Campus Champion

For nearly a decade, Samantha Howell has done the behind-the-scenes organization and planning that makes Cortland’s biggest events so meaningful for students and their families. From the President’s Opening Meetings through Convocation and Commencement, Sam guided Special Events for the President as the office evolved and incorporated innovative technology. “It’s rewarding to be a part of the work that honors and celebrates the wonderful things this campus does,” she said. This week Sam starts a new job managing the COR 101 Program for advisement and transition. “I look forward to working with first-year students — this will be a full-circle experience for me.” 

SUNY Cortland has been recognized by BestAccreditedColleges.org for its focus on special education, being named the third- best school in the United States on the organization’s list of “Best Bachelor’s In Special Education Degree Programs.” 

The rankings website says that it uncovers the true value offered by schools by using criteria that go beyond the name recognition and prestige of higher education institutions. Among the traits that Better Accredited Colleges considers are accessibility, the quality of education, affordability and return on investment. 

Associate professor Maria Timberlake, chair of the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department and director of SUNY Cortland’s Undergraduate Research Council, isn’t surprised by the national success of Cortland’s Inclusive Childhood Education program, which offers dual certification in childhood education and special education.  

“The strength of our dual certification program (Inclusive Childhood Education) is reflected in our department name, Foundations and Social Advocacy,” Timberlake said. “FSA means that we teach disability as a natural part of being a human and prepare our students to understand that their classroom will be filled with a wide range of children with varying strengths and identities.” 

The department also offers courses in multicultural and urban education, the role of gender in schooling and the relationship between schools and society. 

Emma Trulock ’22, an inclusive childhood education major who is now a special education teacher at F.E. Smith Intermediate School in Cortland, N.Y., found the university to be highly effective in preparing her for her career. 

“I think the emphasis on inclusion and having an inclusive mindset is a great part of the inclusive childhood education program that you don't see everywhere.” 

Timberlake noted that there is always a comprehensive effort by the department to give its students an advantage in their future job search after graduation. 

“We combine strong pedagogy with placements in local schools for hands-on experience, so our graduates are ready to teach in any New York school district.” 

Lori Foster, administrative assistant I in SUNY Cortland’s English Department, will receive a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service.

The Chancellor’s Awards provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and encourage the pursuit of excellence at all 64 SUNY campuses. Each campus president submits nominations, which are reviewed by the SUNY Committee on Awards.

The award for Excellence in Classified Service is given to individuals who have continuously demonstrated outstanding achievement, skill and commitment to excellence in fulfilling their job description and for their ability to go above and beyond that scope. Ideal candidates demonstrate creativity and flexibility in performing their position to meet campus needs.

Foster, who has worked in the English Department for seven years, helps serve the 40 full- and part-time faculty who teach approximately 120 classes and more than 2,000 students each semester. She is a tremendous asset to the many students, faculty and staff who interact with the department. Foster’s work in coordinating paperwork and scheduling and arranging interviews play a major role in the continued successful operation of the office. She has managed, budgeted and scheduled several programs including speaker series, annual awards and related work through the university’s Writing Programs and Writing Center initiatives.

Faculty in the English Department credited Foster for her quick thinking in being able to schedule an additional seven sections of a popular writing studies course necessitated by a large first-year class in the fall of 2022. She is also a valuable assistant to faculty as a first contact for students in advising and especially during the add/drop period.

The English Department’s prominent location in Old Main makes Foster an ambassador of the university for students and visitors who need directions and other general assistance. She has always treated all with warmth, kindness and respect.

As a student, Kasey Jacob ’21 worked with children at a counseling center in Mangalore, India, as part of SUNY Cortland’s Study Abroad program.  

Inspired by that experience, she is now returning to Mangalore to create a peer mentorship program for adolescent girls, an initiative made possible by winning a prestigious Fulbright Student Research Grant. 

“Doing something as big as this has been my dream since I returned from India. So I was really shocked to receive it, and also, really, really happy. I still think I’m in shock a little bit.” 

While abroad in India for a semester, Jacob took sociology courses at Saint Aloysius College in Mangalore, and worked with children as an intern at a nonprofit counseling center. Her upcoming research will focus on creating and sustaining a peer mentorship program for adolescent girls. The goal is to develop and support their social, academic and personal growth. 

“It will be a big change of environment for a long time,” Jacob said. “The duration of the grant is nine months, but I also know that nine months is the perfect time to be able to fully complete, create and implement my research and will give me time to get settled and develop and create relationships.”

The winning application was actually Jacob’s second. She first applied to the highly competitive program shortly after graduation but didn’t receive an award. Unwilling to give up, Jacob reapplied in 2022, incorporating the skills and knowledge gained through her relevant international work experience. 

Since her graduation in December 2021, Jacob has worked as a program coordinator at West Hill Refugee Welcome Center, a refugee resettlement organization in Albany, N.Y. It assists the long-term transition needs of refugee and immigrant families. 

Part of that effort is supporting youth programs — the focus of Jacob’s upcoming research. She works with children from diverse backgrounds and cultures but said the kids’ difficulties with education and the transition into school is a common tie between them.  

Her first experience with that, Jacob said, was from her time studying abroad. 

“That’s where I got to learn more about some of the struggles and challenges that youth in India face and that prompted my interest in working with the youth population.” 

Jacob graduated from SUNY Cortland as a dual major in sociology and anthropology with minors in women’s, gender and sexuality studies and Asian/Middle Eastern studies. She praised Distinguished Professor of Sociology/Anthropology Sharon Steadman, who first recommended that Jacob apply for a scholarship, and Professor Girish Bhat of the History Department.  

Both, she said, took extra steps to help her, offer advice on her application and give her letters of recommendation. 

“Having their support really means a lot to me. They were there through undergrad and even now they’re mentors to me. The entire Anthropology Department in my undergrad career was so awesome. A lot of the professors in that department set me up for success where I am now. I was just so happy to be a part of that department when I was there.” 

That result was an application that, in Jacob’s estimation, took months of revisions and rewriting until she was happy with the result — all while coordinating with a nonprofit in India to be sure of its support. It was then a long, anxious wait until she finally heard the good news.  

The grant she received will help cover Jacob's costs for research, housing, flights to India and back and transportation within the country. The Fulbright Program was created in 1946 through federal legislation to promote international understanding and collaboration. It provides 8,000 grants annually, with about 1,600 given to U.S. students. Included among Fulbright winners are 62 Nobel Prize recipients, 78 MacArthur Foundation Fellows, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 41 current or former heads of state or government. 

After returning in the summer of 2024, Jacob will pursue her master’s degree in education policy and leadership at Boston University.  

Whether at home or halfway across the world, she has no doubt she wants to continue to give help to those who need it. 

“Everything that I have done and what I hope to do is geared toward working to advocate for accessible and equitable education for youth,” Jacob said. “More specifically, for youth that you know are displaced or migrant or coming from backgrounds a little bit different than U.S.-born or other kids that have an upper hand in the education system.” 

Last summer, during a five-week academic trip to Costa Rica, recent SUNY Cortland graduate Miranda Kistner ’23 discovered how closely linked learning a country’s language is to understanding its culture.

“I realized the language was necessary to immerse yourself in the culture,” said Kistner, who grew up in small-town Elma in Western New York but had studied Spanish since middle school.

On her first foray outside the U.S. through SUNY Cortland’s International Programs Office, she noticed how relaxed and integrated classmates who already spoke Spanish were with their host families.

“If I hadn’t learned Spanish, I wouldn’t have acquired that worldview,” Kistner said. “Without the language immersion, you don’t get that full experience and the country doesn’t change you.”

Five weeks hadn’t been enough. When she came back, Kistner began looking for a longer Spanish immersion experience. She applied to use the prestigious cultural exchange program Fulbright U.S. Student Program to bring her classroom capabilities to the next level in Madrid, Spain.

Kistner, an Honors Program student who graduated on May 13 with a 3.99 grade point average, won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award (ETA) and will spend the 2023-24 school year teaching abroad at Colegio Decroly, a high school in Madrid.

“I’ve never taught high school before but I’m excited to see what it’s like,” said Kistner, whose education qualifies her to teach from kindergarten through high school.

Kistner earned dual degrees in adolescence education and Spanish with a minor in teacher of English as a second language (TESOL) from SUNY Cortland. During her time at Cortland, she also won an honorable mention for the Kathy Lattimore First-Year Student Award for Writing and a 2022 Dr. Virginia Levine Scholarship in Modern Languages Scholarship.

In addition to working as an English language teaching assistant in Spain, Kistner must also fulfill an independent project to engage with her host community.

“I proposed to do a weekly sustainability workshop that I’d hold in Spanish to educate people about climate change and sustainability,” she said. “It’s also to learn, myself, about what climate change and sustainability look like in a different country and a different culture.”

Kistner was influenced by her honors thesis advisor Jeremy Jimenez, an associate professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department.

“He definitely changed my world view a lot by teaching us about the connections between education and climate change and sustainability and also social justice,” Kistner said.

Kistner said that with Jimenez’ influence, she was able to learn Costa Rica’s lessons on environmental conservation.

“One class project was to look at international sustainability policies that were adopted by Costa Rica and prepare an oral presentation in Spanish,” she said.

While abroad, cultural differences on preserving the Earth’s scarce resources also caught her attention.

“ I was amazed at how their way of life was so connected to the environment,” Kistner said of Costa Ricans. “And their homes are much more open to the outdoors. It’s like ‘We’re all in this environment together.’”

As a four-year recipient of a Cortland’s Urban Recruitment of Educators (C.U.R.E.) scholarship, Kistner is committed to returning to the U.S. to teach for two years in a high-needs school district. She gained experience in that challenging environment in Syracuse, where she recently completed her required semester of student teaching among eighth grade classes at Huntington School. 

“It’s super diverse,” Kistner said. “There are students from so many different countries who speak so many different languages. I loved being able to draw on their experiences and their knowledge of other languages, too, to build my lessons and help them acquire and build another language on top of whatever languages they already know.”

In Syracuse, she was amazed to see that many of her English language learners picked up Spanish faster than kids who only spoke English.

“It was really interesting to watch unfold,” she said. “It just made sense to them. Which I get, because once you learn a second language, you know how to learn a third language.”

Established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress, the Fulbright Program has offered international scholarships to foster leadership, learning and empathy between cultures to more than 400,000 Fulbrighters from over 155 countries. Named for the late Senator J. William Fulbright, and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the program is the largest U.S. international exchange offering opportunities for students, scholars and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university teaching and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide. For more information, visit the program’s website, Fulbrightonline.org.

SUNY Cortland faculty, staff and administrators will gather at the Greek Peak Mountain Resort on Tuesday, May 23, for a one-day conference that celebrates teaching and learning.

The first “Great Expectations: SUNY Cortland Teaching and Learning Conference” is intended to offer all university employees an opportunity to present new ideas and discuss a range of teaching and learning issues aimed at improving students’ college success.

Because of the strong response, organizers limited registration to only SUNY Cortland faculty and staff. Participation is free and lunch will be provided.

Interest in the conference has been strong, and registration for Great Expectations is closed. For more information or to have your name placed on a waitlist for an opening, please contact Melinda Shimizu, Vince DeTuri, and/or Carol Van Der Karr.

“We had hoped to have 50 people for the first round and needed to close registration at around 80 because of space constraints,” said co-organizer Van Der Karr, vice provost, academic affairs and institutional effectiveness.

“Great Expectations” will host sessions in three topic tracks between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.:

• “Revising and Utilizing Student Learning Outcomes”
• “Teaching in 2023: Innovative Teaching Methods and Strategies”
• “Assessment Tools and Methods”

In March, organizers lined up their colleagues’ seminar proposals to share their work and perspective. The presenters will give their talks in their choice of several different formats: a 10-minute challenge talk, a 15-minute short presentation, a 45-minute-long presentation, or a 40-minute panel with three or more presenters.

“The university’s Student Learning Outcomes Committee received funding for this type of professional development from the Institutional Planning and Assessment Committee,” Van Der Karr said. “It was intended to support teaching and learning and provide more perspectives on student outcomes. The SLO Committee has worked on this for several years and waited for some COVID restrictions to be lessened for a safer environment for all.”

The conference continues the institution’s ongoing professional development work in improving student success, she noted.

Coordinated by the SLO Committee, this event is supported by the Faculty Development Center, Institutional Planning and Assessment Committee and the Provost’s Office.

Many SUNY Cortland alumni include a gift to their Alma Mater in their will. Very few Red Dragons, however, do it while they are still in their 20s.

William “Bill” Bellingham Jr. ’17, M ’21, Binghamton University’s 28-year-old outdoor pursuits coordinator, has included in his will a donation supporting the William H. Parks Family Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education at Raquette Lake, where a summer education program changed his life.

“I gave specifically to Raquette Lake not only because of how much it impacted me but how it could affect students in the future,” he said.

Bellingham noted that not only recreation majors, but students in all disciplines use Raquette Lake, and the center also benefits kids in different high school programs and SUNY Cortland alumni who return summer after summer.

Without his Raquette Lake experience, Bellingham says he may never have traveled the path leading to his current position, which he loves.

It’s a path that has taken many twists and turns. Over the last decade, Bellingham has been a Marine, a college student, a bar manager, a border patrol agent, college lecturer and recreation coordinator at a ski resort and an assisted living facility. He is now in his dream job, planning and leading outdoor activities and teaching recreation courses at Binghamton University.

It was in the military, while training to serve as a U.S. Marine Corps reservist at Paris Island, S.C., that he drew up his first will and testament at the age of 18.

“I never deployed but I did it just in case anything happened,” said Bellingham, who was a reservist while enrolled as an undergraduate in criminology in SUNY Cortland's Sociology/Anthropology Department, serving as a grade E-5 platoon sergeant and vehicle commander with the reserve base Company E in Syracuse.

“The will was just made out to my parents. It’s always been the norm for me to think of those things.”

A native of Ontario, N.Y., Bellingham recently thought again about his estate planning when his Alma Mater reached out to him.

“When I got the bi-monthly email from (Cortland College Foundation through) the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association, one of the sections was about creating a free will,” said Bellingham, who has a bachelor’s degree in criminology, minoring in outdoor recreation, and a master’s degree in recreation with a concentration in environmental and outdoor education.

“I realized that since my will was last updated, I had bought a house and I had also acquired a dog that I wanted to be well taken care of in case anything happened to me,” Bellingham said.

So, he took the opportunity to fill out a new will for the sake of his loved ones, including his American Staffordshire terrier, Jax.

“At the end, there’s a portion of it that asks, ‘Do you want to leave anything to Cortland?’ I thought, ‘Yes.’”

He recalled how one summer’s Outdoor Education Practicum course at the W.H. Parks Family Outdoor Center had changed his life. So, he checked a box to pledge a gift to the center on the form updating his will.

His memory of the center had motivated him to return to SUNY Cortland for his master’s degree after his original dream of a law enforcement career left him unfulfilled. From summer 2018 to summer 2019, Bellingham worked as a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Sonoita, Arizona, monitoring the U.S.-Mexican border, assisting in the care of interned individuals and transporting vehicles to and from headquarters in Tucson.

“The purpose behind my wanting to go into law enforcement was helping people,” Bellingham said of his disappointment in the reality of the work. “That was what I wanted to do, putting them on the right track. I thought recreation was going to be the best path for me to help with people in that sense.”

He recalled how, while he was at the Raquette Lake camps at the end of his Outdoor Education Practicum fulfilling his undergraduate minor in outdoor recreation, he had been approached about changing his major by Professor Sharon Todd, then chair of the Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department.

“At the time, I didn’t want to spend that much time doing my bachelors, adding two more years to finish the degree or adding a second major,” he said. “So, Sharon said, kind of offhandedly, ‘Oh, maybe if you return at some point in time to do your masters.’”

Not likely, he thought. But a disappointing year patrolling the southern border and an earlier, positive experience working as a youth development professional at Elmcrest Children’s Center in Tully, N.Y., changed his thinking.

“So, lo and behold, three years later, here I was back getting my masters degree,” Bellingham said.

He also was glad to return to his undergraduate job of working at the Red Jug Pub. He also supported his post-baccalaureate studies as a graduate assistant in advisement and transition and later as an adjunct lecturer in SUNY Cortland’s Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department.

Bellingham now maintains close ties with SUNY Cortland’s Adirondack facilities. He is a member of SUNY Cortland’s Metcalf Board, which funds programs and student scholarships offered thought the Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department. He is also a member of the Alumni Supporting Students Committee for the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association.

“The story of how (the Parks Family Center at) Camp Huntington was acquired by the Rec Department is stuff of legends,” Bellingham said. “It’s incredible. if I could even be just a little part of helping a student using Raquette Lake either to realize their dreams or at least to become the best part of themselves, I would love to have a hand in that.”

More than 1,500 students were recognized at SUNY Cortland’s 2023 Commencement ceremonies, held May 12 and 13 in Park Center Alumni Arena.

Photo galleries with 200-plus from Graduate Commencement and Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies are available online through the university’s Facebook page. 

Graduates and attendees were treated to picture-perfect weather and powerful speeches from SUNY Cortland faculty members at Saturday’s Undergraduate Commencement.

Faculty speakers included Regina B. Grantham, associate professor in the Communication Disorders and Sciences Department; Robert S. Darling, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and Geology Department faculty member; and Anne Burns Thomas, professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department. 

SUNY Cortland’s Class of 2023 included:

• 1,498 seniors who applied to graduate during the 2022-23 academic year, including nearly 1,200 who walked during the three undergraduate ceremonies
• 237 master’s degree recipients
• 20 education professionals earning certificates of advanced study

More information about Commencement, including a webcast archive, can be found online.

Three SUNY Cortland faculty and staff members will receive the prestigious State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.

The Chancellor’s Awards provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and encourage the pursuit of excellence at all 64 SUNY campuses. Each campus president submits nominations, which are reviewed by the SUNY Committee on Awards.

The honorees are:

• Tyler Bradway, associate professor, English Department – Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities
• Rich Coyne ’07, associate vice president for Institutional Advancement – Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service
• Jenn McNamara ’01, associate professor, Art and Art History Department and director, Honors Program – Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service

This year’s award winners are profiled below.

Tyler Bradway

The author of Queer Experimental Literature: The Affective Politics of Bad Reading, Bradway is a national voice in literary studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory and critical kinship studies. Queer Experimental Literature has been recognized for its scholarly thoroughness and theoretical ambition. Bradway has co-edited Queen Kinship: Race, Sex, Belonging, Form, which investigates the intersection of race, sexuality, nation, gender, history and politics. As co-editor of After Queer Studies: Literature, Theory and Sexuality in the 21st Century, Bradway was lauded by peers for connecting the legacy of queer literary criticism and the relevance of literary studies to queer theory today.

An essay, “Queer Narrative Theory and the Relationality of Form,” published in the Publication of the Modern Language Association of America, was one of the journal’s most downloaded papers of 2021 and was listed among the top 5% of all research outputs by Cambridge Core.

Bradway is a 2006 graduate of West Chester University who earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Literatures in English from Rutgers University. After joining the Cortland faculty in 2014, Bradway was promoted to associate professor in 2020. Bradway has served as graduate coordinator of Cortland’s master’s program in English, co-founded the university’s Distinguished Voices in Literature speaker series and is cited by faculty at other institutions for a commitment to including the best scholars across ranks and scholars of color in publications.

Rich Coyne

Coyne has been a driving force behind the university’s fundraising efforts and recently played a significant role in a comprehensive campaign that raised more than $30 million, far exceeding its goal of $25 million. Supervising a staff of 12 people, Coyne manages leadership gifts, major gifts, annual giving, reunion giving, donor relations and database services. He has worked with generous alumni and campus partners in the Division of Academic Affairs and faculty who coordinate undergraduate research to create an annual science symposium that links donors, alumni experts in the sciences, faculty and current undergraduates.

Addressing critical campus needs, Coyne has created pathways for donors to support initiatives including Cortland’s Urban Recruitment of Educators (C.U.R.E.), a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund and a Student Emergency Fund that helped many in need throughout the pandemic. The Student Emergency Fund will continue to assist students with unexpected expenses for many years to come. 

A 2007 graduate of SUNY Cortland, Coyne earned a master’s in management from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2009. He started at the university as general manager of the Lynne Parks ’68 SUNY Cortland Alumni House and has since been promoted to major gift officer, senior gift officer and most recently as associate vice president of Institutional Advancement.

Jenn McNamara

McNamara has done many years of service on behalf of both students and fellow faculty members at SUNY Cortland. As chair of the General Education Committee from 2014 to 2020 and later as co-chair from 2021 to 2022, McNamara led an intensive and complicated process in a timely, professional and respectful manner. McNamara facilitated many campus-wide conversations between the Division of Academic Affairs, deans and department chairs. She has been a member of the Institutional Planning and Assessment Committee and the Middle States Steering Committee, bringing a critical voice from fine arts to the table. As a member of the Honors Program Advisory Council, McNamara advocated for practical solutions for honors students and graciously led workshops for first-year students at an annual retreat that encouraged and inspired them to think creatively.

In the Art and Art History Department, McNamara has served as Bachelor of Fine Arts program coordinator, providing structure on goals, policy and procedure to other faculty. Additionally, she has been a juror and curator for several exhibitions in Dowd Gallery and was elected to the board of directors for the International Fibers organization. As an academic advisor, McNamara has provided valuable guidance and forged connections directly with students, sharing the keys to her success with peers and encouraging other faculty to become better advisors as well.

A 2001 graduate of SUNY Cortland, McNamara earned an M.F.A. in fiber arts from Colorado State University in 2005. She has taught in Cortland’s Art and Art History Department since 2005.

Three SUNY Cortland seniors recently earned the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence – the highest student honor presented by New York’s public university system – at a ceremony held April 24 in Albany, N.Y.

The Chancellor’s Award is given each year to students from SUNY’s 64 campuses who have demonstrated academic excellence while balancing leadership roles, campus involvement, community service and achievements in the arts, athletics or career-related pursuits.

The university’s recipients of the 2023 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence are:

• Lawrence Bruce ’22, an English major from Bath, N.Y.
• Forlendia Hunte, a senior exercise science major from Elmont, N.Y.
• Daniel Reischer ’22, a political science major from Newburgh, N.Y.

Each year, SUNY campus presidents establish a committee to review and select outstanding graduating seniors. Nominees are reviewed by the Chancellor’s Office and winners are selected. Each honoree receives a framed certificate and medallion to wear at Commencement in May.

Including this year’s honorees, 106 SUNY Cortland students have earned the Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence since the program began in 1997.

Lawrence Bruce ’22

English

Bath, N.Y.

A superb student, researcher and presenter, Bruce has created new opportunities and been an inspirational leader for LGBTQ+ students at Cortland.

A Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in 2022, Bruce’s research, “The Blip and COVID: Responses to Mass Crisis and How Pop Culture Becomes Reality,” studied the intersection of pop fiction, film and real life through the lens of a popular Marvel movie. It will be presented at two professional conferences in 2023. Bruce had previously presented on “A Complicated Man: A Historical and Ethical Evaluation of Bartolomé de Las Casas” at Cortland’s Diversity Conference and has been a speaker on topics related to diversity at other forums. They are currently pursuing a master’s degree in English and plans on doctoral work in the future.

Bruce has been a leader for Cortland’s campus community, serving as treasurer of the Cortland Writer’s Association and the Interfaith Crew, project leader for NYPIRG’s Hunger and Homelessness Project and as membership chair of the Cortland NAACP chapter. As president of Pride Club and at-large senator for Student Government Association, Bruce created new events including Gay Cabaret and Homecoming and led trips to New York City’s Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the Gay Rights movement and to Cortland’s William H. Parks Family Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education facility at Raquette Lake. Bruce has received an LGBTQIAP+ Advocacy Award from SGA and was recognized with a Leadership in Civic Engagement Award. Additionally, Bruce has held work-study jobs with the Performing Arts Department, the School of Arts and Sciences, Outdoor Pursuits and Memorial Library.

SUNY Chancellor John King, Hunte, Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Sharer (left to right)

Forlendia (Flo) Hunte

Exercise science

Elmont, N.Y.

A tireless supporter of SUNY Cortland’s student-athletes, Hunte is similarly driven to helping others in the classroom.

As a three-year captain of the women’s basketball team, Hunte has been a tremendous student-athlete and leader for her teammates. She is a role model and inspiration to all of the university’s student-athletes through her service as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Through SAAC, a democratic organization of student-athlete leaders, Hunte leads biweekly meetings among her peers, votes on NCAA legislative proposals and guides community service projects such as an annual leaf-raking event, a Thanksgiving food drive and One Love relationship violence workshops. Hunte represents Cortland on the State University of New York Athletic Conference’s (SUNYAC) SAAC as vice president of community engagement.

An exercise science major, Hunte has been a supplemental instruction leader for anatomy and physiology classes, supporting other students in their academic work. She has been a teaching assistant for COR 101, a course that helps first-year students make the transition to college. Hunte has interned with the Health Promotion Office and has been a student representative on Diversity Faculty Fellow searches in the Kinesiology Department. She has made an impact on students outside of athletics as treasurer of Mind Over Everything, a club that provides students with a safe environment to educate themselves about mental health. Hunte has been a vocal advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement, inspiring others across campus.

Daniel Reischer ’22

SUNY Chancellor John King, Reischer, Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Sharer (left to right)

Political science

Newburgh, N.Y.

A kind, caring, ambitious and energetic student, Reischer has balanced doing impressive research with working to serve other students.

Reischer is a strong student who also took many leadership roles during his time at SUNY Cortland. He served the Student Government Association as chief of staff (2020) and vice president (2021) and strove to represent all students by pushing the creation of wellness days during the Spring 2021 Semester. Reischer built bridges between SGA leadership and cultural organizations, worked to expand safe housing for LGBTQ+ students and organized a mutual aid drive to collect clothing, bedding and cookware for individuals in need. He also collaborated closely with many faculty and staff through search committees and groups including the Governance, Leadership and Administration Committee and the Student Engagement Committee.

In the classroom, Reischer committed much of his time as an undergraduate to research that set him apart from his peers. He wrote a policy brief on “Righting the Wrongs of Incarceration in New York State Prisons” and presented at the National Council for Black Studies on “The Rise of Right-Wing Radio in the United States,” an essay that was a first-place winner in the National Council for Black Studies’ and SUNY Cortland’s writing awards. Reischer presented his work on campus during Black History Month and at the annual Transformations conference for student research. He plans to begin a Ph.D. program in September in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. Reischer ultimately aims to help underserved communities.

Dr. Kathleen Burke of the Economics Department has been appointed to the rank of Distinguished Faculty by the SUNY Board of Trustees.

Burke has been named a Distinguished Teaching Professor, a title given to those who have demonstrated consistent superior mastery of teaching, service to students and commitment to ongoing intellectual growth and scholarship.

The appointment to a Distinguished Professorship represents a rank promotion over that of professor.

Burke received a B.A. in economics and mathematics from William Smith College in 1992. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D., both in economics, from Stony Brook University in 1994 and 1998, respectively. After serving as a visiting assistant professor in the Economics Department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1998 and 1999, Burke joined the SUNY Cortland faculty in the fall of 1999. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and earned a full professorship in 2012. Burke chaired the Economics Department from 2013 to 2019 and was interim chair during the 2021-22 academic year.

Through a commitment both to traditional lecture courses and innovative experiential learning opportunities, Burke has consistently motivated students to excel. She engages students in material through individual student-driven conversation and groups and uses techniques such as immediate feedback, reading logs, readiness assurance tests and online components to inspire progress and success.

Burke has created three courses – Research Experience in Economics, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Course and Community Innovation Lab – that lead students to put classroom theories into practice. In addition to helping local residents as certified tax preparers, Burke’s students work directly with local small businesses and non-profits to solve problems and come up with creative solutions.

“Her ability to move economics from a theoretical field to a real-world application makes her teaching more purposeful and meaningful to the students,” said Raimona Rowe, Cortland site coordinator of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. “As a result, they are not only learning concepts, but are able to immediately identify situations in which the concepts can be applied.”

The author or co-author of 27 peer-reviewed articles, Burke is an accomplished scholar who has also received $379,299 in funding for five external grants. As a member and through her service as president (2010-11) of the Academy of Process Educators, Burke has worked with college professors around the world on how teachers and learners can work together to continuously improve. Burke has served as the chief editor of the International Journal of Process Education since 2011.

“Kathy has a long and robust record of scholarly publications with her students that describe major achievements produced for her clients and that outline best practices for others to follow in service learning,” said Steve Beyerlein, a retired professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Idaho. “Beyond the scholarly impact of these publications, Kathy is to be complimented for the way she has synergized undergraduate research with teaching, leadership and service activities which often end up siloed from one another.” 

Since 2016, Burke has advised or mentored more than 20 students on research projects, including several honors theses and Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships. Students routinely cite Burke’s availability outside of the classroom for one-on-one attention. Burke has served students as the Economics Club faculty advisor from 2000 to 2012 and as the Entrepreneurship Club faculty advisor since 2011. She co-coordinated the COR 101 Mentor Program for economics and business economics majors from 2007 to 2018 and has served as faculty advisor to the men’s club lacrosse and women’s club soccer teams.

“It is rare to find her in her office without a student present who is working on research, classwork or speaking with her about their future goals,” said Associate Professor Wendy Miller of Cortland’s Geography Department. “If a student is not visible, there is a guarantee that they are emailing, texting, messaging or otherwise reaching out.”

Burke has previously been recognized with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018 and was awarded SUNY Cortland’s Excellence in the Incorporation of Technology in Teaching award in 2004. She received the Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Outreach award in 2007, 2012 and 2016. Burke was awarded the Stephen J. Barnes Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the Student Government Association in 2011 and 2023 and received Cortland’s Excellence in Academic Advising Award in 2014.

She is the 17th Cortland faculty member to receive a Distinguished Teaching Professor appointment.