Feniosky Peña Mora

Personal life and education

Peña-Mora's childhood in the Dominican Republic was relatively unstable. His mother, Mirtha Lopez divorced when Feniosky turned eight, and then moved to New York in search of employment without him. Peña-Mora moved around between aunts and their fathers. When he failed to join the United States military after high school, Peña-Mora enrolled in the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo.

In 1988, Feniosky Peña-Mora arrived in Washington Heights from the Dominican Republic. He was 21 with a degree in engineering from Ureña in Santo Domingo. Peña-Mora took English classes at Teachers College, Columbia University and at a YMCA program in Greenwich Village. He studied nights at Bronx Community College.

Before arriving in MIT, Peña-Mora met Minosca Alcantara, a fellow engineering student at the university. They started to date, and when Peña-Mora was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s graduate school, she followed him to the United States. Peña-Mora earned Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in civil engineering from MIT. Peña-Mora was offered a teaching position upon finishing his doctorate. Subsequently, Peña-Mora took a year to develop real-world experience, working on the construction of the Central Artery in Boston, commonly known as the Big Dig.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2003–2009)

In 2003, the Peña-Mora, then an associate professor at MIT, and his wife left Massachusetts for the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he accepted an endowed faculty position in its civil and environmental engineering department. In 2008, he became an Associate Provost at the university. As Associate Provost at the University of Illinois, Peña-Mora was involved with interdisciplinary, diversity and entrepreneurial initiatives. He served as the campus lead for the Consortium on Fostering Interdisciplinary Inquiry that consisted of US research institutions which have exhibited leadership and innovation in supporting interdisciplinary activities in higher education.

As co-chair of the Illinois Chancellor’s Diversity Initiatives Committee, Peña-Mora coordinated faculty, administrators, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds to create Project 2012: Re-envisioning Diversity and Inclusion at Illinois. Peña-Mora instituted the [Global Leaders in Construction Management program, a five-year combined bachelor's and master's degree program.

Columbia University (2009–)

In June, 2009, Peña-Mora accepted his new position as Columbia's Dean of Engineering and Applied Science in June, 2009.

Peña-Mora is the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University. Previously, he was also the dean of the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science at the university.

As a professor, his tenure has shown his interest in interdisciplinary research and teaching in the applied sciences. As dean, he focused on implementing a three-pronged strategic plan encompassing faculty excellence, student support, and space growth. During his deanship, the School of Engineering and Applied Science doubled its endowed chairs and raised $75 million for Columbia Engineering. During his time, the school also advanced from 21 in 2009 to 15 in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Graduate Ranking and from 26 in 2009 to 20 in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Undergraduate Ranking. Peña-Mora also led the reformulation of the online Master's program in engineering, which ranked number 1 in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report.

Peña-Mora's tenure was controversial. A number of faculty members and department chairmen passed a "no-confidence" vote in his leadership. They criticized his self-serving style of management, his hasty expansion of the engineering school, which overloaded professors with too many students, and asserted that he prioritized fund-raising over research and did not honor his promises. One of Peña-Mora's most vocal critics, Prof. Van C. Mow, called him a "control freak" and stepped down from his position as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2011. Mow's harsh critique was challenged by some as being driven by his general "resistance to change," especially when implemented by a Dean 26 years his junior. After various attempts to bridge the differences, Peña-Mora eventually resigned in July 2012.

Students, alumni, administrators, and community leaders speculated at the time that two reasons may have been at play: youth and race. Peña-Mora resigned from his position as Dean in July 2012. As a results, some questioned their “confidence—as well as the confidence of many others at Columbia—in the ability of Columbia to maintain diverse leadership at the top.” Faculty, students and community leaders complained about “racial bias in its ranks“. A highly regarded Hispanic biology professor has complained to Columbia President Lee Bollinger about the "ethnic bullying", "unbridled racism" and "the shameful bullying of our engineering Dean Peña-Mora shows similar characteristics" to the ‘gauntlet’ other minority faculty have faced at Columbia.” Another professor communicated how senior faculty in engineering even “complain about his [Peña-Mora] Spanish accent"; which was especially surprising, given that Israel-born Zvi Galil, Dean of the Engineering School from 1995–2007, had a strong accent that was "loved" by many.

Peña-Mora continues to supervise PhD and graduate research students, while he is currently listed as being on "public service leave," he maintains a named professorship at the Columbia's engineering school, a position which paid him more than $500,000 in 2015 on top of his salary as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

New York City Department of Design and Construction (2014–)

On April 8, 2014, Dr. Peña-Mora was appointed the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction by mayor Bill de Blasio. As Commissioner, he has visited many of the DDC's projects, including the rehabilitation of the High Bridge, which will restore a vital link between upper Manhattan and the Bronx; the new New York City Police Academy in College Point, Queens, which will train more than 1,600 new police officers each year to protect the City; the Ocean Breeze Athletic Center, which symbolizes continued investment in neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Sandy; and, the transformation of Times Square into a permanent pedestrian plaza.

Peña-Mora has prioritized sustainability and resiliency in DDC's public buildings and infrastructure projects and focus to providing contract opportunities for New York City's minority- and women-owned businesses.

Controversy followed Peña-Mora to the public sector in 2016 when a supposed quid pro quo scheme was uncovered, as Peña-Mora directed DDC funds and City contracts to Renee Sacks, and organizations she works with, and Sacks' firm, Sacks Communications, made its entire Spring 2016 issue of Diversity/Agenda magazine all about Peña-Mora.

Patents