Welcome to the first in a monthly series of mini-profiles of your TC faculty, staff and union colleagues. “Getting to Know You” focuses more on the lives that TC community members lead when they’re away from West 120^th Street.

Maudeline A. Swaray has worked at TC for 15 years, and currently serves as Information Processing Assistant in the Department of Development and External Affairs.  She is a member of the 2110 Union.

“I like working at TC because there is such a diverse group of people here, and I have enjoyed the association of many them,” says Maudeline, who, prior to coming to TC, worked at Columbia University’s main campus for the Department of Urban Planning. 

An accomplished singer of gospel music as well as music for social justice, Maudeline manages a recording business with her husband, Gebah, which has released four albums (including the couple’s own “Mass Exodus” and “We Want Peace,” which focused on West Africa and the African diaspora experience).  

Maudeline and Gebah received the Transformation Award in 2006 from the Leeway Foundation of Philadelphia and the 2013 Archbishop Michael K. Francis Achievement Award for Music.  When asked what most people don’t know about her, Maudeline mentioned her performances in TC’s  Horace Mann Theater in 2006; at the War Memorial in Rhode Island; at the Kimmel Center 5-Tier Theatre in Philadelphia; at The Africa World Festival in Detroit; and at The Great Plaza at Penn’s Landing, also in Philadelphia.

* * *

Few people know TC better than longtime staff member Robert Tucker. Over the past 40 years, Bob has worked in a range of TC departments with some of the College’s most esteemed leaders. Bob began his TC career in the Music Education Department at a time when Lincoln Center was under construction and the city was hosting Shakespeare’s 400^th Anniversary Festival. He subsequently worked in what is now the Biobehavioral Sciences Department, served as Assistant to the Dean, and even had a stint in Human Resources as Assistant to the Director of Personnel.

All of that was before Bob settled in to the Department of Health Education, where he has been a fixture for nearly 30 years. In his current role as Director of Academic Administration, Bob is known for his friendly disposition, flexible attitude and copious knowledge of the department and its work.

But that’s just Bob on the job, as it were. A true Renaissance man, Bob has also worked on Wall Street and at CBS, and holds degrees in literature, humanities (psychology) and philosophy. Among the latter, his favorite is the M.Ed. he received in the program in Philosophy of Education from Teachers College, where his advisor was the late Maxine Greene. The College’s family-like atmosphere and collaborative space are major reasons, Bob says, why TC has remained at the forefront of education.

***

Faculty member Terrence Maltbia has been a part of the TC community since the early 1990s, when he earned a master’s degree in Workplace Learning and Organizational Psychology. After spending 16 years working in the corporate sector, including two years for Rath & Strong Management Consultants and the Alexander Group, Terry returned to TC for an Ed.D. in Organization and Leadership, Adult Learning and Leadership/AEGIS. Now a senior lecturer for the Department of Organization and Leadership, Terry teaches a series on Leading One’s Self (Emotional Intelligence), Leading Others (Social Intelligence) and Leading Organizations and Systems (Cultural Intelligence).

Terry also serves as Director of the Columbia Coaching Certification Program. “With some 300 alumni from more than 40 countries, we’ve truly been able to help shape the next generation of coaching and consulting professionals,” Terry says. When not serving as a thought leader for the field of professional coaching, Terry attends summer music game competitions – he was part of the color guard, as well as the drum and bugle corps in high school – and restores his Victorian-era house in Brooklyn, When he finishes the foyer, he plans to buy and learn to play a baby grand piano.  – Phoebe Jiang

Published Tuesday, Sep. 9, 2014