Feniosky Peña-Mora

Feniosky Peña-Mora
Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction
In office
April 8, 2014[1] – June 21, 2017
Appointed byBill de Blasio
Preceded byDavid J. Burney
Succeeded byAna Barrio (interim)[2]
Personal details
Born (1966-03-06) March 6, 1966 (age 59)
Dominican Republic
SpouseMinosca Alcantara
ResidenceNew York City
EducationUniversidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (B.S.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S., Sc.D.)
AwardsHuber Award (2007)[3]

Feniosky Peña-Mora (born March 6, 1966) is a Dominican-born engineer, educator, and professor. He served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction from 2014 to 2017, as dean of Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2009 to 2012, and as associate provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[4][5] He was inducted as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in October 2024.[6]

Career

Peña-Mora is the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University.[7] Previously, he was the Dean of the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science.[8]

Peña-Mora’s tenure as dean was marked by faculty criticism and internal conflict. Several faculty members and department chairmen passed a "no-confidence" vote regarding his leadership.[9] They criticized his management style and the rapid expansion of the engineering school, claiming it overloaded professors with too many students. They also asserted that he prioritized fundraising over research and did not honor his promises. One of Peña-Mora's most vocal critics, Van C. Mow, called him a "control freak", and stepped down as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2011.[10][9] Peña-Mora resigned in July 2012.[11][12]

Peña-Mora continued supervising PhD and graduate research students, and was listed as being on "public service leave" while serving at the DDC. He maintained a named professorship with a salary of more than $500,000 in 2015, in addition to his salary as Commissioner.[13]

In July 2023, Peña-Mora became the Dean of the School of Engineering and Sciences at Tec de Monterrey.[14]

Public service

Peña-Mora was previously the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction. Controversy followed Peña-Mora in 2016, when a supposed quid-pro-quo scheme was uncovered. Peña-Mora allegedly directed DDC funds and City contracts to Renee Sacks, as well as organizations she worked with, while Sacks' firm, Sacks Communications, made its entire Spring 2016 issue of Diversity/Agenda magazine about Peña-Mora.[15]

On June 21, 2017, Peña-Mora announced his plans to depart the DDC.[16][17] News reports attributed his departure to "Hurricane Sandy rebuilding failures."[18]

Patents

  • Hussein, K. and Peña-Mora, F., “Collaborative Agent Interaction Control and Synchronization System,” MIT Case No. 8376S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-057AUS, US Patent Application No. 09/540,947, Issued February 28, 2006.
  • Peña-Mora, F. and Kuang, C., “Mechanisms and Artifacts to Manage Heterogeneous Platform Interfaces in a Collaboration,” MIT Case No. 9249S Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-057BUS, US Patent Application No. 10/069,885, Issued January 9, 2007.
  • Peña-Mora, F., Vadhavkar, S., Dwivedi, G., Kuang, C., and Wang, W., “Software Service Handoff Mechanism with A Performance Reliability Improvement Mechanism (PRIM) for a Collaborative Client-Server System,” MIT Case No. 9250S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-092AUS, US Patent Application No. 10/069,797, Issued May 15, 2007.
  • Peña-Mora, F., Park, M., Lee, S., Fulenwider, M., and Li, M. “Dynamic Planning Method and System,” MIT Case No. 9185S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-086AUS, US Patent Application No. 10/068,119, US Patent No. 7,349,863, Issued March 25, 2008.
  • Peña-Mora, F., Park, M., Lee, S., Fulenwider, M., and Li, M. “Reliability Buffering Technique Applied to a Project Planning Model,” MIT Case No. 9186S, Daly, Crowley & Mofford, LLP file MIT-087PUSP, US Patent No. 7,415,393, Issued August 19, 2008.
  • Golparvar-Fard M., Peña-Mora, F., and Savarese, S. (2010). “D4AR- 4 Dimensional Augmented Reality Models for Automation and Visualization of Construction Progress Monitoring.” United States Provisional Patent Application No. 61/570,491, filed December 14, 2011.
  • Thomas J., Peña-Mora, F., and Golparvar-Fard, M. (2009). “Mobile Workstation Chariot.” Provisional Patent, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Docket Number: TF08208-PRO).

References

  1. ^ "Mayor de Blasio Appoints Heads Of Department Of Finance, Department Of Design And Construction, Mayor's Office Of Contract Services, And Brooklyn Navy Yard" (Press release). New York City Office of the Mayor. April 8, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  2. ^ "Mayor de Blasio Appoints Lorraine Grillo as the Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction" (Press release). New York City Office of the Mayor. July 16, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  3. ^ "Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prizes Past Award Winners". American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  4. ^ "Feniosky Peña-Mora". Earth and Environmental Engineering. 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  5. ^ "Feniosky Peña-Mora | Earth and Environmental Engineering". www.eee.columbia.edu. 2024-04-17. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
  6. ^ "ASCE inducts Peña-Mora as 2025 president amid Milton storm and convention cancellation". Civil Engineering Source. American Society of Civil Engineers. October 6, 2024. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  7. ^ "CV". Columbia Engineering. Columbia University. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  8. ^ Sandoval, Edgar (19 May 2009). "...dean of the American Dream..." New York Daily News. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  9. ^ a b ""SEAS Tenured Faculty Vote No-Confidence Peña-Mora, Prof Says," Columbia Spectator, May 18, 2012". Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  10. ^ Pérez-Peña, Richard (7 December 2011). "Discord Over Dean Rocks Columbia Engineering School". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  11. ^ Kaminer, Ariel (2012-07-03). "Feniosky Peña-Mora, Columbia Engineering Dean, Steps Down". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  12. ^ "Columbia Daily Spectator 5 December 2003 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  13. ^ Skelding, Conor (5 August 2016). "Columbia paid city commissioner more than $500K in 2015". DNAinfo.
  14. ^ Treviño, Ricardo (October 8, 2024). "Feniosky Peña-Mora, First Latino President of the American Society of Civil Engineers". TecScience. Tecnológico de Monterrey. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  15. ^ Fanelli, James (14 June 2016). "City Paid Magazine Publisher to Devote Entire Issue to DDC Commissioner". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  16. ^ "Statement from Mayor de Blasio on the Departure of DDC Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora". 21 June 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  17. ^ Rizzi, Nicholas; Honan, Katie (21 June 2017). "City's Embattled 'Build it Back' Head to Resign, Sources Say". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  18. ^ Durkin, James Fanelli, Erin (20 June 2017). "Department of Design and Construction chief to step down amid Hurricane Sandy rebuilding failures". New York Daily News. Retrieved 16 September 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feniosky_Pena-Mora