On Sept. 14, the SUNY system inaugurated its 13th chancellor, Kristina Johnson. Johnson has served as chancellor since September 2017.

The event, held at SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology’s Halt Theater in New York City, was attended by delegates of all 64 SUNY campuses, as well as representatives from 116 other American colleges and universities.

During her inaugural speech, Johnson outlined some of her goals for SUNY, which include increasing research and development at SUNY research institutions, addressing the upcoming retirement eligibility of 40 percent of the over 88,000 SUNY faculty members and having the SUNY system become a major driver for economic growth within the state.

“I pledge to do all I can to make SUNY more than the sum of its many remarkable parts and the individual campuses better for being part of the whole,” Johnson said in her speech.

Johnson outlined how her plan for increased research in the SUNY system would capitalize on partnerships between academia, business and government in order to achieve the goals of her administration.

As for the aging of SUNY faculty, Johnson announced her plan to increase the representation of minority and underrepresented groups in the ranks of SUNY professors through a program titled PRODI-G. An acronym for Promoting Retention and Opportunity for Diversity, Inclusion and Growth, more details on the program will be released in the near future.

Johnson also said she hoped the SUNY system will become an economic powerhouse for New York state.

“We will prepare the state to thrive in challenging times, while adding to the economic and cultural vibrancy of our communities,” Johnson said. “We will embrace the diversity that makes New York the most dynamic state in the nation.”

As chancellor, Johnson will oversee the running of the largest comprehensive higher education system in the country, with more than half a million traditional students and 1.1 million adult education students.

Johnson herself is a Colorado native, with a background in science and athletics, having played on her high school’s boys lacrosse team. Johnson is a Stanford University alumna and founded what is now the Stanford varsity women’s lacrosse team.

Johnson has her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford and was a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, before becoming an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1985. While at U.C. Boulder, Johnson co-founded the National Science Foundation and the Engineering Research Center and even helped to start a company that was later instrumental in the revitalization of 3-D films.

In 1999, Johnson was appointed as dean of the School of Engineering at Duke University. Most recently, Johnson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2016.

The inauguration was attended by Oswego State president Deborah Stanley, Oswego State Faculty Association chair Lisa Glidden and Oswego State history professor and member of the SUNY Board of Trustees Gwen Kay.

Image provided by SUNY FIT