ALBANY, NY, May 1, 1997 -- Dr. Judy L. Genshaft "has accepted my invitation to serve" as the University at Albany's Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, President Karen R. Hitchcock has announced.

Genshaft, who had been serving in the post in an interim capacity since August of 1995, came to the University as Dean of the School of Education in 1992. She had previously served in a number of positions of increasing responsibility at The Ohio State University, including chair of the University Senate and chair of the Department of Educational Services and Research.

"Since arriving at the University, Dr. Genshaft has served this institution with distinction and commitment. To her positions here and to her scholarship in educational psychology, she has brought a remarkable degree of informed experience, sound judgment, and creative leadership that associates and admirers both on and off our campus directed to my attention," Hitchcock said.

"It is indeed a pleasure to endorse the recommendation of the Search Committee for Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and to appoint Dr. Genshaft as the chief academic officer of our University," Hitchcock added. "I am sure that she will be an impressive and effective academic leader and a genial colleague in her crucial new role." The search committee, chaired by Dean Frank Thompson of the Graduate School of Public Affairs, recommended Genshaft from among four finalists after a nationwide search.

Said Genshaft on her appointment, "I am delighted and honored to be part of such an outstanding faculty, and I look forward to working with all my colleagues to help move the University at Albany even higher up in the rankings of the nation's top public research universities."

Vice President Genshaft received her B.A. in social work and psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, her M.A. in school psychology from Kent State University and her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Kent State. She is a licensed psychologist and a certified school psychologist.

She has published extensively in her research field of school psychology. Since arriving at Albany she has co-edited two books -- Serving Gifted and Talented Students: A Resource for School Personnel in 1995, and Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests and Issues, published in November, 1996.

She has received numerous research grants, including two current projects: EASTNET, a distance learning technology initiative funded for $874,424 by the State University of New York, and a $4.5 million grant from the New York State Department of Transportation designed to bring more minorities and women into the highway construction industry.

She currently is Chair of the University Academic Strategic Planning Process, serves as a member of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land Grant Universities, which is part of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), and has held a number of leadership positions in her professional organization, the National Association of School Psychologists.

In addition, she co-hosts a radio program, "The Best of Our Knowledge." The program, on general issues of concern to college and university campuses, is nationally syndicated to more than 60 public radio stations by WAMC-FM.

Vice President Genshaft is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Distinguished Affirmative Action Award from The Ohio State University and the Distinguished Cooperative Leadership Award (New York) for the National School Development Council.

She and her husband, Steven Greenbaum, a marketing consultant, live in Delmar, NY with their sons, Joel and Bryan.