LaGuardia Community College is welcoming its new vice president of adult and continuing education, which serves thousands of individuals annually in a broad array of programs focused on adult education and career advancement, including one of the largest English as a Second Language programs in the northeast.
Sunil B. Gupta brings more than 25 years of higher education experience to LaGuardia’s Long Island City campus, where he will oversee a comprehensive set of services for adult basic education and high school equivalency certification, small business support initiatives, and occupational training in sectors ranging from advanced industrial manufacturing to building management and sustainability.
Key programs under Gupta’s purview include the Center for Immigration Education and Training; the Welcome Back Center, which helps nurses trained overseas get licensed to practice in the United States; LaGuardia’s Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program; the Small Business Development Center; and the NYDesigns small business incubator.
“I am incredibly pleased that Sunil Gupta will be leading LaGuardia’s adult and continuing education’s small business incubator. Gupta will oversee the more than $10 million that support these programs each year from foundations, government contracts, employer support, which is vitally important to the Queens community, particularly given its celebrated history of providing English language instruction, preparation for high school equivalency exams, workforce training and business services,” LaGuardia Community College President Kenneth Adams said. “Sunil is a visionary, innovative leader, who is sure to do great things in this new role, particularly to help Queens residents recover from the economic devastation caused by COVID.”
Gupta joins LaGuardia from Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he served as dean of the Center for Adult Continuing Education and Workforce Development. In this role, Gupta oversaw training programs for more than 10,000 adult students and managed more than $18.2 million in workforce training grants. Gupta received recognition for his efforts in developing innovative career pathways in health care and in specialized information technology-based programs.
Gupta serves on the boards of the COMBASE consortium, Hispanic Educational Technology Services, New York City’s Department of Education’s Advisory Council for Career & Technical Education and Jobs First-NYC. He is a past board president of the National Council for Continuing Education and Training, and past board member of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition.
Gupta has a B.A. from St. John’s University, an M.S. from NYU, and is currently completing a doctorate in educational leadership at St. John’s. He was born and raised in Queens.
