As Interim Special Assistant to the President, Dr. Hellman plays a crucial role in strategic planning and institutional effectiveness. She oversees the Office of Communications, cultivating a sense of belonging and connection for the current and extended college community; providing vision for advertising and marketing campaigns to support enrollment initiatives; and collaborating with leadership across the College regarding critical internal campus communications.

Before joining the Office of the President, Dr. Hellman served as a professor in the City Tech English Department from 2007- 2021, with the exception of her time as a 2011 Fulbright scholar in American Literature at the University of Antwerp. She has published extensively on United States literature, including her second book, Children of the Raven and the Whale: Visions and Revisions in American Literature (University of Virginia). At the University level, she has been a steadfast advocate for developmental education reform, and cofounded the CUNY Writing Discipline Council. A 2021-2022 CUNY Leadership Institute Fellow, Dr. Hellman has a long-standing commitment to public higher education, and has written for and about CUNY’s venerable students for the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Daily News. She holds a B.A. in English and Art History from Wellesley College and a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center.