By Nelson A. King
When Barbadian-born academic
Humphrey A. Crookendale
graduated from Howard
University School of Law in
Washington, D.C. in 1981, he
never in his wildest dreams
believed he would play a leading
role in a major academic
institution.
For more than 30 years,
Crookendale, who migrated
from Barbados in the summer
of 1971, says he has served
in a number of important
academic leadership roles at
Metropolitan College of New
York (MCNY), including associate
dean and acting dean of
the Audrey Cohen School for
Human Services and Education
(ACSHSE).
In addition, he served as the
dean of the college’s School of
Management and helped found
the college’s first graduate program
in public administration.
Crookendale, a long-time
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
resident, currently serves
as dean of MCNY’s School for
Public Affairs and Administration
(SPAA), overseeing the
college’s undergraduate and
graduate programs in both
emergency management and
public administration, where
he’s making a major difference.
Dean Crookendale, told Caribbean
Caribbean L 20 ife, September 13-19 2019
Life, in an exclusive
interview, that he was a key
architect of the college’s Master
of Science in Administration
degree program, the college’s
first graduate program.
It was Dean Crookendale’s
vision to also develop a curriculum
for a Master of Public
Administration (MPA) degree
in Emergency and Disaster
Management, one of few such
programs in the United States.
In addition to leading the
day-to-day activities of the
SPAA, Dean Crookendale also
teaches in the MPA program.
His areas of interest in teaching
are public policy and policy
analysis.
After graduating from
Howard Law School, Dean
Crookendale said he was
attracted by an ad in the New
York Times that called for a
faculty member who had experience
in political science and
law.
“That sounded like me,” said
Crookendale, who holds a B.A.
in Political Science and Communications
from Queens College,
City University of New
York (CUNY).
“Never would I have imagined
that my qualifications
would land the job, and more
that the job would instantly
catapult me into a key role in
the design of a master’s degree
and the application for its
approval by New York State,”
he added. “With its approval,
I was hooked on the idea of a
career in academia.”
Over the years, Dean Crookendale
said he has fielded applications
from many candidates
with law degrees, reinforcing
and reaffirming that his decision
Dean Humphrey Crookendale
Courtesy of Dean Humphrey Crookendale
was “not an aberrant one
but, indeed, a wise choice.”
Crookendale – who teaches
a class in public policy that is
grounded in political science
and law – said his legal training
has served as “a foundation
for so much of what I do
today.”
“I use the Socratic method
in my classroom to challenge
students to think out of the
box, and use a range of practical
and current events as the
basis for discussion and learning,”
he said.
Dean Crookendale noted
that public affairs and public
policy is “a disciplinary area
that calls into question such
other disciplines as political
science, economics and law,
just to name a few.”
He said students who graduate
with a Master of Public
Administration in public
affairs and administration are
“equipped to be public servants
and policy makers.”
“They are uniquely positioned
to be change agents in
their communities, and the
many governmental and non-
Barbadian-born academic
makes his mark at MCNY
Continued on Page 22
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