Cuomo announced appointment at last week’s SOMOS event
Texas Border Business
By Rachel Silberstein
ALBANY — University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez has been appointed the executive director of the State University of New York’s Hispanic Leadership Institute.
Rodríguez will start his term on January 1, 2020, and will be charged with developing and supporting the next generation of executive-level Latino leaders across the SUNY system.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made the announcement at last week’s SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico, which was attended by Rodríguez and other UAlbany leaders.
“We created the Hispanic Leadership Institute because in New York we recognize that inclusivity and diversity is our greatest strength and we must leverage that asset in the SUNY system and beyond,” Cuomo said. “I’m grateful to President Rodríguez for taking on this additional leadership role and I look forward to the great work he and his colleagues will do to continue empowering the next generation of Hispanic leaders.”
A native of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez has spent three decades in higher education leadership. He joined UAlbany as the research university’s first Hispanic president in 2017. Previously, Rodríguez helped create the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, formed in 2015 through the merger of two existing University of Texas schools, UT-Brownsville and UT-Pan American, where he previously worked, according to the Texas Tribune. He has also held teaching and administrative positions at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and the University of Delaware.
“The Hispanic Leadership Institute is a critical asset for SUNY as it seeks to increase pathways to success for rising stars across the system. I am honored to play a role to help ensure the success of this important initiative to cultivate a new generation of SUNY leaders,” Rodríguez said.
The institute focuses on developing, retaining and promoting Hispanic leaders at SUNY for the positions of university president, provost, chief financial officer, and chief business officer, among others. The work of the SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute is guided by a 15-member advisory council composed of state and national leaders in higher education.
The institute offers a year-long fellowship program to develop Latino managers and executives and will soon offer shorter-term career development for middle-level Hispanic leaders to serve in a SUNY college president’s cabinet.
“President Rodríguez’s lifelong commitment to putting knowledge to work in service of others, particularly his leadership through disaster response efforts across Latin America, makes him a perfect choice to head the SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute,” SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson said.
