Joann La Perla-Morales to Receive SUNY Oneonta Distinguished Alumna Award

ONEONTA, NY (03/01/2012)(readMedia)-- Dr. Joann La Perla-Morales has been selected to receive the SUNY Oneonta Alumni Association's 2012 Distinguished Alumna Award in recognition of her accomplishments as an academic and civic leader. She will receive the award in a ceremony Saturday June 2, during the college's annual Reunion Weekend.

La Perla-Morales, a 1968 SUNY Oneonta graduate, became the sixth president of Middlesex County College in Edison, N.J., on Jan. 1, 2005, a continuation of her distinguished career in higher education as both teacher and administrator.

As Middlesex County College president, Dr. La Perla-Morales has initiated new academic programs, restructured and increased student services, and developed an honors program for high-achieving students. In concert with Raritan Bay Medical Center, she developed a new Associate in Science degree in Nursing. During her tenure, enrollment has increased and the campus had added new buildings and facilities including a LEED Certified classroom/conference center building, Crabiel Hall, which opened in January 2011.

An active member of the civic community, Dr. La Perla-Morales holds many key positions in state, local and nonprofit organizations. She serves on the boards of New Brunswick Tomorrow, New Jersey ACE-NET, the New Jersey Community Colleges Consortium for Workforce Development, the New Jersey Technology Council and the United Way of Central Jersey. Dr. La Perla-Morales was recently appointed by Gov. Jon Corzine to serve on the Board of the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA). She is also a member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Committee on Substantive Change, the Essex County College Engineering Technologies Advisory Committee, and New Brunswick Tomorrow's Education Task Force.

In April 2011, Dr. La Perla-Morales volunteered nearly two days to travel to SUNY Oneonta to participate in the Alumni Association's first-ever Student Alumni Networking event. As part of that visit, Dr. La Perla-Morales had significant interaction with faculty, alumni and students, with whom she was generous with her time as well as her networking and career advice.

Prior to her appointment at Middlesex, Dr. La Perla-Morales was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn. With overall responsibility for both the academic and student affairs areas of the College, she developed new baccalaureate programs, created the Office of Institutional Assessment, initiated an Office of Instructional Technology, secured $3.2 million in Federal Title V grants, and recruited 160 additional full-time faculty members.

She has also been dean of instruction at Nassau Community College, associate dean for academic affairs at Bloomfield College, dean of continuing education and community services at Union County College, assistant director of fundamental and continuing education services at Montclair State University, and education program specialist with the New Jersey State Education Department.

Among her diverse teaching experience in both English and Spanish, Dr. La Perla-Morales was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bogotá, Colombia, where she taught beginning and intermediate English and phonetics courses to university undergraduates and English teachers.

A native of New York, Dr. La Perla-Morales earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at SUNY Oneonta where she majored in education with a concentration in Spanish. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Doctorate in Education in Higher and Adult Education both at Teachers College of Columbia University.

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