<p>Chris Gaffney studied history and philosophy as an undergraduate, then completed an instructor course with North Carolina Outward Bound, teaching in Taiwan and Connecticut, before heading to grad school for his master's (from UMass-Amherst) and PhD in Geography (from the University of Texas). After teaching in Massachusetts, Texas, North Carolina, Rio de Janeiro, and Zurich, and spending six months on post-Hurricane Maria rebuilding in Puerto Rico, Gaffney landed at NYU SPS in 2018. </p>

<p>Dr. Gaffney actually hitchhiked from Costa Rica to Texas in the mid 1990s and discovered that much of what he had been taught about the world was incorrect, if not an outright fabrication. As soon as he crossed the border into Laredo, he knew that he had to teach about what he had learned. He wrote a manuscript about his travels in Central America and Mexico, and then embarked on a peripatetic teaching career. </p>

<p>Gaffney shares that it has been very rewarding to have students who graduate from the program go on to pursue interesting, meaningful work. &quot;I love having students come back to me and report on their use of the tools, resources, and skills they learned in my courses,&quot; he explains. </p>

<p>According to Gaffney, being part of a global academic community is one of the real benefits of being at NYU SPS. He believes that this school's students reflect the challenges and possibilities of a hyper-mobile and interconnected world. </p>

<p>Gaffney believes that the hospitality industry is facing a number of challenges: low pay, high turnover, overtourism, climate change, and the structural imperative to maintain inherently unsustainable growth. One of the main challenges, therefore, is to get industry leaders to ask different questions and to expand their conception of value beyond economic returns.  </p> <p>He is now working on a <i>Hospitality 3.0</i> framework with collaborators that takes data-driven risk assessments into conversations where they frame responses that leverage new technologies, while maintaining a focus on an expansive reconceptualization of hospitality.  </p> <p>Furthermore, contemporary models of leadership are outdated, by Gaffney's estimation, as they place too much responsibility on one individual, isolating them from the networks of information and care that each of us need in order to thrive. </p>

<p>Dr. Gaffney also has thoughts for incoming students to consider. &quot;If you're looking for an easy path to academic success, you're in the wrong place,&quot; he concludes. &quot;Come with an open mind, a willingness to be wrong, to learn from mistakes, to challenge received wisdom, and to use the abundant resources at NYU SPS to build a better world.&quot;<br> <br> Are you ready to see where an <a href="/content/sps-nyu/about/academic-divisions-and-departments/jonathan-m-tisch-center-of-hospitality.html" target="_blank" title="MS in Event Management">MS in Event Management</a> at NYU SPS can take you? Start the next chapter of your career with a degree from the <a href="/content/sps-nyu/about/academic-divisions-and-departments/jonathan-m-tisch-center-of-hospitality.html" target="_blank" title="Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality">Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality</a>.</p>