Thomas R. Simmonds ’84, M '88

Thomas R. Simmonds ’84, M '88, director of facilities design and construction at SUNY Oswego, has received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service.

“Tom is a leader, an innovator and a consummate professional,” President Deborah F. Stanley said. “His leadership has been the face of major facilities renovation initiatives on our campus for seven years and is primarily responsible for our success.”

Simmonds began his career at SUNY Oswego supervising the campus furniture shop. While a graduate student, he was offered a new leadership opportunity: to create and coordinate a new facilities maintenance operation for the residence halls as assistant director of housing for facilities. In that role, he oversaw the furniture shop, custodial operations and maintenance trades for an 11-building, 4,000-bed residential community.

Simmonds also oversaw the first major renovation project at Oswego, the $8 million overhaul of a nine-story residence hall into the Hart Hall Global Living and Learning Center.

In his current position, “he has, in every facet of his performance, exemplified the superb leadership, technical expertise, and personal skill that define excellence in the development and delivery of capital projects,” wrote Associate Vice President for Facilities Jerry DeSantis, who nominated Simmonds for the award.

Simmonds has been a key contributor in several major renovation and construction projects on campus including Johnson and Riggs residence halls, Lakeside Dining Hall, Rich, Poucher and Swetman halls and the west wing of historic Sheldon Hall; and the construction of the $25.5 million Campus Center.

David Vampola

Victor Licatese ’87

Andrew T. Wolfe

Top Teachers
David Vampola, director of SUNY Oswego’s information science program and a visiting assistant professor of computer science since 1998, has received the SUNY Oswego President’s Award for Teaching Excellence this year.

In stating his teaching philosophy, Vampola called learning “a great adventure” and teaching “one of the highest activities in which a person can engage.”

“Vampola's teaching evaluations by students continue to be some of the best in the department,” said Rameen Mohammadi, writing as chair of the computer science department. “Students love and respect him.”

Computer science colleague Bill Bosch ’68, who nominated him for the award, described Vampola as “the renaissance person on campus.”

With degrees in philosophy, mathematical logic and social science/history from Loyola, Notre Dame and Tufts universities, Vampola teaches computer science, information science and cognitive science courses and in the college’s Honors Program. For the past two years, he has co-directed SUNY Oswego’s Interdisciplinary Programs and Activities Center.

Two adjunct faculty members — Victor Licatese ’87 in the psychology department and Andrew T. Wolfe in the accounting, finance and law department — are the recipients of the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence by Part-time Faculty.

Licatese teaches introductory and adolescent psychology at Oswego.

“His ability to relate to students and bring the classroom alive is now somewhat legend in the department,” wrote Distinguished Teaching Professor Jackie Reihman in nominating him for the award. “It cannot be overstated how excited students are with this man.”

Wolfe, a former president of the Oswego County Bar Association, teaches business law courses and developed a course in cyber law that he delivers online.

“Over a number of semesters, Mr. Wolfe has been evaluated by students as the most effective teacher in [the department] and in the School of Business,” wrote department Chair Richard Skolnik in nominating Wolfe.

Leigh Bacher

Barry A. Friedman

Super Scholars
Leigh Bacher of SUNY Oswego’s psychology department and Barry A. Friedman of the marketing and management department have received the SUNY Oswego Provost’s Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity and Research.

Bacher joined Oswego’s faculty in 2001 after postdoctoral research appointments at SUNY Binghamton and Cornell University. She received her doctorate from Cornell University.

She has published 10 peer-reviewed articles in the past six years, received a $338,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study spontaneous blinking in infants, and made many presentations at national and international conferences.

Brooks Gump, the SUNY Oswego colleague who nominated her, noted that her articles had been cited in nine other published papers, “an impressive number for such recently published work,” he said. “Her work holds great potential for making significant and enduring advances in the field of developmental psychobiology.”

Friedman was trained as an industrial organizational psychologist and spent 26 years in the corporate sector in Rochester before joining Oswego’s faculty as an assistant professor in 2003.

Since then, he has produced seven articles in refereed journals such as Industrial Relations and Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal; eight publications in refereed proceedings papers, including one that received the Outstanding Contribution Award at the annual conference of the Association on Employment Practices and Principles last year; and two presentations at refereed professional conferences. He also has numerous articles in progress.

“Dr. Friedman is a scholar in the true sense of the word,” wrote Steven Abraham, professor of management, in nominating him for the award.

Friedman holds a doctoral degree from Ohio State University and has taught as an adjunct at the University of Rochester since 1979. He has also taught as a visiting assistant professor at Singapore Institute of Management and Konan University in Japan.

Cynthia Clabough

Blue-Ribbon Work
Professor Cynthia Clabough of the art department was one of 29 statewide faculty members recognized with the 2007 SUNY Research Foundation Research and Scholarship Award May 2.

The incoming chair of Oswego’s art department, Clabough has earned 18 grants and awards. Her work has appeared in 61 solo or group exhibitions, and she has participated in more than two dozen competitive exhibitions.

Most recently, she received a SUNY Conferences on Computing in the Disciplines grant that supported a two-day conference in late March at SUNY Oswego titled “At the Intersection: A Conversation Between Art and Science on Information Visualization.” The conference brought together researchers and artists from many fields who work on interactive integrated media design.

Also this year, Clabough was part of a collaboration between art, music and theatre students and faculty with the Squonk Opera troupe to create the original multimedia production “Lost in a Viral Paradise.” The production had its world premiere in March at SUNY Oswego’s Waterman Theatre.

She currently chairs the college’s Center for Communication and Information Technology, an interdisciplinary fusion of graphic arts, journalism, broadcasting and information science.

Clabough has given 30 presentations and talks on topics ranging from art education to technology and writing to women’s studies.

She started teaching at SUNY Oswego in 1994. She received her master of fine arts degree from Southern Illinois University.

—Julie Harrison Blissert