of experience, Joe currently works for IBN Financial Services in Liverpool, NY. He is the Faculty Advisor for the SU Circle K service club and is Past President & current Board member of the Whitman Alumni Club.