Welcome! Cultural identities and spirituality are meaningful and essential parts of many students’ lives, on our campus and in the world. Cultural and Spiritual Life at Northeastern strives to acknowledge, affirm, and respect each and every one of these identities in a way that does not label them as “differences,” but rather in a way that highlights how individual points of uniqueness can come together to form a part of something much bigger. We are here to advance freedom, promote justice, assist in building relationships between groups and individuals, facilitate inclusivity, educate across differences, and empower our communities as well as provide resources and information to everyone within the Northeastern network.
Our Leadership Team
Albert enjoys serving the Asian-American community through workshops, presenting at conferences, and educating allies on the pulse of the community. He believes that as generations enter higher education, we as a community have the obligation to continue to push the wheel of education, adjust, and advocate for the students. As a Chicago native, he is excited to travel to the east coast and join Northeastern University and continue his journey in higher education.
Prior to coming to Northeastern in 2012, Alex served as Executive Director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries (CMM), greater Boston’s oldest interfaith social justice network, and as Protestant Christian chaplain at Brandeis University. Alex co-founded the Interfaith Youth Initiative (IFYI) – a dynamic peacemaking and leadership program for high school and graduate students. As an educator, Alex has served as an adjunct faculty member, speaker, panelist, or consultant at institutions including Harvard Divinity School and Pluralism Project, Brandeis University, Pendle Hill Quaker Center, Andover Newton Theological School, Hebrew College, Boston University School of Theology, the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), and Merrimack College’s Center for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations.
Cindy’s professional path includes directing educational programs and global initiatives at institutions such as Boston University, Boston College Law School, the University of Michigan, and EVkids, a Dorchester-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering students through mentorship and sustained educational support. At EVkids, she co-advised the Youth Council, ensuring first-generation college students had a voice in organizational decision-making.
Previously, at the Boston Women's Workforce Council - a partnership between Boston University, the Boston Mayor’s Office, and over 250 area employers - Cindy led pay equity initiatives, including advocating for the inclusion of nonbinary workers in wage gap data collection. Cindy’s ability to build partnerships and drive meaningful change across diverse sectors reflects her visionary leadership and ability to embrace the complexities of defining impact.
Cindy holds a Master’s in Philosophy from Boston College and a Bachelor’s in Philosophy and Political Science from the College of the Holy Cross. Grounded in her philosophical training, she is committed to cultivating spaces where students, staff, and faculty feel empowered to reflect critically on their lives, embrace vulnerability, and forge connections that honor both differences and shared humanity.
Our Faculty-Staff Affiliates (2024-2025)
The Cultural and Spiritual Life (CSL) Faculty-Staff Affiliate Program provides one-year residence to early career scholars, scholars of distinction, independent researchers (at the terminal-degree level of a related discipline) and other senior professionals. The Faculty-Staff Affiliate Program is designed to link scholars and senior administrators with Northeastern’s diverse communities of learners by providing multi-modal and multi-dimensional formal and nonformal cultural interactions between faculty members and students. Affiliates come together to curate a shared cultural and spiritual life program, engage in both wider CSL-sponsored and Center-administered seminars, programs and informal gatherings. Affiliates demonstrate a strong intellectual investment in the cultural centers by encouraging academic excellence among learners as well as providing a presence which builds a sense of community, cultivates connection, and advances belonging.
She is jointly appointed in the Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies (CSSH) and the Department of Art + Design (CAMD), with a courtesy appointment in History. She is also affiliated with Communication & Media and Screen Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
In 2019-2020, she was a faculty fellow at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History.
She has published work in Film Quarterly, Pacific Historical Review, Southern California Quarterly, and The Rising Tide of Color: Race, State Violence, and Radical Movements Across the Pacific (edited by Moon Ho-Jung, 2014), among other publications. She is working on her next book project “The Invisible Hand: A History of Asian Americans in the Animation Industry.”
Prior to Northeastern, she was an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
During this period, she also worked at Shriners Burn Hospital in the reconstructive unit, providing administrative support on the unit for children undergoing reconstructive surgery. Witnessing the vulnerability of her young patients, Avalon’s empathy and compassion were amplified.
Villar’s research is situated at the intersection of strategic communication and health/science communication, focusing on community engagement with under-represented and hyper-vulnerable populations. Many of her projects involve co-creation of content with community members around topics such as mental health stigma, domestic and sexual violence, vaccine hesitancy, and environmental threats to communities. Co-created products include fotonovelas, radio stories, community theater and board games. She has published over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and articles in conference proceedings, and has been the PI or Co-PI on several multidisciplinary sponsored research projects. She was chair and associate dean at her previous institution, Florida International University, and led efforts in addressing barriers to equity, diversity and belonging in academia.
Her book manuscript, Circuits of Faith: Caste, Gender, and Racialized Religion in the Sikh Diaspora of the Transnational Pacific Northwest, is an ethnographic exploration of how caste is reproduced across the U.S. and Canada, and how it becomes a heterogeneous and flexible category. The project demonstrates that as caste travels, it is remade, oscillating between traditional caste hierarchies from the homeland and contemporary diaspora.
Our Vision
To create an inclusive environment that supports and engages all learners as they pursue academic success, authentic relationships, and a robust understanding of intercultural and interpersonal competencies.
Our Mission
Northeastern Cultural and Spiritual Life is dedicated to advancing self-exploration, the building of community through shared experiences, connecting learners to the University at large, providing experiential education opportunities and resources that promote the value of inclusion throughout the Northeastern network, and equipping learners to become leaders who forge a more just and equitable world.
Our Work
Cultural and Spiritual Life works to create inclusive and dynamic programming, events, and spaces centering the following areas:
- Building Community and a Sense of Belonging
- Leadership Development
- Peer to Peer Engagement
- Social Identity Development
- Life of the Mind (Intellectual Engagement)
These are developed through continuous support, guidance, and facilitation, as well as through consultations and trainings across the Northeastern community.