Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2024-2025 SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence
SUNY Schenectady is pleased to congratulate three members of the College’s faculty and staff who earned the prestigious 2024-2025 SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence. The SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence were created more than 46 years ago to honor the distinguished performance of SUNY’s teaching faculty, librarians, and members of the professional and classified services. Recipients receive cast bronze medallions to be worn at Commencements, Honors Convocations, and other ceremonies. The College presented the awards during the Employee Service Awards & Retiree Recognition Program on Aug. 22.
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Classified Service
Charles Barber, Information Services Security Officer, Information Technology Division
Charles “Chuck” Barber has been a valued member of the SUNY Schenectady community for over 12 years, with his connection to the College beginning during his time as a student working toward his degree. Even then, he demonstrated a strong commitment to ensuring the College’s hardware and software systems were securely configured, consistently updated, and well-maintained.
Throughout his tenure, Chuck has played an indispensable role in keeping technology running smoothly across campus. He is often the first person called when technical issues arise and is widely recognized for his ability to diagnose and resolve problems quickly and efficiently—minimizing downtime and restoring functionality with remarkable speed.
Mr. Barber is known for his calm, composed, and patient approach to troubleshooting. He takes the time to gather the necessary information to properly address every issue, all while making users feel understood and supported throughout the process. His exceptional interpersonal skills and commitment to high-quality support make him a trusted resource for faculty, staff, and students alike.
Chuck’s impact extends beyond his technical expertise. He is highly skilled in working with individuals from diverse backgrounds, abilities, and personal situations. He has been observed engaging with first-generation college students, encouraging them in a kind and approachable manner to seek support and stay on track to complete their degrees.
In every interaction, he fosters an atmosphere of positivity, respect, and inclusivity. Mr. Barber’s success at SUNY Schenectady is not only reflected in his technical proficiency, but in the way he serves the needs of the entire campus community. He is known for his welcoming demeanor, dedication to service, and for ensuring that every IT issue is resolved with a blend of expert problem-solving and customer service excellence.
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Services
Amiee Warfield, Controller, Administration and Finance
Amiee has a long history with SUNY Schenectady. She graduated with her A.S. in Business Accounting in 1991. She returned in 2006 as the Coordinator for Financial Services and then was named Controller in 2015. Amiee is an outstanding asset to the College as she directs and controls all College financial activity.
The very nature of her job requires careful attention to detail, excellent problem-solving skills, a deep knowledge of accounting and finance, and the ability to communicate clearly with both her own staff as well as other divisions and departments. Her performance evaluations indicate that she excels in all of these areas. In particular, her “vast institutional knowledge…is tapped routinely by managers”, and she has “extensive knowledge in her area of responsibility,” including budget, cash flow, and grant management; financial reporting; coordinating compliance with federal, state, and institutional regulations; leadership and development of her team; and strategic planning.
Staff members and her supervisor have praised her problem-solving abilities; she is the “go-to” person in Finance for not only routine, but complex and even novel problems. Her solutions to problems are commonly innovative and lasting, becoming standard practice for the College. Amiee’s attention to detail has been instrumental in keeping the College compliant with federal, state, and institutional regulations, and ensures the College’s financial standing is always clearly communicated to the Board of Trustees and other stakeholders. Her analytical ability has benefited the College’s strategic goals, and her financial insights have kept the College on a path of sustainable growth.
Amiee has served on or chaired search committees, including those for the President and for Vice Presidents and Directors. She also has served as Treasurer of the Faculty Student Association and on the Sick Bank Committee. Amiee is also “one of the first to volunteer when there is a callout to support the community both on-campus and off.” Currently, she serves on the Ethics and Integrity Standard 2 Working Group, helping to prepare SUNY Schenectady for its upcoming reaccreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Amiee co-led the analysis and redevelopment of the Banner Finance module that has improved numerous financial processes, working with both her staff and IT staff to great effect. She has collaborated with the Workforce Development and Community Education Division, setting up payment plans for students outside of the traditional semester system, as well as assisting the Division with assessing financial viability and managing state and federal grants. The Schenectady College and Career Outreach Center claims her as one of their own because she acts as their informal financial director, as well as serving on a statewide ad hoc committee of Educational Opportunity Center financial directors. Amiee even finds time to serve as an Adjunct Faculty Member.
Amiee goes out of her way to support her staff. Co-workers state that she freely shares her knowledge and skills with others, acting as a mentor. This takes many forms, ranging from donating her time to helping with payroll processing for Adjunct Faculty Members or covering in the Student Business Office when they’re short-handed. Her colleagues note her kindness, compassion, and patience, as well as her advocacy for her staff.
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service
Dr. Laurie Lacey, Professor, Division of Mathematics, Science, Technology and Health
Dr. Lacey has been with the College for more than 30 years, having started as an Adjunct Faculty Member in 1994. She is currently a tenured Professor of Mathematics in the Division of Mathematics, Science, Technology and Health. Dr. Lacey has been a tireless innovator at the College, always looking for ways to improve not only her own teaching, but the content of mathematics courses.
Of particular note is Dr. Lacey’s work in the development and utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER). At the beginning of the COVID lockdowns, her students were struggling financially and could not afford textbooks, particularly the textbooks for Algebra and Calculus classes. To aid their access, Dr. Lacey has made a concerted effort to use OER materials in her courses. She has made extensive use of LibreTexts, a highly-adaptable OER platform that allows sharing of textbooks and course materials. Using the remix feature, she was able to construct custom OER textbooks from a number of disparate textbooks to get exactly what she needed for a given course.
She has also convinced her colleagues to switch by-and-large to OER materials in their own courses. Her efforts have not been limited to SUNY Schenectady. Her remixed textbooks, including one for the MAT 210 Discrete Structures: Logic & Proof course she developed, have been shared with other SUNY institutions. SUNY Tompkins-Cortland Community College was able to offer a section of Discrete Math using her materials. She has also prepared, compiled, and donated two complete courses on the Lumen online platform to all SUNY faculty to be used in teaching Linear Algebra and Introduction to Logic and Proofs. SUNY recognized her accomplishments in 2023 with a grant to help reinforce SUNY Schenectady’s commitment to OER materials.
Dr. Lacey prepared and taught Mathematics courses as hybrid courses, beginning with MAT 222 (Differential Equations) in 2006. She also wrote textbooks to integrate the Maple software package into some of the College’s mathematics courses.
Dr. Lacey has also served on a wide array of College committees above and beyond the call of duty: numerous search committees, several of the standing committees, ad-hoc committees, and most recently the newly-revived assessment committee. Dr. Lacey also serves on the SUNY Math Pathways Launch Years Initiative with other SUNY math faculty and is working on professional development courses for SUNY Schenectady staff in collaboration with David Wolf. She has spent numerous years ensuring SUNY Schenectady’s alignment with the greater SUNY system in Mathematics: she presented on the College’s Math and Science program at a Guided Pathways Conference in 2022, served on the SUNY Mathematics Transfer Pathway committee in 2019 and 2020, was the campus representative for Mathematics on a SUNY-wide review committee in 2014, and participated in the SUNY GEAR assessment review in 2009 and 2012.
Dr. Lacey finds time to serve the community as well. She has written exams used for the High School Math Contest, reviewed exams for the College in High School program, has served (since 1999) as the Local Organizer for the Hudson River Undergraduate Math Conference, and is the College Liaison for the Mathematical Association of America. She also has run workshops for and presented her work on Maple to local high school teachers.