SUNY Old Westbury's Promise for Tomorrow: A Special Introduction to President Timothy E. Sams

Dr. Timothy E. Sams began his tenure as the sixth full president in the history of SUNY Old Westbury on January 11, 2021. Across a career spanning three decades, Dr. Sams has demonstrated leadership in improving student success, particularly for students from disadvantaged and marginalized communities. He brings to the College an emphasis on institutional excellence, inclusive innovation and strategic change management.

Prior to Old Westbury, he served as vice president of student affairs for Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas. At Prairie View, he has showcased his deep commitment to excellence, student support, and inclusivity through the creation of the university’s residential college, emergency resource center and LGBTQ+ Resource Center. His work there built on past experiences at respected institutions across the country. As the senior vice president for student development at Morehouse College, he held a portfolio that included Student Services, Enrollment Management, Campus Safety and Athletics, among other units.  As vice president for student life at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he led such services as Residential Life, Health and Mental Health Services, the Campus Center and Career Services. He is also credited as inaugurating the Student Life Office at New York University-Abu Dhabi and, for 13 years, led the Black Cultural Center at Swarthmore College. 

Dr. Sams’ career accomplishments include reaccreditation and two strategic plans, student success, efforts to increase student and staff diversity, and elevating residential college models at three institutions. He helped create the nation’s first ROTC Center of Excellence, a campus-based PrEP program, a J-Mester program, a bridge program, an undergraduate completion program, an experiential learning and cultural immersion program in Ghana, West Africa, two major LGBTQ support initiatives, a student emergency resource center, and a $1.5 million federal community intervention grant.

Dr. Sams is from Syracuse, New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree in History and Sociology from Union College in Schenectady, New York, a Masters in Africana Studies from the University at Albany, and a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University. He is an MSI Aspiring Leaders Fellow and recipient of the 2020 Champions for Student Success Award from American Campus Communities.

Eva McKend joined CNN's Washington D.C. bureau in September 2021 as a National Politics Reporter. She previously served as an on-air Congressional Correspondent, reporting for Spectrum's 24-hour news stations across the country from the nation's capital.

She is known in Washington for her pointed questions to people in leadership, getting then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to confirm on the record that climate change is being exacerbated by humans and that he wasn't going to be an "impartial juror" in President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial. Her question to McConnell on reparations for slavery elicited his most robust rejection of the concept to date and drove the news cycle nationwide for several days.

Eva's series of reports on Black hemp farmers following the crop's legalization in the 2018 Farm Bill earned her a first-place prize in enterprise and investigative broadcast reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists in Louisville. She was also nominated for an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy for the work.

Eva is a regular guest on the WAMU/NPR program 1A, distributed to more than 400 public radio stations across the U.S. She also is regularly asked to join PBS' Washington Week panel.

From 2015-18, she served as an anchor at WCAX-TV, the market-leading CBS affiliate in Vermont where she was also known for her strong interviews with elected officials. She was named a Rising Star by Vermont Business Magazine in 2017.

Before Vermont, Eva worked as a reporter for Spectrum News Hudson Valley from 2012-14. During her time in the region, she covered many stories as the Sullivan County reporter that received national and international attention including the murder trial of Paul Novak and the malfeasance of a village mayor, securing surveillance video from his high profile arrest via FOIA request, footage that went on to go viral. Her ongoing coverage of an illegal demolition in Monticello was recognized by the New York State Associated Press for Best Continuing Coverage. The AP also gave her a nod for General Excellence in Individual Reporting.

​Prior to this work, she spent a summer as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for Springfield, Mo., CBS affiliate KOLR/KOZL.

Eva is a graduate of Swarthmore College and earned her master's degree in broadcast and digital journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University through the Turner Diversity Fellowship. She is a proud member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Matt Cohen became the President & CEO of the Long Island Association (LIA), the region’s leading business organization, in May 2021. Matt is working with the 77-member Board and the LIA members to implement his vision for Long Island’s future, including making Long Island an attractive place for young professionals, supporting small businesses, and expanding child care options.

Matt previously served as the Vice President of Government Affairs & Communications at the LIA for 10 years. In that role, he was the chief lobbyist for the LIA’s legislative agenda, which included the enactment of a permanent state property tax cap and the receipt of more than $7.5 billion in economic development investments on Long Island for transportation, infrastructure, housing, and downtown development. Additionally, Matt has helped to coordinate the LIA’s response to COVID-19 and its economic impacts, providing critical assistance and real-time information to local businesses and advocating for federal and state resources for Long Island.

Prior to joining the LIA in 2011, Matt was Executive Director of Government Relations for the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), where he oversaw government and community affairs for the second largest public electric utility in the country at the time with 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and portions of Queens. Before LIPA, Matt served as Long Island Director for United States Senator Charles Schumer where he was the primary political and policy advisor to the Senator for all Long Island-related issues. Matt has also worked as an aide in the Suffolk County Executive’s office.

Matt is a member of the Board of Directors for several Long Island organizations, including the Long Island Housing Partnership, Discover Long Island (including on its Executive Committee), the Child Care Council of Suffolk, Inc., the Advanced Energy Research & Technology Center at Stony Brook University and the New York League of Conservation Voters – Long Island chapter. He is also a graduate of The Energeia Partnership at Molloy College.

Matt earned a Bachelor of Arts in History (with a concentration in American History) from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor from Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in New York State in July 2012.