Laurel M. Garrick Duhaney, PhD, began her SUNY New Paltz academic career in 1996 in the Special Education Program. Since then, she has held several administrative appointments with increasing responsibilities. From 2004 to 2017, she was Associate Provost for Assessment and Dean of the Graduate School, serving in an interim capacity for the first two years. From 2016 to 2017, she was Interim Dean of Continuing Education, and from 2010 to 2011, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Since 2017, she has overseen institutional assessment, strategic planning, accreditation, and 5-7-year program reviews.
Passionately committed to the goals of high-quality higher education, institutional accountability, self-appraisal, continuous improvement, and institutional renewal, Garrick Duhaney has managed New Paltz’s Middle States reaccreditation efforts for close to two decades, serving as the University’s MSCHE Accreditation Liaison Officer since 2006.
Dr. Garrick Duhaney has directed multiple University-wide curricular initiatives. For example, in 2021, SUNY imposed a new General Education that needed to be implemented for first-time college students arriving at SUNY New Paltz in the Fall of 2023. She led the campus-wide effort and co-chaired the campus’s General Education Implementation Task Force (GE Task Force), which was charged with helping SUNY New Paltz transition to the SUNY GE Framework. She collaborated with others to develop principles central to the work and delineated processes for transitioning to GE 5. Ultimately, New Paltz accomplished the goal: GE 5 was ready for incoming students in fall 2023, thus meeting the SUNY Board of Trustees’ mandate.
Garrick Duhaney has worked with diverse constituencies – including as a member of the President’s cabinet and leadership teams, Provost Deans’ Council, and senior leadership team, and has chaired the Graduate Council and campus-wide assessment councils. She has attained important institutional goals by possessing intra- and inter-divisional knowledge and fostering alliances with faculty, staff, and administrators across the campus. She maintains a strong work ethic and a belief in servant leadership. Her work on the executive committee of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools and with our campus’s Center for International Programs, which reports to her, has not only been gratifying but also has led to the development of mutually beneficial partnerships.
Most recently, Garrick Duhaney has served as Project Manager of New Paltz’s Science of Reading Fundamentals Micro-credential, which aims to improve childhood literacy levels through science-based pedagogical practices. With generous funding from a private donor and support from SUNY, New Paltz developed the Science of Reading Fundamentals Micro-credential to introduce educators to these core concepts. In its first year, the course has enrolled thousands of educators in New York State and beyond.
In addition to her administrative work, Garrick Duhaney has also published on essential topics. Her research has focused on several interrelated areas of inquiry within special education, including inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms, meeting the educational needs of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and responsive teacher education for a diverse society. She has published extensively in well-regarded, peer-reviewed journals. She has also been instrumental in work funded by the U.S. Department of Education. She has given numerous regional, national, and international scholarly presentations. Further, she has served on editorial boards and as a reviewer for several scholarly journals and book publications.
Dr. Garrick Duhaney has been recognized for her study and work throughout her career. She received a United States Agency for International Development scholarship, P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship, Illinois Congress of Parent and Teachers Special Education Annual Scholarship, Certificates of Recognition from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale as an Agency for International Development Fellow, and a Distinguished Teaching Award from Shortwood Teachers’ College in Jamaica, West Indies.
“Receiving this award is quite a pleasant surprise. I am both humbled and honored to have been selected to receive this award.”
