Scholars in Residence

Dr. Rukhsana Ahmed is Professor of Communication at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research focuses on health communication, immigrant and refugee health, intercultural communication, health disparities, and public engagement. Much of her scholarship examines how communication shapes healthcare access, health literacy, patient-provider relationships, acculturation, and well-being among immigrant, minority, and other underserved populations.
Ahmed is a Faculty Affiliate in the Information Science PhD Program, Faculty Fellow at the Center for Technology in Government, Board Member of the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society, and Faculty Associate at the Center for the Elimination of Health Disparities at the University at Albany. She is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Communication, and Affiliate Faculty with the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, and the Digital Transformation and Innovation Program at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
An award-winning and internationally recognized scholar, Ahmed serves as Chief Editor of Health Communication in Frontiers in Communication and is a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Eastern Communication Association in the United States. Among her notable contributions to scholarship on immigrant health, migration, and acculturation are the co-edited books Culture, Migration, and Health Communication in a Global Context (Routledge, 2018); Communication Research on Health Disparities and Coping Strategies in COVID-19 Related Crises (Routledge, 2024), and Theory and Application of Health Acculturation: A Communication Perspective (Lexington Books, 2024). She has also authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous other journal articles, journal special issues, books, and chapters and on health communication, culture, health equity, and emerging technologies.
More recently, Ahmed has extended her research to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping communication about health across clinical, public health, and community settings. Bringing together her longstanding scholarship on health communication, culture, migration, and health disparities with emerging research on AI, she explores the opportunities and challenges that arise as intelligent technologies become increasingly integrated into healthcare and public life. She is an AI & Society Public Engagement Fellow (2026-2027) at UAlbany. Through her research, teaching, mentorship, and community engagement, Ahmed seeks to advance evidence-based policies and practices that support immigrant integration, health equity, and community well-being while helping society navigate the opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies.
Beyond her scholarship, Ahmed remains deeply committed to public and community engagement as well as mentorship. She has collaborated with immigrant-serving
organizations, healthcare institutions, and community partners on research and outreach initiatives addressing immigrant health, health communication, and health equity. She has mentored and supervised numerous master’s theses and doctoral dissertations on issues of immigrant health, migration, intercultural communication, and health disparities, working with students and emerging scholars in the United States, Canada, and abroad. Through these partnerships and mentoring activities, she strives to foster collaborative, community-informed research that contributes to immigrant well-being and informs policy and practice.

Scott Fein served as an assistant counsel to New York State Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo and before that as a prosecutor. He serves as vice chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Public Authority Reform, senior advisor to the Center for Law & Policy Solutions at the Rockefeller Institute, counsel to the New York State Archives Trust, chair of the State Bar Association’s annual program in Albany on Ethics and Civility, and formerly, as the Chief Judge’s appointment to the New York State Permanent Commission on Sentencing and Chair of the Government Law Center Board of Advisors of the Albany Law School.
He was the statewide recipient of the 2021 New York State Bar Association’s Award for Pro Bono Service. He has contributed to and edited numerous publications about state government, including, Making of a Modern Constitution: The Prospects for Constitutional Reform in New York State, “Protections in the New York State Constitution Beyond the Federal Bill of Rights,” “Rural Justice in New York State: Challenges and Recommendations, New York: A Laboratory for Innovative Public Policy, and, Immigration: Key to the Future – The Benefits of Resettlement to Upstate New York.
Scott received his law degree from Georgetown Law School and master’s in law degree from New York University Law School. He is a partner at Whiteman Osterman and Hanna.

Hongseok Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University at Albany, SUNY. He is also a scholar-in-residence at the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy. His research focuses on human resources management, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and ethical behaviors. His work has been published in prestigious journals such as Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, and Review of Public Personnel Administration. Lee has investigated the effective management of diversity and inclusion in various policy areas, such as education, law enforcement, and government. He is now expanding his research to encompass immigrant integration issues.

Dr. Yuri Lyashenko is a Ukrainian-born public service professional and policy researcher whose career spans media leadership, civic inclusion, and immigrant integration. Now based in New York City, he a 2026 Fellow on Immigrant Integration at the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, SUNY. He is pursuing a Master of Public Administration at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public & International Affairs.

He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Before moving to the United States in 2023, Yuri directed Kyiv’s public television network, transforming it into a top-five national news outlet and leading its wartime operations during Russia’s invasion. He also managed the city’s COVID-19 Remote Learning Initiative, which provided online education for 290,000 students.

A 2024 Washington Semester Fellow at the National Democratic Institute, he researched participatory democracy and inclusion in fragile political contexts. His lived immigrant experience now fuels his work on policies that promote belonging, opportunity, and civic participation for newcomers. Yuri is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Russian, with proficiency in Polish and Hungarian.

Sarah Rogerson directs The Justice Center at Albany Law School. She is also the faculty director of the Immigration Law Clinic, in which students represent immigrant victims of crime, including child abuse and neglect, persecution, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Under her supervision, her students also represent wrongfully detained immigrants and regularly participate in legislative advocacy and community outreach initiatives. Before joining the faculty, Rogerson worked as a housing and immigrant rights public interest attorney in Newark, New Jersey, and in Dallas, Texas.
Her scholarship addresses flaws in the administration of immigration law and policy, including intersections with domestic violence and international law. She has also been published on current issues such as crisis lawyering, education policy and gun safety, having direct lived experience with each of those topics. She is a New York State Municipal Police Instructor and is a regular panelist on WAMC Public Radio’s “The Roundtable.” In 2020, Rogerson was elected to a three-year term on the Niskayuna Central School District Board of Education, on which she serves as Vice President.