News from SUNY Cortland

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SUNY Cortland Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs to Retire

CORTLAND, NY (06/11/2008; 1358)(readMedia)-- Elizabeth Davis-Russell, the SUNY Cortland provost and vice president for academic affairs since 2001, will retire on June 30. She will earn the designation of provost and vice president emerita for academic affairs and professor emerita of psychology.

Since announcing her retirement, she has received a follow-up request from the president of Liberia to return to her native country to help in the reconstruction of its higher education system. She has accepted the position of president of Tubman College of Technology in Maryland County, Liberia.

During her tenure as SUNY Cortland’s chief academic officer, Davis-Russell has led the development of strategic planning for the division of academic affairs resulting in the creation of six new academic departments and several new programs.

Her main areas of focus were on enhancing academic excellence through initiatives to improve student writing, civic engagement and quantitative skills; internationalizing the campus, enhancing the first year programs and increasing both the diversity of the campus and the number of graduate programs. Faculty development was a particular emphasis, especially the nurturing of new faculty through an extended orientation, retreat and seminars during the first year. She supported the recognition of faculty and staff through an annual awards luncheon and the acknowledgement of book authors though an annual reception for these published faculty and staff members.

Davis-Russell provided leadership for the College’s long-range planning process resulting in several new initiatives being institutionalized. She oversaw the development of the College’s core values clarification process, while her efforts to re-organize the College led to the formation of a new School of Education, an integration of all field placement and internship efforts under a new Field Placement Office, and the integration of athletic facilities under a single structure and management.

Davis-Russell initiated the efforts to enhance the intellectual climate of the institution through more focused, planned activities that brought faculty and students together outside of the classroom. For example, she supported the creation in 2003 of an Academic Convocation, now an annual tradition that launches each academic year in August, and a year-long speaker series.

Under her leadership, faculty have more aggressively pursued outside research funding. Grants managed by the Research and Sponsored Programs Office increased from $1.5 million a year to $3 million a year. Her efforts also led to the development of articulation agreements with community colleges and an initiative that increased the visibility and rigor of the Honors Program.

During her tenure, she has maintained a prolific volume of scholarship. Davis-Russell edited the 2002 textbook, Handbook of Multicultural Education, Research, Intervention, and Training, which was published by Jossey-Bass of San Francisco, Calif. She co-edited a second book and wrote many book chapters and numerous scholarly articles. Davis-Russell presented nationally in her field, including twice during 2007 for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities at its meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Her topics were “Recruiting, Orienting and Socializing Faculty” and “Entrepreneurial Universities: College-Community Partnerships.”

She currently serves the American Psychological Association (APA) as a member of its Committee on Accreditation Appeal Panel and is the president of the APA’s Society for the Clinical Psychology of Women (APA Division 12, Section 4).

In 2007, she visited the Republic of Liberia to advise the government there on how to rebuild its shattered higher education system as part of a small contingent on behalf of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

The National Association of University Women’s Central New York Branch honored her in 2005 with its Outstanding Service Award. Davis-Russell was a founding member of the branch in 2002 and has served as past president and organizer.

In 2004, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities bestowed on her the title of Millennium Fellow. Davis-Russell was a 1998 Fellow of the American Council on Education and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Society for the Psychology of Women, and Society for the Study of Ethnic Minority Issues).

Prior to joining SUNY Cortland, Davis-Russell was a presidential associate at Alliant University in California, formerly called the California School of Professional Psychology, where she became a professor in 1992. Davis-Russell also served in administrative roles as coordinator of continuing education, director of cross cultural psychology proficiency and dean of academic and professional affairs at the Fresno campus.

She served on the core faculty at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in the mid-1980s. In 1991, the school presented her with a Doctor of Humane Letters.

Previously, Davis-Russell was a tenured associate professor and coordinator of psychology at City University of New York’s LaGuardia Community College in Long Island, N.Y., between 1973-1980.

Davis-Russell grew up in Harper, Liberia, and then moved to the capital of Monrovia, where her father was an associate justice of the Supreme Court. She went to a tutorial college in London, England, and received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. She earned a Master of Arts in Educational Psychology from New York University and a doctorate in education in counselor education, from Yeshiva University. Davis-Russell has a second doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from New York University. She also completed post-graduate training in certification in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the Institute for the Study of Psychotherapy in New York City.

She has held a wide range of clinical jobs, including internships at Brooklyn Veterans Administration Medical Center and Harlem Hospital and Medical Center, and employment as a psychometrist-remedial specialist with the YMCA of Greater New York. Davis-Russell operated a private practice from 1990-98 offering clinical services to individuals and families.

Since 2002, she has served the Cortland YWCA as board member, vice president and Executive Committee member.

She is married to Thomas Russell. They have two grown children, Allison and Scott.

The College announced recently that, following a national search, SUNY Cortland selected Mark Prus, the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, to replace Davis-Russell as provost and vice president for academic affairs on July 1.

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Provost Elizabeth Davis-Russell (Credit photo to Robert Kaussner)