Masele Kibassa

Mr. Masele Kibassa is a founding executive member of the Pan-African Higher Education Initiative Foundation (PAHEi). The organization benefits from his unique experience, as faculty and administrator at top tier U.S. higher education institutions.

Mr. Kibassa presently serves both as the Director of the Center for Academic Excellence and Innovation (CAEI) at Mercy College, NY and as an Adjunct Professor in Mathematics and Statistics at Lehman College. Mr. Kibassa immigrated to the United States of America from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1990.

Mr. Kibassa has been instrumental in the implementation of the Supplemental Instructions (SI) and Structured Learning Assistance (SLA) pilots for gatekeeper courses in General Chemistry and Biology. He also collaborated with the Office of Academic Student Success Initiatives, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Department of Psychology, and the Critical Inquiry Program to implement similar models adapted to their respective gatekeeper courses.

Mr. Kibassa was also instrumental in the development and implementation of AIM2G or AIM to Graduate (Advance Immerse, Master to Graduate. AIM to Graduate is a second chance to improve prior unsuccessful academic performance in designated gateway courses. This program allows students to take 2 weeks intersession immersive courses to improve prior unsuccessful grades. This program has been running since winter 2013 and has shown to increase students’ persistence and retention rate and has improved performance in subsequent courses.

Mr. Kibassa has been an Adjunct Instructor in the business and Economic department at Lehman College since 2012 where he teaches Business Statistics (Undergraduate) and Quantitative Methods for managers (Graduate level).

Mr. Kibassa holds a Master of Science in Secondary Education in Mathematics from Long Island University, Master in Pedagogy from Mercy College, an MBA with specialization in Finance from Mercy College, a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Mercy College, and an Associates of Science in Civil Engineering from Westchester Community College. Mr. Kibassa is fluent in English, Spanish, Swahili, Lingala, and French. He currently lives in New York, with his family.