Staff

Gretchen Maneval, Director
Phone: 917-648-8200 (cell)
Email: gmaneval@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Hear a CUNY Interview with Gretchen Maneval (mp3)

In August 2007, Gretchen Maneval became the first full time director of the Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College.  During the first year of her tenure, Maneval prioritized the Center's research agenda with the Center's advisory board and academic and community leaders, procured funding, launched a new website, and hired Center staff.  The Center has since embarked upon several initiatives, including: the production of the first ever Brooklyn Trends Report with over 50 community and academic advisors; the facilitation of the first Brooklyn HIV/AIDS strategic plan with the Brooklyn Linkage to Care Coalition, and related data analyses and reports; co-sponsorship of several community conferences on the topics of hate crimes, sustainability and HIV/AIDS issues in the borough; technical assistance for data analysis and mapping for Brooklyn community groups and institutions; and the development of a directory of Brooklyn nonprofit organizations to be launched on the Center's website in 2010. 
 
Maneval's 15 years of experience in research, policy, strategic planning and community development has spanned the government, for-profit, and not-for-profit sectors.  Before becoming the director of the Center for the Study of Brooklyn, Maneval served as the Director of Housing Development at the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a community-based organization in Brooklyn.  Maneval worked at FAC for five years, building an affordable housing development portfolio of over $100 million, with over 300 units in 27 buildings, constituting 14 distinct projects. 
 
Maneval has a Master in City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003) and a Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction from the University of Virginia (1996).  Prior to her graduate education at MIT, Maneval worked for five years in public housing policy at the federal government level, first as Senior Research Consultant with Accenture in HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing, and then as Senior Research Analyst with the congressionally mandated Harvard Graduate School of Design's Public Housing Operating Cost Study.  In 2005 Maneval was selected to participate in the Coro Leadership New York program, a highly competitive civic leadership program for mid-career professionals from across the public, non-profit, and private sectors in New York City, and in 2007 was selected as a We Are All Brooklyn Leadership Fellow.

back to top

Lorna Mason, Senior Research Associate
Phone: 718-951-5000 x2530
Email: lmason@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Lorna Mason, PhD, was previously a substitute Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, and is now consulting as the Center's Senior Research Associate, to work on the production of a Brooklyn Trends Report, a municipal social indicator study which will provide a quantitative and narrative picture of contemporary Brooklyn. 

Dr. Mason's theoretical and research interests are the dynamics of race, class, gender and sexuality as they intersect with work and inequality, with a particular interest in promoting social justice.  In the past she has taught at Queens College, The Labor Education Center and Kingsborough Community College.  Her research experience includes over 8 years of work with Julia Wrigley examining the dynamics of race, gender and class within child care arrangements.  Her graduate work was completed at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York in 2006 where she was awarded the Monticciolo Community Studies Fellowship and the CUNY Writing Fellowship.  With Frances Fox-Piven as her dissertation chair, she completed her dissertation in 2006, Insurgency on the Populist Right: A Case Study of the Contemporary U.S. Patriot Movement.  She is currently working on a book and a number of articles based on her dissertation research and is exploring the dynamics of work within a Brooklyn context that investigates people's changing relationship to work amidst growing inequality and climate change.

back to top

Ed Morlock, Research Associate
Phone: 718-951-5000 x6632
Email: emorlock@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Ed Morlock currently assists with research, data analysis and mapping for the Center’s Brooklyn Trends Report.  He is also working on the production of a series of videos featuring Brooklynites whose experience reflects the various theme areas of the Report.  Morlock facilitates the Center’s collaboration with StoryCorps (a national oral-history type organization).  He is planning for the development of a civic engagement guide, which will provide Brooklynites with critical information on how to navigate local government in order to more effectively impact policy, programs and funding in the borough.  Morlock is also managing the Center's website, and provides research support for other Center initiatives.

Ed Morlock graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies.  The interdisciplinary approach of this program allowed Morlock to study the intersection of cultural, social, and economic history in Brooklyn, as well as their implications for those living in Brooklyn today. Researching a broad range of topics, from the folklore of New York to the human, physical and environmental impacts of urban growth and development in Brooklyn have given Morlock an historical perspective to his work in the borough today. Morlock also has experience in both non- and for-profit construction work, providing him with a pragmatic social and economic justice-inspired lens through which he approaches his work with the Center for the Study of Brooklyn.

back to top

Christina Pisano, Research Associate
Phone: 718-951-5000 x6631
Email: cpisano@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Christina Pisano’s work at the Center includes the compilation and management of the first on-line directory of Brooklyn-based organizations - the Brooklyn Organizations Directory.  Additionally, she assists with outreach, data analysis and technical assistance for the Center’s various initiatives, including the Brooklyn Trends Report. She has helped to create profiles for Brooklyn College faculty who have engaged in Brooklyn-based research, and authored Brooklyn-focused publications to be featured on the Center’s website.  Pisano also manages the Center’s contacts database and accounting.

Pisano graduated from Brooklyn College in June 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Journalism. She is currently a graduate student in the Department of History at Brooklyn College.  During the summer of 2011 she worked as a curatorial intern at Fraunces Tavern Museum assisting in the digitizing of Revolutionary war letters and cataloging archived collections. As an undergraduate, Pisano was the student representative to the Brooklyn College Search Committee for the Dean of Humanities & Social Sciences as well as the Brooklyn College History Department Curriculum Committee. In the spring of 2010 Pisano completed her time as student representative to The Provost’s City-based and Sustainability Task Force at Brooklyn College and received a certificate of completion in Dale Carnegie Training at the Leaders of Tomorrow Conference held in January 2010. As an M.A. candidate, Pisano’s training will contribute to her work at the Center collecting and analyzing Brooklyn data.

back to top

printer friendly