What does it take to be a true leader in troubling times? Fordham Law School Dean Matthew Diller recently sat down with Tania Tetlow, Fordham University's new president, to discuss their own unique styles of leadership, the crucial role lawyers have in solving the hard problems of our democracy, and how to prepare law students for a career “in the service of others.”

An edited and condensed version of this interview appears in the latest issue of Fordham Lawyer alumni magazine, but we wanted to make their full, wide-ranging conversation available to the entire Fordham community.

Sarah Goldfeather on violin and Paul Kerekes on piano perform senior Elizabeth Galbo's composition.

Just 26 years ago, President Bill Clinton signed the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act into law. Today, gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, and the idea that gender is more than a simple binary is gaining acceptance around the country.

Efforts to lift up and support people who identify as non-binary are very much ongoing though, and so over the last few months, Fordham News spoke to members of the community who have had insights to share on the topic of gender, either because of their work, their personal experience or both.

The concept of artificial intelligence has been with us since 1955, when a group of researchers first proposed a study of “the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines.” At the same time, it seems like not a day goes by without news about some development, making it feel very futuristic.

At Fordham, it’s the purview of professors from a variety of fields. Damian Lyons is a professor of computer science on the faculty of arts and sciences. R.P. Raghupathi is a professor of information, technology and operations at Gabelli School of Business. And Laurie Goldkind is a professor at the Graduate School of Social Service.

As summer arrives, and the trend lines for vaccinations and Covid deaths in the United States head in opposite directions, it feels like freedom is finally within reach. But let’s face it: The pandemic has taken its toll. We’re not the same people we were 15 months ago.

So now, what? To help us use the lessons of the recent past to move forward in the future, we sat down with Kirk Bingaman, a professor of pastoral mental health counseling at Fordham's Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education .

On March 23  the Ever Given, a ship the length of the Empire State Building, ran aground in the Suez Canal, causing a traffic jam of epic proportions in one of the busiest shipping routes on the planet. When it did this, it revealed a $20 trillion sector of the worldwide economy that otherwise functions behind the scenes.

The Ever Given was freed after six days, but Lawrence Brennan, a retired U.S. Navy Captain who served aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and now teaches admiralty and international maritime law at Fordham Law, said the snafu illustrates just how dependent we are on a system we often take for granted—one that has real vulnerabilities worth considering.

To say these are challenging economic times is an understatement. As Covid-19 vaccines are slowly being distributed, the promise of a revived economy seems closer than ever. Not so fast, though, as experts warn that life in the United States will probably not return to normal until the fall.

And yet in spite of all of the uncertainty, entrepreneurs are still founding new companies. The Fordham Foundry, a business incubator based at the Gabelli School of Business, has continued to stage contests for burgeoning ideas. Its most recent one, the “Ram’s Den,” took place on February 6, and a second one, a pitch challenge geared toward less developed business plans, will take place on March 27.

So what is life like for a small business owner these days? We sat down with Brandon Adamson, a Gabelli MBA graduate whose company Beauitmaps won the 2019 pitch challenge, and Ozzy Usman, a current EMBA student who won second place in this year's Ram's Den with his small business lending company Equiduct.

On January 21, 900,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims, adding to the 16 million who were claiming benefits at the beginning of the month, and a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a threat to the economy. A second round of stimulus checks was issued by the Federal government in December, and a third round of checks is possible now as well.

Closer to home, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is hoping his embrace of universal basic income, or UBI, will help him become the next mayor of New York City.

The idea behind UBI is that government sends every adult a set amount of money regularly, which ensures that when they enter the job market, they do so not from a level of destitution, but from a basic, secure level.

Thomas Massaro, S.J., a professor of moral theology, has given all of this quite a bit of thought. He’s a frequent contributor to Catholicethics.com and the author of the 2018 book Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis.

The vaccines are here! This month, residents of long-term health care facilities and frontline workers such as nurses and doctors began receiving the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the FDA, and a second vaccine is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks as well.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is, the coronavirus pandemic will still be with us until spring, as authorities work to distribute the vaccines to the nation’s 300 million-plus residents, some of whom may not be receptive to taking them. Just as the pandemic forced us to adjust to a reality that once seemed unfathomable, ending it will require a coordinated effort unlike anything we’ve experienced since World War II.

Troy Tassier, a professor at Fordham who studies economic epidemiology, has been focused on the pandemic since it first struck the United States in March. He’s dismayed by the recent exponential rise in infections and deaths but says there are some lessons from the spring that can serve as a guide for going forward.

Dean McKay, a professor of psychology at Fordham, specializes in anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and the connections between anxiety and disgust. With winter approaching and potentially leading to more isolation, we thought it would be a good time to talk to him about what we can do to cope effectively during what is likely to be a traumatic time.