Human Resources (HR) Overview
Human Resources (HR) provides the New School community with strategic HR guidance, industry best practices, and workforce planning support to help our leaders and teams navigate organizational growth and change.
We support the university through a full range of HR functions, including:
- Total Rewards: Health and Welfare Benefits, Retirement Benefits, Compensation, and Accommodations
- Talent Development & Employee Experience: Talent Acquisition, Organizational Development, Professional Development, Engagement Activities, and Employee Relations Support
- Title IX and Equal Employment: Title IX, Title VI, Title VII, 504, and bullying investigations
- HR Operations: HR Reporting and Analytics, HRIS, Talent Operations, and Payroll
Below are the different units within HR and their primary functions. General HR inquiries may be sent to hrhelp@newschool.edu.
Recent Changes & Updates
HR functions as a service-forward organization and has recently reorganized itself to better serve our community through dedicated HR Service Hubs. Key changes are listed below.
Key changes for 2026-2027:
- People & Talent Hubs: We combined Shared Services and Organizational Development into a unified Talent Development & Employee Experience team. Through dedicated unit "Hubs," faculty, staff, and managers now have a direct, central point of contact for tailored support, employee relations, and professional growth.
- Streamlined HR Operations: We unified our HR Operations leadership to oversee our technical infrastructure, including Workday, Payroll, Reporting, and Compliance. This integrated structure speeds up decision-making, automates routine processes, and ensures a more reliable systems experience for everyone.
- Integrated Total Rewards: Benefits, Retirement, and Compensation are now managed under one cohesive team. This unified approach allows us to deliver clearer, more transparent guidance around your full compensation, retirement planning, and wellness options.
- Reallocation of Talent Resources: We restructured our talent team to offer specialized recruitment support for hiring managers while building clearer internal mobility pathways and development opportunities for current employees.
- Student Employment Support: Student Employment Services has moved to Student Success and Engagement. Placing student support directly within student life creates a more seamless experience for student workers navigating campus job opportunities, onboarding, and career development.
Our Leadership & Enterprise Structure
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Departmental Units & Functions
The HR team operates as an interconnected team to serve all faculty, staff, and student employees. Under the leadership of Sonya Williams, Vice President of Human Resources, HR is organized into four core functional service hubs:
Talent Development & Employee Experience (TD&EE)
Cultivates a high-performing, adaptable university culture by building strong unit relationships and delivering robust, modern training frameworks. Oversees how the organization attracts, deploys, and retains the right people to meet its goals. This new team integrates HR Strategy, Organizational Development, end to end targeted hiring and recruitment and day-to-day transaction workflows.
Key Responsibilities & Goals:
- Enables and supports employees to create meaning, purpose, and professional growth in their work.
- Drives strategic workforce planning (WFP) in close partnership with campus departments.
- Develops and launches university-wide employee training and leadership programs.
- Manages the end-to-end hiring process.
- Visit our external New School Careers page to find a list of open Administrative, Full-Time Faculty, and Union positions.
- Visit our New School Careers website for all Part-Time Faculty, Temp, and Student Worker positions.
- Internal opportunities can be found in the Jobs Hub in MyDay.
General Contact(s):
- Katherine Herron, & Tyson Carter: hrhelp@newschool.edu
- Melanie Almeyda & Shaun Pascal: hrcareers@newschool.edu
Department Leader: Ilana Levitt | Assistant Vice President for Talent Development & Employee Experience
Senior HR Strategy Partners: Carrie Cotton & Antonia Oluwanifise
Benefits & Total Rewards
Supports employees by providing comprehensive benefits support and keeps the university competitive by aligning healthcare, retirement, and compensation packages to market value. The New School is committed to providing an array of comprehensive health and welfare benefits intended to meet the needs of faculty and staff and their eligible dependents. A list of our current benefit offerings may be found on the Benefits - Overview.
Key Responsibilities & Goals:
- Establishes competitive compensation structures and job frameworks that align with market value and promote internal equity across the university.
- Administers competitive medical, pharmacy, and retirement programs.
- Provides comprehensive benefit support and manages leave of absence (LOA) processes.
Health & Welfare Benefits Contact : Arlene De La Rosa, benefitshelp@newschool.edu
Retirement Benefits Contact : Naporje Washington, washinn@newschool.edu
Compensation Contact : Lauren Tomlinson, tomlinsl@newschool.edu
Department Leader: Terryann Waldron | Assistant Vice President for Total Rewards
HR Operations (HR Ops)
Drives data-informed leadership decisions through supervisory organization mapping, automated dashboards, and advanced data analytics. This team oversees payroll and is also instrumental in operationalizing HR business processes and labor contracts.
Key Responsibilities & Goals:
- Serves as the primary operational engine for hires, onboarding, job changes, and system updates through MyDay.
- Manages accurate, on-time payroll processing and compliance. View the Payroll Schedules Overview for additional information.
- Configures core systems (like Workday) to seamlessly support university infrastructure and provide leadership with clear workforce data.
General Contacts:
- Kristine Vargas, hrops@newschool.edu
- Emily Ruiz, payrollhelp@newschool.edu
Department Leader: Ajeia Gholson | Assistant Vice President, HR Operations
Title IX & Equal Employment
Protects and supports the campus community by providing dedicated resources for addressing harassment, discrimination, Title IX, Title VII, Title VI, and 504 Disability concerns, while promoting institutional equity through education, prevention, visibility and communication. See the university's Title IX page for more information.
Key Responsibilities & Goals:
- Manages all harassment, discrimination, and equity complaints through a single, centralized office.
- Strengthens institutional integrity through proactive campus visibility, education, and compliance training.
- Ensures a safe, fair, respectful, and legally compliant working and learning environment.
General Contact: Gene Puno-DeLeon, titleixcoordinator@newschool.edu
Department Leader: Rhonnie Jaus | Vice President for Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Compliance
Key Contacts
General HR Email: HRHelp@newschool.edu
Phone: 212.229.5671 x4964
Fax: 212.229.5884
Topic / Business Function | What We Handle | Primary Contact(s) | Title | Email/Phone/Fax |
General HR Questions | General questions about processes, policies, forms | Katherine Herron & Tyson Carter | People & Talent Hub (PATH) Coordinators | hrhelp@newschool.edu |
Hiring & Recruitment | Assistance with position requests, job descriptions, recruitment communications, onboarding. | Melanie Almeyda & Shaun Pascal | Talent Specialists | |
Learning & Development | Questions about the performance management cycle, training and development opportunities, customized team training and manager training programs | Ali Cherasia | Associate Director, Learning & Development | |
Health & Welfare Benefits | Benefits information, leave(s) of absence, retirement plans | Arlene De La Rosa | Associate Director, Benefits Administration | benefitshelp@newschool.edu |
Retirement | Information on Retirement programs and contributions | Naporje Washington | Benefits Specialist, Retirement Benefit Administration | benefitshelp@newschool.edu |
Compensation | Questions about compensation structures, market alignment, and administrative salary bands | Lauren Tomlinson | Compensation Director | benefitshelp@newschool.edu |
Workday/Workday Recruitment | Guidance and troubleshooting with Workday Recruiting an other Workday tasks | Jodie-Ann Spencer | Assistant Director of Talent Acquisition Operations and Systems | |
Payroll | Questions about payroll, paychecks, withholdings, 529 Plan assistance | Emily Ruiz | Payroll Operations Manager | payrollhelp@newschool.edu |
Title IX | Harassment, discrimination, and equity concerns and complaints | Gene Puno-DeLeon | Associate Director, Title IX and Equal Opportunity |
For additional questions regarding who to contact or which office manages specific workflows or processes, submit a request using the Information Request form and we will assist you as soon as an answer is available.