Keaton and Winters Receive SUNY Chancellor’s Awards

A virtual recognition ceremony was held to honor faculty and staff at SUNY Niagara on Thursday, February 4^th.  During the event, a special acknowledgment featured the recipients of the 2019-2020 SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.  These annual awards are honors conferred to acknowledge and provide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence within the State University of New York (SUNY) system.   Dr. Rebekah Keaton was recognized for Excellence in Creative Activities and Maureen Winters was recognized for Excellence in Classified Service.

Dr. Keaton is currently an Associate Professor of English in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at SUNY Niagara.  She was nominated by a committee of her peers who noted her dedication to developing her craft as a complement to the scholarly and academic goals of the college community.  She has had nearly forty poems published in peer-reviewed publications, including prestigious journals including Arts in Buffalo, Blueline, Common Ground Review, New Plains Review, Slipstream, The Stonecast Review, A Harvard Review, and True Poet Magazine.  Dr. Keaton shares her talent at SUNY Niagara through presenting her work and by facilitating the inclusion of poetry in campus culture.  She served as a co-editor of the campus publication The Writer’s Review and coordinates On the Edge, an on-campus poetry series in which poets are invited to campus, attend selected classes, and give public readings.  In reference to his English Department colleague, Dr. Marc Pietrzykowski wrote, “I can think of no one better to be given a Chancellor’s Award in Creative Activities, as she embodies the role of teaching artist.”

After more than 30 years of dedicated service to SUNY Niagara, Maureen Winters, Stenographer in the Faculty Resource Center for Academic Excellence (FRCAE) was recognized with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service.  She was nominated for the award by former Professor Gail Tylec who noted Maureen’s extensive knowledge of the college operations, extraordinary organization skills, and willingness to learn new skills.

Her pleasant and efficient manner makes her an asset in her support staff position, and she is known to go above and beyond her duties to help others.  Maureen spends countless hours outside of her work schedule to coordinate a holiday giving event each year which raises over $1,500 to provide financial support to members of the SUNY Niagara community that have suffered hardships.  The receipt of the Chancellor’s Award coincided with Maureen’s retirement at the end of January.