News Briefs

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New Deans

Kamala C. Kiem has been appointed dean of Undergraduate Student Life for Columbia College and Columbia Engineering, and Jonathon S. Kahn GSAS’03 has become senior associate dean of community and culture.

Kiem joins Columbia from Clark University, where she served as associate provost for student success and dean of students. She previously spent more than a decade at Fairfield University in progressive leadership roles, including as associate dean of students, where she developed integrated onboarding and orientation programs, advanced first-year and living-learning communities, and created influential peer leadership and student development models.

Kiem received her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Massachusetts Boston and holds master’s degrees in student affairs administration (Michigan State University) and social justice education (UMass Amherst).

Kahn’s relationship with Columbia began in 1989 when he was a residential teaching assistant with the Double Discovery Center’s Summer Academy. He earned his Ph.D. in the philosophy of religion and had a doctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, where he taught Contemporary Civilization for several years.

Kahn spent 20 years as a professor of religion, Africana and American studies at Vassar, where he also held leadership roles as director of engaged pluralism and special adviser on inclusion and engaged pluralism.

In the 2024–25 academic year, he returned to Columbia to co-lead the Practices in Community Building Fellowship, offered through the Undergraduate Community Initiative.

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University Professor

Farah Jasmine Griffin, the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and of African American Studies, has been appointed University Professor, the highest academic distinction Columbia confers on its own faculty.

Griffin was the inaugural chair of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. She earned her B.A. in history and literature from Harvard and her Ph.D. in American studies from Yale. She is the author or editor of eight books, including most recently Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature. She has also extended her scholarship into the world of performance; in collaboration with composer and pianist Geri Allen, she wrote and staged two musical works celebrating the legacy of Black women in jazz.

Griffin is also a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and Mellon Foundation Scholar in Residence.

As Provost Angela V. Olinto observed, Griffin “is a visionary and pioneering scholar and an outstanding member of our Columbia community. Her work has impacted multiple fields and areas of focus and exemplifies the sort of pathbreaking, interdisciplinary scholarship that we seek to honor in our University Professors.”

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Hamilton Medal

The 2025 Alexander Hamilton Medal will go to Andrew F. “Andy” Barth ’83, BUS’85, a former chair of Capital Guardian Trust Co. with a far-reaching record of civic service and a commitment to the sport of wrestling on the collegiate and world stages. Barth is an emeritus member of the University’s Board of Trustees, having served from 2013 until earlier this year; he is also co-chairing the University’s Presidential Search Committee.

The Hamilton Medal is the highest honor awarded to a member of the Columbia College community and recognizes distinguished service to the College and accomplishment in any field of endeavor.

“Along with his professional accomplishments, Andy has distinguished himself through steadfast support of education, athletics and the arts — particularly here at Columbia, where his leadership and generosity have had a transformative impact on the lives of so many,” says Dean Josef Sorett. “He sets an example of service and civic responsibility that is truly an inspiration to us all.”

The 77th annual Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner will take place on Thursday, Nov. 20, in Low Rotunda.