Meet The Team
Travis Proulx - Vice President of External Affairs
Travis Proulx joined Fordham in January 2025 as the University’s inaugural vice president for external affairs. He oversees government relations and the Center for Community Engaged Learning. Reporting directly to the senior vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer, Proulx leads Fordham’s work advocating resources at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as deepening Fordham’s positive community impact in the Bronx, Manhattan, Westchester, and globally.
Prior to joining Fordham, Proulx served the State University of New York (SUNY), where he led government relations, partnerships, and communications for the largest comprehensive system of public higher education in the country. At SUNY he also managed New York’s Small Business Development Center network, with its 23 regional offices.
Proulx successfully advocated for the expansion of the State’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), as well as the creation of professional development institutes that operationalized SUNY’s commitment to ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership. He also negotiated New York’s name, image, likeness law, and secured historic funding for the research and development of semiconductor technology.
Before to his service with SUNY, Proulx led advocacy and communications for Metropolitan Public Strategies, Environmental Advocates of New York, and the State of New York. Key campaigns include passage of New York’s groundbreaking climate emissions law and the state’s 2014 ban on fracking.
Proulx is a proud alumnus of the CUNY Graduate Center and the HEOP program at St. Lawrence University; he understands firsthand the transformative power higher education has in creating opportunity and upward social mobility. He is committed to being accessible to the campus community and is eager to help identify new partnerships and resources that benefit Fordham’s students, faculty, and staff.
Surey Miranda-Alarcon - Assistant Vice President for Community Affairs
Surey joined Fordham University in 2021 from the New York City Mayor's Office, where she served as Bronx Borough Director in the Community Affairs Unit (CAU). She has experience in outreach, community organizing, and program development. She has previously worked at The Puerto Rico House of Representatives, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, the NYC Commission on Human Rights, and Qualitas of Life. At Fordham, shes has also served as Director of Campus and Community Engagement at the Center for Community Engaged Learning and as Executive Director of Fordham's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grantmaker, Flourishing in Community.
Surey holds a BA in Social Science and Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico, and an MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research. She teaches economics courses at SUNY's Fashion Institute of Technology. She is passionate about community development, experiential learning, and advocacy and policy in the areas of equality of opportunity. She co-founded and chairs Diaspora for Puerto Rico, Inc, a New York-based organization that assisted Hurricane Maria evacuees to navigate resources and services.
Keisha Shay, Ph.D - Assistant Vice President for Community Engaged Learning
Dr. Keisha Shay came to Fordham University from NYU, where her administrative role involved academic development, communications, and operations. Shay holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Caldwell University in New Jersey, and has also worked at Montclair State, where she did her undergraduate work and earned a master’s degree in counseling in student affairs with a focus on higher education.
In 2017, she was awarded Outstanding Professional Achievement in Higher Education from Montclair State University and received the Sister Mary Amelia, O.P. Award for Outstanding Dissertation from Caldwell in 2020. Shay is passionate about student success, building strong partnerships, and student and faculty engagement.
Abby Paulson - Director of Federal Affairs
Abby Paulson came to Fordham in 2025 after serving in the same position at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She previously directed federal relations and public engagement at the American Political Science Association and worked with a coalition of organizations advocating for open government policies. Abby earned her BA from Ithaca College and MsC from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is based in the Washington, DC area, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
Maria Rodriguez-Gomez - Associate Director for Engaged Learning, Center for Community Engaged Learning
Maria came to Fordham in 2020 after working Maria received her bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she also completed a minor in Sociology. A proud Bronx native, Maria's educational journey was shaped by a strong commitment to public service and a deep interest in understanding the social structures that impact communities like her own.
While pursuing her degree, Maria worked for ten years at a notable immigration law firm in New York City. This experience offered her extensive exposure to the fast-paced and emotionally charged world of immigration services. She developed a strong foundation in customer service, learning how to communicate effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds and to provide support during often difficult and uncertain times.
Amanda Caputo - Assistant Director of Community Affairs
Born and raised in the Bronx, Amanda Caputo is a first-generation graduate of Fordham University with a B.A. in English and a Concentration in Creative Writing. For two years, she managed the Urban Plunge program, a three-day pre-orientation program designed to teach incoming Fordham students about The Bronx's history and its contemporary changemakers. She is passionate about curating programming informed by Fordham’s Jesuit Mission, which develops students’ leadership skills and educates them about NYC through a social justice lens.
She has also worked as the Program Officer for Flourishing in Community at Fordham, overseeing a subgrant funding process that offered grants to environmental projects to under-resourced communities in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and eight federally recognized Indian Nations in New York. Recently, she founded and is actively curating a community-driven literary magazine The Community Canvas, sponsored by the Center for Community Engaged Learning.
Kujegi Camara - Assistant Director for Community Engagement and Operations, Center for Community Engaged Learning
Kujegi came to Fordham in 2022 from the Muslim Community Network where she worked in project management. She is passionate about creating meaningful connections across different platforms, entities, and people. In her current role as Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Operations at Fordham's Center for Community Engaged Learning, she facilitates connections between Fordham students and the surrounding neighborhoods. Kujegi has worked in non-profit program management, community organizing and advocacy for faith-based and immigrant communities, and partnership cultivation. In her personal time, she gives back to her Gambian community by mentoring young West-African Muslim women and helping to empower them on their journey to college as part of her work with the Smiling Coast Women Empowerment Network.
Kujegi holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 2016. In 2019, she received the Leadership Award at the Senegambia Awards Gala for her trailblazing work in supporting young women from the Senegambia Diaspora. That same year, she also received a commendation from the Office of the Comptroller for her outstanding community work building bridges and empowering immigrant young women.
Adam Bermudez - Assistant Director for Communications and Project Management, Center for Community Engaged Learning
Adam Bermudez came to Fordham University in 2022 from the New York City Council, where he worked since 2014 serving as Legislative and Communications Director to members from Manhattan and the Bronx as well as researching workforce development strategies at the Division of Planning and Land Use.
He is a Bronx native and a graduate of Regis High School and Wesleyan University and studied elementary education at the University of Pennsylvania. Before working at Fordham, Adam worked for two local Bronx news outlets and on political campaigns in the Tri-state area, New Hampshire, and Virginia. In 2019, his work in the Northeast Bronx was recognized by the Williamsbridge NAACP chapter at their annual Men’s Day event, and in 2023, he was honored by Council Member Althea Stevens for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Tiffany Melina -Operations Manager
Tiffany oversees the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the Division of External Affairs. With a strong background in organizational management and higher education administration, Tiffany plays a key role in streamlining processes, managing budgets, coordinating cross-departmental projects, supporting institutional goals, coordinating communications, managing schedules, organizing departmental events, and maintaining accurate records. Prior to joining Fordham University, she worked as a corporate event planner in NYC gaining valuable experience in project coordination.
Bringing 13 years of experience in operations and administrative roles at Fordham and 7 year prior experience with events, Tiffany specializes in process improvement, management, compliance, and team development. Known for her amiable problem-solving approach, collaborative mindset and fostering relationships, she works closely with faculty, staff, campus leadership and community partners to create an environment that cultivates academic excellence, student success and community engagement.
Tiffany holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management and Communications from St. John's University in Queens, NY, and is committed to continuous improvement and innovation within higher education operations.
