A career-long dedication to innovative teaching, service and leadership to Oswego, the State University of New York and beyond have earned John Kane, an economics professor and director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), the prestigious SUNY Distinguished Service Faculty rank.

“I don't think we have anyone on our campus who works harder than John Kane and means more to the professional development of our faculty when it comes to teaching and learning,” wrote nominator Rameen Mohammadi, associate provost at SUNY Oswego.

“I have spent hundreds of hours talking to John about teaching and learning and how best we can help our faculty to help our students learn,” Mohammadi said. “John is passionate about this topic and lives and breathes thinking about ways that we can help faculty get better at a job many had little training for before becoming college professors.”

Scott R. Furlong, provost and vice president for academic affairs, praised Kane’s “extensive service, exemplary leadership, and unyielding dedication to students, the university and the broader community.” 

Furlong noted Kane’s success in making CELT critical to the university’s teaching effectiveness. “It is safe to say that John really is the heart of CELT and in his role as co-director has established it as one of the most active and impactful throughout the SUNY System,” he noted.

“Since taking on this leadership position in 2008, Professor Kane has transformed CELT into a hub for professional development and pedagogical innovation,” Furlong wrote. “Under his guidance, CELT has become a vital resource for faculty, offering hundreds of workshops annually on topics ranging from evidence-based teaching practices to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence."

Mohammadi also noted Kane’s continuing exploration of the best methods, tools and technology to provide professional development and knowledge to faculty at SUNY Oswego and anywhere else.

“He believes in the effective use of tools in the classroom and in support of the learning process,” Mohammadi wrote. “He believes in sound research-based approaches that are effective in helping students learn. He has been effective in breaking the myths about how people learn, their learning styles, and other misconceptions that get in the way of improving student learning.”

Popular podcast

Kane is very generous in sharing his knowledge and explorations, whether through workshops on campus or at conferences, or more widely via the popular “Tea for Teaching” podcast he co-created and co-hosts with Rebecca Mushtare, deputy dean of graduate studies, since 2017. The podcast, which has exceeded 400 episodes, gets several thousands of downloads per month and has had a larger impact than its creators ever imagined, Mushtare wrote.

“We have listeners in 151 countries, and 74% are in the U.S.,” Mushtare said. “The podcast was started to make it easier for part-time and commuting faculty to have access to high-quality professional development, but quickly grew to something much bigger. Our guests have regional, national and international reputations, including regular appearances by faculty on our own campus and throughout SUNY.” 

Mushtare added that Kane does the bulk of the work related to the podcast, including all editing, and records on high-quality equipment he personally supplies to ensure the best product. 

“This project is a labor of love that often involves a dozen or more hours each week of John’s time,” Mushtare wrote. “It is clear through my work with him on the podcast how current he stays on the literature related to teaching and learning and how committed he is to getting the latest research and innovative  practices into the hands of other educators.”  

Kane also organizes the popular Winter Breakout and Spring Breakout sessions that deliver wide-ranging content to interested faculty and staff during academic breaks. Kristin Croyle, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Engineering, said Kane’s dedication and expertise are driving factors.

“For the Spring 2024 Breakout Workshops, John hosted 53 separate workshops and for the Winter 2023 Breakout Workshops, John hosted 77 separate workshops!” Croyle wrote. “In other words, John leads what is effectively equivalent to a national teaching conference in scope of topics and sessions, registration, posting, recording, etc., every semester at SUNY Oswego.” 

Kane also excels in the classroom, where he teaches hundreds of students every year, and in economics research, Croyle noted.

“He is a respected scholar in economics, winning the John Ward and Michael Piette Research Prize in January 2020, recognizing his contributions in forensic economics with his colleague Larry Spizman as some of the best research in the field and important to the profession,” Croyle wrote.  

Exemplary service

Furlong and other nominators particularly noted how Kane stepped up masterfully and generously when the COVID-19 epidemic threw all instruction into an online mode in a very short amount of time.

“He organized and facilitated workshops to help faculty transition to remote, hybrid and HyFlex teaching modalities, often working 30 to 45 hours per week, providing one-on-one and small-group support,” Furlong recalled. “His efforts ensured that faculty had the tools and knowledge necessary to maintain high-quality instruction during a period of unprecedented disruption.”

Kane’s many roles on campus have included guiding the university’s Association for College and University Educators professional development cohorts, chairing campus-wide committees such as Campus Technology Advisory Board and Computing Services Council, and acting as advisor for the Omicron Delta Epsilon international economics honor society.

In SUNY-wide roles, Kane has served on the SUNY Faculty Development Community of Practice Advisory Board and SUNY Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology, has helped plan SUNY’s Conference on Instruction and Technology, chaired the Adaptive Learning Task Group and served on the SUNY Innovative Instruction Research Council. 

A previous winner of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Faculty Service, Kane is a two-time alumnus of SUNY, having earned his Ph.D. and master's in economics from Stony Brook University, following a bachelor's in economics from King's College in Pennsylvania.

In addition to serving the campus, nominators noted Kane’s impact on the wider community, such as a key role on the Oswego Youth Soccer Association (OYSA) board from 1987 to 2006.

“With the OYSA, he was a coach, a league coordinator and eventually OYSA president from 2000 to 2006,” wrote fellow economics professor Elizabeth Schmitt. “While on the board, John created a website, one of the earliest in U.S. youth soccer, and led OYSA in an early test of online registration in New York state. Under his leadership, participation expanded from 700 to 1000 participants.”

Kane also contributed toward a very tangible goal for OYSA in helping lead the way to a new home —the Richard J. Benjamin Complex, which hosts multiple sports and thousands of young athletes every year, Schmitt said.

“Opening in 2004, the complex became a reality in part due to John Kane’s project management and fundraising,” Schmitt explained. “John was instrumental in raising over $300,000 and another $300,000 in in-kind donations for construction, acted as the general contractor and even laid much of the masonry for the complex structures. In recognition of his work, John was awarded the Unsung Hero Award in 2004 from the Children’s Board of Oswego.”

In nominating Kane, Schmitt hoped to see him recognized “because he and many like him make up the ‘quiet heroes’ of the campus — providing support behind the scenes, driven by a powerful intrinsic motivation that makes their work easy to take for granted. For over 40 years at SUNY Oswego, John Kane has been a model in service to our campus, our community and SUNY as a whole.”