The How and Why of Social Mobility: Launching The Social Mobility Lab

On April 15, the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York will launch Social Mobility Lab, an initiative to support scholarship, convenings, and public events about social mobility and higher education. The Lab aims to advance understanding of how higher education in the United States expands and accelerates opportunities for students and the families and communities from which they come.

Why launch this lab at CUNY? Study after study suggests that CUNY is among the most effective engines of social mobility in the United States. According to The New York Times, CUNY has “propelled almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all eight Ivy League campuses, plus Duke, M.I.T., Stanford and Chicago, combined.” Our success is clear. But we know far less than we should about how we do it and the methods and resources required to scale and replicate our success across higher education in the United States.

Join us on April 15 at 3:30pm for “The How and Why of Social Mobility: Launching The Social Mobility Lab at CCNY.” Our keynote speaker is: Paul Tough, author of . That will be followed by a panel discussion led by Elvin Garcia, CCNY Alumnus and Director of Government Relations at NYU; Cristina Jiménez Moreta, CUNY Alumna and Distinguished Lecturer at CCNY; and, Dee Dee Mozeleski, Vice President of CCNY’s Office of Institutional Advancement, Communications and External Relations. CCNY President Vince Boudreau will share closing remarks.

Keynote: Paul Tough is the author, most recently, of (previously titled The Years That Matter Most). His three previous books include , which was translated into 27 languages and spent more than a year on the New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists.

Paul is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine; his writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, GQ, and Esquire, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. He is a speaker on topics including education, parenting, equity, and student success.

He has worked as an editor at the New York Times Magazine and Harper’s Magazine and as a reporter and producer for the public-radio program “This American Life.” He was the founding editor of Open Letters, an online magazine.

He lives with his wife and two sons in Austin, Texas.

Elvin Garcia is a government affairs professional and community organizer with over 12 years of experience in local and state government, various political campaigns, and strategic project management. Currently, Elvin is the Director of Government Relations at New York University - University Relations & Public Affairs. Most recently, Elvin was the Director of NYC Affairs at Tonio Burgos & Associates, one of the top 50 public affairs firms in New York. Elvin was previously a Presidential Fellow at Open Society Foundations (OSF), a two-year executive office residency focused on international social justice, human rights, and good governance. Elvin is a graduate of the Colin Powell School of the City College of New York, obtaining a Master of Public Administration (MPA). He has concluded a summer federal policy internship with the Hispanic Federation in Washington, DC, focusing on holistic immigration policy research, coordination with the 2020 Census Fair Count coalition, and continued advocacy for Puerto Rico’s holistic recovery efforts.
In 2017, Elvin was a candidate for New York City Council in the Democratic Primary, where he ran a progressive grassroots campaign as a proud son of an immigrant, K-12 public school student and English as a second language learner, backed by dozens of Bronx community leaders and running on a platform of a 21st-century education model, fairer community policing and accountability practices, and more efficient transportation proposals. Before running for office, Elvin was the Bronx Borough Director for Mayor Bill de Blasio for nearly 3 years, delivering results for the 1.4 million residents of his hometown, coordinated the roll-out of 1000s of new Pre-K seats, empowered over 500 small businesses with access to city grants and services, and worked hand-in-hand with NYPD and community stakeholders to make the city safe and fair for everyone.
In 2016, Elvin was named a 40 Under 40 Rising Star by City & State New York, a 2015 alumnus of the New Leaders Council Institute – NYC chapter, and was a former Nevada campaign organizer for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection. Elvin earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2011. Elvin Garcia is a born and bred New Yorker, a life-long resident of the Bronx, and a first-generation Dominican-American to parents from Licey al Medio, a suburb of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Cibao Valley of the Dominican Republic.

Cristina Jiménez Moreta is a community organizer, strategist, and freedom fighter. She is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Colin Powell School and Co-Chair of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, the new CUNY institute. Prior, she was the Executive Director & Co-founder of United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country. Under Cristina’s leadership, UWD has grown to a powerful network of over 100 groups, 800,000 members, and a reach of 5.5 million people per month.

Jiménez Moreta immigrated to Queens, New York from Ecuador with her family at the age of 13 seeking a better life. Cristina lived undocumented for 12 years, attending high school and college as an undocumented student. She has been organizing in immigrant communities for over a decade and was part of UWD’s campaign team that led to the historic victory of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012 that protected close to a million young immigrants from deportation.

For her work as a social justice organizer Jiménez Moreta was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine, and was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2017. Cristina currently serves on the board of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the Hazen Foundation, Make the Road New York Action and the Dream.US.

Dee Dee Mozeleski is the Vice President of the Office of Institutional Advancement, Communications and External Relations, and, as such, also serves as the Executive Director of the Foundation for City College. In 2016, she was asked to serve in the additional capacity of Senior Advisor to the President of City College, Dr. Vince Boudreau.

Ms. Mozeleski has spent almost thirty years working in service to public higher education institutions, cultural programs, international agencies and government organizations. At City, she is a member of the College's senior leadership team, the President's Cabinet and serves on a variety of special committees, including the Task Force for the Future of City College. Her responsibilities include philanthropic management of the Foundation for City College, stewarding and expanding the College's public profile, workforce development activities, city, state and federal government affairs oversight, community engagement projects and management of our campus emergency needs programs specific to Benny's Food Pantry, the Urban Gardens at CCNY and a portfolio of emergency support programs to expand opportunities for students. During her time at City, she led the consolidation of the College's two fundraising organizations and oversaw the fundraising campaign which launched the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership in 2013 and, more recently, oversaw the launch of the College's new "Doing Remarkable Things Together" Campaign to bring the Foundation's endowment to $1 billion dollars.

Having worked with some of the largest non-profit organizations in New York City and around the world, with a focus on North America, the Middle East and Africa, Ms. Mozeleski has focused her career working as a public servant in support of causes that impact communities on a global scale. A graduate of San Diego State University, Ms. Mozeleski currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and as the advisor to the College's Outdoor Initiative and Hockey Club and is a member of the CASE District II Council and a member of the Association for Fundraising Professionals and Public Relations Society of America.

She served as a Board Member of Women in Development, New York City and Seeds of Africa Foundation, where she also worked to build a K-12 school in Adama, Ethiopia. Ms. Mozeleski was recognized as CASE Professional of the Year (2021) for CASE District II and was named a 2021 Crain's New York Notable in Non-Profits and Crain's New York Notable in Marketing and Communications for 2023. She is a Cabinet Member for CASE District II and a Member of the Board of the National Scholarship Providers Association as well as a Board Member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. One of her most proud accomplishments is having raised a City College graduate, class of 2016 and 2022.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The City College of New York, SH-350 in Shepard Hall, New York, United States