Education Power 50 includes Rodríguez, Rethemeyer and Malatras

Rising to meet the challenges of an "unprecedented period of crisis," UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez, Rockefeller College Dean R. Karl Rethemeyer and SUNY Chancellor James Malatras have been named to City & State’s Education Power 50 for 2020.

The Education Power 50 highlights the chancellors, presidents, deans and other academic officers who are navigating New York’s top institutions through the tumultuous events, including the COVID-19 crisis and national debates over policing and institutional racism.

Listed eighth, President Rodríguez was tasked by Gov.r Cuomo to work alongside the state Department of Health to investigate the disparate impacts of COVID-19 across different demographic groups. Rodríguez also has a key role in the greater community’s economic recovery from the pandemic as co-chair of the Capital Region Economic Development Council.

Ranked 44th, Dean Rethemeyer is a terrorism expert who studies social networks and has led the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy since 2015 – the top-ranked public school of public affairs in the Northeast. The college works with New York State and other governments to meet a wide spectrum of public policy challenges. Rethemeyer has also individually received funding from the Department of Homeland Security to research terrorist networks.

Topping this year's list is three-time UAlbany alum Malatras, who was appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees in August to oversee the State University of New York’s 64 campuses and 468,000 students.

Malatras, who received his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in political science from Rockefeller College, has served as Cuomo’s director of state operations, president of SUNY Empire State College, and chief of staff to former SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher. He helped craft the state’s Excelsior Scholarship program, which allows eligible students to attend SUNY tuition-free.