NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 3, 2025) – 17 Stella and Charles Guttman Community College employees have been selected as 2025 NISOD Excellence Award recipients. In recognition of their significant contributions to student or employee success, employees were nominated by College leadership who are members of the President’s Strategy and Implementation Team.
“I am deeply proud of the Guttman awardees, whose exemplary contributions reflect the very best of our community and have meaningfully shaped the College’s forward momentum in our shared pursuit of excellence. Being recognized by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) is a prestigious honor that highlights their unwavering commitment to student success, innovation, and academic excellence—values that define Guttman’s mission and impact,” said Dr. Larry Johnson, Guttman president.
To quality for nomination, Guttman employees must have demonstrated excellence and worked for the College for at least three years. The recipients are as follows:
Danny Cordova
Brandon Frazier
Nicholas Acosta
Victoria Romero
Krystal Liriano-Gonzalez
Diana Babb
Vanessa Leung
Shani Pierce
Sasha Ortiz
karen williams
Dominique Dessables
Ravindu Naiduwa Wadu
Naveen Seth
Nicole Kras
Anya Spector
Dara Pir
Sebastien Buttet
The Guttman employees join a group of recipients selected from community and technical colleges across the nation, and Guttman was the only New York college represented among this year’s award winners. The employees’ names are listed in the Excellence Awards booklet and on the organization’s website, and each awardee receives a pewter medallion hung on a burnt-orange ribbon as well as a certificate. Recipients were honored at NISOD’s International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence May 24-27 in Austin, Texas.
For more than thirty years, NISOD has recognized faculty, staff and administrators in honor of their service to students, colleagues and their communities. Guttman became a member of NISOD under the leadership of President Johnson as an avenue for highlighting and appreciating the College’s extraordinary talent on a national level.
Stella and Charles Guttman Community College was CUNY’s first new community college in more than forty years. Reimagining what community college could be, Guttman opened its doors in Manhattan in August 2012 to create a research-based, innovative model focused on moving students efficiently toward graduation. Offering associate degree programs in a nurturing environment, the College’s three-year graduation rate consistently surpasses the national average, and most graduates transfer to senior colleges. Guttman is federally designated as a Hispanic-serving institution and minority-serving institution with more than 85% of the student population identifying as Latine or Black/African
American. The College was named the best community college in America in 2020 and the top community college in New York State for 2020, 2021 and 2022 by Niche.com and other ranking agencies.
